My Turn

October through December is my favorite time of year. I’m that person who decorates for fall in August and drinks pumpkin spice lattes when it’s still 90 degrees. Out of that whole glorious season, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Last year, I spent Thanksgiving in Treviso, Italy. I hadn’t planned on still being there that late in the season, but I can hardly complain. With 2020 being, well, 2020, it was a miracle I was in Italy at all. Since Thanksgiving is a uniquely American observance, it had me reminiscing about a magical celebration back home almost 20 years before. …

When I chat with a new friend or someone I just met and mention my fig trees, they almost immediately shake their heads and ask, “Did you just say fig trees?” Living in the Midwest as I do, it comes as a surprise to most people that we raise figs. And believe me, keeping these beauties alive in this region is truly a labor of love. I have vivid memories of the 22 fig trees my father kept when I was a kid growing up in Chicago. We all know the size of a city lot, but my parents owned …

From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as case numbers multiplied with each passing week, it was apparent there would be only one solution to this global health crisis. The answer fell in the domain of what I believe is the single greatest advancement in modern medicine — vaccination. Over this last year, we all witnessed what our world looked like when a vaccine didn’t exist for this highly contagious illness. Worldwide, there have been nearly 200 million cases of COVID with nearly 4 million lives lost, more than 600,000 of these in the U.S. alone. I received my first …

In 1819, English poet John Keats wrote a series of odes celebrating such things as a nightingale, the goddess Psyche, autumn and most famously a Grecian urn. Two years later, he died at the age of 25 in the midst of a pandemic that caused a quarter of the deaths across Europe in the 19th century. Here we are today — 100 years after the Spanish flu ripped through the world killing 50 million people — in the middle of our own pandemic: COVID-19. I first became familiar with odes in 1994 while watching the Italian film “Il postino” (The …

Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021, will be remembered as one of the most historic dates in Italian-American history. It’s the day that representatives of 354 Italian-American organizations from across our country joined together to participate in the first-ever National Italian American Summit Meeting. From New York to California to Hawaii, from Michigan to Louisiana, and from nearly every state in between, Italian-American leaders did something they had never done before: They joined hands in a show of national unity. The idea for the summit meeting stemmed from a discussion I had with Frank Maselli, president of the American Italian Museum in …

Private 1st Class Vincent J. Ferrara was never forgotten by those who loved him. His name would come up at every family gathering, and his siblings would always share fond memories. He was born on July 8, 1925, to Damiano and Giovanna “Jennie” (Nigretto) Ferrara and raised in a strong Catholic family. His uncle, Fr. John Ferrara, was the pastor at St. Callistus Parish in Chicago, and his father was very active in the Maria SS. Lauretana Society. Vince grew up in St. Michael Parish on the Near North Side of Chicago. He had a sunny disposition even though his …

by Addison Teng In November 2019, Music Institute of Chicago violin and chamber music faculty member Addison Teng took three of his students — Maia Law (age 17, Glencoe), Aria Messina (age 16, Chicago) and Kodai Speich (age 16, Rockford) — on a 10-day trip to San Marino and Italy. The trip was hosted by Istituto Musicale Sammarinese in San Marino; Conservatorio Bruno Maderna in Cesena, Italy; and Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali “Pietro Mascagni” in Livorno, Italy. The Music Institute students performed alongside local students and took masterclasses from conservatory professors. The mission of this residency was to promote …

Five-time Oscar winner Federico Fellini once said, “A different language is a different vision of life.” As a world-renowned film director, Fellini captured many aspects of life through his lens, immersing us in various cultures. Fellini believed that exposure to different languages forces us to see the world from the perspective of the people who speak those languages and the cultures in which they live. I am proud to have been named the ente gestore (president) of Italidea-Midwest as of January 2020. Italidea-Midwest is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to teaching students the Italian language as well as the traditions …

“Is my eggplant parmesan soggy?” I queried my husband after a New York Times Food Section article thrust me into momentary self-doubt. “NEVER,” he reassured me. “Solving the Puzzle of Eggplant Parmesan” (NY Times, Sept. 22, 2017) quoted the advice of several accomplished chefs — one who learned to cook at his mother’s side in her well-regarded restaurant in Lyon, France — but none of them were Italian. What’s wrong with this picture? We Italians irrefutably know certain things about life, love and food. These lessons were taught to us in our nonnas’ kitchens, absorbed through the atmosphere of our …

The predominant image of Italian Americans in today’s media comes through representation of our working-class presence. The predominant voice of protest of those images comes from Italian Americans in the middle class. Those educated out of the working class no longer connect to those who have remained working class. One result of this class mobility through education is the creation of Americans with Italian names who do not see anything wrong with writing, producing, directing and acting in films that, while protected by the First Amendment, offend other Italian Americans. For help in understanding this struggle, we need to review …