L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE C ear Readers, the coronavirus e pidemic has caused events large and small to be canceled or postponed all over the world. In Italy, century old feasts honoring hometown protectors or mir- acle workers have also been suspended. Let us hope that collectively, all these prayers will result in an end to this pandemic soon. *** Anthony Fauci, director o f ( N I A I D ) t h e N a t i o n a l I n s t i t u t e o f A l l e r g y a n d Infections is one of the lead m e m b e r s o f t h e W h i t e H o u s e C o r o n a v i r u s T a s k Force addressing the current p a n d e m i c i n t h e U n i t e d States. Although he has now become a familiar face on t e l e v i s i o n d u e t o W h i t e House updates on the coron- avirus pandemic, Dr. Fauci has been Director of NIAID since November 1984. F a u c i a s s u m e d o f f i c e when Ronald Reagan was our president and he has continued to serve under p r e s i d e n t s G e o r g e H . W . Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and o u r c u r r e n t p r e s i d e n t Donald Trump. As a physi- c i a n w i t h t h e N a t i o n a l Institutes of Health of the United States, he has served p u b l i c h e a l t h i n v a r i o u s c a p a c i t i e s f o r o v e r f i f t y years. He has made contri- b u t i o n s t o H I V / A I D S research and other immun- odeficiencies, both as a sci- entist and as head of NIAID the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases. Fauci was born the night before Christmas 1940, in B r o o k l y n , N e w Y o r k . H i s parents Stephen A. Fauci and Eugenia A. Fauci were owners of a pharmacy. His father worked as the phar- macist, his mother and sister w o r k e d t h e r e g i s t e r , a n d Fauci delivered prescrip- tions. The pharmacy was located in the Dyker Heights s e c t i o n o f B r o o k l y n , o n e neighborhood away from his f a m i l y h o m e i n Bensonhurst. Fauci's paternal grand- parents, Antonio Fauci and C a l o g e r a G u a r d i n o , w e r e Sicilian from Sciacca, Italy. His maternal grandmother Raffaella Trematerra, from Naples, Italy, was a seam- stress. His maternal grandfa- t h e r , G i o v a n n i A b y s , w a s born in Switzerland and was an artist, noted for landscape and portrait painting, maga- zine illustrations (Italy) as well graphic design for com- m e r c i a l l a b e l s , i n c l u d i n g olive oil cans. Fauci graduated in 1958 a n d t h e n e n r o l l e d a t t h e College of the Holy Cross where he earned a Bachelor o f S c i e n c e i n C l a s s i c s i n 1962. Fauci then went on to attend Cornell University Medical College where he graduated first in his class as a D o c t o r o f M e d i c i n e i n 1966. He then completed an internship and residency at t h e N e w Y o r k H o s p i t a l - Cornell Medical Center. *** William Falk, editor-in- c h i e f o f T h e W e e k ( a National Weekly Magazine), who has Italian "roots" on his maternal side, recently wrote about Fauci. Here is an excerpt: " I ' v e n e v e r m e t D r . Anthony Fauci, but I know him like an uncle. We both grew up in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, some years apart; his parents ran the Fauci p h a r m a c y o n 8 3 r d S t r e e t and 13th Avenue, and young T o n y d e l i v e r e d p r e s c r i p - t i o n s . W h e n I h e a r h i s a c c e n t a n d h i s s c r a t c h y voice, I am transported to Sunday dinner with my 96- year-old mom's innumerable r e l a t i v e s . ( H e r m a i d e n names is Puglisi). So I was predisposed to fond feelings for Fauci even before he and fellow coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx helped persuade President Trump that "getting back to n o r m a l " b y m i d - A p r i l (Easter) would be disastrous for both the country and his re-election chances. They've saved hundreds of thousands of lives. *** Liberation Day, (April 25th) is a patriotic holiday that honors the liberation of I t a l y f r o m t h e N a z i a n d Fascist occupation during World War II (this year it would be great if the long locked down Italians were able to celebrate a coron - avirus "liberazione" by that date). On April 25th 1945, the cities of Torino and Milano were the first to be freed from the occupation, and prompt- ed a chain of events which culminated in Italy's free- dom. The partisans (I parti- g i a n i ) o f I t a l y w e r e t h e unsung heroes of the 1945, April 25th Liberation Day. Back in 1943 the partisans, w h o s e d i s l i k e o f t h e i r German "allies" occupiers had become more and more blatant, helped turn the tide in July 1943 with the over- throw and arrest of the dicta- tor Mussolini. This was fol- lowed in September of that y e a r b y t h e f l i g h t o f K i n g Victor Emanuel III's family and various government lead- ers, who abandoned Rome for the safety of Allied-occu- pied Southern Italy. Terms of surrender imposed by the Supreme Allied Command were accepted, leaving Italy in complete disorder. The Italian Army was surprised b y t h e s u r r e n d e r a n d l e f t without direction, causing them to disband and return h o m e w i t h o u t a n y armament. Many of these young men were arrested by the Nazis, loaded in cattle cars, without f o o d a n d w a t e r , a n d w e r e sent to Germany where they were placed in concentration camps. A great number of them never returned home. Some of the officers of the defunct Italian Army along with some anti-fascists joined f o r c e s a t t h i s p o i n t . T h e y r e t r i e v e d t h e a r m a m e n t s abandoned by the Army and started the Partisan move- ment. L a b e l e d " r e b e l s " b y t h e Fascists and the Nazis, the priority of the Partisans was sabotage against the Nazis. Their brave actions proved they were not "rebels" but heroes that fought to free Italy. Because of their valiant efforts, countless Allied lives w e r e s a v e d a s t h e A l l i e d Forces rolled North, facing little or no resistance. The Partisans' movement grew divisions, brigades, battalions like any well run Army fight- ing a war. Victory was theirs on April 25, 1945, on the day of the Liberation of Italy.

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