Profiles

Spinal muscular atrophy may confine her to a wheelchair, but it hasn’t prevented Luisa Rizzo from soaring to the top of the drone racing world. The pinnacle of 23-year-old Luisa Rizzo’s drone racing career so far was her triumph at the 2024 Women’s World Drone Racing Championship in Hangzhou, China. She used her innate talent, lightning-fast reflexes and strategic prowess to outlast 111 of the world’s best pilots, all while seated in her motorized wheelchair. “When I won the gold medal, it was unexpected for everyone. I had everyone cheering for me, not just Italians,” Rizzo says. “I was not …

I first heard the above about seven decades ago. It gave me and my cousins the giggles to hear my Uncle Mil refer to one of my great-aunts that way. But let’s start the story with the man who brought so much lighthearted joy into our lives. His name was Emilio Antonio Grippo. Born in 1920, he was the first son and fourth child of Antonio and Elena (Morrone) Grippo, who had emigrated from Laurino, Salerno, Campania, Italy around 1912. My grandparents lived on May Street just south of Taylor Street in Chicago’s legendary Little Italy. Finances, fate and the …

A stockbroker turned actor who was “discovered” on a train ride into work, Michael Cavalieri now focuses exclusively on Sicilian and Italian culture as a writer and director. New York native Michael Cavalieri is an actor, writer and director who has made his desire to elevate storytelling about Sicilian-American culture the leitmotif of his work. Cavalieri made his directorial debut with “Ritornato” (2021), a short film about a man who travels to Sicily to fulfill a promise to his dying mother and ends up discovering a life-changing family secret. His award-winning documentary “La Porta Dell’Inferno” (2022) focuses on child laborers …

  Before netting top honors at this year’s Sanremo Festival, Sal Da Vinci had been quietly amassing a loyal fan base outside the international media spotlight with his heartfelt love songs. When Sanremo Music Festival crowned Sal Da Vinci its winner this year, it felt less like a breakthrough than a coronation long delayed. For decades, Sal Da Vinci has been one of Italy’s most beloved musical interpreters of romance, carrying the melodic grandeur of canzone napoletana into pop, theater and television. But his victory with “Per sempre sì” wasn’t simply another career milestone — it was a cultural moment. …

In his 13 years as mayor of Bloomingdale, Franco Coladipietro has worked on several large-scale projects, but none as consequential as the redevelopment of the now-demolished Stratford Square Mall. The site, renamed “The Grove,” will be home to Bloomingdale Yard, a 100,000-square-foot sports training facility slated to open next year. There are also plans for restaurants, an event lawn, a man-made lake, retail space and luxury residences. The old mall, once the largest revenue generator for the village, had become a symbol of failure, Coladipietro says. “Failure doesn’t sit well with me,” he says. “The mall’s ownership group had no …

  Shawna Hennessey has been an Italian instructor at Fenwick High School for 19 years. Affectionately referred to as “Prof” by her students, she teaches with genuine enthusiasm and commitment. But if you had asked her two decades ago where she’d be today, she never would have imagined the role she’s come to love so deeply. Hennessey was born in Minneapolis but grew up in Western Springs, a southwest suburb of Chicago. Though her father is mostly of Irish descent, her mother traces her roots to Amaseno, a small town in the Lazio region of Italy. Hennessey’s maternal grandparents immigrated …

Attorney Lindsey Mirabella’s first experience with the DuPage County Chapter of the Justinian Society of Lawyers came when she was instructed to attend an event by one of the partners at her first law firm after she passed the bar in 2021. “As a baby attorney, of course I said ‘Yes ma’am I will certainly be there,’” Mirabella says. “I loved it right away, it felt like home.” Mirabella was brought onto the chapter’s board almost immediately and before she knew it she was helping plan the group’s annual charity ball. “I was a total fish out of water just …

  Serving in the Marines after four years in college, he helped his platoon maintain a constant state of readiness after the Korean War. The only son of six children, John Damore was born in Berwyn, Illinois, to Lorenzo and Teresa Latoria Damore. Lorenzo emigrated from Bari, Italy, and Teresa was born in Franklin Park. They and their 19 children were recognized at the 1933-34 World’s Fair in Chicago as the largest Italian family in the United States. Damore thrived in his large, loving family, spending every weekend on his grandparents’ farm. “Everybody worked on the farm when they were …

Trained in classic techniques, Verona-born sculptor Virginio Ferrari now expresses universal themes through elemental forms from his home and studio in Chicago. As the sun rises over Chicago every morning, thousands of drivers on the Kennedy Expressway see light reflecting off the elegant curves of a sculpture that sits right where the expressway ends at Orleans Street. The prominent location of this serene 1983 work, called “Being Born,” reflects the city of Chicago’s high regard for its creator, sculptor Virginio Ferrari, who is from Verona but lives in the Windy City. Over a seven-decade career, Ferrari has created countless works …

After being a fixture in the Chicago culinary scene for decades, Joe Monastero has taken his passion for the restaurant industry to a whole new level as an executive for the Texas Restaurant Association. As chief revenue officer of the Texas Restaurant Association, Joe Monastero knows the Italian dining scene in Texas like few others. Monastero also serves as trustee for the Catering Executives Club of America board (where he is past chairman and president) and is the immediate past co-chairman of the Milan-Chicago Committee of Sister Cities International. Now residing in Austin, Texas, Monastero grew up less than a …