Media/Speaking
This is the speech I gave about my family history and my book, Searching for Concezio, at my New Jersey hometown’s 2022 Columbus Day celebration. When I was growing up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, nearly half of the population there could trace their roots back to Italy. I didn’t pay much attention to that fact until recently, when I discovered that my grandfather was a migrant worker, one in a flock of more than two million other young men known as “birds of passage” who flew to America desperate for opportunity from 1880 to 1920. To learn more about my grandfather’s story—and the struggles and successes of countless “birds of passage” never given credit for their role in building modern America—read my blog, Searching for Concezio, and leave me a comment or question.
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Like today’s event, the invitation to celebrate Columbus Day at the White House with First Lady Jill Biden on October 12th “was all about heritage,” said Ralph A. Contini, national president of the Italian American service organization UNICO, told his audience in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. The October 14th event held in my hometown, which…
If more Americans knew about the origins of Columbus Day, they wouldn’t be rushing to remove his statues from our public spaces or to erase him from our history books. That’s why I’ve decided to celebrate Columbus Day, not only on October 9th, the day set aside on the calendar this year-but for the entire…
The horrifying supernatural scenes in “The Exorcist,” which releases a sequel this Halloween, pale in comparison to the shocking, real-life scenes Richard Gambino described in his 1977 book, Vendetta: The True Story of the Largest Lynching in American History. On March 14, 1891, a mob of angry citizens, led by those described by The New…
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