Saturday, March 10, 2007

California Retiree Runs for Office in Sicily

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Thanks to Pat Gabriel , who never provides me with the source, and requires me to track the article down. :)

California Retiree Runs for Office in Sicily

Newssday

 

By Associated Press
March 9, 2007, 9:20 AM EST

IRVINE, Calif. -- He has never been to Sicily, but that isn't stopping a retired math professor from running for a city council seat there.

Frank Cannonito is running in the May elections in the Sicilian capital of Palermo. He is on the ticket of L'Altra Sicilia, a political group that calls for the preservation of the Italian island's culture and language.

"There's been a continual denigration of Sicilian culture by the dominant culture. They have no respect for Sicilians," said Cannonito, who is in his 80s. "It's a form of cultural genocide."

Cannonito's father, who was from Palermo, immigrated to the United States in 1910, and through that link his son holds dual U.S. and Italian citizenship. There's no residency requirement for him to run in Palermo, and he acknowledges the ticket is unlikely to win any seats.

After Cannonito retired from the University of California, Irvine, he grew increasingly interested in his family's origins. Sicily, just off the "toe" of the boot-shaped mainland, has lagged economically behind the rest of the country.

In February, Cannonito wrote a letter to L'Altra Sicilia, a Belgium-based organization, explaining that he shared its views. The group asked him to join its campaign and Cannonito agreed.

Other U.S. residents have run for office in countries where they or their ancestors once lived, including Newport Beach tycoon Milan Panic, who ran for president of Serbia in 1992 and finished second.

 

 

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