The Consul General speaks to the 800+ members of the Society, with Governor George H. Ryan in attendance.

   With NIAF we are now working on a very prestigious project: a Charity event on December 7, in Chicago, which will count on the presence of Mrs. Susanna Agnelli, our former minister of foreign affairs and sister of the President of the Fiat Group.  Mrs. Agnelli is the chairman of the Italian Telethon Foundation, the second largest fund-raiser in Italy.

   There is one specific subject that I consider as very important to raise here tonight in the interest of the Italian American community and in terms of our bilateral relationship:

   An unprecedented initiative in the educational field was undertaken in Illinois, two years ago: over 1500 children were able to participate to Italian language courses in ten American Public Schools. The program is now continuing for the third year, as a pilot project devised by a group of innovative superintendents of the West Side of Chicago, with the help of the Education Officer of the Consulate general of Italy.

   The annual cost of the program has not exceeded the figure of 230 thousand dollar, an amount that has been shared by our two governments.  Earlier this year, the high learning standard of this project has been recognized by the State superintendent, Max McGee. For this reason it was sent to Washington for an additional funding application, but failed to obtain the necessary backing it needed. We were told that it fell short of just few percentage points in the evaluation given by the relevant Committee at the Federal Department for Education. The proponents were encouraged to apply again in the future.

   With this brief presentation I want to say that thousands of American parents of predominantly Italian origin have finally had the chance to give their children an opportunity to better define they cultural identity:  for the first time, after three generations, the American children of Italian descent are able to learn the basic elements of the language and culture of their ancient motherland, Italy; the nation of the Cultural Renaissance of the Western world and one of the six founding members of the European Community and the fourth largest contributor to the European Union.

   Why am I insisting on the need to confirm the support to this program and to help it expanding?  The answer is: for a number of good reasons - and allow me to mention here the two most important ones:

   First : the rise in America of an interest in globalization, at all levels, and for its different implications, including the need to understand the language, the culture, and the way of doing business of the major global players of the world economy. And Italy today, is ranking among the six largest economies of the world, is a major world player, exporting to the States nearly 18 billion us dollars of manufacture goods.

   Second : there are nearly 800 thousand Americans of Italian origin in Illinois . Contrary to what has happened in the East Coast and in Northern California, they have been underprivileged in terms of access to the sources of learning and information about their cultural roots. It is true that they have been successfully assimilated in the mainstream American society.  But for three generations they have been gradually loosing the ties to their culture of origin, to the extent that many of them are not even able to recognize the positive side of their identity.

   To put it in other words, coming back to the United States after 25 years, I was surprised to see the recurrence of the negative stereotypes in the media and film industry against the Italian image. We still have TV series and commercials continuing to portray the fifth ethnic largest group in the States as being under the tutelage of a godfather. What is worse is that this group has not been able to respond as other groups have done when they are exposed to similar episodes of discrimination.

   And why is that? Far from indulging in complicated sociology, the basic explanation is that most Americans of Italian origin have forgot or have never been able to learn anything about their original culture, and about the positive aspects of it. And that is where the negative pride is set to prevail, to the extent that mob related movies are seen by many as positive icons. This is a sad fact to which the only remedy is an increase of awareness and expansion of knowledge and education. To put it briefly, a long-term program is needed for that and we are just at the beginning.  Thank God, there is an increasing awareness about the need of doing something about it. The young parents who want their children to attend the language courses are a clear indicator of this trend, which is not something that can easily go out of fashion. The demand for these language courses is there to remain, and we keep receiving new requests.

   I see an important role for the State of Illinois in this cultural reawakening. At the light of the very encouraging results of the pilot project in Chicago, the Government of Illinois can do a lot to reinforce and expand this program. Thousands of families in the greater area of Chicago, Rockford, Springfield and other communities where the demand is clearly expressed could benefit from it. For the demand is already there.

  We all know that the language most in demand is Spanish. Many children learning Italian as their second language will find it very easy to learn Spanish next, thus enjoying a unique opportunity to expand their mind and diversify their learning skills. New job opportunities could emerge for a new generation of teachers coming out of the major State Colleges and Universities.  We could all benefit from the emerging of a new generation of young Americans with a better knowledge and improved communication skills.

   I believe that a fresh involvement of the State of Illinois is needed for two reasons : 1) my government needs to relocate part of its annual funding to other areas in the Midwest, in order to start similar projects. 2) There is no guarantee that the Federal grant called “Goal 2000” will continue in the future. Therefore a new approach is needed for a solution to the funding of this greatly innovative and increasingly popular initiative in the educational field.  Let us not miss this chance.