Author: James Divine

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First, I would like to thank Sister Heather Ciro for a wonderful Italian meal! I thought a cultural note about food would be appropriate.

Christmas time is the season to make some of our most well-loved Italian foods and drinks. The purity of the ingredients is one of the hallmarks of Italian cooking, so the standards have been high for many centuries. Historically, even the Vatican recognized the importance of good food in Italian culture. Here are some examples of quality control in Italy’s culinary history:

In the 13th century, the Pope himself set the quality standards for Italian pasta, which had to be made with durum wheat “semolina” just as it still does today.

As far back as the 16th century, pure dark chocolate was viewed as a highly nutritious drink that was allowed even during Lent and other fast days.

True balsamic vinegar must come from Modena or the Emilia Romagna region of Italy and it must be aged for at least 12 years.

Prosciutto is popular everywhere in Italy, but Prosciutto di Parma can only be made from one of two Italian breeds of pig. These animals must be raised on a strict diet of grain, corn and whey, they must be ten to twelve months old and weigh a minimum of 308 pounds. Finally, the meat must be cured in Parma, Italy to get the final seal of approval.

If you see the letters DOC on Italian products, it translates to “denomination of controlled origin” which ensures that certain standards were met while producing the wine, cheese, olive oil, or balsamic vinegar of that particular region.

By the way, if you cook a turkey for your Christmas dinner, remember the ancient Italians who thought chickens, turkeys, and other fowl could predict the future, based on the fact that roosters “predict” the dawn. Since the collarbone was thought to give the birds their power, it was always saved as a symbol of good luck. Not surprisingly, sometimes fights would break out over grabbing the wishbone and the bone would break in the scuffle. From this rowdy behavior at the dinner table, we get the custom of breaking the wishbone for good luck.

Regardless of your personal behavior during Christmas dinner, may you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Source:

“Little Known Facts about Well Known Places: Italy.” By David Hoffman, Metro Books, New York.

Submitted by Charlene Pardo

In November we honor our veterans and give thanks for their sacrifices. Colorado can be proud that we have over 340,000 veterans living in our state as of 2022, according to usafacts.org, a non-profit and non-partisan website. El Paso County is home to over 82,000 of those 340,000 vets, which is more than any other county in Colorado. Most of them are Gulf War and Vietnam vets, but the vet I knew best was my father who fought in WWII. Although I thought of him as a hero, he always credited his mom, Giuseppina, (Josephine) for making him a brave Italian-American when he was five years old. Here is his story:

“Mamma, I hate America! Let’s go back home,” whined five-year-old Salvatore as his mother Giuseppina dragged him along to their third-story apartment in the Bronx. Little Sal continued to complain all the way up the three flights of stairs. “Mamma, I’m so hungry and it’s cold here and there’s no place to play outside.The kids here are mean and I miss my Nonna!” Giuseppina waited until they got to their front door to address her son’s concerns. She thought hard for a moment and then gave her son a sharp slap on the backside. Through his shock and tears, Sal heard her say,

“You don’t ever criticize America! We came here to give you a better life. You will go to school, you will learn English, you will get a good job, and you will never go hungry again. This is why we came to America and you will thank God every day that we did!”

Salvatore never forgot his mother’s words or the spanking he got on that cold winter’s day in 1929. As predicted, he went to school, he got a good job and provided well for his family. He fought in World War II, marching across France and Germany with the 104th Infantry Division and met the Russians at the Russian Front. Along the way, his company liberated a Nazi concentration camp. He was the company’s photographer, so he recorded all the atrocities they witnessed. His WWII experience caused him a lifetime of nightmares, but his photographs are now on display at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Salvatore Nicita always flew an American flag in his front yard to remind him to be grateful. He was an active, lifetime member of the Elks Club, The Kiwanis Club, and the Knights of Columbus. Most of all, my father was proud to be an Italian-American and belonged to the Sons of Italy in Monterey, California for over 25 years.

As we celebrate all our veterans this month, let’s especially honor those in our Lodge and in our own families.

