L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 8 THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2022 L'Italo-Americano B u o n a F e s t a d e l l a R e p u b - b l i c a a t u t t i ! T h i s y e a r , w e a r e g o i n g t o press on the day, the 2 nd of June, when Italy cele- brates its Republic. The war finished just over a year earlier, and Italians were ready to chose, for the first time in their history, how they truly wanted to be gov- erned. We still had a king, in those days, King Umber- to, known as the May King, il re di Maggio, because that's how long he actually reigned on the country: one month, the month of May 1946. Just the time to take his father's place, and see Italy turn her shoulders to t h e m o n a r c h y . U m b e r t o , t h a t d a y , v o t e d a s w e l l , along with Maria José, his wife: apparently they went to the poll without any ID, convinced they, the still rul- ing sovereigns of the coun- try, wouldn't have needed it. But democracy was in the air already, and they were n o t t r e a t e d j u s t l i k e a n y other Italian citizen. I don't know how it ended up, but U m b e r t o a n d M a r i a J o s é d i d c a s t t h e i r v o t e s , s o I a s s u m e t h e y w e r e , i n t h e end, allowed to do so even if t h e y h a d n o p a s s p o r t t o show. T h a t 2 n d o f J u n e 1 9 4 6 was important in our histo- ry for another reason, too: for the first time, women could vote at national level: 13 million of them went to the polling stations, and 12 m i l l i o n m e n . B o t h m y grandmothers lived that key moment in the history of Italy and of Italian women's emancipation. They always a d m i t t e d t o m e t h e y h a d voted for the monarchy, but they were happy about how t h i n g s p a n n e d o u t i n t h e end. "Being a Republic" is the first attribute our country is given in the constitution, b e c a u s e L ' I t a l i a è u n a R e p u b b l i c a f o n d a t a s u l lavoro, Italy is a republic founded on the work of its people, and yes, we became a u n i t e d r e p u b l i c o n l y i n 1946, but there had been several republican experi- m e n t s o n o u r t e r r i t o r y throughout history, starting with, of course, the Roman R e p u b l i c , o r R e s P u b l i c a R o m a n a – e v e r y t h i n g sounds so elegant in Latin, don't you think? Rome, we a l l k n o w , w a s b o r n a s a k i n g d o m , d e v e l o p e d a s a R e p u b l i c a n d r e a c h e d i t s climax as an Empire. The Republican period, which went from 509 BC to 27 BC, started when internal fights a m o n g r u l i n g f a c t i o n s caused the end of Etruscan families' hegemony on the city – the last two kings of Rome were, in fact, of Etr- uscan descent – and conse- quently brought to the end o f t h e m o n a r c h y . A s a Republic, Rome didn't have a s i n g l e p r e s i d e n t , b u t rather a group of powerful individuals, the oligarchs, w h o l e d i t . I t w a s a v e r y l e n g t h y p e r i o d i n R o m a n history, which brought the city from being a relatively small city-state, to becom- i n g t h e u n m a t c h e d a n d u n m a t c h a b l e p o w e r o f E u r o p e a n d t h e M e d i t e r - ranean for a good chunk of a millennium. Most of the Roman conquest along the M e d i t e r r a n e a n a n d i n E u r o p e b e l o n g t o t h e Republican period. Perhaps no one embodied the great- ness of the Republic as well a s J u l i u s C a e s a r , a g r e a t general and politician, by many considered the real, first Emperor of Rome. W h e n t a l k i n g a b o u t r e p u b l i c s i n I t a l y , w e shouldn't forget the most ancient of them all that still stands, that of San Mari- no! Technically, of course, San Marino is not part of Italy, as it is an indepen- dent state, but it's worth mentioning it here: founded b y a S a i n t , o f w h o m t h e country bears the name, the Repubblica di San Mari- n o has been an indepen- dent republican state since the 3 rd century AD. H i s t o r i c a l l y s p e a k i n g , however, the most famous Italian