Benvenuti a tutti! Welcome to all!
I would like to show an appreciation to the communities of my ancestral heritages, all in time, as I come forth with each resource in their details. I will seek to note them with the appropriate gratitude.
This self realization and ancestral appreciation is as much a chore for myself to present and recall as for any student of the same disciplines. I seek to present it as a cultural exchange; a 'connection', [thus the title of the page].
I would love to do a lot of graphics starting with a collage of the characters out of my histories including family members mixed in with drawings of the episodes of 'lost' pioneers of the fountains of our Italian homelands. That of course will take some money and time.
First Language Lessons Began At Birth
My father was an appraiser of real property for Cole-Layer-Trumble while residing in Arlington, Massachusetts. Valorie was soon to have twin brothers by both Nicholas and Rose. To help out during this important time were both of my father's parents. They were native Italian speakers of the national tongue and their regional languages/dialects.
At the age of 6 perhaps, I believe is when I had requested my Nonno Nicola to instruct me in the Italian language. Though, he spoke to me in Italian earlier times. One I recall was when he was lubricating the tools of his trade as a cabinet maker, down in the basement. The time was as soon as I could walk.
Signora Boyle - Narragansett High School , Narragansett, Rhode Island
During my senior year in High School I decided to take Italian instruction. I was purely an art student, majoring in art and music. I was in no mental condition for learning the sciences. Both Nick and myself were in this classroom with younger students. We were well loved by the student body. Signora Boyle was stunned by us when we spoke Italian or read it. She was highly impressed. She asked us, "Were you two born in Italia, we replied, No, but that our grandparents took care of us when we were born." "That is why you boys speak like native Italians."
Well, there is something there in Signora Boyle's observations and that of the other students in class during that session. We stayed in that class for only two weeks until Mr. Jonathan Hutchins and Ms. Janet Causi could finalize approval with Mr. McCarthy our principal the special independent art class 3 period project which we requested. [That was our animation studies we ensued in the previous summer around the clock before our senior year at Narragansett].
Official Italian language instruction was placed on hold.
My second 'official Italian studies also lasted only 2 weeks. Professor Lu, on my decision to drop the class took some time out to speak with me after giving the assignment out to the class. He told me, "Tommaso, this is your people's language, you need to know it, it is your culture." I listened to him and said, "I am not able to keep up with the class's movement, they are skipping steps that I need to work on. Their text book was for students who had already taken 4 years of high school Italian studies. I had not done that as stated previously. He mentioned the library for language labs. It was too much for me to come to grips with in the college fashion. I agreed with him, that he was right and that I knew what he was saying. Ultimately I would take Italian, but not at Brigham Young University. All my life I knew I was to be a professional actor and now was the time for me to study the film making processes and that included acting for film. That is the reason for being a film directing major. I wanted a mixture, but then being so young the impression of poverty came so close to home of the Italian experience that I wanted to distance myself from my heritage in some ways and yet in others subconsciously was hungry for my Italian heritage. Perhaps that was my fault. But I had other experiences that stopped me from those rigorous studies. My way of doing it was going to the Cougar Bookstore and purchasing Antologia Primo e Secondo with the writings of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarotti ecetera. So that is how I did that. That was my favorite book! It was 'old Italian' I could understand it somewhat. At this time it was hard enough to understand the science of English grammar.
Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus Warwick
By the time that I pursued my studies for liberal arts classwork in a small classroom situation = the community/city colleges, I could receive matriculated credit hours towards a Bachelor's of Arts at a reasonable fee; it was immediate in my mentality to study and grasp in high appittitude the language of Italian. It was now my 'primo scopo'! [Because I was back 'east' not in Hollywood or the western frontier].
Professore Antonio DiRuzzo -
My first instructor was Anthony DiRuzzo. [One of my references to enter Brown University, though I never went there to study Italian]. He was fine. Though, as a man he kept his speech almost underneath his pitch to make it hard for himself to be heard so that the student had to stretch his ears to hear his Italian. Perhaps that was his way to see who really wanted to learn. He was a great example of the Italian-American professor of Italian, which prided himself in our culture. He motivated me to much determination to prove myself as it was one of the only ways to get a response from him. It was his style to see how much the student truly cares to learn and develop his skill in the mother tongue. He chided Frankie somewhat, a fellow of ours, a bit younger but with colorful personality. One day he just stopped coming to class. I started studying hard on my Italian because of Mr. DiRuzzo. I purchased Unto the Sons by Gay Talese then. It was recommended by the professor by him personally. Sometime later after taking his class, while a student of Professoressa Mansella I picked up a hard bound copy for $1.99 at the Ocean State Job Lot! What a deal! I can see it on the top of my computer hutch. It is a delightful and loving read of the Italian-American experience.
Professoressa Maria Mansella -
Women make the best teachers we have all heard it said, why? Because they just are perhaps. One characteristic of a woman's excellence in instructing is by way of the love and desire in their heart to help out others unselfishly. They are in the public place and are able to express their souls. And to most women this is a great delight. Mrs. Mansella's Italian speech is so articulate and clear flowing. Later on we would go into reading straight from Natalia Ginzburg in the full text! It was the most beautiful readings we ever did at the Community College. Other students, one in particular from Milano was also there participating and such a thrill and beautiful voicing she had uttered of Italian. I couldn't believe what I was experiencing.
Professoressa Mansella said to me, "Tommaso, the language is the key to all the culture of a people, including the people's past, present and future." You have to understand it is more feeling than speech, as music also is more feeling than reading the music. Keeping this in mind then you can know how 'new' one feels {ha, there's that term again} when they are experiencing 'growth' in a given study.
Mrs. Mansella and her family are from Roma, Italia. She was a constant to me in her fluent knowledge of Italian and all things Italian. I could not have come so far in my language if she was not there to instruct me. When I was acting President of the Italian Club for college, Professoressa Mansella told me of when she lived in Roma how Brown University wanted to give her a professor position, that is how much quality she had in her abilities and fluency to instruct foreigners in the Italian language and culture.
The Italian Club of the Community College of Rhode Island Knight Campus Warwick
Wow, this was so much immersion. We would go to the North End of Boston and watch a Napolitano play and listen to the guest musicisti from Abruzzo for one Natale.
Another time see La Traviata performed at the Veteran's Auditorium in Providence, Rhode Island.
Still another time we saw the performance of Don Giovanni or another Opera there as well. I would meet other Italiani from nearby my grandfather's town. It was exciting for those I met as well.
I don't know it is like going 'home'. You have to understand my paternal grandparents were there at my birth and besides English, their languages were also the first sounds that I heard as I was born. Those languages include: English, Italian, Calabrese and Molisano.
If one explores my maternal grandparents that is another side of the family tree. Though both raised in the little Italia of Philadelphia or being of the Italian-American culture of south Philadelphia; they are of two different makeups. Scot/Irish-Welsh born grandfather was adopted by a retired Sicilian couple from Catania. His wife was Calabrese. She says she was Roman also and could also speak Albanese. So you can think what you want how many languages that makes for heritage!
Knowing our European roots is a splendid way to spend holidays or weekends with your own families. Sunday or whichever day of rest you observe is the day most accessible to the fondness of reflections upon one's family ties. A love for your own origins is part of understanding the trek made by these who came before us. We owe a great deal of credence to those feelings and thoughts which come to our minds from the standpoint of our ancestral heritage. So in order to grow and relate with that myself I am a life time researcher into my family history and that includes the geographies and languages and histories of these peoples.
The most fond are little tidbits one can recall from a relative such as your own grandmother.