L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, some extra Summer jot- tings with more Italian con- nections: Admiral Chri- stopher Columbus statuary continues to be defaced throughout the USA but in 2020 it seems to be okay and with no "defacing public property" consequences. In Boston's Italian North End, a beheaded Columbus statue stands, his head torn or sawed off in June. In San Francisco, his statue was removed from the pedestal to keep it from being tossed into the Bay and in San Jose, California, it was moved to I.A.H.F. property af- ter being removed from San Jose's City Hall foyer and deemed a source of "pain" to Indigenous people and their descendants. Back in 2001, when the Christopher Columbus sculp- ture in San Jose's City Hall — designed and hand carved in the town of Pietra Santa, Italy, in 1958, and paid for by the Italian Community — was hit with a sledge ham- mer, the legless statue served as a reminder of the damage fanaticism can wreck. Its defacing was prosecuted as a "hate crime," thanks to the e f f o r t s o f T o n y D e l l a Monica, president of Santa Clara's UNICO chapter. *** In the early 1900s, US boxers came from the fami- lies of Irish immigrants — the poor people of the coun- t r y . N a m e s l i k e R y a n , Sullivan, and so on, led the list. Italian Americans who boxed, like Marty Sinatra adopted Irish "Ring Names." The quiet fighting fireman, f a t h e r o f F r a n k S i n a t r a , boxed in New Jersey in 1910 a s M a r t y O ' B r i e n . I n t h e 1930s, Italian names began to appear on professional boxing programs. A n I t a l i a n n a m e a g a i n appeared in 1939, when Joe L o u i s k n o c k e d o u t T o n y Galento in four rounds. In that same year, the start of World War II interrupted the rise of Italian-Americans in boxing. F a n s c o u l d n o t r e a d i l y identify the Italian American origins of one of the most accomplished boxers of the post WWII era, Giuseppe A n t o n i o B e r a r d i n e l l i . F i g h t i n g u n d e r t h e n a m e o f J o e y M a x i m , B e r a r d i n e l l i w o n t h e American light heavyweight t i t l e i n 1 9 4 9 . H e l o s t t h e c h a m p i o n s h i p t o A r c h i e Moore in 1952. In 1952, he also fought the darling of the sports writers, Sugar Ray Robinson. T h e M a x i m - R o b i n s o n fight took place on a very h o t N e w Y o r k n i g h t i n Yankee Stadium. Robinson had the edge in most of the bout. When the bell rang to start the 14th r o u n d , R o b i n s o n d i d n o t come out, and the victory was a w a r d e d t o J o e y M a x i m . Hundreds of pieces written to celebrate Robinson's career comment as if Joey Maxim did not earn this victory. Joey Maxim, in composing his responses to sports writ- ers, showed the same class in his use of words that he had s h o w n i n h i s u s e o f f i s t s . Responding to the frequent claim that "the heat, not Joey Maxim, defeated Robinson on that hot night," Maxim said: "And what? I had air conditioning?" D u m a s , A l e x a n d r e (born July 24, 1802) a prolif- ic playwright and author is best known as the author o f T h e T h r e e M u s k e t e e r s ( 1 8 4 4 ) a n d t h e C o u n t o f Monte Cristo (1845), less k n o w n i s h i s I t a l i a n Connection as an early sup- porter of Garibaldi and Italian unification. Dumas's novels were so popular that they were trans- lated into English and other l a n g u a g e s . H i s w r i t i n g earned him a great deal of money but he was frequently insolvent, as he spent lavishly on women and sumptuous living. Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and pub- lished over 500 books. He also made use of his experi- ence, writing travel books after taking journeys, by rea- sons other than pleasure. Dumas traveled to Spain, I t a l y , G e r m a n y , E n g l a n d and French Algeria. After K i n g L o u i s - P h i l i p p e w a s ousted in a revolt, Louis- N a p o l é o n B o n a p a r t e w a s e l e c t e d p r e s i d e n t . A s 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. Bonaparte disapproved of the author, Dumas fled in 1851 to Brussels, Belgium, which was also an effort to escape his creditors. Around 1859, he m o v e d t o R u s s i a , w h e r e French was the second lan- guage of the elite and his writ- ings were enormously popu- lar. Dumas spent two years in R u s s i a a n d v i s i t e d S t . Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan, Astrakhan and Tbilisi, before l e a v i n g t o s e e k d i f f e r e n t a d v e n t u r e s . H e p u b l i s h e d travel books about Russia. The stories about Dumas are often as hilarious as they are heroic: Dumas single- handedly liberating gunpow- der from an armory; Dumas, a t 5 8 i n 1 8 6 0 , r u n n i n g guns for Giuseppe Garibaldi, distributing arms to the citi- zens of Naples right under the nose of the king and sending reports back to the French d a i l i e s , m a k i n g h i m t h e world's first war correspon- dent. I n M a r c h 1 8 6 1 , the Kingdom of Italy was pro- c l a i m e d , w i t h V i c t o r E m m a n u e l I I a s i t s k i n g . Dumas had travelled there and for the next three years participated in the movement for Italian unification. He f o u n d e d a n d l e d a newspaper, Indipendente. W h i l e t h e r e , h e b e f r i e n d e d G i u s e p p e G a r i b a l d i , whom he had long admired and with whom he shared a commitment to liberal republican principles. When he returned to Paris in 1 8 6 4 , h e p u b l i s h e d t r a v e l books about Italy and after his 1 8 7 0 d e a t h , A l e x a n d r e Dumas was voted the world's foremost chef, based on a cookbook he had written. Dumas was more than a writer, he was a phenomenon. H e a l s o a d v i s e d " w h e n women and songs become too m u c h f o r y o u , g i v e u p singing."

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