Q&A

Half a century after enshrining a famous Italian statue of Christ beneath the waves of the Gulf of Mexico, blind diver Gabe Spataro proves himself to be a source of inspiration. Christians hold dear the unwavering belief that Jesus reigns over all the realms of Earth: land, sky and sea. As tributes, believers have reverently placed monuments around the globe, from sea level skyward, including the 125-foot-tall statue of Christ the Redeemer that tours half a mile above Rio de Janiero on Mt. Corcovado. As for the briny deep, statues of the Lord are much harder to find. Encountering Christ …

As dean of the DePaul University School of Music, Dr. Ronald Caltabiano brings the passion and expertise of a master musician and composer. With a grand sweep of his right hand befitting a triumphant conductor, Dr. Ronald Caltabiano gestures to the glorious curves that grace the Holtschneider Performance Center at the DePaul University School of Music. Architectural glissandos ring out everywhere, including the upper-level overhangs that hug 500-seat Gannon Concert Hall and the church-like windows that look out onto the Chicago campus. The building hums with a palpable energy that seems to quicken his step. But while DePaul’s music school …

Through “The Italian American Experience,” John Viola shines a light on all that makes our heritage great. While our immigrant forebears sat by giant radio consoles to absorb the news, music and culture of Italy, today’s Italian Americans have podcasts and, among them, one has remarkable traction. How much? Try roughly 20,000 listens per episode. Not bad for a program that’s less than four years old and the product of programmers learning the ropes as they go. The driving force behind “The Italian American Experience” (italianamericanexperience.com) and its every-other-week companion, “The Italian American Power Hour,” is John Viola. If that …

An esteemed film critic and now documentary filmmaker, Jeannine Guilyard taps into her professional roots to celebrate her Italian culture. As Italian Americans, we often play movies in our minds about what life was like back in the homeland for our ancestors. Some of us simply imagine it and others make pilgrimages to villages in search of precious clues. But for Jeannine Guilyard, that movie has taken shape and form as an award-winning documentary, “Return to Lucania.” Readers of this publication will recognize Guilyard as a longtime contributor and arguably America’s premiere Italian film critic. An Emmy and Peabody Award-winning …

As a native of Italy’s insular island to the west, Karim Galici brings a fresh slant to his work as a theater pioneer and experimental director. Among Italian artists, Karim Galici is unique in large part because of where he comes from in Italy. The island of Sardinia, he notes, is in some ways more like its island neighbor to the north than the rest of Italy, even though Corsica is part of France. Perhaps this explains in part why Galici tackled the French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery for the theatrical work “The Little Big Princess,” which traveled to Chicago …

As executive director of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles, Marianna Gatto has made it her life’s work to celebrate L.A.’s rich and largely unknown Italian legacy. Los Angeles is all too well known for its Hollywood heavies, rock stars and thriving Latino culture. But as Marianna Gatto will gladly tell you, Italian roots run rich and deep there in ways unlike any other American metropolis. Gatto, who serves as the executive director of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles, dreamt of forming the institution that she now runs ever since first setting foot in an abandoned Italian …

Chris Vaccaro created a digital-age dynasty at Topps that built on the glory days of America’s most legendary baseball card company. If we’re lucky, we live out childhood dreams in adult careers, the preeminent example being the Little Leaguer who makes the starting lineup of a major league baseball team. While Chris Vaccaro never swung a bat at Yankee Stadium, he hit a grand slam when he became editor-in-chief and digital director at the Topps Company. Having collected sports cards as a kid — thousands of them — Vaccaro already had a heartstring attachment to the Topps product. Yet as …

From the canals of Venice to the vineyards of Piedmont, Gia Marie grmella is hot on the trail of uncommon Italian stories.   If you were to pick a current documentarian for the subject of a documentary, Gia Marie Amella would be a smart choice. Together with her partner, Giuseppe “Beppe” Mangione, she’s the force behind Modio Media, a production company that first came to the attention of the Italian-American community with the 2007 release of “And They Came to Chicago: The Italian American Legacy.” In the intervening decade, Amella has pursued an ambitious production schedule that’s equal parts frenetic …

  A student of commedia dell’arte since her college days in Bologna, Chiara Durazzini champions the art form here in America through her troupe, Pazzi Lazzi. As a champion of commedia dell’arte — an Italian theatrical tradition with roots in the 1500s — Chiara Durazzini is used to hearing theater aficionados confess their ignorance. In some cases, not even Italian Americans quite know what it is. At least that’s what they say, anyway. As the Florence native likes to tell people, “If you think you haven’t seen commedia dell’arte, maybe you have — and just didn’t know it. Shakespeare based …

  A trek along a medieval pilgrimage route in Italy moved Chandi Wyant from personal tragedy to spiritual triumph and an award-winning memoir. Italy has no shortage of stunning historic roads (think Appian Way), but when it comes to pilgrimage routes, few can match the Via Francigena. It owes its existence to a little-known abbot named Sigeric who, after John XV named him Archbishop of Canterbury, forever marked the trail by writing about the 80 mansions he stayed in (and perhaps partied at) along the way. Fast forward to 2009, when historian and world traveler Chandi Wyant tackled the path …