Dear Readers,
March, the third month of the year has 31 days and is short for “Martius menis” month of Mars. In Roman mythology, Mars was the god of war and agriculture. A minor Roman goddess, Nerio, was his wife. Jupiter (Zeus) the supreme Roman god of the skies, rain and weather was his father. Jono (Hera) goddess of marriage and daughter of Saturn was the mother of Mars. March - Marzo has many dates with an “Italian Connection”:
1. Ohio became our seventeenth state in 1867. The state capital is Columbus, Ohio. At the time, Thomas Jefferson was our fourth president. An Italo-phile, his home “Monticello” was inspired by Italian architecture. His one-time neighbor, Filippo Mazzei, suggested the words “All men are by nature equally free and independent” which Jefferson modified to “All men are created equal” when he drafted the Declaration of Independence.
2. Teachers affect eternity, no one can tell where this influence stops. Today is National Teac- her’s Day. Italians have been at the forefront in the establishment of educational institutions. All universities stem from the colleges of students and teachers that became established in Italy at the beginning of the eleventh century. The oldest university in the world, “Università di Bologna” was established in 1158. The University of Perugia was founded in 1200, the University of Naples and Medical School at Salerno were both founded in 1224.
Across the English channel, Oxford University was established in 1229. In 1896, Maria Montessori became the first woman to graduate from a medical school in Italy. She later, in 1907, founded the Montessori method of education which revolutionized teaching techniques. Her work was translated into 20 languages and Montessori schools were established in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Many Montessori schools continue to flourish today. “Italian American Teachers never lose their class”.
3. The Star Spangled Banner, officially became America’s National Anthem on March 3, 1931. Italian-Americans stood proudly to sing it, especially in 1936 while watching Joe DiMaggio, newly hired rookie, playing for the New York Yankees and their namesake stadium.
4. The United States Constitution after the Revolutionary war was won by the “Yankees”. It went into effect on this day in 1789. It had been preceded in 1776, by the Declaration of Independence. Two Italo-Americans, Cesar Rodney and William Paca had affixed their signature to that document, which guaranteed death if captured by the British. William Paca, patriot, humanitarian and statesman served the Continental Congress in 1776 and as Governor of Maryland in 1782. The State seal of Maryland is the only one among 50 states to be written in Italian, “Fatti maschi, parole femmine” (Manly deeds, womanly words). William Paca’s family is traced to Cardinale Pacca of Naples and Benevento. Cesar Rodney, patriot from the first state of Delaware, cast the decisive vote for Independence. Along with William Paca, theirs were among the 56 signatures on the Declaration of Independence.
5. Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italian film director, (“Decamerone”, “Arabian Nights”), poet and novelist, was born March 5, 1922 in Bologna. Police arrested a seventeen-year old male, after his body was found murdered on the outskirts of Rome in 1975. As a young writer Pasolini described the Friulan peasantry of his childhood as a world of uncorrupted Christianity and innocence. He became anti-fascist by way of his fascist father and a communist later on.
6. Michelangelo Buonarroti, born March 6, 1475 near Florence, was an artist, sculptor, architect and poet. He painted “The Creation of Man” and some of the most beautiful pictures in the world, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. His statues of David and Moses are masterpieces in marble and his dome of St. 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.
7. Anna Magnani, internationally celebrated Italian film star was born on March 7, 1908, to moderately prosperous Italian immigrants in Alexandria, Egypt, but since her early characterizations had made her the emotional symbol of Italian peasantry and proletariat, her middle class beginnings were de-emphasized. Divorced from Italian film director Goffredo Alessandrini in 1943, she worked as a bit actress in films and on stage in order to pay the enormous medical expenses for her polio stricken son Luca, until her big break in 1946 when Anna Magnani burst upon American audiences, as the pregnant fiancee of an Italian resistance leader in “Open City” directed by Roberto Rossellini.
In 1955 she won Academy Awards for her first Hollywood portrayal in Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo”. “Open City” the film which brought her fame and fortune, also brought her heartbreak as the film brought Rossellini to the attention of Hollywood actress Ingrid Bergman and eventually precipitated in an international scandal, which catapulted the Sicilian Island of Stromboli into the spotlight, along with Rossellini and the two famous actresses in his life.
8. Roger Boschetti, well known radio and television personality, Italian Family Picnic pioneer, that attracted “Multi Mille” attendees from throughout the state and energetic Northern California representative for our “L’Italo-Americano” newspaper left us on March 8, 2004. He interviewed and was friends with many celebrities in the U.S. and Italy.
He was fully devoted to his mission of spreading the word about our L’Italo-Americano newspaper and soliciting needed support among his many friends and businesses. He was close friend with the musical Mr. and Mrs. Chiodo and Roger would often enliven events by singing duets with Nina Chiodo, accompanied by her husband Phil and his accordion or singing solo some of his favorite tunes like “Marina, Marina” or “Nel blu dipinto di blu”. After 40 years of living with her never boring husband, who brightened every room he walked into, his living wife Rachel as well as many members of the Italo American community, still mourn the loss of Roger Boschetti...
