L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2017 LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, March – Marzo has many dates w i t h a n " I t a l i a n Connection": Julius Caesar, 100-44BC, greatest of all Caesars, Roman statesman and general, it's said, l a u g h e d a t a s o o t h s a y e r ' s warning to "Beware the Ides of March". A successful plot for his assassination took place on March 15 th , 44BC done by the hand of his trusted adoptive son a n d i s c o n s i d e r e d t h e m o s t famous of classical betrayals. D.H.Lawrence, 1885-1930, t h e c o n t r o v e r s i a l E n g l i s h n o v e l i s t a n d p o e t , " L a d y Chatterly's Lover", "Women in Love" died of tuberculosis in Italy, March 2, 1930. Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian film director, "Decameron", "Arabian Nights", poet, novelist "Ragazzi di Vita", was born M a r c h 5 , 1 9 2 2 i n B o l o g n a . Police arrested a seventeen-year old male, after he was found murdered on the outskirts of R o m e i n 1 9 7 5 . A s a y o u n g writer Pasolini described the F r i u l a n p e a s a n t r y o f h i s c h i l d h o o d a s a w o r l d o f uncorrupted Christianity and i n n o c e n c e . H e b e c a m e a n t i - fascist by way of his fascist father and a communist later. Michelangelo Buonarroti, b o r n M a r c h 6 , 1 4 7 5 n e a r Florence, was an artist, sculptor, architect and poet. He painted " T h e C r e a t i o n o f M a n " a n d s o m e o f t h e m o s t b e a u t i f u l paintings in the world, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His statues of David and M o s e s a r e m a s t e r p i e c e s i n m a r b l e a n d h i s d o m e o f S t . Peter's established him as one of Italy's foremost architects. He died in 1564, and was almost ninety years old, an exceptional age for the time. A n n a M a g n a n i , i n t e r - nationally celebrated Italian film star was born March 7, 1908, to moderately prosperous Italian i m m i g r a n t s i n A l e x a n d r i a , E g y p t , b u t s i n c e h e r e a r l y characterizations had made her the emotional symbol of Italian peasantry and proletariat, her middle-class beginning were de- e m p h a s i z e d . D i v o r c e d f r o m Italian film director Goffredo A l e s s a n d r i n i i n 1 9 4 3 , s h e worked as a bit actress in films and on stage in order to pay the enormous medical expenses for her polio stricken son Luca, u n t i l h e r b i g b r e a k i n 1 9 4 6 , when Anna Magnani burst upon A m e r i c a n a u d i e n c e s , a s t h e pregnant fiancée of an Italian resistance leader in "Open City" directed by Roberto Rossellini. I n 1 9 5 5 s h e w o n A c a d e m y Awards for her first Hollywood p o r t r a y a l i n T e n n e s s e e Williams's "The Rose Tattoo". "Open City" the film which brought her fame and fortune, also brought her heartbreak as the film brought Rossellini to t h e a t t e n t i o n o f H o l l y w o o d a c t r e s s I n g r i d B e r g m a n a n d e v e n t u a l l y p r e c i p i t a t e d a n international scandal, which catapulted the Sicilian island of Stromboli into the spotlight, along with Rossellini and the two famous actresses in his life. International Women's Day h o n o r s t h e w o r l d ' s w o m e n . W o m e n ' s D a y w a s f i r s t proclaimed March 8, 1910, to c o m m e m o r a t e a p r o t e s t b y female garment workers in New Y o r k C i t y i n 1 8 5 7 , a n d i s a holiday born out of women's struggles for suffrage, decent working conditions and other h u m a n r i g h t s . M a n y I t a l i a n females entered the garment industry as low paid workers and were exploited by factory owners in the Eastern states. "We want bread and roses too" was a sign carried in 1912 by young Italian American women s t r i k i n g i n a t e x t i l e m i l l i n Lawrence, Massachusetts. The 1912 strike resulted in national s y m p a t h y f o r t h e e x p l o i t e d Italian workers in America. The p h r a s e " B r e a d a n d r o s e s " b e c a m e t h e t i t l e o f a p o e m w r i t t e n a b o u t t h e s t r i k e a n d Arturo Giovannitti wrote an I t a l i a n s o n g " P a n e e R