Exciting news! Italy is reaching out like never before to reconnect with people of Italian heritage living throughout the world. Dubbed “Italea,” the program promotes “roots tourism” to the descendants of the great Italian diaspora.

The local announcement of the program brought together leaders of the Chicago-area Italian-American community through the invitation of Italian Consul General Thomas Botzios; Com.It.Es President Carlo Vaniglia; and Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans President Ron Onesti. The June 14 reception was hosted by the JCCIA in the beautiful private dining room of the Des Plaines Theatre.

Flying in to make the presentation was Luigi Vignali, Director General for Italian Citizens Abroad and Migration Policies. Vignali was very enthusiastic in sharing news of the most comprehensive plan that Italy has created to discount and facilitate travel for people of Italian origin living around the world.

Launched by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the program invites the community to visit their ancestral towns and discover their heritage and culture firsthand.

The Italea platform has rallied the support of countless hotels and travel services to offer incentives to people around the world with roots in Italy to visit the land of their ancestry, explore their personal and national histories, and perhaps connect with family they’ve never met.

Visitors to the websites italea.com/en and italia.it/en/italea can also reach out to reliable genealogists who can help support their efforts to reconnect with their roots. This most welcoming platform provides support throughout your personal journey to discover your heritage.

— Joanne Spata

Società Santa Fara di Cinisi attracted more than 300 guests to its annual dinner dance on Dec. 3 at Allegra Banquets in Schiller Park. The theme of the event was “Building Bridges to Cinisi,” the town in Sicily to which many of the members trace their roots. The gathering was attended by Cinisi Vice Mayor Aldo Ruffino; town Assessor Marina Maltese; and Padre Antonio Ortoleva, pastor of Santa Fara Church in Cinisi. Vice Consul General Marina Balestra also attended, presenting the society with a congratulatory letter. “Since there are very few Italian immigrants nowadays, it’s important that the younger generation visit Italy, and dignitaries from Italy visit our community,” says society President Carlo Vaniglia.

Last year, Società Santa Fara di Cinisi successfully lobbied the city of Chicago to name the stretch of road outside of their clubhouse on Addison Street Honorary Via Santa Fara di Cinisi. The society was presented with an extra sign at the time, which it shipped to the mayor of Cinisi, Sicily, to display outside their town hall. The sign was installed in Sicily on July 10 during the Feast of Santa Fara. “This was done to keep the lines of communication open between the town of our birth and the Cinisensi of Chicago,” says society President Carlo Vaniglia. “It was a proud moment for everybody.”

Comitato per gli italiani all’estero took part in a pair of vigils for Diego Damis, an Italian citizen who was murdered while walking home from his job at the Cove Lounge in Hyde Park on Feb. 25. Friends and co-workers of Damis held a candlelight vigil on March 4 at the site of the attack, and Com.It.Es hosted a vigil of its own on March 6 at Piazza Italia on Taylor Street. “Diego’s family flew in from Italy for the events. They thanked us for honoring their son and were very moved that our community remembered him,” says Com.It.Es President Carlo Vaniglia.

The society’s light shines a little brighter now that the city has named Oleander from Addison to Waveland Avenue Honorary Via Santa Fara di Cinisi.

“We approached [36^th Ward] Alderman [Nicholas] Sposato with the idea, and he was more than happy to help,” says society President Carlo Vaniglia. “We need to be proud of our heritage and show that pride in a visible way.”

The distinctive brown signs that mark honorary ways in the city were installed at a May 16 dedication ceremony that was covered by a news outlet in Palermo, according to Vaniglia.

“They also interviewed the mayor and city council members in Cinisi, and they said how proud they were that we were maintaining our ties to our hometown,” he says. “They promised to make an official visit to Chicago soon.”

The society is donating an extra honorary street sign for display in front of the Cinisi City Hall.

During a typical summer, Carlo Vaniglia attends patron saint celebrations almost every weekend. With most of them cancelled due to the coronavirus, Vaniglia has hatched a groundbreaking way to spend his newfound free time. “I thought, ‘Why not gather in front of the Columbus statue in Arrigo Park to show our support for our monuments and answer questions people might have?’” Vaniglia explains. And so, Coffee With Columbus was born.

