Anna Grassellino (Italian scientist at Fermilab in Chicago)
Sometimes it happens that I find out about the story of a person who personifies exactly the message that We the Italians has been representing for 10 years now: when Italy and the United States come together, the result is wonderful. Other times I have the pleasure of interviewing people who embody one or more positive symbols of Italy. Still othe...
Giulio Picolli (Coordinator of the Italian September 11 families)
This is a very special interview for me, and of course, not just for me. Even though I wasn't in New York, my life changed forever on September 11, 2001. It changed forever but of course, not like what happened to the relatives of the victims of that horrendous day. For all these years I have spent every September 11 limiting my work as much as pos...
Jennifer Barbata Jackson (Author of the book "Dixie's Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South")
At a time when we still have to painfully realize how much the racial question is an open wound in the evolution of the United States of America and a very urgent situation to be resolved, our Italian heart in love with America is also shaken by the specious and mistaken attempts to promote hostility between the African American and Italian communi...
Mauro Balestrazzi (Author of the book “La tournée del secolo”)
In the list of the great Italian excellences who have found their fortune in America, one of the highest level names is that of Arturo Toscanini. A century has passed since an extraordinary event, an exceptional tour that saw him as a protagonist in America together with what would later become the orchestra of La Scala in Milan. Today there is a...
Rich Puppione (Author of the book "One Hundred Years: A 100 Year History of the Colombo Club")
Without the pandemic, the 100th anniversary of a prestigious Italian club in California, founded in 1920, would have been celebrated last year: the Colombo Club. The round-figure anniversary called for major celebrations, but we know that 2020 didn't allow for that. There is, however, a book that celebrates the club's history, and this year it will...
Anna Marra (Teacher of Italian language and culture in New Hampshire)
Italian emigration to the United States came, of course, initially to the East Coast. Then the Italians spread throughout America, but many remained on the Atlantic coast. Not all of them, however, settled in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut. Some went north and stayed in Rhode Island, others further up Massachusetts, others even continued north...
Andrea Gumina (President of Amerigo Association)
The list of Italians who hold here in Italy institutional positions of collaboration with the United States is not very long. We have interviewed almost all of them over the years, and today we host one of them, who is also a close personal friend of mine. Andrea Gumina is the President of Amerigo - Intercultural Exchange Program Alumni Association...
Ale Gambini (Italian Chef in the USA)
A few days ago, the Taste Awards 2021, often called “the Oscars of Food, Fashion and Lifestyle Media”, were assigned. For the the fourth time an Italian chef, Ale Gambini, has been recognized by The Taste Awards commission as creator, host, and chef of online food programs (A Queen in the Kitchen, Estate Italiana, Eatalians-Fresh Up Your Life). If...
Jenna Capra (Editor of Andiamo! - Colorado's Italian Community Newspaper)
Our tour of the United States takes us this time west to the Centennial State: Colorado. Here, too, there is a vibrant community that celebrates Italy, gathered around a successful magazine that for exactly 10 years has been led by a young Italian American, Jenna Capra. We thank her three times: because with the magazine she directs, Andiamo! she...
Matt Rizzetta (President of North Sixth Group)
Every now and then we read the news that some Italian soccer team is being bought by an American. Sometimes they are not Italian Americans, as in the Serie A alone, the owners of AC Milan or Spezia or Parma or Roma, whose previous owner was indeed an Italian American. As Italian American is Rocco Commisso, the owner of Fiorentina. In Serie B, where...
Basil Russo (President of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations)
One of the problems that the Italian American community has always had, and the consequences of which it has always paid for, is division, the lack of unity. When I say that Italian Americans are, to all intents and purposes, Italian, even if some of them do not have an Italian passport that officially certifies it, I mean that there is an Italian...
Matteo Pretelli (Author of "Hollywood’s Depiction of Italian American Servicemen During the Italian Campaign of World War II")
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor (this year is the 80th anniversary) and the United States declared war, Italy also went to war with America on the basis of the alliance pact signed with Japan. Italians who lived in America found themselves guiltless citizens of an enemy country: some were removed from the two coasts, all were asked to choose betwe...