October
20, 2004 meeting of Cav. Anthony Lascio PIP Chapter 1 (
Chicago
)
Members met on Wednesday,
October 20, 2004 at Suparossa Ristorante in
Woodridge
,
Illinois
, to celebrate the 12th anniversary of our Chapter.
Our founder’s wife, Adrienne,
was our honored guest for the formal dedication of our chapter in the
name of Cav. Anthony Lascio.
Adrienne spoke compassionately about what Tony wanted to achieve with PIP. She
reiterated how proud Tony was of Chapter 1, now named in his honor. The greatest
gift that we can give back to Tony is to maintain out chapter for many years to
come and for future generations. Adrienne presented a generous monetary donation
to our chapter’s treasury in memory of her husband. Members, including Cathie
Jackson who attended the first meeting twelve years ago, shared some
of their memories of Tony.
New attendees were
Sharon
and Jessie
Reif, researching the family names of Pieti, Busalacchi, Caruso,
Chiantro, and Muscaralla from
Termini-Imeresi
,
Sicily
; Nancy
Muklewicz, researching the name of Lenzi near
Florence
; Carole
and Sherry
Marino, researching Marino in
Naples
.
Members brought in items for show-and-tell. Gracia
(Francioli) Bittner wore a beautiful Italian shawl from
Puglia
that was 150 years old and had belonged to her grandmother. Alex
DeVolpi brought Venetian carnevale masks and explained the
significance of each one. Patti
Tolone brought in an old vaccination record and an old birth
certificate which she had had translated with the help of Juliet Viola. Jenny
Floro-Khalaf spoke about
Chicago
inquest records that she finally received after 3 years. She also told the
group about a website called Homicide in
Chicago
1870-1930 which is located at http://homicide.northwestern.edu/ and has a
searchable database.
Linda
Holda Messina brought in a book about
Nicosia
,
Sicily
from Alberto Micalizzi. He has a
website called People
of Sicily located at www.ferrigno.it/Gentedisicilia/index.htm,
which serves as a place for Sicilians and their descendants to share their
family history with other Sicilians worldwide.
Micalizzi is the author of several books on the subject.
Linda had conducted research on
Nicosia
,
Sicily
on Micalizzi’s behalf and received a credit in his book. She also brought in
small bottles that are made in
Italy
which she will be distributing at very good prices.
Most
importantly, she also informed the group of a new film called Red
Gold which was written by her cousin Alessandro Di Gaetano that he
will produce in 2005. Red Gold is the richly emotional story of the thousands of
Italians captured in North Africa in WWII and brought to internment camps in the
United States
, where due to the shortage of manpower, they worked on farms, in the fields and
in factories across
America
. According to Linda, this is a film that we as Italian-Americans should be
proud of as it promotes our culture in a positive light. We welcome ventures
such as this at a time when culture-bashing is very prevalent in
Hollywood
. Further information about Red
Gold can be found online at http://www.redgoldthemovie.com.
Our next
meeting will probably be delayed until March 2005, and we anticipate inviting
members to present what are almost always intriguing anecdotes about “black
sheep” they have discovered in their genealogical research.
