Thursday, October 18

NIAF Chairman Kenneth Ciongoli Challenges New York Times and Washington Post at Gala

The ANNOTICO Report

 

In addition to those Italian Americans mentioned in my previous Report, such as Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, AARP Head William Novelli, Film Director Martin Scorese.Prez Candidate  Rudy Giuliani, and  New York Yankee great Yogi Berra.

 

Also there was CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo,   actressess Susan Lucci, Connie Stevens and Ellen Pompeo, Songster Jerry Vale and Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil, Mary Margaret Valenti (widow of Jack Valenti, longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America and former aide to President Johnson).among others.

 

I was disappointed in Justice's Scalia's rather tepid show of pride in his Italian Heritage: " I'm not a professional Italian American. I've never traded on it. But yeah, I'm an Italian American."

 

On the other hand Maria Bartiromo nearly lost it when asked whether she defined herself as an Italian American. "Are you kidding?" she said. "Every Columbus Day I host the parade, I emcee the gala. I'm very proud of my heritage. I am third-generation Italian and I consider myself Italian as well as American. . . . The reason I work as hard as I do is I watched my father in the kitchen of the restaurant he owned sweating with a bandana on his head. "

 

And I take my hat off to NIAF Chairman Kenneth Ciongoli who accused the Media, and specifically Media Giants  New York Times and The Washington Post of  negatively misportraying Italian Americans.

 

Our Leading Italian American organizations NIAF, OSIA, UNICO,,have been too polite in the past. It's about time he took the gloves off!!!!!

At Italian American Gala, It's Just One Big Happy Famiglia

Washington
By Sridhar Pappu
Staff Writer
Monday, October 15, 2007

Here they were: two avatars of Italian Americans past and present, standing in the Cabinet Room of the Hilton Washington. One was the diminutive Hall of Famer, the catcher of the Yankees when the boys from the Bronx were perennial World Series champions, when the team drew generations of Italian American devotees to superstars with names like Rizzuto and DiMaggio. The other was the slender, deep-pool-eyed beauty whose head we've come to associate with a moving ticker across the bottom of our television screens. "How about the Yanks?" said CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo, draped in diamonds and a low-cut purple gown, of the Yankees failure to reach this month's American League Championship Series. "What happened?"

"It happens," Yogi Berra said softly.

This was perhaps one of the few downbeat moments during the 32nd annual National Italian American Foundation Gala charity benefit. Organizers and attendees could argue that this occasion marked an apex of sorts for Italian Americans. They count among their ranks the leader of the House of Representatives, the leading Republican presidential candidate, two Supreme Court justices and a legendary film director who this year won his first Academy Award. The NIAFers had something to crow about, and damned if they weren't going to do just that.

"In my remarks," said NIAF Chairman Kenneth Ciongoli at the VIP cocktail party preceding the Saturday night event, "I'm going to accuse the New York Times and The Washington Post of miscovering this event every year." (He did.) "We are important as a role model for 21st century immigrants. Now tell me where you're from."

After hearing the reporter's response about his ethnic background, Ciongoli, a neurologist and author, said: "If Indians (the ethnicity of the the journalist) had all these positions of power, The Post would be going, 'Aaarrrgh, look at all these positions.' If Italians had stayed all Democrats or all Republicans, we wouldn't have those positions."

The three most notable honorees -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and director Martin Scorsese Others were actresses Connie Stevens and Ellen Pompeo and AARP's chief, William Novelli -- didn't arrive in the pre-party room until after the press was ushered out. But hey, there were Jerry Vale and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr.! And there was Susan Lucci You want celebrity, how about Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil?

And of course there was Bartiromo, the evening's master of ceremonies, who nearly lost it when asked whether she defined herself as an Italian American.

"Are you kidding?" she said. "Every Columbus Day I host the parade, I emcee the gala. I'm very proud of my heritage. I am third-generation Italian and I consider myself Italian as well as American. . . . The reason I work as hard as I do is I watched my father in the kitchen of the restaurant he owned sweating with a bandana on his head. " After turning to greet Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Bartiromo underscored her point about work ethic: "Justice Scalia. There you go!"

When asked to work from that same reflection point, Scalia, standing near the bar, said: "Well, the food is awful good. It's hard to get rid of that. I'm not a professional Italian American. I've never traded on it. But yeah, I'm an Italian American."

When the big three were introduced to the ballroom crowd, along with several others on the dais, it was clear they were among friends. Never mind that Giuliani was recently booed when his mug appeared on the Yankee Stadium Jumbotron during "God Bless America." Here "America's mayor" found only standing ovations and chants of "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!" Pelosi and Scorsese each felt that same love upon their arrivals and following their speeches (although Giuliani did draw whispers of "Which one?" after mentioning that Berra had attended his wedding).

The dais revealed the well-known political divisions among the prominent guests. While Giuliani sat between the two conservative Supreme Court justices, Pelosi hung with the Hollywood crowd on the opposite side, sitting with Scorsese, Pompeo and Mary Margaret Valenti (widow of Jack Valenti, longtime head of the Motion Picture Association of America and former aide to President Johnson).

That divide seemed to diminish when the honors themselves began. Each had a video introduction retracing the narrative lines of his or her Italian heritage. Moreover, in their speeches recipients seemed to work from the same playbook, telling stories about their parents or grandparents, about Brooklyn and Baltimore and Manhattan's Little Italy.

"It's become chic, I understand," Scorsese said of his old Manhattan neighborhood, transformed by real-estate fever. "It's all gone."

Taking a break from his turn onstage, Giuliani was asked about whether the Italian American experience should be used as a template for other immigrant groups.

"I think the Italian American model is a very good model in terms of assimilation, but I can think of a lot of other examples, too," Giuliani said. "Cuban Americans. Irish Americans. African Americans. The Italian American example is a good one for those who love their heritage, and when they become Americans, they realize this is what it's all about."

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com [Formerly Italy at St Louis] (7 years)

Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net