Sources:

Conversations with Salvatore Nicita (1924-2010).
www.usafacts.org
www.historycolorado.org

Submitted by Charlene Pardo

October is the traditional month for celebrating our Italian-American heritage, so I wanted to highlight the accomplishments of some great Italian scientists and innovators. Here are some of the inventions developed by Italians that we still use today:

Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio in 1901 and later went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.

Another Italian physicist and chemist, Alessandro Volta, created the first electric battery in 1799. We can thank him for powering all our battery-operated gadgets and toys. The English words “volt” and “voltage” as a measure of electricity come from Alessandro Volta’s last name.

The telephone, contrary to popular belief, was first invented by Antonio Meucci, who had a famous patent controversy with Alexander Graham Bell in the 1870’s. Meucci had a temporary patent on the phone in 1871 which ran out before Bell got his patent approved in 1876, but the Meucci telephone was already working before Bell’s phone. You can visit the Meucci home on Staten Island to get the whole story and hear about the friendship between Meucci and Giuseppe Garibaldi, the unifier of Italy.

The barometer, which measures atmospheric pressure, was invented in 1643 by the Italian mathematician Evangelista Torricelli. His invention allowed for more accurate weather predictions in the 1600’s and is still used today.

The newspaper business started in Italy in 1566 with the publication of the Gazette in Venice. Although there were other papers published sporadically in Europe, the Gazette was considered the first regularly published newspaper.

The banking industry was developed by the Medici family in the 14th century, but the Medici’s only catered to other wealthy Italians. More recently in the 20th century, A.P. Giannini founded the Bank of America. He was the first banker to take a chance and offer banking services to middle class working people and Italian immigrants. His banking methods revolutionized the banking industry making it accessible to most Americans.

Other innovative Italians you may have heard of include Jacuzzi, Zamboni, Fibonacci, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Ferrari. Let’s celebrate our heritage by acknowledging the great contributions Italians have made to our modern way of life.

Sources:
Learnitalianpod.com
Famousscientists.org

Submitted by Charlene Pardo

OSDI President Mark Fini presents a $500 check for Sarah’s Home to James Divine who is on the board of the home that rescues sex-trafficked teen girls.

OSDIA CULTURAL NOTE July 2024

Happy Fourth of July!

Did you ever imagine that Italians were involved in the American Revolution? One of the first casualties of this war was James Bracco, killed in action by the British army on October 26, 1776. Even before the Revolution, Americans were inspired by another Italian, Pasquale Paoli, who had led Corsica’s fight for independence from Genoa for about fourteen years. So it is not surprising that Italians supported the Americans in their fight for freedom.

One famous example is Filippo Mazzei who was a doctor, winemaker, author and a good friend of Thomas Jefferson. Mazzei wrote newspaper articles to inspire the formation of local volunteer militia in every county in Virginia. When the British landed in Hampton, Virginia, Mazzei and his friends Carlo Bellini and Vincenzo Rossi joined Patrick Henry’s volunteer forces to fight the British.

British war records show that Filippo Mazzei was captured and spent three years as a prisoner of war. When he was released, Patrick Henry sent him to Europe to raise support for the American cause and he succeeded in getting help from France. Mazzei’s plan involved a coordinated effort between the French Navy and the American Army which Thomas Jefferson used in the Battle of Yorktown. We can be proud that Italians helped us gain our independence and were willing to fight for our cause.

More recently in 1958, then Senator John F. Kennedy acknowledged Mazzei’s contribution to the US Declaration of Independence in his book, “A National of Immigrants”:

“The great doctrine, ‘All men are created equal’ incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, was paraphrased from the writing of Philip Mazzei, an Italian-born patriot and pamphleteer, who was a close friend of Jefferson.”

To those who doubted this statement, Senator Kennedy goes on to say:

“This phrase appears in Italian in Mazzei’s own hand, written in Italian, several years prior to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Mazzei and Jefferson often exchanged ideas about true liberty and freedom.”

Filippo Mazzei’s 250th birthday was commememorated on a US postage stamp in 1980 and a World War II ship was named in his honor. Let’s continue to honor his contribution to our nation’s history.

Happy Independence Day!

Submitted by Charlene Pardo

Sources:

www.italoamericano.org

Filippo Mazzei, Wikipedia.com

A Nation of Immigrants, John F. Kennedy, 1958.