Cesare Beccaria: The Age of Enlightenment

Cesare Beccaria: The Man, Legend
 
Robert Worley
 
In this presentation, Professor Robert M. Worley provides an in-depth discussion of Cesare Beccaria, the Founder of the Classical School of Criminology. Worley provides a historical background of the time in which Classical theories of crime first came to fruition and also identifies and fully discusses the tenets of Classical theories.

Cesare Beccaria

Born: March 15, 1738 - Milan, Duchy of Milan, Austrian Empire
Died: November 28, 1794 (aged 56) - Milan, Duchy of Milan, Austrian Empire
Occupation: Jurist, philosopher, politician, and criminologist
Children: Giulia, Maria, Giovanni Annibale, Margherita

Cesare Bonesana-Beccaria, Marquis of Gualdrasco and Villareggio (Italian: [ˈtʃeːzare bekkaˈriːa]; 15 March 1738 – 28 November 1794) was an Italian criminologist, jurist, philosopher, and politician, who is widely considered as the most talented jurist and one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment. Recognized to be one of the fathers of classical criminal theory and modern penology, he is well remembered for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764), which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical School of criminology by promoting criminal justice.

According to John Bessler, Beccaria's works had a profound influence on the Founding Fathers of the United States.


Birth and education

Born in Milan on 15 March 1738, Beccaria received his early education in the Jesuit college at Parma. Subsequently, he graduated in law from the University of Pavia in 1758. At first he showed a great aptitude for mathematics, but studying Montesquieu (1689-1755) redirected his attention towards economics. In 1762 his first publication, a tract on the disorder of the currency in the Milanese states, included a proposal for its remedy.

In his mid-twenties, Beccaria became close friends with Pietro and Alessandro Verri, two brothers who with a number of other young men from the Milan aristocracy, formed a literary society named "L'Accademia dei pugni" (the Academy of Fists), a playful name which made fun of the stuffy academies that proliferated in Italy and also hinted that relaxed conversations which took place in there sometimes ended in affrays. Much of its discussion focused on reforming the criminal justice system. Through this group Beccaria became acquainted with French and British political philosophers, such as Hobbes, Diderot, Helvetius, Montesquieu, and Hume. He was particularly influenced by Helvétius.

Later life and influence

With great hesitation, Beccaria acted on an invitation to Paris to meet the great thinkers of the day. With the Verri brothers, Beccaria travelled to Paris, where he was given a very warm reception by the philosophes. A chronically shy person, Beccaria made a poor impression at Paris and after three weeks retreated, returning to Milan and his young wife Teresa and never venturing abroad again. The break with the Verri brothers proved lasting; they were never able to understand why Beccaria had left his position at the peak of success.

Beccaria continued, however, to gain official recognition and held several nominal political positions in Italy. Separated from the invaluable input from his friends, though, he failed to produce another text of equal importance. Outside Italy, an unfounded myth grew that Beccaria's literary silence owed to Austrian restrictions on free expression in Italy.

Legal scholars of the time hailed Beccaria's treatise, and several European emperors vowed to follow it. Many reforms in the penal codes of the principal European nations can be traced to Beccaria's treatise, although few contemporaries were convinced by Beccaria's argument against the death penalty. When the Grand Duchy of Tuscany abolished the death penalty, as the first nation in the world to do so, it followed Beccaria's argument about the lack of utility of capital punishment, not about the state's lacking the right to execute citizens.

In November 1768, Beccaria was appointed to the chair of law and economy founded expressly for him at the Palatine college of Milan. His lectures on political economy, which are based on strict utilitarian principles, are in marked accordance with the theories of the English school of economists. They are published in the collection of Italian writers on political economy (Scrittori Classici Italiani di Economia politica, vols. xi. and xii.). Beccaria never succeeded in producing another work to match Dei Delitti e Delle Pene, although he made various incomplete attempts in the course of his life. A short treatise on literary style was all he saw to press.

In 1771, Beccaria was made a member of the supreme economic council, and in 1791 he was appointed to the board for the reform of the judicial code, where he made a valuable contribution. During this period he spearheaded a number of important reforms, such as the standardisation of weights and measurements. He died in Milan.

