L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 16 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D e a r R e a d e r s , an April assort- m e n t o f I t a l i a n Connections for you: A Chance at Life, for- merly known as Boys Town of Italy has been providing education and supportive services to children around t h e w o r l d s i n c e f o u n d e r , M o n s i g n o r J o h n P a t r i c k Carroll Abbing, established his first Boys' Town of Italy in the aftermath of World War II, in 1945. Since then, they have responded to pub- lic health and humanitarian crises of every size, includ- ing the 1966 flood in Flo- rence, the 1981 earthquake i n N a p l e s , a n d t h e 2 0 2 0 Covid pandemic worldwide. T h e b a r r a g e o f i m a g e s coming from U k r a i n e is horrifying. Families have been displaced from their homes with nothing but the c l o t h e s o n t h e i r b a c k s a s their country is torn apart by war. M o r e t h a n 9 0 0 , 0 0 0 o f these Ukrainian refugees - the vast majority of whom are women and children - are expected to flee to Italy, which is home to the largest U k r a i n i a n p o p u l a t i o n i n Europe. *** P a u l R e v e r e ' s " M i d - night Ride from Charleston t o L e x i n g t o n , " A p r i l 1 8 , 1775. This son of liberty, his "cry of alarm" and the hur- rying hoofbeats of his horse w e r e i m m o r t a l i z e d i n a poem by Henry Wadsworth L o n g f e l l o w . A n d r e w M . C a n e p a , e d i t o r o f the Piemontesi nel Mondo Bulletin, said his research indicates that Paul Revere was an Italian descendant from the Piemonte region of Italy. Revere was born in 1735. He was one of the world's great metal craftsmen and artisans, a pioneer manu- facturer and industrialist. In 1801 he founded a major American company that is s t i l l a l i v e a n d t h r i v i n g t o d a y . T h e c o m p a n y i s Revere Copper and Brass, Inc., and the founder was, of course, Paul Revere. Paul Revere's house still stands in Boston's North End. *** E a s t e r i s a " m o v a b l e feast" (April 17th) this year. Easter changes from year to year. From the earliest times, the date of Easter has been determined as the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Vernal E q u i n o x ( f i r s t d a y o f S p r i n g ) . T h e e a r l i e s t i t could ever be is March 22 (March 20 or 21 being the Vernal Equinox). *** R i t a L e v i - M o n t a l c i - ni was born in Torino on April 22, 1909, and died at a g e 1 0 3 a t h e r h o m e i n Rome in 2012. At the time of her death, Levi-Montalci- n i w a s t h e o l d e s t l i v i n g Nobel laureate. The entire country as well as the international academ- ic community paid their last respects to the Italian scien- t i s t w h o w a s b u r i e d i n T u r i n . I t a l y ' s s o - c a l l e d "Lady of the Cells," a Jew w h o l i v e d t h r o u g h a n t i - Semitic discrimination and the Nazi invasion, became one of the world's leading scientists and shared the N o b e l m e d i c i n e p r i z e i n 1 9 8 6 w i t h A m e r i c a n b i o - chemist Stanley Cohen for their discovery of the Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) in the peripheral nervous system. S h e o b t a i n e d a s u m m a cum laude degree in medi- cine and surgery from the c i t y u n i v e r s i t y i n 1 9 3 6 , despite her father's objec- tion to women studying. *** Angelo Joseph Rossi, former Mayor and pride of San Francisco's Italian com- munity in the years before WWII, died in San Francis- co in April 1948. He was born on January 2 2 , 1 8 7 8 , i n V o l c a n o , Amador County, California. *** Arbor Day celebrations are marked by tree planting to foster general interest in reforestation. Many states set Arbor Day dates accord- i n g t o t h e i r c l i m a t e , b u t many states with mild cli- mates celebrate Arbor Day today. Arbor is the botanical name for "tree." When I was a child, if you saw a fig tree growing in a yard, it was a t i p - o f f t h a t t h e p r o p e r t y owner was probably Italian. *** 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. T o p o G i g i o m a d e h i s debut in America on the Ed Sullivan Show in April 1963 a n d l i t e r a l l y l i t u p t h e switchboards. Topo Gigio made 17 appearances in only 1 2 m o n t h s . H e n e v e r appeared anywhere else in this country except on the S u l l i v a n p r o g r a m w h i c h signed him to an exclusive contract. T o p o G i g i o t h e I t a l i a n m o u s e w a s E d S u l l i v a n ' s d i s c o v e r y . h e h a d b l o n d hair, blue eyes high pitched voice with a heavy Italian accent; he was 10 inches tall and was made of foam rub- ber. *** Alessandro Malaspina, who led the expedition of sci- entific exploration and geo- graphic drawings of Southern California, Vancouver Island, and Alaska, died April 9, 1810, at age fifty-six. *** St. John Baptist de la Salle (1651 - 1719) founder of the Christian Brothers. Over three hundred years ago, this priest had a lot of "new ideas" about teaching children. Instead of teaching o n e c h i l d a t a t i m e , h e thought it would be a good idea to put several students together in a classroom and his methods of education revolutionized the education system of the time. He gave all his wealth to the poor and spent much of his effort training teachers. The Chris- tian Brothers have become one of the largest teaching orders in the Church, based on his methods, which first became popular in France and Italy. *** BUONA PASQUA!

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