The ANNOTICO Report

I applaud the efforts of any Italian individual or group to Celebrate those
things Italian.

BUT, can we not get beyond the "Meatballs and Spaghetti", or in this case,
"Sausage and Peppers".
The more often we Italians present ourselves as ONLY associated with food,
(and rather basic food at that)
and not spotlight Culture, Heritage, and History, the more we will be
thought of as merely Pizza Vendors.

It's bad enough for others to portray us as "low class", do we have be
complicitous in our own demeaning.

Carl Selletti, the Italian community leader doesn't come off looking too
smart when he thinks there are 20,000 Italians in a town of 17,000, when in
reality, there are more like only 1400 Italians.

And if Carl wants to stop the slide in membership in his Club, he should
get a" focus group" of young Italian Americans, to ask them what they want,
instead of expecting the youth to flock to what the "old fogies" enjoy.

Herald Tribune
Sarasota, Fl
Southwest Florida
By David Hackett
Feb 25, 2005

VENICE -- Florida has no towns named Budapest, Paris or London.

But it does have Venice, with streets such as Piazza Di Luna, legally
required Northern Italian architecture and the third-largest
Italian-American club in Florida, not to mention at least 15 pizza parlors.

This weekend, the city's love of all things Italian will be in full bloom
at the 17th annual Italian Feast and Carnival.

Forty thousand visitors are expected to gobble cannolis and calzones, dance
to the romantic ballads of singer Don Petra and clap for the Tarantella
Folk Dancers during the festival, which runs through Sunday at Venice
Municipal Airport.

As with Jewish people in New York or the French in New Orleans, the Italian
influence in Venice looms larger than its populace.

Indeed, Venice has twice as many residents of German, English and Irish
descent as it does of Italian heritage, according to the 2000 Census. Of a
total population of 17,850 counted in the last census, only 1,402 listed
their ancestry as Italian.

"You're kidding me," said Carl Selletti, the festival chairman, who is
known around Venice as "The Godfather." "I figured there were at least
20,000 Italians in this town."

And no wonder.

Venice has been connected to Italy since 1888, when the unincorporated,
sparsely populated area was called Horse and Chaise.

The federal government agreed to build a post office, freeing residents
from having to travel by boat to Spanish Point to get mail. But the post
office required a single name for the area, said Ron Higel, a retired
dentist whose great-grandfather was one of the first settlers.

Frank Higel, a citrus farmer, proposed the name Venice because the area's
canals reminded him of the European city he had once visited.

In the 1920s, architects hired by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
played into the theme, designing the city in an Italian Renaissance style
then the rage.

"They were trying to emulate Venice, Italy," said Betty Intagliata, head of
the city's historical commission. "Americans felt Europe was culturally
superior. [RAA: I wonder where they got that idea?? :)]

By imitating their cities, Americans hoped it would elevate us in their
eyes."

The Italian connection waned for a time. Intagliata said that when she
moved to Venice in 1981, few people could pronounce her name
(In-tag-lee-ot-ta).

"Venice traditionally has been populated by people from the Midwest,
Indiana, Ohio and Michigan, who came straight down Interstate 75," she
said. "But in recent years, there have been a lot more coming from the
Northeast, where there is a larger Italian-American population."

Meanwhile, public displays of the European theme are increasing. The city
has established special architectural districts through many of the most
visible areas, requiring even chain stores to be designed in the Northern
Italian style.

Most new housing divisions bear Italian names such as Fiore Di Venezia and
Tuscany Commons. And the city's new park, to be built on the site of a
former beachfront sewage plant, is called Tramonto Vista (tramonto is the
Italian word for sunset).

Despite such tributes to his ancestral homeland, Selletti is worried that
the young generation of Italian-Americans aren't interested in their
heritage.

Membership at the Italian American Club has dropped from 800 to 325 in the
past 25 years. Few young people sign up for the Italian language lessons.
Even the club's pool table is often deserted, he said.

"Interest is dying," said Selletti, whose parents immigrated from Italy.
"Kids today just aren't interested."

But apathy won't be on the menu at this weekend's festival. Selletti
estimated that between half and three-quarters of patrons are non-Italians.

"They love the sausage and peppers and all the other Italian food," he
said. "Italians, we eat it at home. But for the Germans, Irish and others,
it's a special treat."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/
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