L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D e a r R e a d e r s , N o v e m b e r Notes with an Italian connec- tion. Novem- ber comes from the Latin word novem, "nine" because t h i s h a d b e e n t h e n i n t h month of the early Roman Calendar. *** November begins with All Saints Day. Since this feast, which has its beginnings in the Christian churches of the fifth and sixth centuries, cel- ebrates all those saints, can- onized or not, who enjoy the happiness of the kingdom of heaven, let us celebrate all relatives and friends who once enriched our lives and of whom it was said "era una santa" or "santo." *** A l l S o u l s D a y i s o n November 2nd. The early Christians, like their pagan ancestors, remembered their dead on certain days of the year. The present date for our yearly commemoration of the dead was established in the tenth century. *** Veteran's Day, Novem- ber 11, reminds me that our U n i t e d S t a t e s M a r i n e Corps was established on Nov 10, 1775. The Continen- tal Congress established a marine corps as a special armed amphibious fighting group; the next year, they made their first landing in the Bahamas. Although dis- banded after the Revolution, the Marine Corps was re- created as a military service in 1798. Marines have been among the first to fight in almost every major Ameri- can conflict. *** First Lady Jill Jacobs Biden's Italian roots are in the village of Gesso, in the province of Messina, Sicily. Gaetano and Concetta Gia- coppa arrived at Ellis Island in 1900: their great-grand- d a u g h t e r , D r . J i l l T r a c y Jacobs would become the 46th First Lady of the United States. The family settled in Hammonton, New Jersey, reuniting with paesani from Gesso. Gaetano changed his surname to the anglicized Jacobs, as did so many Ital- i a n s o f t h e t i m e i n a n attempt to integrate better. D r . B i d e n ' s g r a n d f a t h e r eventually worked as a deliv- ery man in New Jersey. Her father Donald later headed a Savings and Loan institution in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. The family t h e n m o v e d t o W i l l o w Grove, Pennsylvania where s h e a n d h e r f o u r s i s t e r s spent their childhood. The First Lady recalled that, as a child, her father would drive the family to her grandpar- ents' home in New Jersey every Sunday. *** Name changes were often beneficial in boxing. Many Italian American champion p r i z e f i g h t e r s u s e d I r i s h names from 1900 to 1955: Kid Murphy (Peter Fascella), B u s h y G r a h a m ( A n g e l o Geraci), Young Corbett III (Raffaele Giordanno), Hugo Kelly (Ugo Micheli), Johnny Wilson (Giovanni Panico), and George Nichols (Phillip Nicolosi). Angelo Dundee, the Italian American leg- endary boxing trainer said, "In the early 1900s it wasn't a d v a n t a g e o u s t o h a v e a n Italian name." Even Frank S i n a t r a ' s f a t h e r A n t h o n y M a r t i n S i n a t r a , w h o h a d arrived as a child from Agri- gento, Sicily, first started out as an apprentice in a cob- bler's shop. He was known in h i s n e i g h b o r h o o d , w h e r e everyone had a nickname, as "Tony the Shoemaker." He took up prizefighting and, because it was better in those days to have an Irish name than an Italian one (the Irish politicians controlled Hobo- ken), he adopted his manag- e r ' s n a m e a n d b e c a m e known as Marty O'Brien. *** Prohibition Laws would soon be repealed thanks to the November 8, 1932 vote. F r a n k l i n D e l a n o R o o - sevelt defeated sitting US president Herbert Hoover in the presidential elections and became our 32nd presi- dent. For Italian Americans, many of whom drank, made their own wine, or grew their own grapes, the end of Pro- hibition could not come soon enough. In force in the US since 1920, the end came in December 1933. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution forbade the m a n u f a c t u r e , s a l e , o r e x c h a n g e o f i n t o x i c a t i n g 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. liquors, and was ratified by 46 States out of 48. In 1933, the Prohibition or Volstead Act, which defined the term alcoholic beverage for pur- pose of the amendment, was finally finito! *** California vintners in the four decades leading up to Prohibition were abun- dantly Italian-Americans. T h e M o n d a v i s , G a l l o s , Pedroncellis and Sebastianis did not just appear on the s c e n e , p r e - V o l s t e a d A c t . Some came for the gold but stayed for the green fertile fields. The Seghesios, Simis, Sebastianis and Foppianos all started in the late 1800s and some are still operating today. Giuseppe Magliavac- ca's Napa winery was by then a thriving business. Secondo Guasti established the Italian V i n e y a r d C o m p a n y , a n d Andrea Sbarbaro founded t h e I t a l i a n S w i s s C o l o n y . C o u n t l e s s o t h e r w i n e r i e s appeared with Italian names on the door. By 1920, the Italian influence had already p e r m e a t e d t h e C a l i f o r n i a wine scene. From 1919 to 1933 (Prohibition to Repeal), Italian-Americans in Califor- nia kept their vines in the ground, waiting for the day when their adopted country would come to its senses. T h e y w e r e r e w a r d e d b y Repeal but, more important- l y , t h e f a m i l i e s t h a t h a d struggled to maintain their vineyards gave America a jump start when it tried to emerge from the dark days of P r o h i b i t i o n . W i t h o u t t h e v i n e y a r d s a n d t h e f u l l y e q u i p p e d - t h o u g h i d l e - w i n e r i e s , A m e r i c a w o u l d h a v e h a d t o r e b u i l d t h e industry from scratch.

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