With a bill establishing Italian American Heritage Month in Illinois hanging in the balance, State Rep. Anthony DeLuca pulled out all the stops to ensure its passage. In a political landscape that’s bitterly divided, Illinois Rep. Anthony DeLuca is an increasingly rare breed of elected official. “Anthony is a bridge builder. He’s a consensus builder,” Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans President Ron Onesti says. “His fellow legislators know that if their constituents have a need, Anthony will listen to them and do everything in his power to meet that need, regardless of their party, because it’s the right thing …

The readers of Fra Noi never cease to amaze me. Any time I’ve asked you to lend a hand in times of need, you’ve come through in spades. When you learned a couple of months ago that inflation had taken its toll on our bottom line, you didn’t miss a beat. Hundreds upon hundreds of you — more than 10% of our total readership — opened up your hearts and your pocketbooks, filling our coffers with funds sufficient to cover a mind-boggling 80% of our projected deficit for the year. Week after week, white envelopes have flooded into the Fra …

I eagerly await the coming of September every year, but this year feels special because it marks 15 years since I took over penning this column. I’ve covered topics ranging from the good old days of church processions and carnivals to the good times we had at the favorite places of our youth, like “The Ave” (Michigan Avenue). Many of the topics I’ve covered have resulted in online discussions and real-life visits to the nostalgic locations those columns mentioned. The greatest source of information and inspiration for this column is conversations and discussions I’ve been a part of. As everyone …

Recently elected to the presidency of of the National Italian American Bar Association, Frank Sommario dedicated his career to shining a positive light on his heritage and his profession. Justice may be blind, but Chicago attorney Frank Sommario has a clear-eyed view of his duties as an American attorney of Italian descent. “I want to show that Italian Americans continue to contribute to the legal system in a positive way, despite the stereotypes that our community has endured over the decades,” he says. “It makes you work harder because you know you not only represent yourself, your firm and your …

I don’t mean to brag, but I may have the best job on the planet. Let me count the ways. I work with a small but mighty staff that dispatches its duties with professionalism and pride. Our crack team of correspondents are as passionate as they are talented, delivering engaging features on a dizzying array of topics. Our publication is so beloved by our readers that they renew their own subscriptions and give them as gifts at an unparalleled rate. Our fiercely devoted advertisers lend their financial support month in and month out, providing the fuel that drives the magazine …

A political reporter by trade, Paul Salsini parlayed a fascination with one of America’s great musical minds into a long-running newsletter and now a book. Paul Salsini was a journalistic mainstay in Milwaukee for decades, serving as a reporter and editor for The Milwaukee Journal for 37 years and as the Wisconsin correspondent for The New York Times for 15. While his coverage gravitated toward government and politics, he nurtured a longtime fascination with one of the greatest musical writers of all time: Stephen Sondheim. Not satisfied with admiring the maestro’s work from afar, Salsini reached out to him in …

Christopher Columbus is a hard guy to get to know. After all, he lived more than 500 years ago, and much of his story has been told by or through others. In the end, everything depends on who’s doing the telling, what they’ve decided to say or leave out, and why. Much of the debate nowadays is dominated by polar extremes, with vehement detractors embracing an often-false narrative in order to vilify Columbus and passionate apologists frequently downplaying the darker aspects of his legacy to paint a rosier picture. I found myself in the apologists’ camp early on in my …

Conquest and subjugation were the order of the day in the 15th century. Most societies back then were ruled by monarchs who had absolute power over their people, controlling every aspect of their lives and brooking no dissent. Many of those monarchs were intent on extending their dominion to adjacent and distant lands, or on taking back lands previously seized from them. And though methods varied, none were particularly benign. During that fractious century, the French expelled British occupiers from their soil, Spain did the same to the Muslims, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, the Mali Empire was laid …

Columbus’ detractors would have us believe that he was a genocidal slave trader who tyrannized natives and settlers alike and stopped at nothing to turn a profit and subjugate the islands. If you read the source material closely, though, all that dissolves into inaccuracy. The worst offenders were Howard Zinn, author of “A People’s History of the United States,” and James W. Loewen, who penned “Lies My Teacher Told Me.” Playing fast and loose with the truth at almost every turn, they offered no real proof for many of their assertions, often serving up quotes that were taken wildly out …

My quest for the truth about Christopher Columbus has led me to more discoveries than I could possibly have imagined. I knew a few things before I embarked, of course: that Columbus set the gold standard for perseverance and courage, that his first voyage was an act of navigational brilliance and that the world was forever changed by it. I also knew the countless misdeeds attributed to him couldn’t all be true. Until I dug much deeper, though, I had no idea how wrong the naysayers were. The Columbus I’ve come to know was a staunch advocate for native rights …