L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2016 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 5 LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY to the Spring Street Forecourt, for a lunch catered by Chef Frankie Competelli - with musi- cal accompaniment by singer Maria Elena Infantino and the youth vocal group, made up of the Da Capo students directed by Rich D'Anna - I had the chance to talk briefly with Councilmember Joe Buscaino. Please, introduce yourself. How was growing up in an Italian-American household? I'm Joe Buscaino, councilman representing L.A. City Council District 15, that encompasses the communities – made up of about 250,000 people altogether - and neighborhoods of San Pedro, Wilmington, Vinegar Hill, Harbor City, the Harbor Gateway, and Watts. I'm first generation Italian- American. My mother and father emigrated from Sicily to San Pedro - renowned for its fishing and canning industries - in pur- suit of a better future. They raised my sisters and I, instilling us the importance of faith, family and service. Most importantly, as Italian- Americans, we feel the urge of giving back to our communities. We always used to welcome everybody - no matter what their background was – and have they come over at our house. In that spirit, I joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), serving for fifteen years up to the rank of sergeant of police. When former councilmember, Janice Hahn, was elected to the House of Representatives, leav- ing vacant her seat, I stepped in as first Italian-American council- man in an area like San Pedro, that has the largest presence of Italian-Americans (about 40,000) in the whole state of California. I was an outsider, with no background in politics, no back- ing from the City Council or even the State of California. However, Italian-Americans who hadn't felt represented for decades, finally recognized a familiar name and voted for me. When my wife – daughter of Italian immigrants like myself – and I got married, our over five hundred Italian-American atten- dees at the wedding, filled in our Continued from page 4 wedding list with donations, that literally helped my political cam- paign. As I mentioned earlier, I feel the need to give back to our com- munity, by promoting and recog- nizing Italian-American contri- butions, not only during the Italian-American Heritage Month, but throughout the year, as well. Last summer, for the first time, I led a delegation to Italy, focusing on trade, culture, enter- tainment. We signed the sister port agreement between the Port of Palermo and the one of Los Angeles. We also visited our sister city, Ischia, during its annual film fes- tival. Lastly, we had a meeting in Rome with representatives from Confindustria (General Confederation of Italian Industry), with a special focus on the so-called "green technolo- gies," that are currently thriving in Italy. We learned a lot and aim at introducing more of that tech- nical expertise here in L.A. What's your take on the del- icate question of establishing Indigenous People's National Day as Los Angeles City's Holiday at the expense of Columbus Day? The threat posed Columbus Day as L.A.'s City Holiday by the institution of Indigenous People's National Day is very divisive. That is something very unusual in the shared multicul- turalism, that traditionally char- acterizes Los Angeles. Columbus needs to be cele- brated as the man, who opened up the migrant route to the American continent. Major cities across the country, such as New York, Chicago and Cleveland celebrate his symbolic relevance through parades. Italian-Americans in L.A. need to make their voices be heard. At the same time, our mayor and the council - despite united in the believe that Indigenous People's National Day is a necessity for our city - don't have to replace one culture for another. That's just contrary to who we are as Angelenos. The Italian American Heritage month reminds us that the history of L.A. , the State of California, as well as the United States was and is being made by immigrants

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