Following his death, talk of Beccaria spread to France and England. People speculated as to whether Beccaria’s lack of recent writing on criminal justice was evidence that he had been silenced by the British government. In fact, Beccaria, prone to periodic bouts of depression and misanthropy, had grown silent on his own.

A forerunner in criminology, his influence during his lifetime extended to shaping the rights listed in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. "On Crimes and Punishments" served as a guide to the founding fathers.

Beccaria’s theories, as expressed in his treatise "On Crimes and Punishments," have continued to play a great role in recent times. Current policies impacted by his theories include, but are not limited to, truth in sentencing, swift punishment and the abolishment of the death penalty in some U.S. states. While many of Beccaria’s theories are popular, some are still a source of heated controversy, even more than two centuries after the famed criminologist’s death.

His grandson was Alessandro Manzoni, the noted Italian novelist and poet who wrote, among other things, The Betrothed, one of the first Italian historical novels, and "Il 5 Maggio", a poem on Napoleon's death.


Commemorations

Beccaria Township in central Pennsylvania, United States, is named for him.

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A.C. Milan coming to Chicago, San Jose, and Minneapolis during the next 30 days

Ticketmaster

Schedule:

July 27
Milan vs. Munich
Soldier Field, Chicago

July 30
Milan vs. Liverpool
Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara

August 3
Milan vs. Chelsea
U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis

Coincidentally, the three locations are somewhat close to what had been "Little Lombardys" a century ago (San Rafael CA, Rockford IL, Duluth MN).

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Lombard bits n' pieces on Frigga's Day

Insübria, Land of Waters

Bogoljubskij

Insubria, Land of Waters

Music: "Insubria" by Ticìnn Canntàl (Google Play • iTunes • eMusic • AmazonMP3)

I thought that I had posted this song once before on this blog. It's a song in tribute to "Insubria," which is Western Lombardy. This is where the west Lombard dialect was spoken (along with Ticino, Switzerland), and still is in some places. The name comes from the Gaulish tribe called the Insubri, which inhabited the region in pre-Roman times.

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The DeConcinis

Dennis Webster DeConcini (born May 8, 1937) is a former Democratic U.S. Senator from Arizona. The son of former Arizona Supreme Court Judge Evo Anton DeConcini, he represented Arizona in the United States Senate from 1977 until 1995.


Background information

DeConcini was born in Tucson, Arizona, the son of Ora (née Webster) and Evo Anton DeConcini. His father was Judge on the Arizona State Superior Court for 10 years, then served as the Arizona Attorney General for one two-year term from 1948 to 1949 before being appointed to the Arizona State Supreme Court where he served as a Judge for four years from 1949–1953. DeConcini received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona in 1959 and his LLD from the University of Arizona in 1963. He then worked as a lawyer for the Arizona Governor's staff from 1965 to 1967. He founded the law firm of DeConcini, McDonald, Yetwin & Lacy (where he is still a partner) with offices in Tucson, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

He is a member of the advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Evo Anton DeConcini (March 25, 1901 – 1986) was Attorney General of Arizona, and a Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court from 1949 to 1953.

Born in Iron Mountain, Michigan, DeConcini and his family soon moved to Wisconsin. He began studies at the University of Wisconsin in 1920, but his father's death in an automobile accident in February 1921 forced DeConcini to move to Arizona.

Around 1928, DeConcini developed the Government Heights subdivision just south of the VA Hospital (now known as the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System) in Tucson, Arizona. He named the roads in the subdivision President and Lincoln streets and Washington, District and Columbia streets. In honor of President Lincoln and the U.S. capital Washington D.C. Washington Street was later renamed Palmdale Street.

After running various family businesses for a decade, he received a J.D. from the University of Arizona in 1932 and married Ora Webster, of Thatcher.

He was attorney general of Arizona from 1948 to 1949, and then served on the Arizona Supreme Court until January 13, 1953, when he was succeeded by Dudley W. Windes. Prominent attorney Daniel Cracchiolo served as law clerk to Arizona Supreme Court Justice Evo DeConcini in 1952 [1].

He was the father of longtime Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini and Dino DeConcini a Federal DEA official.

