Thursday, March 22, 2007

SICILY: Dr. Gaetano Cipolla Promotes the Language and Culture

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Dr. Gaetano Cipolla lives and breathes Sicily. Its in his blood, literally. The professor of languages and literature, was born near Taormina, Sicily, a REALLY Lovely  resort town [RAA: Personal knowledge]

 

Cipolla claims: Forty percent of the 22 million Italian-Americans in the U.S. are of Sicilian origin,

 

Sicily, he explains, has been called the worlds first multicultural society because it was conquered and ruled by Asians, Europeans and [North] Africans at different times in its history.

 

[People don't realize that the Mediterranean was long the Center of Civilization.(until Columbus shifted the Center to the Atlantic Ocean). With Italy jutting down and dividing the Mediterranean, East from West, and Sicily being the "Toll Gate" for that narrow east-west trade passage, between the toe of Italy and the North African coast, Sicily was of ENORMOUS Strategic importance, and thus coveted by all, with designs of greatness]

 

Its also the birthplace of the sonnet and Sicilian was Italys first poetic language. Dante, he notes, credited Sicilians as the first poets of Italian literature. There is a vast collection of Sicilian literature dating from the 13th Century to the present day.

 

Sicilian, he explains, is a different language and not, as most people believe, a dialect of Italian.  It was the first language of Italy under Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily who ruled much of what is now southern Italy during the 13th century. [And for a time Palermo was the Emperor's capital]

 

Sicily, which Cipolla doesn't mention, had it's FIRST period of Brilliance during "Magna Grecia " (Sicily and Southern Italy),[Greater Greece, as opposed to Lesser Greece, composed of independent City-States at constant war] when the greatest minds left the unrest on the Hellenic peninsula and flowered in Sicily, 8th-4th Centuries BC,  and then were absorbed by the Romans. Archimedes was in Syracuse, and the Pythagorean school was in Sicily as a couple of hundred of examples.

 

Sicily was also critical to Rome, and was at the center of the three Punic wars.

 

Sicily furnished the "seed" for the Italian Renaissance which started in the late 1300s

By 903, all of Sicily was in Saracen -Moors (Arabs) hands, and were rulers rather than colonizers, masters rather than governors. However, it must be said Arabic society and culture were advanced; under the Saracens the city of Panormus became Palermo and its splendor was said to rival that of Baghdad. For the first time in Sicily's history, the lemon and the orange were cultivated, complex irrigation systems were developed, and sophisticated mathematics introduced.

In 1061, a Norman lord, Roger de Hauteville crossed the Strait of Messina from Southern Italy defeated the Saracens, and  Sicily was again part of Europe. Roger brought religious freedom, multicultural artistic expression and national sovereignty. Roger's son, Roger II, was crowned King of Sicily in 1130 and ruled a dominion that included most of Italy south of Rome, with Palermo as its capital. It was the wealthiest realm of Europe.

In 1198, Frederick II von Hohenstaufen, a descendant of the last Norman King of Sicily ascended the throne and ruled for more than half a century. By now, the Golden Age of Sicily was in full flower. From Palermo's splendid royal palace, the enlightened Frederick ruled most of Italy and also parts of Germany as Holy Roman Emperor. Stupor Mundi was the Latin nickname given to the brilliant Emperor admired across the Mediterranean and across the world.

Frederick's heirs proved themselves less able than he, and Sicilian independence came to an end with the defeat of the last Hohenstaufen at the Battle of Benevento in 1266. The Angevin dynasty of France ruled the island from Naples until 1282, when a bloody uprising, the War of the Sicilian Vespers, expelled Angevin troops and nobles from Sicily.

So, Sicily was integral in three Major Epochs!!!!!

As Wolfgang J. Goethe wrote in 1786: "Without Sicily, Italy cannot be fully understood. It is here one finds the key to all things".

 

Language Professor Promotes the Language and Culture of Sicily

St John's College News

March 21, 2007

Dr. Gaetano Cipolla lives and breathes Sicily. Its in his blood, literally. The professor of languages and literature, who was born in Francavilla di Sicilia,not far from Taormina, Sicilys resort town, has a profound love for the place of his birth. Sharing Sicilian culture and language with the world has become his avocation.

