Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
With the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans Queen Pageant serving as the kickoff for the Columbus Day festivities, we are well on our way to our magnificent celebration. This year our jubilation is two-fold. Our annual tribute honoring Columbus and the greatest voyage of all times plus we join the country of our ancestors extolling the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy.
This year’s parade theme is “One Hundred and Fifty Years of the Unification of Italy and the Unification of Our Community Honoring Alessandro Motta, Consul General of Italy.” Our president, Antonio Romanucci, announced in June 2011 that Alessandro Motta will serve as our honorary parade chairman. How appropriate this is to commemorate the 150-year anniversary with our parade, and leading this observance, our distinguished Consul General.
Alessandro Motta assumed his post as Consul General in Chicago in August 2007.
Alessandro was born in Naples on May 17, 1966, to Vittorio and Angela Motta. His studies include a degree in Political Science at the Istituto Universitario Orientale of Naples in 1988. In March 1992 Alessandro entered the Diplomatic Career at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He earned a Masters of Public Administration at Ecole Nationale d’Administration of Paris in 1995. Since then he has been assigned to the Directorate General for Cultural Relations and to the Spokesman Office of the Minister. He also served in the Department for Military Politics of the Italian Joint Chief of Staff.
From September 1996 to May 2000 he was appointed to the Italian Embassy in Mexico as Chief of the Economic Department. From June 2000 to June 2004 he was the Italian Consul in Brussels, Belgium. Then from June 2004 to July 2007 he served at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Head of the Staff of the Director General for Human Resources.
Alessandro, his wife Sandrine, his children, Lucrezia and Filippo, have graced our community for the last four years. We are pleased that the Italian government has granted the extension of his post in Chicago for another year. The promotion of the Italian language program has been a priority with Alessandro. He has been a very visible, viable Consul General. We are extremely grateful he has accepted to lead our parade along with the president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, Antonio Romanucci, and the new Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emmanuel, as we march down Columbus Drive on Monday, October 10 at 12:30 p.m.
This is a very special year with a new JCCIA president, a new Chicago mayor, the celebration of the 150-year anniversary of the Unification and our Consul General as parade chairman. They are followed on the parade route by all of the presidents of our affiliate organizations and our elected officials walking in front of our procession of hundreds of marchers, bands and floats. Everyone in the parade and everyone along the sidelines will be waving the Italian and American flags, which we will distribute to all.
What a glorious display of unity, cooperation, camaraderie, patriotism and hospitality. We cannot emphasize enough how much we want you to be a part of this, you should be a part of this and hopefully you will be a part of this expounding parade.
