L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 4 T hat day, June 2, 1 9 4 6 , I t a l y turned the page. With 12,717,923 v o t e s , I t a l i a n s chose to become a Republic and to draft a new Constitu- tion. "Italy," reads the first of t h e 1 3 9 a r t i c l e s p r o d u c e d after 170 sessions of the Con- stituent Assembly elected in that same vote, "is a democra- t i c R e p u b l i c f o u n d e d o n labor. Sovereignty belongs to the people, who exercize it within the forms and limits of the Constitution." On Tuesday, June 2, Italy celebrates the 80th anniver- sary of that moment, a mile- stone that invites reflection on the values of democracy, freedom, and civic participa- tion. Voter turnout reached 89 percent of eligible citizens, and for the first time women were finally recognized as equal to men in the secrecy of the ballot box. I think of my grandfa- thers standing in line to vote, feeling both the respon- sibility and the pride of help- ing shape the future of the country they had fought for, suffered for, endured impris- onment and betrayal for, forced marches and artillery f i r e f o r . I t h i n k o f m y grandmothers who, after y e a r s o f r a t i o n i n g , b r e a d cards, endless waiting for t h e i r h u s b a n d s t o c o m e home, and postcards from the front filled with words l e f t u n s a i d , w e r e a m o n g those first women finally allowed to vote alongside men. They wore their best dresses, and inside them they c a r r i e d t h e c h i l d r e n w h o would become my parents. They would be born only a few months later. For a brief m o m e n t , m y m o t h e r a n d father must have somehow felt that tremor too: the emo- tion of those women marking their ballots for the first time to decide the future of their country. T h a t a l o n e s h o w s h o w deeply these 80 years are part of our personal, family, and social history, and how closely the State is tied to our daily lives. Not some distant, anonymous institution, but something intimately con- nected to the lives of Italian citizens. These 80 years are us, and everything we have been able to become since that historic day, because of that historic day. With exactly this spirit in mind, the Quirinale invited I t a l i a n s t o u p l o a d s h o r t videos to the Presidency of the Republic's website to cel- e b r a t e t h e a n n i v e r s a r y t o g e t h e r . " F o r m e , t h e Republic is…" is meant to embody participation, shar- ing, and collective construc- tion. Yesterday as today. T h e r e f e r e n d u m t h a t brought the Risorgimento era to a close did far more than establish that Umberto II of Savoy, crowned only days earlier on May 9, would become the last king of Italy before abdicating on June 13 and leaving for exile in Por- tugal. It did more than pave t h e w a y f o r E n r i c o D e Nicola to become provision- al Head of State on June 28, 1946, and then, two years later, the first President of the Italian Republic. It marked a decisive turning point in Italian history: the Italian people became masters of their own des- tiny. Women's suffrage, mean- while, represented a pro- found cultural shift. Women were not only finally able to express their voices and con- tribute to decisions about the future of the nation; that rev- olutionary gesture trans- formed Italian society itself, recognizing women as equal c i t i z e n s i n b o t h c i v i l a n d political life. It is no coincidence that the commemorative stamp marking the Republic's 80th anniversary features the joy- ful face of a young woman. The image reproduces what has become one of the most iconic photographs of that moment of widespread hope and enthusiasm, and one of the most famous images of twentieth-century Italy. It w a s t a k e n b y F e d e r i c o Patellani, one of the mas- ters of Italian photojournal- ism, who captured a smiling young woman holding the front page of Corriere della Sera announcing, on June 15 after the final vote count, the birth of the Republic. Women's participation in the vote was not merely sym- bolic, it was a decisive step toward a more just and rep- r e s e n t a t i v e d e m o c r a c y . Women showed remarkable civic awareness and commit- ment, contributing to the construction of a new democ- ratic Italy and to the drafting of the Constitution itself, the foundation of civil coexis- tence. What is particularly strik- ing is that women were actu- ally "prepared" for voting: the moment of casting a bal- lot was preceded by a form of civic education. Contempo- r a r y a c c o u n t s , i n c l u d i n g June 2, 1946: the vote that created the Republic and gave birth to a new nation BARBARA MINAFRA NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS CONTINUED TO PAGE 6 The Referendum vote was not only important because it finally brought democracy in the country, but also because it was the first time women were allowed to vote (Image generated using Adobe Illustrator AI)

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