Dear Readers,
America's patriotic month of July has many Italian Connections…
We discovered it (Columbus). We named it (Amerigo Vespucci). We beautified it (Constanino Brumidi and master stone carvers of Washington, D.C.). We inspired the language used in the Declaration of Independence (Filippo Mazzei).
July 4th, Independence Day in the United States, is a national holiday that commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The document in which 13 English colonies in America asserted their independence from Great Britain through action by the Continental Congress July 4th, 1776, was a declaration drafted by Thomas Jefferson.There is evidence to suggest that Jefferson's long conversations with Philip Mazzei, his Florentine-born neighbor inspired the language used in the Declaration of Independence.
Mazzei was an Italian exile turned wine merchant whom Jefferson met in the winter of 1774 when accompanied by Jefferson's London merchant agent, Thomas Adams, was his house-guest at Monticello for two months.
In an article translated by Jefferson, Mazzei wrote, “All men are by nature equally free and independent.”The Declaration of Independence, signed by 56 patriots, began with “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which connected them with another… and then continues …We hold these truths to the self evident that all men are created by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
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Amerigo Vespucci, (1451 - 1512) the Florentine sailor and merchant, who gave his name Amerigo, (Americus) to America, entered the service of the Medici and lived, until 1496, as their agent in Spain at Seville and Cadiz.
In 1497, he made a voyage from Cadiz, on which, according to his description, he sailed up the Pacific coast of America, as far as what is now called British Columbia. In 1949, he claimed to have cr ossed the Atlantic again and completed two other voyages, 1501 and 1503, to America.
Amerigo Vespucci, aka Americus Vespucius, a capable self-promoter, wrote some interesting letters telling of a voyage to the New World that he had made about the time of Columbus's third trip.
One of the letters that Americus wrote fell into the hands of a German school teacher who was writing a geography, book and he said to a friend: ”Let us call the New World America, in honor of the man who told of it so interestingly.” The name America soon appeared on the maps. The name should have been Columbia, but life is not always fair and so America it was.
God Bless America, a fine Italian name....
Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia), was founded in 1791 as the world's first planned national capital.
In 1793 George Washington laid the cornerstone for the gleaming white-dome building in which our elected officials toil, the U.S. Capitol and in November 1800 Congress moved down from Philadelphia.The Capitol building has grown over the years and today contains some of the city's most beautiful art, from Italian painter Constantino Brumidi's, Apotheosis of Washington Fresco at the center of the dome, to the splendid Statuary Hall. Visitors Gazing upward to the domed Rotunda of the Capitol can see Constantino Brumidi's (1805 - 1880) heavenly vision of our first president “The Apotheosis of Washington.”
The old General sits in majesty, flanked on the right by the Goddess of Liberty and on his left by a winged figure of Fame sounding a trumpet and holding a palm frond aloft in a symbol of victory. Thirteen female figures stand in a semicircle around Washington, representing the thirteen original states. On the outer ring of the canopy, six allegorical grouping surround him, representing classical images of agriculture, arts and sciences, commerce, war, mechanics, and marine.
Congressional records indicate Brumidi, who immigrated to America in 18552, at age forty-seven spent the rest of his life (1880) on commissioned frescos, paintings and sculpture in the Capitol building.
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Italian Stone Carvers have long enhanced building throughout the United States ranging from banks, on small town Main Streets, to the Beaux-Arts skyscrapers of New York, however, it is at the Gothic-style.
Washington National Cathedral (Wisconsin and Massachusetts Aves., N. W.) that the art of these Master Craftsmen is most readily apparent and visually accessible. It took 83 years to complete Washington's Cathedral and it is the sixth largest cathedral in the world.
Besides flying buttresses, naves, transepts, and barrel vaults that were built stone by stone, it is adorned with fanciful gargoyles created by skilled stone carvers from Italy and their American-born offspring many of whom had worked on carving jobs up and down the East Coast during the 1920's and 1930's.
Many carvers had first settled in the granite center of Barr, Vermont when they first came to America and hailed from the Northern Italian quarry towns of Viggiu and Carrara.They were later joined by expert stone carvers from Molfetta, in the province of Bari and the entire coastal region of central Apulia which is rich in limestone that has been used for centuries to build cathedrals, castles, tombstones and civic monuments.
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July the month we commemorate the birth of the United States of America, “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave” is a good time to share with you the news that “My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy” opened last week in San Francisco for a limited engagement (till July 22nd, at the Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter Street, telephone 415 771 6900 or ticketmaster.com) and I was there, joyously enjoying Steve Solomon's comic spin on the story of his life.
Listening to Solomon's recalling family foibles of life with an Italian mother from Sicily, a Russian Jewish father and a multi-ethnic family of relatives was a delightful fun filled experience.
One part lasagna and one part kreplach. My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy won rave reviews during its New York run, with Variety praising Solomon as “Alan King, Billy Crystal, Don Rickles and George Carlin all thrown into one,” and the New York post raving over Solomon's “perfect comic timing.” Martha Stewart declared on Martha Stewart Living Radio, “His stories are as heartwarming as comfort food. Steve Solomon had us in the palm of his hand. Everyone can relate to this.”
Solomon comically spins the story of his life, creating a vivid cast of colorful characters including his long-suffering mother from Palermo, Italy, his Jewish Russian father, and other assorted family members whose on-going interference sends him straight into therapy.
Steve Solomon (performer, creator) is a native New Yorker who grew up in the Sheepshead bay section of Brooklyn. Before pursuing his love of comedy, the divorced father of two worked as a physics teacher. Solomon opened My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy off-Broadway in New York, where it has been playing to rave reviews and appreciated, applauding, audiences since November, 2006.
The comedy, direct from new York will be in the Bay Area for a limited engagement. That means do not procrastinate, order your tickets now before the show closes on Sunday, July 22, 2007.
Show times will be at 8:00 pm with additional matinee 3:00 pm performances on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.
To accommodate people who go to work early on Monday morning the evening performances on Sunday July 8th and 15th will begin at 7:00 pm
Marine Memorial Theatre is located at 609 Sutter St., San Francisco. Tickets ($30.00 - $69.00). For tickets (451) 771 6900 or visit www.ticketmaster.com
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