A full-time faculty member in the Languages and Literature Department of St. Johns College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, where he teaches Italian and Italian civilization to both graduate and undergraduate students, Cipolla is also recognized internationally as an authority on the subject of Sicily.

Sicily, he explains, has been called the worlds first multicultural society because it was conquered and ruled by Asians, Europeans and [North] Africans at different times in its history. Its also the birthplace of the sonnet and Sicilian was Italys first poetic language. Dante, he notes, credited Sicilians as the first poets of Italian literature. There is a vast collection of Sicilian literature dating from the 13th Century to the present day. For a number of years, he has undertaken a variety of projects to promote that literature, as well as Sicilys language and culture.

Most recently, he facilitated and signed an agreement with the Region of Sicilys President Salvatore Cuffaro to establish Casa Sicilia, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of that region in the United States. From office space in the Empire State Building that he has called a mini-embassy, Casa Sicilia will promote the image, products and culture of Sicily; assist Sicilian companies in exporting their products to the U.S.; create databases of events in the U.S. that might be of interest to Sicilians; and promote tourism. Lectures and presentations on Sicilys contributions to the western worldso far, six have been offeredare free to the public but, as space is limited, reservations are necessary.

Translator, Editor and Publisher
Cipolla--a multi-tasker par excellence--is also a translator, an editor and a publisher. His published works include seven bilingual volumes of Sicilian poetry and more than a dozen volumes of Siciliana Studies. His Siciliana: Studies on the Sicilian Ethos, which contains his essays on Sicily and Sicilian literature, and a translation of A. Venezias Ninety Love Octaves  into English verse are the two latest. He also penned an opera libretto, A Lupa, entirely in Sicilian. Legas, the publishing company he founded, specializes in works on his native land. Its latest catalogue lists more than 50 works of poetry, history, language and culture that he designed and produced, and in many cases, actually wrote or translated.

The Sicilian scholar is also President of Arba Sicula, an international organization of about 2500 members (nearly 1300 in the tri-state region) founded in 1979 to promote the language and culture of his island birthplace. He edits its bilingual Arba Sicula Journal of Sicilian Folklore and Literature and its newsletter Sicilia Parra, which reports on the groups activities but also includes articles on Sicilian art and poetry (Poets, he says, are the best ambassadors of culture.).

Seats on the annual Arba Sicilia tour of Sicily, which Cipolla has planned and conducted for the past 12 years, are snatched up as soon as they become available. The tours, he says, are essential tools for the promotion of Sicily, forpeople who have seen the island really become the best ambassadors for its culture.

The editor of the most comprehensive Sicilian grammar text in existence in the United States, Cipolla is hoping for a revival of the language.  Sicilian, he explains, is a different language and not, as most people believe, a dialect of Italian.  It was the first language of Italy under Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily who ruled much of what is now southern Italy during the 13th century. Recently, he headed a committee that proposed a law to require that Sicilian be taught in the provinces public schools.

Coached Al Pacino for The Godfather, Part III
So great are his knowledge and command of the language, he was chosen as actor Al Pacinos dialect coach during the dubbing of the film The Godfather, Part III. Although he spent a considerable amount of time working with the famous film star, he remains disappointed that Pacino mispronounced much of the Sicilian he spoke in the final minutes of the movie.

Next up is a PBS documentary, based on a collection of his essays entitled, What Makes a Sicilian? Supported by a $15,000 grant from the late New Jersey real estate developer Angelo Cali, the film will showcase the historical, sociological and economic aspects of Sicilian culture. Cipolla hopes one day to establish a Sicilian Institute at St. Johns that would offer courses on Sicilian language, culture, history and traditions; conduct research; and publish volumes on Sicily.  With a library dedicated to all things Sicilian, it would be the premier resource center for Sicilian studies in this country. 

Forty percent of the 22 million Italian-Americans in the U.S. are of Sicilian origin, Cipolla reports. He wants to reach out to all of them.

 

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