Profiles

Local comic Nick Smeriglio completed the improv program at The Second City Training Center in March, right before the lockdown. When stay-at-home orders were issued, he and his younger brother and sister returned to their parents’ home in Arlington Heights, where they started experimenting with the app Tik Tok. “My sister was all about the Tik Tok dances, which the app is known for, but I noticed that there were a lot of comedians and impressionists doing their own thing as well,” Smeriglio says. “My family eventually convinced me to start posting impressions and skits similar to what we did at Second …

A Navy machinist mate during World War II, Al Cenofante kept everything from landing crafts to full-fledged attack transports running smoothly. One of four children, Al Centofante was born in Chicago to Angelo and Teresa Panarese Centofante. The family lived at Polk and Campbell streets, with Teresa selling groceries from a small basement store to make extra money during the Depression. She came to America from the area around Naples; Angelo was from Abruzzo. Centofante grew up in a close-knit neighborhood where the adults all spoke Italian, and the kids played kick the can, hopscotch and hide and seek. His …

Judge Regina A. Scannicchio has ascended to the presidency of the Justinian Society of Lawyers. Under normal circumstances, she would officially take the helm at the organization’s installation and awards gala in September, but the event has been postponed until further notice due to the coronavirus. Joining Scannicchio as officers are First Vice President Dion U. Davi, Second Vice President Bruno R. Marasso, Third Vice President Michael D. Pisano, Treasurer Brian T. Monico and Secretary Catherine (Caifano) Locallo. Their profiles follow. Hon. Regina A. Scannicchio — President Judge Regina A. Scannicchio currently sits in the Cook County Court Domestic Relations …

Loyola University Chicago has named Sam Marzo, M.D., dean of its Stritch School of Medicine. “We are confident that Dr. Marzo will continue to shape and grow the Stritch School of Medicine,” says Norberto Grzywacz, Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago provost and chief academic officer. “With Jesuit values as part of his moral foundation, Dr. Marzo will be a steward of the relationship between Loyola and our academic medical center partner and will be a leader when facing the challenges and embracing the opportunities that we must approach together.” A Stritch alumnus and professor, Marzo has served as interim dean since …

Known for her piety and charity, Princess Mafalda of Savoy spoke out against Hitler with predictably tragic results. I have to admit I have always been fascinated by royalty. My father’s middle name was Umberto, in honor of Umberto I, the King of Italy who was assassinated in 1900. Many people know the story of the Russian czar and his family who were killed, so danger in troubled times is not unknown to royals. But then I ran across the amazing story of an Italian princess named Mafalda of Savoy. Mafalda is the Italianized version of Matilda, which appropriately, as …

Proud of her dual Italian and American roots, Rosella Rago has made a career of deliciously blending the two with her beloved grandmother by her side. Rossella Rago, the culinary entrepreneur and host of the delightful instructional web series “Cooking with Nonna,” says her passion for food began just as you’d expect — when she was a little girl looking to lend a hand with Sunday supper. “I remember spending hours in the kitchen just watching my mom, nonna, and great aunts all cooking and talking,” Rago says. “But I was so young they wouldn’t let me touch anything.” Relegated …

Stationed in Germany more than a decade after World War II, Guy Cardarelli witnessed firsthand the lingering devastation wrought by fierce Allied bombing. Guy Cardarelli and his twin sister, Judy Ann, were born in Chicago in 1935 to Guido and Marie Mele Cardarelli. They lived behind the family grocery store/meat market on 5th Street and Kedzie Avenue. Cardarelli’s father immigrated from Morrovalle, Italy, and his mother’s family from Castelvetere in Campania. His father passed away shortly before Cardarelli’s fourth birthday, and the family moved in with his maternal grandparents and uncle in the North Austin neighborhood. Cardarelli grew up in …

In dedicating his academic career to preserving and celebrating Sicilian language, literature and history, Dr. Gaetano Cipolla has engendered countless pages devoted to the beloved island of his birth. While Rome’s emblem boasts an ancient symbol of a wolf suckling its twin founders, Sicily’s emblem packs equal primordial power. Known as the Trinacria, it depicts the winged head of Medusa, girdled by shafts of wheat and three bent legs, on a bold background of gold and maroon. She’s the gatekeeper of an island as mysterious as her own visage. Just as many Italian Americans can’t understand the language of their …

Dr. Charles C. DiFranco Jr. has risen through the ranks to the presidency of the Arcolian Dental Arts Society. DiFranco joined the organization as a dental student and immediately felt at home. “There are countless dental organizations but none that have made me feel as welcome,” he says. “I think it boils down to our shared background as Italian Americans and the genuine caring we have for one another as people and professionals.” He has held every other elected position in the organization and finds the view from the top to be quite humbling. “We have so many local and …

Though only 2 years old when his father, Joseph, was killed in action during World War II, Anthony Siciliano’s life was profoundly shaped by his dad’s bravery and sacrifice. Anthony J. Siciliano was born in Chicago on Nov. 9, 1942, to Joseph and Mary (Parise). His maternal grandparents emigrated from Sicily, and his paternal grandparents from Naples and Calabria. The extended family lived in the predominantly Italian neighborhood surrounding Taylor and Halsted streets. World War II raged on, and shortly after Siciliano was born, his father deployed to the South Pacific, where he built air strips and roads as a …