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"Not Padania, but Lombardy, Venetia, etc... Different Lands"

by David from Bergamo

I wanted to mention briefly a piece written several years ago on one of the PAL forums regarding how the former nation of "Lombardia"--as well as numerous other former nations--should be a nation in of itself, rather than a northern "Padania."

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Independence Front Lombardy

The Independence Front Lombardy (Fronte Indipendentista Lombardia, FIL) was a padanist and separatist political party active in Lombardy.

Founded in 2006 by Max Ferrari and other splinters from Lega Lombarda–Lega Nord, FIL joined Lombardia Autonoma in 2008, but soon regained its autonomy as a markedly-separatist party. Ferrari chose to stay in Lombardia Autonoma, which had its name changed into "Lega Padana Lombardia", and finally returned in the League in 2010.

The party eventually re-emerged under the leadership of Piergiorgio Seveso in 2011, when it ran a candidate in the Varese municipal election, but gained a dismal 0.2% of the vote. Since 2012 the website is no more active.


Leadership

National secretary: Max Ferrari (2006–2008), Piergiorgio Seveso (2009–2011)


References

http://www.laprovinciadivarese.it/stories/Cronaca/206143_il_fronte_spiazza_tutti_e_si_schiera_con_oprandi/

http://comunali.interno.it/comunali/amm110515/C0861160.htm

http://www.frontelombardia.net/

I remember a few years ago they were on many forums, try to push for this. It was brought to my attention that there was a much better chance for an independent Lombardy and other northern states, than there was for a Padanian nation. Of course, the requirement would be that they would be under the umbrella of the EU/Bilderberg "European state." It just never got any traction. They had that great Lombard party symbol of the two-headed white eagle with the red cross on white background. The ancient nation flexing it's muscles once again, if even for only a short time.

Lega Lombarda and Lega Padana Lombardia--both Padanist and "Lombardist"--are now active and independent.

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Palazzo del Te

Palazzo del Te or Palazzo Te is a palace in the suburbs of Mantua, Italy. It is a fine example of the mannerist style of architecture, the acknowledged masterpiece of Giulio Romano. The official name, and by far the most common name in Italian, is Palazzo Te, but this may be a relatively recent usage; Vasari calls it the "Palazzo del T" (pronounced as "Te"), and English-speaking writers, especially art historians, continue to call it the Palazzo del Te. In Italian this now suggests use for tea-drinking, which may account for the divergence in usage.

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Clan Wallace Insubria Festival

madmak007's channel

Clan Wallace Insubria Festival marcallo Italy.

The Matt Maginn set

Ever since the movie 'Braveheart' twenty years ago, there has been that comparison with the British Isles' "northern Gaelic-Celt vs. English military power" dynamic.... with that of the "northern Gaulish-Celt vs. Roman military power" dynamic within the Italian peninsula. In both cases, the empirical establishment eventually won and absorbed the conquered region.

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The arms of the House of Visconti

Wars in Lombardy

The wars in Lombardy were a series of conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan and their respective allies, fought in four campaigns in a struggle for hegemony in Northern Italy that ravaged the economy of Lombardy and weakened the power of Venice. They lasted from 1423 until the signing of the Treaty of Lodi in 1454. During their course, the political structure of Italy was transformed: out of a competitive congeries of communes and city-states emerged the five major Italian territorial powers that would make up the map of Italy for the remainder of the 15th century and the beginning of the Italian Wars at the turn of the 16th century, viz. Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. Important cultural centers of Tuscany and Northern Italy—Siena, Pisa, Urbino, Mantua, Ferrara—became politically marginalized.

The wars, which were both a result and cause of Venetian involvement in the power politics of mainland Italy, found Venetian territory extended to the banks of the Adda and involved the rest of Italy in shifting alliances but only minor skirmishing. The shifting counterweight in the balance was the allegiance of Florence, at first allied with Venice against encroachments by Visconti Milan, then switching to ally with Francesco Sforza against the increasing territorial threat of Venice. The Peace of Lodi, concluded in 1454, brought forty years of comparative peace to Northern Italy, as Venetian conflicts focussed elsewhere.