9. Amerigo Vespucci, the great Italian explorer, after whom American is named, was born on this month in 1454. The Florentine Vespucci, did much to enlarge the world’s horizon. He was a skilled mapmaker and cosmographer who estimated the circumference of the earth within 50 miles to the correct figure. Vespucci discovered Brazil in 1499 and Rio de Janiero Bay two years later. He was the first to advance the belief that Columbus did not find a short route to Asia, but a new world “America”.
10 Alexander Graham Bell, the putative inventor of the telephone was born in March. Antonio Meucci, born in Florence, applied for a patent, for what was to be the telephone in 1871. Alexandra Graham Bell applied for a patent in 1876 and Edison’s carbon refinement is dated 1877.
Italians in Italy and Italian Americans felt they were “robbed” after Bell prevailed in American Supreme Court litigation (because Meucci’s provisional patent expired in 1873) therefore they will not be celebrating Bell’s March 1847 birthday anniversary.
Many Italo-Americans will elect instead to visit the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum (420 Tompkins Ave., Staten Island, New York 10305, tel. , ). Grazie to New York subscriber, Joseph Argento, I can share this information with you: Antonio Meucci conversed with his wife, on the very first telephone, with-in the walls of the house that is now the Garibaldi-Meucci Muse- um on the shores of Staten Island, New York, operated by the Sons of Italy Foundation.
Meucci is not a household name outside Italo American homes. Yet he is the true inventor of the telephone. He came to America in hopes of realizing his dreams, but tragic circumstances robbed him of fame and fortune. Born in Florence, Italy, Meucci studied design and engineering, which ultimately led him to Havana, Cuba.
There he improved military equipment and later developed a medical technique that utilized electric shocks to treat illness. It was treating a friend with this technique that he realized the piece of copper wire used to transmit the shock also transmitted sound from one room to another. After making this incredible discovery, Meucci realized that this could be used as a communication device.
He set sail for America to market his idea. But upon his arrival, Meucci fell on hard times. He was injured in a boat explosion, and while he was in the hospital his wife was forced to sell his telephone prototype. He went to court to try and get the patent, the judge did not believe the poor immigrant, who spoke broken English at best.
While Meucci’s greater achievement went unnoticed, he had formed a close friendship with the exiled Italian patriot Garibaldi. When his wife Anita died, Garibaldi was devastated and came to America to find peace. He moved in with Meucci and his wife and used their home as a base of operations.
Together the two worked on many projects, including the creation of smokeless candles. The 160 year old house holds rare artwork and first edition books that date back to as early as 1906. There are two of Meucci’s original telephone prototypes in the house and a piano he carved himself.
Modern times have been more kind to Antonio Meucci. In 2002, Congress passed Resolu- tion 296, which recognized Meucci as the true inventor of the telephone. Better late than never. My father knew that nearly a century ago.
11. Anton Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, was born March 11, 1936. Justice Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey. Appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986 by Pres. Ronald Reagan.
12. Gabriele D’Annunzio, Italian novelist, playwright, poet, “The flame of love” aviator and political leader was born March 12, 1863. He died in 1938.
13. D.H. Lawrence, 1885- 1930 the controversial English novelist and poet, “Lady Chatter- ley’s Lover”, “Woman in love”, died of tuberculosis in Italy, March 1930.
14. New Orleans Vigilantes killed eleven innocent Sicilians on March 14, 1891. The killing of Italian inmates at Orleans Parish Prison in 1891 has been called a lynching, implying it was a spontaneous act of a violent mob, but Joe Maselli, founder in 1973 of the “Italian American Digest” (the Italian American Voice of the South), feels that Parkerson and his mob had carefully planned their effort to take the lives of those eleven Sicilian men to deflect any investigation into the real motives behind the assassination of Police Chief David Hennessey.
Since more Sicilian and Italian immigrants living and working in New Orleans at the time were at the bottom of the socio economic heap, it was easy to use the innocent men as scapegoats to “solve” the crime without voices being raised in protest. Working conditions depended on whether the new immigrants decided to work on the plantations or remain in the city. Those who worked on the plantations received much higher wages than in Sicily. In Louisiana signs read, “Whites $1.00 per day, Blacks $0.75 per day, Dagos $0.50 per day”. Those who remained in New Orleans soon developed small businesses, which became their home as well as their business. The Sicilians had one thing in common, they saw America as the land of opportunity and they were not afraid of hard work.
15. Julius Caesar, 100-44 B.C. greatest of all Caesars, Roman statesman and general, it’s said, laughed at a soothsay- er’s warning to “Beware the Ides of March”. A successful plot for his assassination took place on March 15th, 44 B.C. done by the hands of his friends Cassius and Brutus his trusted adoptive son and is considered the most famous of classical betrayals.
