Defining her identity and pinpointing where she feels most at home — in Italy or the United States — has never been easy for Raffaella Spilotro, the director of the children’s summer camp at Casa Italia in Stone Park. That’s because, for the first nine years of her life, Spilotro grew up in Capurso, a small town in the province of Bari, Puglia, with her parents speaking only Italian. Her mother and father came with their families to America in the 1960s, met and married here, and decided to move back to Italy when she was 2 months hold. …

Like other social clubs felled by the worldwide pandemic, the Burgio Woman’s Club could have dissolved in recent years. Instead, the 71-year-old nonprofit organization based in the Chicago area is experiencing a resurgence of new activity. “Our members really worked hard to keep it moving forward, and now we are stronger and more active than ever before,” says club President Annmarie Parisi. “It is a community of women, brought together for the love of our town of Burgio and Sicily. We share friendships, family, history and traditions, and also want to learn more and keep alive the customs that we …

Serving as the first principal of The Chicago Academy for The Arts was never the plan for Frank Mustari. A guidance counselor at Niles West High School in suburban Skokie, Mustari asked to take a leave of absence in 1981 to help establish the academy, the first of its kind in the city. “I thought the concept was a great idea. I was working at a high school that had virtually everything — an art department, a theater department, a music department. Chicago Public Schools didn’t have any of those things,” the 86-year-old says. “When I saw in the paper …

After a brief-but-stellar career in prizefighting, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini has found satisfaction and success as a movie producer, winemaker, philanthropist and family man as well as Youngstown, Ohio’s, biggest booster. The world knows Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini as the formidable boxer with the charming personality who became a World Boxing Association lightweight champion at age 20. But boxing was simply one chapter of his life, and everything that has come after — family, acting, film production and philanthropy — has been just as satisfying and rewarding, the 63-year-old says. Throughout it all, Mancini has always been mindful of his …

  Though the great flood in Florence happened well before she was born, it became a lived experience for Karen Greenwald during extensive research for her children’s book on the catastrophic event. Award-winning children’s book author Karen Greenwald has never been to Florence, and yet she feels a deep connection to the Italian city. That’s because for three years, Greenwald conducted research and interviews about the overflowing of the Arno River in 1966, which dumped about 600,000 tons of mud and sewage onto Florence. The tragedy left more than 30 people dead, hundreds injured and thousands homeless. It also damaged …

After 27 years as a member of the Beato Giovanni Liccio Society of Chicago, current President Tony Sapienza is as active and enthusiastic as ever. The group’s mission is to promote and foster the teachings of its patron, Beato Giovanni Liccio, a 15th century priest from Caccamo, Sicily, who spent his life helping the needy and the poor, and to whom several miracles are attributed. “We follow the same teachings, songs and worships as they do in Caccamo,” Sapienza says. “It has forged a bond between the Chicago Caccamesi and the town of Caccamo.” Sapienza, 56, has worked for American …

Mazzini Verdi Club Ladies Club President Giovanna Carlino has made many deep friendships thanks to the club, and she encourages others to join and experience the same gift. “It’s an enjoyment,” she says. “All of us when we go, we are happy people, we greet each other like we haven’t seen each other for years but we saw each other yesterday.” A native of Palermo, Carlino moved to Chicago at age 19, following in the footsteps of her sister, and eventually got married and had one child. She and her first husband started a beauty business selling wigs and doing …

Bernard Ghilarducci and Luigi Banducci are close friends who have been at the helm of the Chicago-area Mazzini Verdi Club since about 2007, when they started alternating two-year presidency terms. Ghilarducci’s current term as president started Jan. 1. A retired engineer, he has been a member of the club since 1980, when he and his wife, Fidalma, joined following the example of friends. “We joined to be part of the Italian community,” he says. The social and cultural club derives its name from Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian politician whose activism helped unify the country in 1861, and Giuseppe Verdi, the …

A standout collegiate softball pitcher, Christina Toniolo took her game to an unimagined level after she was recruited by the manager of Team Italy. In early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, softball pitcher Christina Toniolo had a feeling she needed to pick up a phone call whose ID said “Italy,” even though as a rule she ignored unknown calls. That decision changed her life. Toniolo, who will be 23 this month, is a member of Italy’s national women’s softball team. Though she graduated last year with a degree in biology from the University of Illinois Chicago, she chose …

A skilled wealth manager and real estate investor, Robert Barbera is pouring some of his profits into the creation of a series of books that showcase Italian and Italian-American heroes. Robert Barbera founded the nonprofit Mentoris Project with the goal of publishing accessible books about the lives of great Italian and Italian-American men and women who excelled in the arts, sciences, film, sports, music and many other realms. Some biographical subjects are well-known while others are more obscure, but all overcame obstacles and made a difference. Most of the biographies are historical novels, the rest are nonfiction. The Mentoris Project …