After the Treaty of Lodi, there was a balance of power resulting in a period of stability lasting for 40 years. During this time, there was a mutual pledge of non-aggression between the five Italian powers, sometimes known as the Italic League. Even there was frequent tension between Milan and Naples, the peace held remarkably well until the outbreak of the Italian Wars in 1494, as Milan called upon the king of France to press his claim on the kingdom of Naples.

The rivalry between the Venetians and the Milanese nations was not always a forgone conclusion as to which side the aristocratic classes of eastern Lombardy would side with. Eventually the Brescians, and later the Bergamasques, would switch loyalty to the Venetian side. Of course these aristocratic milieus, such as the Brescian Council--although powerful in their own right--were still relegated to a lessor position than that of the Venetians, Milanese, Genoese, or Florentines. In the sixteenth century, both Brescia and Bergamo would become part of the Venetian Republic.

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Cisco's Mike Volpi - Born in Milan

Michaelangelo "Mike" Volpi (born 13 December 1966) is best known for his leadership of Cisco Systems business development efforts as Chief Strategy Officer during the company’s prominent growth era, acquiring over 70 companies in less than five years. He then became SVP of the Routing and Service Provider Technology Group, where he managed over 5,000 engineers; in early 2007 this was an $11 billion business for Cisco. He was considered the right-hand man and successor of CEO John Chambers. In 2007 he left Cisco and became EIR at Sequoia Capital. A few months later, he was appointed CEO of Joost. In 2009 he became General Partner at Index Ventures.

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The Lombard origins of "Italian Graubünden"

The Italian Graubünden or Italian Grigioni (Italian: Grigionitaliano or Grigioni italiano; German: Italienischbünden; Romansh: Grischun talian) is the region of the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland where Italian and Lombard are spoken.

Located in the southernmost part of the canton, it includes the districts of Moesa (to the west) and Bernina (to the east), and the municipalities of Bivio in the Albula district and Bregaglia in the Maloggia district. It has a population of about 15,000 inhabitants, of which over 85% speak Italian or Lombard.


Geography

The three regions that make up the Italian Graubünden are separated by mountains, isolated from the rest of the canton as well as from each other. Because of their remoteness and the lack of economic possibilities, emigration has traditionally been a serious issue, and even today more than half of the people born in the Italian Graubünden live and work outside of the region in the predominately Italian-speaking region of Ticino.

This region is a remnant of when the Grey Leagues political alliance of the canton still occupied the Valtellina (Sondrio) against it's will. The Valtellinese didn't  have any "league" or any stake in the struggle for Swiss nationalism. Later the Spanish invaded for a time. Only with the help of the Napoleonic French powers did the region gain some autonomy in 1797, within the old Cisalpine Republic, under the French empire. However, the Grey Leagues were able to maintain control over the three little isolated valleys of this "Italian Graubünden." 

To add to the confusion, the native Romansh language is spoken throughout Graubünden, and even in a few parts of the Valtellina as well. To start with, this people/language is not Romanian, although it is a Romance language. It's a leftover of a culture which was more widespread, but has declined from the encroaching German and Italian languages. In a perfect world, the Lombard and Romansh languages are the proper tongues of this canton and the Valtellina. The famous actor Jim Caviezel is partly of Romansh descent; "Caviezel" being a surname of Romansh origin. There could have been some pre-Roman Germans there, who later assumed a Romance (Roman derived) language.

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Alberto Rabagliati

4 famous Milanese born on this day:

Paolo Maldini - Soccer star; born in Milan; played 25 seasons for A.C. Milan club; longtime captain for Italian national team; son of longtime player and manager for A.C. Milan Cesare Maldini

Claudio Abbado - One of the most celebrated and respected conductors of the 20th century; born in Milan

Carlo Facetti - Auto racing driver; European Touring Car Champion in 1979; born in the province of Milan

Alberto Rabagliati - Singer and actor in Italy and the United States; although more known as a singer and stage actor in Italy, he was known to American audiences for his acting roles in 'The Barefoot Contessa' (1954), 'The Christmas That Almost Wasn't' (1966), 'Street Angel' (1928), 'The Montecarlo Story' (1956), 'Il vedovo' (1959), and 'La vita è bella' (1943); the movie had traditional December airings on Home Box Office (HBO) during the 1970s and early 1980s; his name brings up almost 9,000 results on YouTube; born in milan

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Lake Garda biking trails

When observing a satellite image, such as with Google Maps, Lake Garda is the massive lake which most stands out by far as it sits majestically where the Po flat lands meet the pre-Alps between Lombardy and the Veneto. It's the Lake Tahoe of Europe, as they both sit amid beautiful unspoiled mountains. As old as time, it watched the Battle of Lake Benacus on it's banks in 268 AD--between Roman and Germanic armies--as we would watch ants moving upon a yard.

