L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 H appy 2021, dear rea- ders! We all need it, in a new year starting still under the pain and fear of a pandemic that doe- sn't want to succumb, but against which we finally have an important ally we must use intelligently, along with our sense and responsibility. However, before going back to our much desired normality, we still have to endure many months of restrictions and limitations. Patience mustn't be seen as passiveness, but rather as col- laboration: in the end, no one can afford another deadly wave of this virus. In 2021, L'Italo-Americano will turn 113 and, in its long history, it showed that same resilience we need so much today. It can be an example to follow and a source of motiva- tion. In its century-long path, it always showed adaptability, strength, courage, the ability of never giving up, eagerness to bounce back, faith in the future. Every time there was an obstacle, it patiently rolled up its sleeves and found a way to adapt to events, changing times, society, to an evolving lan- guage and to evolving medias, to an evolving readership. To understand the extent our beloved paper can help us realize how important biting the bullet and hanging in there is, we just need to take a look at all the things it went through along with its readers, decade after decade. L'Italo-Americano was born just two years after the ter- rible earthquake and the equally devastating fires in San Francisco, and the same year when Messina, on the easternmost corner of Sicily, and Reggio Calabria, on the tip of the "stivale," were also hit by a quake. It was so destruc- tive to be considered one of the most catastrophic events of Resilience, responsibility, community: a road L'Italo-Americano has been following for 113 years From the Editor the 20th century. On both sides of the ocean, many were for- ced, quite literally, to start from scratch. Things didn't go better ten years later: known worldwide as the Spanish Flu, the 1918-19 pandemic in fact recorded its first cases in the US, during the last year of the First World War. There were no less than 50 million deaths around the world. The war added 16 million to the toll. Twenty years after the paper's foundation, the Great Depression ended the carefree and brief Age of Jazz and shook up the world's eco- nomy creating mass unemployment. Thirty years later, a pla- cid consumer society crashed against the tragedy of the Second World War. 15 million deaths only in the Pacific, 40 million in Europe. The post-war period had also to mend the pain of many Italian-Americans who ended up in intern- ment camps, humiliated by the "enemy aliens" stigma, even if 60% of them were born and bred in America. Fifty years later, while the Space Race was beginning and people drea- med with J.F. Kennedy and M.L. King, the Cold War froze the world with the dramatic events of Korea and Cuba. Sixty years after, 1968, the year of student protests, of the Vietnam war. Pulitzer winner Philip Caputo, with his heart-wrenching A Rumor of War, also told us about the raci- sm against Italian wops, illegal immigrants. Seventy years later, Italy was hit by terrorism, the Anni di Piombo, and the petrol crisis destroyed thirty years of economic boom. We're now eighty years after the birth of our paper: Glanost, the historical meeting between Reagan and Gorbacev, and the fall of the Berlin wall changed the world's equilibrium for ever. Another ten years pass, and we reach the tragedy of the World Trade Center, at the turn of the two Gulf Wars. Its one hundredth birthday comes the year of Barack Obama's election and of the great recession caused by the subprime and real estate market crisis. Today, while we feel we can no longer endure the conse- quences of Covid-19 and we feel like we've lost, along with our freedoms, also the amazing world we used to live in, we should remember that, even before, we weren't all millionai- res, cruising over peaceful, relaxing waters. But as those pro- blems are all in the past, we forget heartaches and sorrows, we discount everything with a "it was all better before," just because it's all behind us. All this to say that, yes, the only way forward is a tad of honest perseverance: we must roll up our sleeves and face today's difficulties as we really mean it. This is the only way to go through this period. We can't just be in a hurry to turn the page, and then look at the world the same way as before, when we thought, deluding ourselves, that everything was ok. We must be patient, honest and we must fight with faith. We should welcome the new year focusing on the common good, trying to take care of one another, just like Pope Francis said, calling for our sense of community. In the end, the herd immunity that, for decades, allowed us all to avoid epidemics of measles, whooping cough or polio came also from such a spirit of solidarity. And perhaps, we should be also inspired by the idea of responsibility mentioned by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in his greetings message to the country: we should all realize we should be part of our community responsibly, and that this "must come from a careful reflection on the effects that our choices can have on the people around us, on humanity, and on the environment." 2020 ended, but it didn't take the pandemic away. Sense of community and responsibility are essential when facing the tragedy of the US' more than 350,000 Covid-19 victims (and its 35 million cases) and Italy's 75,000 victims (and its 2 mil- lion positives). Simone Schiavinato, Editor NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 Member of FUSIE (Federazione Unitaria Stampa Italiana all'Estero), COGITO L'Italo-Americano 610 West Foothill Blvd. Unit D, Monrovia, CA 91016 - Tel.: (626) 359-7715 PLEASE SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO P.O. BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano Newspaper (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization), www.italoamericano.org, is the largest and longest-running Italian newspaper in America, not to mention the cultural and news resource for all things Italian in the US. A bilingual newspaper which represents an historical landmark for the Italian American Communities in the West Coast and throughout the US. L'Italo-Americano benefits from subsidies by the Italian Government, Memberships and Donations intended to support and not interrupt a mission that began in 1908 to preserve and promote the Italian language and culture in the USA Periodicals postage paid at Monrovia, California 91016, and additional mailing offices. PUBLISHER Robert Barbera Grande Ufficiale EDITOR IN CHIEF Simone Schiavinato ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Patrick Abbate EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Barbara Minafra COPY EDITOR Francesca Bezzone LOS ANGELES CONTRIBUTOR Silvia Giudici SAN FRANCISCO CONTRIBUTORS Catherine Accardi Serena Perfetto SEATTLE CONTRIBUTOR Rita Cipalla CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mariella Radaelli, Francesca Bezzone, Luca Ferrari, Stefano Carnevali, Joel Mack, Paula Reynolds, Nicoletta Curradi, GenerosoD'Agnese, Fabrizio Del Bimbo, Maria Gloria, Alfonso Guerriero Jr., Anthony Di Renzo Serena Perfetto, Kenneth Scambray, Chiara D'Alessio © 2020 L'Italo-Americano Membership: One year $59 - Single copy $2.25 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to L'Italo Americano PO Box 6528 Altadena, CA 91003

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