L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D e a r r e a d - ers, March, t h e t h i r d month of this y e a r , h a s 3 1 days and is short for Mar- tius Mensis, the month of Mars. In Roman mythology, Mars was the god of war and agriculture. Nereo, a minor R o m a n g o d d e s s , w a s h i s w i f e . J u p i t e r ( Z e u s ) , t h e supreme Roman god of the s k i e s , r a i n , a n d w e a t h e r , was his father; Juno (Hera) g o d d e s s o f m a r r i a g e a n d daughter of Saturn, was his mother. *** March, Marzo, has many dates with an Italian con- nection. J u l i u s C a e s a r , the greatest of all Caesars, Roman statesman and gen- eral, it's said, laughed at a s o o t h s a y e r ' s w a r n i n g t o beware the Ides of March. A successful plot for his assas- s i n a t i o n t o o k p l a c e o n March 15, 44 BC, done by the end of his trusted adop- tive son, and is considered the most famous of classical betrayals. *** D. H. Lawrence (1885- 1 9 3 0 ) , t h e c o n t r o v e r s i a l English novelist and poet, author of Lady Chatterley's Lover and Women in Love, died of tuberculosis in Italy on March 2, 1930. *** T h e S t a r - S p a n g l e d Banner officially became America's national anthem on March 3, 1931. Italian- Americans stood proudly to sing it, especially in 1936, while watching newly hired r o o k i e J o e D i M a g g i o p l a y i n g f o r t h e New York Yankees at their namesake stadium. *** Antonio Meucci, born in Florence, applied for a patent for what was to be t h e t e l e p h o n e i n 1 8 7 1 . A l e x a n d e r G r a h a m B e l l applied for a patent in 1876, and Edison's carbon refine- ment is dated 1877. Italians in Italy and Italian Ameri- cans felt they were robbed after Bell prevailed in Amer- ican Supreme Court litiga- tions because Meucci's pro- visional patent expired in 1873. Therefore, they will n o t b e c e l e b r a t i n g B e l l ' s M a r c h 4 t h b i r t h d a y anniversary. *** P i e r p a o l o P a s o l i n i , I t a l i a n f i l m d i r e c t o r ( D e c a m e r o n , A r a b i a n Nights) poet, and novelist (Ragazzi di Vita), was born o n M a r c h 5 , 1 9 2 2 , i n Bologna. Police arrested a 1 7 - y e a r - o l d m a l e a f t e r P a s o l i n i w a s f o u n d m u r - dered on the outskirts of Rome in 1975. *** Unemployed youth in Italy today are in no hurry to take their first job offer that comes their way to fore- stall poverty. First, because most disdained, dangerous, dirty work in Italy today is done by Africans and East Europeans. Secondly, unem- ployment in Italy rarely is synonymous with poverty: the majority of unemployed young Italians have an acad- emic diploma or degree and choose to rely on their par- ents for support, while they are in search of a job that corresponds to their educa- t i o n a l l e v e l a n d c a r e e r expectations. *** Michelangelo Buonar- roti, born on March 6, 1475, near Florence, was an artist, sculptor, architect, and poet. He painted the creation of man and some of the most beautiful paintings in the world on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His statues of David and Moses are masterpieces in marble and his dome of St. Peter's established him as one of Italy's foremost architects. H e d i e d i n 1 5 6 4 a n d w a s a l m o s t 9 0 y e a r s o l d , a n e x c e p t i o n a l a g e f o r t h e time. *** Anna Magnani, inter- nationally celebrated Italian f i l m s t a r , w a s b o r n o n March 7, 1908, to moderate- ly prosperous Italian immi- grants in Alexandria, Egypt. But since her early charac- terizations had made her the emotional symbol of 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. peasantry and proletariat, her middle-class beginnings w e r e d e - e m p h a s i z e d . Divorced from Italian film director Goffredo Alessan- drini in 1943, she worked as a bit actress in films and on stage, in order to pay the enormous medical expenses for her polio-stricken son Luca, until her big break in 1946, when she burst upon American audiences as the pregnant fiancée of an Ital- i a n r e s i s t a n c e l e a d e r i n O p e n C i t y , d i r e c t e d b y Roberto Rossellini. In 1955, she won an Academy Award for the first Hollywood por- t r a y a l i n T e n n e s s e e Williams' The Rose Tattoo. Open City, the movie that brought her fame and for- t u n e , a l s o b r o u g h t h e r h e a r t b r e a k a s t h e m o v i e brought Rossellini to the a t t e n t i o n o f H o l l y w o o d actress Ingrid Bergman and eventually precipitated an international scandal that c a t a p u l t e d t h e S i c i l i a n island of Stromboli into the s p o t l i g h t , a l o n g w i t h R o s s e l l i n i a n d t h e t w o actresses in his life. *** L o r e n z o d a P o n t e , b o r n i n M a r c h 1 7 4 9 , t h e esteemed librettist who pro- vided verses to the operatic scores of such great com- p o s e r s a s M o z a r t a n d Salieri, also became the first and foremost purveyor of Italian culture in the United S t a t e s . A r r i v i n g h e r e i n 1805, da Ponte taught Ital- ian language and literature a t s e v e r a l A m e r i c a n c o l - leges, including Columbia University.

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