There's the surrounding mountains and it's ancient villages; as well as the coastal towns such as the beautiful Gardone Riviera.

'Scanuppia and other Bike Trails in the Lago di Garda Area' (LonelyCyclist.rtij.nl)

Sirmione, Lake Garda

Sirmione, Lake Garda

Sirmione, Lake Garda

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Friday is "Frigga's Day"

In Langobardic mythology, this goddess was known as "Frea." She is the only goddess who has a day of the week named after her (along with three gods and three planetary bodies).

Frigg

In Germanic mythology, Frigg (Old Norse), Frija (Old High German), Frea (Langobardic), and Frige (Old English) is the Goddess of the Atmosphere,or the clouds. In nearly all sources she is described as the wife of the god Odin. In Old High German and Old Norse sources, she is also connected with the goddess Fulla. The English weekday name Friday (etymologically Old English "Frīge's day") bears her name.
In Norse mythology, the northernmost branch of Germanic mythology and most extensively attested, Frigg is described as a goddess associated with foreknowledge and wisdom. Frigg is the wife of the major god Odin and dwells in the wetland halls of Fensalir, is famous for her foreknowledge, is associated with the goddesses Fulla, Lofn, Hlín, and Gná, and is ambiguously associated with the Earth, otherwise personified as an apparently separate entity, Jörð (Old Norse "Earth"). The children of Frigg and Odin include the gleaming god Baldr. Due to significant thematic overlap, scholars have proposed a particular connection to the goddess Freyja.

After Christianization, mention of Frigg continued to occur in Scandinavian folklore. In modern times, Frigg has appeared in modern popular culture, has been the subject of art, and receives modern veneration in Germanic Neopaganism.

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Maria Gaetana Agnesi - Groundbreaking Milanese Mathematician: Part 1

"Agnesi is the first important woman mathematician since Hypatia."

-- Dirk Jan Struik


Maria Gaetana Agnesi (16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a Mathematics Professor at a University.

She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus and was an honorary member of the faculty at the University of Bologna.

She devoted the last four decades of her life to studying theology (especially patristics) and to charitable work and serving the poor. This extended to helping the sick by allowing them entrance into her home where she set up a hospital. She was a devout Christian and wrote extensively on the marriage between intellectual pursuit and mystical contemplation, most notably in her essay Il cielo mistico (The Mystic Heaven). She saw the rational contemplation of God as a complement to prayer and contemplation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, clavicembalist and composer, was her sister.


Early life

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was born in Milan, to a wealthy and literate family.  Her father Pietro Agnesi, a University of Bologna mathematics professor, wanted to elevate his family into the Milanese nobility. In order to achieve his goal, he had married Anna Fortunata Brivio in 1717. Her mother's death provided her the excuse to retire from public life. She took over management of the household.

Maria was recognized early on as a child prodigy; she could speak both Italian and French at five years of age. By her eleventh birthday, she had also learned Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and Latin, and was referred to as the "Seven-Tongued Orator". She even educated her younger brothers. When she was nine years old, she composed and delivered an hour-long speech in Latin to some of the most distinguished intellectuals of the day. The subject was women's right to be educated.

Agnesi suffered a mysterious illness at the age of 12 that was attributed to her excessive studying and was prescribed vigorous dancing and horseback riding. This treatment did not work - she began to experience extreme convulsions, after which she was encouraged to pursue moderation. By age fourteen, she was studying ballistics and geometry. When she was fifteen, her father began to regularly gather in his house a circle of the most learned men in Bologna, before whom she read and maintained a series of theses on the most abstruse philosophical questions. Records of these meetings are given in Charles de Brosses' Lettres sur l'Italie and in the Propositiones Philosophicae, which her father had published in 1738 as an account of her final performance, where she defended 190 theses. Maria was very shy in nature and did not like these meetings.