Vaniglia has attracted groups of between 20 and 60 people each Sunday morning simply through word of mouth, and the feedback from passersby has been largely positive. “We’re not there to protest, we’re there to inform,” Vaniglia says. “When people ask, we tell them what we’re doing and share the truth about Columbus. We’ve had pretty good results so far.”

The get-togethers have been peaceful and upbeat. A youth day is under consideration as a future gathering. (708-217-1004)

At a moment in our history when conflict is rampant and emotions are running high, Chicago-area Italian Americans are charting a decidedly different course. They’re building coalitions, employing quiet diplomacy and reaching out across the divide to build support for their causes.

The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans has been at the forefront of this strategic sea change, beginning with a more inclusive approach to the Columbus Day Parade.

Historically a celebration of Italian pride, the parade has become increasingly multicultural, with last year’s event boasting nearly a dozen floats representing a variety of African, Hispanic, Asian and white ethnic groups.

“Columbus isn’t a hero to just Italian Americans, and we wanted our parade to reflect that,” JCCIA President Sergio Giangrande explains.

When the Chicago street and monument named after Italo Balbo came under assault in 2017, the JCCIA eschewed a noisy counterassault, winning the day with a behind-the-scenes appeal to key decision makers.

“We have incredible political waters to navigate through, which is how we’re going to survive this,” says JCCIA spokesperson Lissa Druss. “We can pound our chest and talk about Columbus until we’re blue in the face, but in Chicago, we’re nothing without our political support, and we’ve been steadily building that.”

The organization upped its coalition-building game earlier this year when the Chicago Board of Education violated its own rules in the process of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day on the school calendar.

Within days, the JCCIA had assembled a broad alliance of civic and political leaders who were willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our community in opposition to the move.

“Elected officials represent constituents,” Druss says in explaining their approach. “With the number of constituents represented by our coalition, it gives our elected officials the ability to support our mission not only because they believe in it, but because they have the backing of the people who elected them.”

Flanked by 20 of those leaders at a March 5 press conference, Giangrande served the CPS notice that their actions would not go unchallenged. The JCCIA continues to pursue an amicable resolution to the issue.

To their credit, the JCCIA even reached out to the Native-American community to broker a détente.

“We met with representatives from their community,” Giangrande says. “We explained that we supported the state holiday of Indigenous People’s Day, but not at the expense of a day that’s so important to us. Unfortunately, our appeal fell on deaf ears.”

When Columbus statues across the country first started to be vandalized, the JCCIA immediately sought and gained the support of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whose statement in the June 18 Chicago Tribune doubled as an endorsement of the JCCIA’s strategy.

“The thing that we need to do is do what I think the organizers of the Columbus Day Parade have done, which is invite many people of different backgrounds, different perspectives, to participate in what is really a people’s celebration,” Lightfoot said. “And I think we need to spur that kind of unifying and healing dialogue and not separate and divide people.”

The JCCIA also rallied the support of the Chicago Police Department, which “gave special attention” to the city’s two Columbus statues, according to CPD Deputy Director Thomas Ahern. The Chicago Park District also answer the call, patrolling the monuments, cleaning them after they had been spray-painted, and wrapping them in tarp to prevent further vandalization.

“We want to give a huge shout-out to the Police Department and Park District for the actions they took on behalf of the statues,” Druss says. “They responded immediately and did what they could without compromising their other responsibilities.”

In the meantime, Carlo Vaniglia of the Comitato Tricolore Italiani nel Mondo has launched Coffee with Columbus, an informal Sunday morning gathering in front of the Columbus statue in Arrigo Park to show support for the cause and educate interested passersby. For more, click here.

“We know we’re doing the right thing the right way,” Vaniglia says. “When you’re doing something right, you have nothing to fear.”

The above appears in the August 2020 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture. To subscribe, click here.