Dear Readers,
January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways, beginnings and endings. According to Roman mythology, Janus, an ancient king of Italy, was the son of Apollo and Creusa. Husband of Jana, father of Iberius by Camasena, of Canens by Venilia and of Fontus by Jutura. This two or four-faced god (Bifrons or Quadrifons) was second only to Jupiter. He was also god of doors, bridges, passageways. His name was the first invoked in all religious ceremonies.
January – Gennaio begins a New Year and a new chance to not live with regrets. A chance to try something new. A chance to bring smile to someone’s face. A chance to be part of something wonderful or exciting. Don’t let this year pass you by and feel you should have or could have done something. The New Year is also a good time to remember and act upon the words “I expect to pass through this world but once, any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now, let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Attributed to Etienne de Grellet (1773-1855).
Also worth remembering in 2011: Do Good with your extra time, talent and money, not because you expect something in return, often not even a simple thank you. That way you won’t be disappointed and will feel good knowing you left the world a better place than you found it.
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Events with an Italian Connection from January months past include a trio of Italian American mayors who served during the Great Depression and put their city back in the black. Their courage, commitment and honesty at a time when these qualities are lacking in so much of American politics today and our current financial travails, makes them especially noteworthy:
Angelo Rossi (1878-1948) who became the first Italian American to be elected Mayor of San Francisco took office in January 1932. He was born in Volcano, California of Genoese ancestry. He lost his father as a child, and his mother moved the family to San Francisco. There he worked as an errand boy at the Floral firm where he later became president.
Angelo Rossi’s impressive public service career began in 1914. His involvements included the San Francisco Playground Commission, the Down Town Association, Admission Day, the San Francisco Grand Jury, the California Industries Exposition, the San Francisco Advertising Club, Rotary Club, Board of Supervisors, and Finance Committee.
Elected Mayor during the worst of the Depression, Rossi maintained the city’s fiscal bal- ance while improving its range of services. He lowered property taxes, completed the city’s two bridges, and developed schools, streets, and the municipal railway service.
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Fiorello La Guardia, (1887- 1947) elected Mayor of New York City, took office on January 1st, 1934. He took over a city mired in the debts of the Great Depression, burdened by a corrupted government. His first words upon being sworn in were “To the victor belongs the responsibility of good government.” When he retired in 1945, he left a New York that was revitalized and optimistic. Fiorello, “The Little Flower” was born in New York City. His father, Achille, was born in Foggia, Italy. A gifted musician and talented cornetist, Achille traveled to Northern Italy and soon became a musician on ships for the Hamburg Line.
By 1878 he was an accompanist and arranger for famed diva Adelina Patti and traveled with Adelina to America, where enchanted with America he was determined to return. Fiorello’s mother Irene Luzzato-Coen, was Jewish and born in the port city of Fiume (near Trieste). Achille had met her at a dance, married her in 1880 and set sail for his favorite city, New York soon after. Fiorello was named after Irene’s mother, Fiorina and Rafael Enrico for Achille’s father. The Rafael was later dropped and Enrico americanized to Henry. Hence it was as Fiorello H. La Guardia, he was on the Fusion Party ticket...
Fiorello grew up among the Indians in Prescott, Arizona, where his father Achille was chief musician with an Army regiment. When Achille was sent to Alabama during the Spanish- American War, tenacious but underage Fiorello went along as a war correspondent. When Achille returned at age 50, in bad health, the family went back to Trieste, Irene’s former home and stayed with her mother, Fiorina.
A natural linguist, Fiorello worked with U.S. consulates in Budapest and Fiume, where his efficiency and compassion began to gain him notoriety. Observing that many immigrants sailing from Fiume to America were returned due to disease, he instilled a policy requiring a medical check for each passenger before the ship was cleared to sail and personally signed the certificate.
Returning to New York in 1906, LaGuardia worked with U.S. Immigration Service at Ellis Island as he pursued a law degree. As a lawyer he represent- ed many clients who had no means to pay. Though a Republican in a city of Democrats, his popularity gained him Congressional seats from 1916 till 1934. (His command of Yiddish secured the Jewish vote.) The diminutive politician was known for his Stetson hat, a symbol of his early years in the Wild West.
Congressman La Guardia learned to fly, and in WWI commanded all American pilots in Italy. He survived a crash as a combat pilot. Major La Guardia fought to improve the living conditions of his men, remembering the tainted Army canned beef from which his father never recovered.