Her father remarried twice after Maria's mother died, and Maria Agnesi ended up the eldest of 21 children, including her half-siblings. In addition to her performances and lessons, her responsibility was to teach her siblings. This task kept her from her own goal of entering a convent, as she had become strongly religious. Although her father refused to grant this wish, he agreed to let her live from that time on in an almost conventual semi-retirement, avoiding all interactions with society and devoting herself entirely to the study of mathematics. During that time, Maria studied both differential and integral calculus. Fellow philosophers thought she was extremely beautiful, and her family was recognized as one of the wealthiest in Milan. Maria became a professor at the University of Bologna.

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'How It's Made: Dream Cars' - Bugatti Veyron

I still think of Bugatti as having a tie-in with the company's Milanese founders, Ettore Bugatti and his family. Certainly the legacy has a Milanese spirit. Bugattis, in all of their forms, are truly a work of mechanical and artistic genius. I love the old ads, which are something of an art form in of themselves. The company today is headquartered in France, and owned by Volkwagon.

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Dr. Fiorella Terenzi - Famous Lombard astrophysicist

Fiorella Terenzi

Fiorella Terenzi is an Italian-born astrophysicist, author and recording artist who is best known for taking recordings of radio waves from far-away galaxies and turning them into music. She received her doctorate from the University of Milan but is currently based in the United States.

Described by Time magazine as "a cross between Carl Sagan and Madonna", Dr. Terenzi has studied opera and composition at Conservatory G. Verdi, Corsi Popolari Serali and taught physics and astronomy at various U.S. colleges and universities; she is currently on the full-time faculty at Florida International University in Miami. In research at the Computer Audio Research Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, she pioneered techniques to convert radio waves emanating from distant galaxies into sound, with some of the results released by Island Records on her acclaimed CD Music from the Galaxies. The goal of her audiofication/sonification of celestial data is to investigate how sound could reflect chemical, dynamical and physical properties of celestial objects, what she calls "Acoustic Astronomy."

Website of Dr. Fiorella Terenzi

Fiorella Terenzi YouTube channel

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Dr. Fiorella Terenzi song "Eternal"

Astro-physicist and composer Fiorella Terenzi has used the most modern radio-tele- scopes and computers to convert the natural radiation from a galaxy designated UGC6697 into the audible range then add instrumental harmonies.



 

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News segment on "The Hill"... initially a post-Civil War Milanese district in St. Louis

Nine Network YouTube channel

KETC - Living St. Louis - The Hill: What's Old and New 

From KETC, LIVING ST. LOUIS Producer Margie Newman takes a closer look at The Hill—a neighborhood in South St. Louis that was started by Italian immigrants in the 19th century. Today, the area has numerous Italian restaurants and markets, creating a tight-knit community.

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The Hill in it's early decades, starting about 1882, had a specifically Milanese identity with immigrants from the province of Milano. The St. Ambrose Church, modeled after the famous Ambrosian church in Milan, stands as a reminder of that period. The Hill is part of our Lombard history in this country.

Great short. However, the idea one gets is that Italy just pushed its people away. Well, we also know US mines and firms had agents all over Europe to woo cheap manpower. One is also inclined to believe that Sicilians built ther Hill. For once Lombards were the first ones there. E. g. Hill's Yogi Berra, Joe Garagiola, Midge Berra hailed from Cuggiono. Of course the blend Lombard-Sicilians made a memorable Hill, but Lombards were the first. Why conceal it? St. Ambrose is the patron of Milan.
--arnatese1, YouTube user

Obviously, this is a "feel good" segment.. about how everyone is happy and everything is working out for the best. The Hill, or any neighborhoods like it, are really now just small fragile communities in a tireless world of big money, big politics, and mass movements of people. The Hill reminds me of North Beach. As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

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The Lombard migration in North America: Part II

I had been meaning to post the article from part one, but I had misplaced it. The translation was the best that I could do. I suspect that I misinterpreted several sentences, but the main gist of it was clear I believe. The history of Lombardians in North America is a subject which is extremely difficult to outline and put the pieces together. I don't believe that the interview even scratched the surface of the subject! Any article about Lombardian-Americans should always mention Paolo Busti, Giacomo Beltrami, and Mother Cabrini. There were other well-known settlers and missionaries in places like Wisconsin. Joe Montana and Yogi Berra are at least half Lombardian.

