L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, July jottings with an Italian Connection: Am erica's first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1933- 1945), in a Fourth of July, Hyde Park, N.Y. parade, rode in a FIAT Roadster. Why would a tall woman like Eleanor squeeze herself and her hefty chauffeur Tubby Curnan into a FIAT to ride in a parade? It turns out the FIAT roadster was provided by her son Franklin Jr, who owned the FIAT agency in the United States and spent his working days importing and distributing FIAT automobiles (and an occasional Jaguar) into the USA. Gianni Agnelli, then a bachelor, was introduced to the Roosevelts via his friend- ship with Pamela Churchill, ex wife of Winston Churchill's s o n R a n d o l p h , w h o m S i r Winston was very fond of. *** Bocce, played initially in the Italian Alps over 2,000 years ago, consisted of the underhand tossing of stones. I t w a s t h e n e x p o r t e d t o Germany in the form of bow- ling at pins, circa fourth cen- tury AD and was a precursor to bowling. *** C h i n a ' s C o m m u n i s t revolution in 1949 sent an influx of Cantonese speakers into New York's Little Italy, where they gradually became t h e d o m i n a n t g r o u p i n Transfiguration Parish, the oldest Catholic church build- ing in New York City —built in 1801– which served mainly Italian immigrants. *** E.S.L., the English as a Second Language category is where many of our parents a n d g r a n d p a r e n t s f o u n d themselves when they first came to America. As I recall, many of them still did not s p e a k t h e E n g l i s h s o good forty years later. I men- tion this as a gentle reminder, because many of our church- es now have priests and semi- narians for whom the English is a second language. So have a little "compassione". *** Geraldine Ferraro, left us (March 26, 2011) at age 75. I met her several times when she was in California after she accepted the nomination for v i c e p r e s i d e n t a t t h e 1 9 8 4 D e m o c r a t i c National Convention in San F r a n c i s c o , a s W a l t e r Mondale's presidential nom- i n e e ' s r u n n i n g m a t e . Geraldine Ferraro's accep- tance speech, a moment in history as she was the first woman on a major party tick- et, was the highlight of the 1984 Democratic Convention. A t h r e e - t e r m C o n g r e s s - woman from Queens and the first woman vice presidential candidate on a major ticket, Ferraro graciously accepted the decision of voters, howev- er, she was disappointed that major voices in our National Italian-American community remained silent when ethnic slanders surfaced. I n h e r b o o k C h a n g i n g History (1994), Women, Power, and Politics, she recalled the bruising, often repeated but undocumented reports that she had family ties to organized crime. Ferraro says she did not worry much about the charges when they surfaced in her 1984 vice-presidential cam- paign for two reasons: she knew they weren't true and she knew that leaders of the Italian American community had a history of standing up against slander. She was half right. "But I was wrong about the second part. In fact, for those four months, most of our community rolled over and played dead. When the New York Post published story after story suggesting that the Zaccaro family was connected with organized crime, with no data to support the claim, our community was silent...When the Wall Street Journal, in one of the most irresponsible arti- cles of the campaign, tried to link my father-in-law to the mob, never did our communi- ty rise up and say Enough!" Why did so few stand up for her, she wonders. Because she was a woman? Her politics? If these were the reasons, why didn't anyone say so? Ferraro notes that at the time a few journalists corroborated her suspicion that gender had a lot to do with it. They reported that whenev- er major American publica- tions mentioned an Italian- surnamed man in the same story with the words "orga- nized crime," they evoked an i m m e d i a t e r e a c t i o n f r o m Italian American community Advancing our Legacy: Italian Community Services CASA FUGAZI If you know of any senior of Italian descent in San Francisco needing assistance, please contact: ItalianCS.org | (415) 362-6423 | info@italiancs.com Italian Community Services continues to assist Bay Area Italian-American seniors and their families navigate and manage the resources needed to live healthy, independent and productive lives. Since Shelter-in-Place began in San Francisco, Italian Community Services has delivered over 240 meals, over 900 care packages and made over 2000 phone wellness checks for our seniors. leaders. Not so with Ferraro. I n s o m a n y w o r d s , s h e charged those who were silent with collaboration against the many hardworking, decent Italian American families who suffered the tired ethnic jokes and whispered suspicions. She was clearly angry and hurt, but gutsy and resolute, as she explained why she could never let such slurs go unchal- lenged. "About eighty years a g o , m y g r a n d f a t h e r w a s a street cleaner for New York City. He had finished sweeping the street and a woman came up and threw garbage where he had just swept. He only spoke Italian, so he yelled at her in that language. She screamed at h i m , " I ' l l g e t y o u f i r e d , Wop". And so she did and he is one of the reasons why I will continue to speak up against bigotry, for dignity...for us all... In 1996, NOIAW (National O r g a n i z a t i o n o f I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n W o m e n ) o r g a - nized Concerns for Women in the 21st Century, a con- ference and tour with stops in R o m e a n d P a l e r m o f o r " A D i a l o g u e f o r I t a l i a n a n d American Women." My daughter Caterina and I flew over and since Geraldine F e r r a r o a n d M a t i l d a Cuomo were keynote speak- ers, following the all day con- ference, an evening reception at Villa Taverna, home of the US Ambassador to Italy, was h e l d f o r a l l u s a t t e n d e e s . During the week it became clear that Ferraro's time spent t e a c h i n g i n t h e c l a s s r o o m , prosecuting for the Queens District Attorney's office and caring for her widowed, ailing, elderly mother had given her insights that shaped her votes a n d l e g i s l a t i o n a s a U S Representative. May she rest in p e a c e a n d n o t m e e t a n y o f those "Silent Signors" in heav- en. ***

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