republic before the Italian Republic has been, perhaps the Republic of V e n i c e , o r S e r e n i s s i m a Repubblica di Venezia, as it was known starting in the 1 7 t h c e n t u r y . T r a d i t i o n w a n t s V e n i c e t o h a v e become a republic in 697 A D , t h a n k s t o P a o l u c c i o Anafesto: this means that it lasted for over 1000 years! The Republic was initially limited in size and included only the city of Venice and some neighboring villages, but it expanded in time to englobate the vast majority of North-Eastern Italy, as well as Istria, Dalmatia and the coasts of Montenegro a n d A l b a n i a , a s w e l l a s a n u m b e r o f i s l a n d i n t h e Adriatic and Ionian seas. At its peak, between the 13 th a n d 1 6 t h c e n t u r y t h e V e n e t i a n R e p u b l i c a l s o i n c l u d e d p a r t s o f G r e e c e and the vast majority of its islands. And then Napoleon hap- pened. It was the french Emper- or who eventually put the m i l l e n n i a l h i s t o r y o f t h e g l o r i o u s S e r e n i s s i m a t o r e s t , o n t h e 1 2 t h o f M a y 1797. We Italians tend to see Napoleon as a bit of a bully, to be honest, espe- cially in the small corner of P i e d m o n t w h e r e I c o m e from: he had set his eyes of the military fort of my vil- lage but never managed to c o n q u e r i t . W e s t i l l g o proud of it today. Truth is, h o w e v e r , t h a t N a p o l e o n brought also a series of key political, social and legal reforms to the areas of the p e n i n s u l a h e c o n q u e r e d , which helped the country to advance. And it is also to Napoleon we own the first Italian Republic in the his- tory of the country, even if it only lasted three years, from 1802 to 1805: it was t h e c o n t i n u a t i o n o f t h e Repubblica Cisalpina, an r e p u b l i c c r e a t e d i n L o m - bardy and Romagna in 1797, inspired by the principles a n d v a l u e s o f t h e F r e n c h Revolution. It lasted until 1802, when, as we said, we saw the birth of the Repub- blica Italiana, a French-con- trolled state, led by Presi- dent Bonaparte. When, in 1 8 0 4 , N a p o l e o n w a s p r o - c l a i m e d a n d c r o w n e d Emperor of the French, he also became King of Italy, so the Republic ceased to exist. The French Revolution, in fact, was the inspiration for other similar examples of republican government in Naples, in Rome and in Lig- uria, none of which actually lasted very long. The socio-political buzz created by the French and, at this stage, the American Revolution caused more and more Italians to understand that it was time for more equality and more justice, so Republican experiments popped up here and there throughout the 19 th centu- ry, including the Repubblica di Toscana, the Repubblica di Venezia and the Repub- blica di Roma, but none of them lasted long. Each republic had time enough, however, to develop their own Statutes of rights and duties of the their citi- zens, inspired by the Ameri- can and French Constitu- t i o n s . N o n e o f t h e m , however, lasted after the fall of the states they were con- ceived to regulate. The only one that remained in place w a s t h a t c r e a t e d f o r a m o n a r c h y , t h e S a v o i a ' s Kingdom of Sardinia, which was to become, very soon, the Kingdom of Italy. The S t a t u t o A l b e r t i n o , o r t h e Albertine Statute, was to become the first constitu- tion of unified Italy. Slowly but steadily, we reached the 1900s and our t a l e o f I t a l i a n r e p u b l i c s comes to an end where it had begun: on that beauti- ful, sunny - they say - day in June 1946, when women a n d m e n w h o h a d j u s t washed the filth and fear of war off their skins gave their children the gift of a democ- ratic, peaceful future. CHIARA D'ALESSIO On the 2nd of June, we celebrate the birth of the Italian Republic. But there were other republics in Italy before then (Photo: Juan Moyano/Dreamstime) Italian Republic or Italian Republics? LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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