From the article:

The main destinations to which this emigration was focused are St. Louis, Missouri, Herrin and Rockford, Illinois, Barre, Vermont, Iron Mountain, Michigan, Walla Walla, Washington, and then in Texas, in San Francisco (in particular in the area of San Rafael), in New Mexico and Arizona.

I'm well aware of "The Hill," which was a Milanese-speaking district in St. Louis after the Civil War. I once had a great article about The Hill that I had posted in one of my early websites, but I somehow lost the text. I'm not familiar with Herrin, Illinois, but I know there is a Lombard club today in Rockford. Barre, Vermont--from what very little I know--sounds like an extremely interesting history. There is some type of festa Italiana there during Memorial Day, for a week, each year. We've covered Iron Mountain in Upper Michigan, close to where my family settled when they came to this country. There were a few Lombard clubs in other parts of Yooper country (Upper Michigan/northern Wisconsin). The Ironwood-Hurley area and Duluth, Minnesota are two other areas where there existed Lombardian community.

From my own research, I have found quite a number of Camunian surnames in Washington state, and of course, we can't forget the Camunian history of Monongahela, Pennsylvania. I had posted a video here regarding Lombardian-Americans in Walla Walla, Washington; which is interesting in that it was an obscure far west location when they first migrated there. There isn't much to draw from as far as Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico in terms of information at this time. I know that there is some type of Lombard club in San Rafael that I wanted to look into. I had posted a little information about Lombardians in San Francisco before, and there was once a "Societa Lombarda of South San Francisco" long ago.

Of course, there is also the presence in northern California--southern California and northwest Nevada as well--of Ticinese descended people that once formed Swiss clubs in various locations. A few are still around, in particular in Marin County; also Imperial County in southern California. Ticinesi are Lombardian by language and culture. I've covered some ground here that I had covered before, but this article draws a wider perimeter to look at; and it should all tie-in at some point. There is at least some interest in our heritage, but it seems to be so fragmented and not placed under the umbrella of "Lombardian-American" as it should be.

Awhile back, I recall reading a few segments of what was I think a fairly new but obscure book about Italian immigrants in western Canada in the early twentieth century. The part that I read was regarding laborers in southeast British Columbia and southwest Alberta. It didn't mention much about where this community originated. Now I can see that this is another area that needs to be looked at. It was very interesting, much like the wild west. A century ago, western locations like this, or Walla Walla, were rural and very far from Lombardy.

I know that there is a sizable Bergamask club in Toronto, and apparently there is a more recent Brescian-Bergamask emigre community in Ontario. Sometimes I just wonder... how come I feel like the last to know? Ontario isn't very far from where my family settled in Upper Michigan, and it's part of the same "Great Lakes Region" I believe. That's part of the function of this blog. To make at least some attempt to put the fragmented pieces--separated by time, distance, and other factors--together in one reference. Apparently, I should state the obvious. We would like to have contact with Lombardians from around the world. It's like a greater family clan, scattered across the globe. Sadly, even though there is indeed some organization, we're not part of it yet.

I suppose that it might be said that the St. Ambrose Church in St. Louis is the symbol of the Lombardian existence on this continent. There is some type of organized Ambrosian church here, but I just don't know much about it. There are other Ambrosian churches around in different states. The Ambrosian Rite is from Lombardy, and is also called the Milanese Rite. It is part of the Catholic Church, but I don't think it's quite Lombardian-identity in the same way as the Greek Orthodox Church is "Greek."

What does all of this really mean? We would like to form a "Lombardian-American Society" of some type. Naturally we would like to see an equivalent in Canada as well. It can't merely be some P.O box in some out of the way location, and nobody ever hears from it. It must be brought about in a way that it creates some interest, and encourages people to put some energy into it. When all facets of Lombardian culture, especially as they have existed in some form in North America, are put together and examined; then the endeavor begins to take form. There is a "Lombardian-American endeavor," but when will all of it's bricks come together to form our citadel?

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