Patrons of Italian Culture and the San Diego Connection 2010

The Patrons of Italian Culture’s Board of Directors recently completed their annual 4-day Board Retreat full of wonderful memories and experiences. The 2010 retreat was held in San Diego’s Little Italy culminating a year long period of preparation with the major Italian cultural organizations and local museums. The Patrons will be sharing their experiences with members and fellow readers in a series of L’Italo-Americano articles, reports Paul Romano, Board President. Previous Patron Board retreats have been held in San Francisco and Napa, Ca., Santa Fe, New Mexico, Phoenix, Arizona, and in Santa Barbara in 2009.

The idea for the 2010 Retreat started in November of 2009, as we heard that San Diego’s Little Italy had undergone a major revitalization and we were anxious to experience all that the local Italian community there had to offer. The leaders in the Little Italy community responded positively and were able to organize several special visits and events for the Patrons.

In this second article in the series, we shall highlight two special events, a visit to the delightful Mingei International Museum in old Balboa Park, and a tour of the historic Holy Rosary Church, circa 1925, with its wonderful ‘frescoes’ painted by famed artist Fausto Tasca. The Mingei International Museum located in the center of historic Balboa Park began in 1978 as the Museum of World Folk Art. In August of 1996 the Mingei moved to its permanent and larger location with more than 41,000 Sq Ft of exhibition space.

It has presented more than 37 exhibitions of traditional and contemporary folk art, craft and design of cultures from all over the world. The term Mingei, a term used throughout the world, meaning “arts of the people”, was first coined by the Japanese scholar, Dr. Soetsu Yanagi. He observed that many useful, pre-industrial objects made by unknown craftsmen, were of a beauty seldom equaled by artists of modern societies. He founded the Mingei Association in Japan and opened the first international folk crafts museum in Tokyo.

The current Director, Rob Sidner, personally gave the Patrons’ members a one of a kind tour of the museums exhibi- tions, including the wonderful ‘Heroes & Artisans of Mexico’. The Mexican masks which were a feature in collective dances and religious celebrations were especially magnificent. The various ‘Trees of Life’ and ‘Day of the Dead’ sculptures were just wonderful. A very special visit was allowed to the lower level ‘archive’ where a pair of hand painted Neapolitan festival carts are being stored and studied, these along with several thousand examples of folk and craft art from all over the world.

For more information on this hidden treasure, our readers would be wise to contact the Mengei at www.mingei.org. The museum is located at 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, Ca. 92101. Little Italy is today a thriving neighborhood in San Diego and its cultural and religious anchor is the historic Our Lady of the Rosary Church. Two major Italian groups to emigrate to San Diego were primarily from the province of Liguria, more precisely from the town of Riva Trigoso, and the other came from Sicily, mostly from the town of Porticello. The main industry was tuna fishing.

The San Diego Union newspaper noted “the arrival of several Italian fishermen” as far back as 1871. The year 1906 represented a watershed year for Italian migration into San Diego as a result of the San Francisco earthquake. The Church’s history parallels the many ups and downs of the Little Italy community. The most impressive effort was the organization of a Fishermen’s Committee in 1943. According to an agreement signed in the year of its founding, the committee promised to donate “25 cents for each and every ton of fish” that the boats sold.

These funds were collected for the purpose of liquidating the debt that had been incurred by the church. The signatories to this agreement are among the most recognizable names of the Italian community in all of California: Alioto, Bregante, Castagnola, Cresci, Crivello, DiMareno, Ghio, Guidi, Stagnaro, Vattuone, Zolezzi ... The church was consecrated in 1925. Its ceilings are adorned with frescoes that were commissioned from the Italian artist Fausto Bellino Tasca. His breathtaking frescoes represent a little known treasure housed within the Little Italy community.

Tasca was born on June 24, 1885 in the northern Italian village of San Zenone degli Ezzelini (Treviso). The design and decorative painting for the interior of Our Lady of the Rosary Church in San Diego, California, was a major commission in Tasca’s career. His ambitious plan for the church interior included two major murals: ‘The Crucifixion’ and ‘The Last Judgment’, as well as several ceiling medallions depicting the mysteries of the rosary, they are truly something to behold. The walls of the nave are also elaborately adorned with figures of saints and grisailles of cherubs and angels.

He also designed and executed all the stained glass windows in the church. The well-known sculptor, Carlo Romanelli, obtained the commission to sculpt the statues of the Sacred Heart and the Blessed Virgin and Tasca painted the statues in a realistic style. These two statues still occupy niches to the left and right of the main altar. All the larger paintings for Our Lady of the Rosary were completed in Tasca’s studio in Los Angeles. Tasca painted these works on large sheets of canvas. When they were completed, he transported them to San Diego and installed them in the church. Tasca, a true visionary, had perfected a technique for applying painted canvas to stucco walls using a special glue.

He selected this method so that his paintings could be removed for restoration. He was also concerned that his work could be removed in case the building was later renovated or demolished. Readers would be well advised to seek out these true works of Italian art the next time they visit San Diego. In the final issue of this series, join the Patrons as they visit the historic Italian Cultural Center and its language school, as well as the Italian ‘Bambino’ Learning Center at the Washington Elementary School.

For Membership application or more information about the Patrons of Italian Culture, and their 50 years of promoting Italian Culture throughout Southern California, contact them at: P .I.C., P .O. Box 3465, Burbank, Ca. 91508-3465. The P.I.C. is a non-profit 501c-3 Corporation.

Paul Romano