Navy Seabee Anthony Pucillo
The oldest of three sons, Anthony Pucillo was born in Chicago to Ernest and Theresa (FioRito) Pucillo. The family lived in the Jane Adams Projects on Taylor Street until Pucillo was 5 years old. “We moved around quite a bit,” he says. Both parents were born in Chicago, and his grandparents emigrated from Sicily and Calabria. A “very good cook,” Puc...
Sterling Heights illustrator prepared to create community's first augmented reality mural
Years ago, Wendy Popko imagined creating illustrations that would come to life but could never find the technology to do it. Now that she's discovered the magic of augmented reality (AR) she can't wait for the public to see the mural she's been commissioned to create on the wall of Ventimiglia Italian Foods for the Sterling Heights Public Art Progr...
Little Italy finding a balance between new development and preserving its historic feel
A walk through Cleveland’s Little Italy in 2021 allows visitors to time travel through a history of Cleveland if they know where to look. It’s why the Little Italy Redevelopment Corporation is working on an updated neighborhood plan to better guide developers so future projects in the neighborhood reflect what the community wants. Buildings that ha...
Italian Festival to proceed in 2021
The Warren Italian-American Heritage Festival will be back in Courthouse Square in August, but the Wings & Wheels at the Ernie Hall Aviation Museum and SLOAS Airfield will stay grounded for another year. Italian festival President Carole Ficeti said the board continued to meet via Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic and went back and forth on whether...
Allegrini to co-chair Chicago-Milan Sister Cities Committee
Robert Allegrini, the longest-serving member of the Milan-Chicago Sister City Committee, was named its co-chairman at the Chicago Sister Cities board meeting in February. First appointed to the committee by Mayor Richard M. Daley in 1989, Allegrini has served under more than half a dozen committee chairs and worked with eight different Milan mayors...
City turns out to commemorate New Orleans lynching
On March 14, 1891, 11 Sicilian immigrants who had been falsely accused of murdering the police chief of New Orleans were shot and hung by a mob of thousands in the largest mass lynching in American history. The 130th anniversary of that dark day was marked in Chicago with a moving commemoration in Arrigo Park hosted by the Joint Civic Committee of...
Founding of the Italian American Museum of Cleveland
Columbus Day 2020 was particularly special for the Italian American community of Northeast Ohio. On this day, the Italian American Museum of Cleveland (IAMCLE) was established. Hon. Basil M. Russo, National President of the Italian Sons & Daughters of America, and Hon. Deborah J. Nicastro, Board Chair of the Italian American Museum of Cleveland,...
Boscoreale and Metropolis USA Forge Friendship Set in Stone
Boscoreale City Seal was just recently engraved in the heart of the Superman Brick of Fame in Metropolis, Illinois, United States brought to the States thanks to the personal efforts and far-sightedness act of Italian - American artist originally born in the lands of Vesuvius, who grew up as world citizen: Veronica Vitale and film Director Patrick...
International Jazz Day - a concert recorded by Roberto Gatto "PerfectTrio"
When: Friday, April 30th - What: a concert recorded by Roberto Gatto "PerfectTrio" Presented by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago On the occasion of International Jazz Day 2021, we are pleased to present a concert recorded for the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago by Roberto Gatto "PerfectTrio." Listeners will be led into the world of e...
Capitanini family has served up Italian cuisine to Chicagoans for generations
The Capitanini family runs the oldest Italian restaurant in Chicago. For nearly 94 years, the Italian Village restaurants have been serving up Italian cuisine along with memories and tradition. The Capitanini family is one of Chicago’s Very Own. “I remember I was nine or 10 years old in my little sailor suit and my dad had to seat customers and...
Chicago Park District stands by decision to remove Columbus statue from West Side park
The Chicago Park District says it had the authority to remove a Columbus statue from a Near West Side park, despite an Italian American organization’s argument that a decades-old agreement proves it should have been consulted first. Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons’ statement that “the District maintains it was within its rights to temporar...
'It is time to return them': Italian-American group says city had no jurisdiction to remove Columbus statues
The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans (JCCIA) said Mayor Lightfoot and the City of Chicago removed Christopher Columbus statues this past summer without jurisdiction. Attorneys for the JCCIA said they found paperwork from over fifty years ago, which included a signed agreement that stated, "The Park District will, in perpetuity, obtain the...