o s e " w h i c h w a s p o p u l a r w i t h t h e Italian dressmakers, local 89 of the International Ladies Garment union. Lorenzo Da Ponte, born in M a r c h 1 7 4 9 . T h e e s t e e m e d l i b r e t t i s t w h o h a d p r o v i d e d verses to the operatic scores of such great composers as Mozart and Salieri also became the first and foremost purveyor of Italian culture in the United States. Arriving here in 1805, Da Ponte t a u g h t I t a l i a n l a n g u a g e a n d literature at several American colleges, including Columbia University, which he had a hand in founding. He was also largely r e s p o n s i b l e f o r i n t r o d u c i n g opera to this country, via his popular librettos for Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. Anton Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was born March 11, 1936. Justice Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey. Appointed to Supreme Court in 1986 by Pres. Ronald Reagan. He died in Feb. 2016. Gabriele D'annunzio, Italian novelist, playwright, poet, "The Flame of Love", aviator and political leader was born March 12, 1863. He died in 1938. Marcello Malpighi, Italian 17 th century naturalist, was born March 10 th , in Crevalcore, Italy. In 1671 Malpighi founded plant anatomy. He was the first to observe the stomata of plants. His treatise on silkworms was t h e f i r s t m o n o g r a p h o n a n invertebrate. The microscopic a n a t o m i s t a l s o m a d e s e v e r a l important medical discoveries on the kidney and spleen. Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) had just turned twenty-two when he made his professional debut i n N a p l e s , i n D o m e n i c o Morelli's new opera "L'amico Francesco" on March 15, 1895. During the engagements that followed, mostly in provincial Italian theaters, he learned 16 major rolls in two years. Bernardo Bertolucci, born March 16, 1940 in Parma, Italy. He is best known as an epic film director "The Last Emperor" (Oscar Award winner in 1990). St. Joseph, husband of Mary was proclaimed patron of the universal church by Pope Pius IX in 1870, but the faithful have been praying worldwide to San Giuseppe for centuries and he is greatly revered throughout Italy and especially in Sicily where he is the patron saint of the whole island. Just the sheer number of m a l e s n a m e d G i u s e p p e o r J o s e p h f u r t h e r a t t e s t t o h i s popularity. In the old days in Sicily, there were-large public feast with St. Joseph's table set in the town square to feed the p o o r o r h a v e p r i v a t e f a m i l y open-houses. In this country due to the efforts of Italian American c u l t u r a l g r o u p s , t h e S i c i l i a n custom of the St. Joseph's table has been revived usually in the local church hall, sponsored by p a r i s h i o n e r s w h o a r e t h e d e s c e n d a n t s o f p a r t i c u l a r Sicilian towns. Spring – Primavera begins. It's the time of the year for the "vernal equinox", when the day is as long as the night. Beniamino Gigli, born in Recanati, Italy, March 12, 1890 was the foremost Italian operatic tenor of the 1920s, 1930s and 40s. He appeared primarily in concert after World War II and in seventeen films. His final tour of North America was in 1955. He died in 1957 in Rome. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, born in Yonkers, New York March 24, 1919. In 1953 he cofounded C i t y L i g h t B o o k s h o p i n S a n F r a n c i s c o a n d p u b l i s h e d h i s Pocket Poet Series in 1955. In the 1990s Ferlinghetti served as the official San Francisco Poet Laureate. Fr. Juan Crespi, a Spanish m i s s i o n a r y , b o r n o f I t a l i a n parents, put his foot on the soil of the San Francisco Bay area, together with a party lead by explorer Gaspar De Portola in March 1722. Italian Army defeat, March 1896 in Adowa, Ethiopia, left 7 , 0 0 0 d e a d . U n d e r e l d e r l y General Barateri, the Italian a d v a n c e w a s c h a o t i c , o r d e r s misunderstood, and brigades separated. Italian Prime Minister C r i s p i g a m b l e d o n a q u i c k foreign conquest and lost.

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