L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015 www.italoamericano.org 8 Dear Readers, A n A p ril as s ortment of Italian connections for you: Pietro Di Donato was born in West Hoboken, New Jersey on April 3, 1911, to Abruzzese emigrants and died at the age of 80. He took up writing during a period in which he was an out- of-work bricklayer. His first story "Christ in Concrete" pub- lis hed 1937 in Es quire Magazine, dramatized the early death of his father in a construc- tion accident. Within two years, the story grew into a novel of the same name and became the main selection of the "Book of the Month Club", chosen over John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath". "Christ in Concrete" sold nearly 200,000 copies during its first few months , an incredible accomplishment for a first-time novelist, especially one who had never intended to be a writer. The novel's success placed him in a national spotlight. He took care of his brothers and sis- ters, traveled around the country, visited with the likes of Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, and spent money wildly. He saved just enough to start his own con- struction company. At the beginning of World War II, Di Donato registered as a conscientious objector and worked in a government camp in Cooperstown, N.Y. In 1942, he married Helen Dean in a civil ceremony presided over by New Y ork M ayor F iorello H . La Guardia. They had two children. In 1949 "C h ris t in Concrete" was made into a film directed by the blacklis ted Edward Dmytryk and adapted for the screen. The film, titled "Give Us This Day" won an award at the 1949 Venice Film Festival. Pietro Di Donato through his writing directed his characters' rage at employers who exploit immigrant laborers and urged s olidarity among A merican workers. *** The U.S. Patent System was established on April 10, 1790. Italian A merican inventor Antonio Meucci, born in April 1808 in Italy, but living in Staten Island, New York at the time, filed his firs t papers for the teletrofono (telephone) in 1871 five years before A lexander Graham Bell. *** Earthquake. San Francisco's approximately 400,000 residents and its thousands of visitors, including Enrico Caruso, rest- ing at the city's dowager hotel, The Palace, after an operatic per- formance in Bizet's Carmen were awakened on April 18, 1906 at 5:13 a.m. as an earth- quake along the 200 mile San Andreas fault shook the city. A major jolt was followed by a secondary one and then after- s hocks throughout the day. A lthough the catas trophe is know n as the S an F rancis co Earthquake, the impact was felt in scores of communities from Fort Bragg to Salinas. Santa Rosa, 55 miles to the north, was almost entirely destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Severe dam- age was also done to Palo Alto and Stanford University. In San Francisco, thanks to loans, often on a hand shake, from A.P. Giannini founder of the Bank of Italy (later Bank of America), North Beach was one of the first neighborhoods to immediately start rebuilding from the rubble. *** Pau l R evere's "M idnight Ride from Charles ton to Lexington", April 18, 1775. This son of liberty, his "cry of alarm" and the hurrying hoof-beats of his horse were immortalized in a poem by H enry Wads w orth Longfellow. Andrew M. Canepa, editor of the Piemontesi Nel M ond o Bulletin, s aid his res earch indicates that P aul Revere was an Italian descendent 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 manufacturer and indus- trialist. In 1801 he founded a major American company that is still alive and thriving today. The company is Revere Copper and Brass, Inc., and the founder was, of course, Paul Revere. Paul Revere's house still stands in Boston's North End. *** A lfred Zamp a, the California, Italian American iron worker honored with the build- ing and dedication (2003) of the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge crossing the Carquinez Straits from Crockett to V allejo, California, passed away April 23, 2000 at age 95. Zampa was the son of Emilio and Maria Giuseppe DiCristofaro Zampa, immigrants who traveled from Abruzzi, in Southern Italy, to Crockett, California. He was the first member of his family to graduate from high school and he began as an iron worker, build- ing bridges in California, Arizona and Texas. In the early 1930's, Zampa began work the "raising gang" on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The "raising gang" was the first crew of bridge workers to erect pieces of the bridge, connecting the first screws and bolts of this famous structure. He became one of the elite "connectors", a job which required agility and good balance. In 1936, Zampa slipped off one of the beams and fell onto the net. The net sagged as he hit the cliffs below. The fall cracked three vertebrae in his spine and fractured his pelvis. He spent 12 weeks in St. Luke's Hospital. He eventually returned to iron working in the Bay Area and worked on the Carquinez bridges. Both of his sons became iron workers and worked along- side their father. *** S t. Mark is the patron of Venice and his relics are pre- served at the Cathedral of St. Mark. April 25 is his feast day. St. Mark is a man who might be called a secretary to Saint Peter, raconteur of wonderful stories about things that happened when Jesus was on earth, traveling around with his apostles. Mark wrote down things Peter said and is traditionally the author of the second Gospel. Buon onomastico to all readers named Mark or Marco on April 25th. *** The p arach u te w as firs t sketched by Leonardo da Vinci in his notebooks in the 1490's. A compatriot Fausto Veranzio pub- lished a description of a work- able parachute in 1595 and in the late 1790's two men descended from air balloons via parachutes breaking a leg upon landing. April 27, 1919, a brave fellow leaped out of an airplane, testing the very first parachute that actu- ally worked. He floated down through the sky and landed safe- ly back on earth. *** Alfred Zampa

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