As Mayor, he saved New York from bankruptcy, cleaning up a corrupt city hall and balancing the budget in his first year. He discharged over 1,000 city officeholders, from “Far Niente” departments and holdovers from previous corrupt administrations...
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Benito Mussolini signed a pact with Yugoslavia annexing the free city of Fiume on January 27, 1924. Fiume, Italian port on the Adriatic, was claimed by Italy, since the majority of its inhabitants had long been Italian but the New State of Yugoslavia claimed equal rights to it, as Hungarian territory. D’Annunzio, with an irregular force, invaded Fiume, and claimed the territory for Italy, but by the Treaty of Rapallo, 1920, Fiume was made an independent state. In 1924 Mussolini negotiated a treaty whereby Italy annexed Fiume, but by the Peace Treaty of 1947, Fiume was given to Y ugoslavia.
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Roberto Maestri (1889-1974) was born in New Orleans, the son of Genoese immigrants. Young Maestri built up the family furniture business, then became a wealthy real estate investor. Governor Huey Long appointed Maestri Chairman of the Louisiana Department of Conservation, which he reorganized and made the most efficient of the state public agencies.
As Mayor, he reorganized the city’s finances, pulling New Orleans out of bankruptcy within a year. He reduced bank loans by $5 million, paid all bills and put the city’s operation on a cash basis. Still $100,000 in debt, Mayor Maestri lent the city this amount from his personal funds, interest-free.
Maestri fought for WPA assistance, improving city streets, sewerage, sidewalks and over- passes. He also initiated the restoration of the French Market and Canal Street.
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Elizabeth Ann Seton who died Janury 4th, 1821, was born in New York City 1774. At the age of nineteen she married William Seton. After he lost a fortune early 1803, his health began to fail and with Elizabeth they sailed to Italy for the warm climate, to stay with friends, the Antonio Filicchi family. Unfortunately he died in December 1803. The young widow and her daughter found a home with the devoted Catholic Filicchi family.
She experienced the faith of this family and converted to Catholicism in 1809. She started a religious community of teaching sisters, the first American Sisters of Charity, and initiated the Catholic school system. She died in 1821 and was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI in 1976.
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Craxi Bettino died on January 19, 2000 at age 65 and was buried in Tunisia (in the Tunisian beach resort of Hammamet) where he fled in 1994 to avoid a jail term for corruption. Craxi, a socialist, was Italy’s longest serving Premier, of post- war years, 1983-1987.
Arturo Toscanini began conducting with the New York Symphony in January 1926.
Louis Sartori (1812-1899), the first Italian American Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy died January 11, 1899.
Maria Jose of Savoy widow of Italy’s last king, Umberto II, died January 27, 2001 at her family’s home in exile Switzerland. She was 94 and did not live to see her 65 year old son, former prince Victor Emmanuel exiled from Italy since age 9, return to Rome with his family for a meeting with Pope John Paul II, Dec. 2002.
La Voce Del Popolo newspaper started January 1868, in San Francisco, “Organo della Popolazione Italiana in California.” “La scintilla Italiana” outstripped the competition for nearly 20 years. It was not until 1887 that La Voce del Popolo’s dominance was counterbalanced by L’Italia, the first California rival to survive the competion.
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807- 1882), hero of the Garibaldi Guard, (Compagnia Garibaldina) the most popular organization among Italians in California, kept in touch via “La Voce del Popolo”, which was mailed to him regularly as he appreciated its politics and sympathized with its endeavors, from the time of the first editor-in-chief Giuseppe Norton, through his successors, Carlo Dondero and Giovan Cevasco.
Giuseppe Verdi, died January 27, 1901. On January 19, 1853 the composer’s opera “Il Trovatore” was performed for the first time.
Allied Troops made a surprise landing at Anzio, 30 miles south of Rome, in January 1944, during WWII.
Mario Lanza, singer, actor, was born Alfredo Cocozza in Philadelphia on January 31th, 1921 (the year the legendary Enrico Caruso died). Mario Lanza left us, at the young age of 38, in 1959, but his memory and music continued to live in our hearts. Mario Lanza aficionados will enjoy subscribing to the Lanza Legend Newsletter, a quarterly, edited by Bob Dolfi and Mario’s son Damon Lanza (the late). To subscribe write to: Lanza Legend, P.O. Box 6742, San Pedro, California 90732.
