YOUNGSTOWN Group sees post as last chance to save Italian heritage

A goal is to unite Italian-Americans in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Gathered together for lunch, the three men told memories of their Italian ancestors.
Carl A. Nunziato remembered boyhood days when he carried loaves of bread from the Ashtabula home of grandparents Gennaro and Virginia Candela, and out to the stone oven in their back yard.
Nick Zennario recalled the hard work his father, Sam, put into the family's retail produce store, and how his grandmother Madeline DeRosa, despite an arthritic limp, walked from their Staten Island, N.Y., home to church every day.
Dr. Dante DeAngelo told of the pride he saw in the face of his grandmother, Rosina di Guiseppe, when she learned English and was able to sign her name on V-mail during World War II.
The men are aware of their unique heritage. Their fear is that, one day, they will be gone and no one will be left to perpetuate their love of their ancestors' culture.
"We have memories of our parents and grandparents but my children don't and my grandchildren certainly don't," said Nunziato, a Boardman attorney. "And they would lose that without a drive to memorialize our heritage. We've experienced the culture firsthand ... and we want to pass it on."
Raising funds
The men have formed the Committee for the Preservation of Italian Culture and Language. A main goal of the group is to help develop an endowed chair in Italian culture and language at Youngstown State University. The university must raise $2 million to create the endowment.
"Italian-Americans have a story to tell about our heritage, about our culture, about our language," said Zennario, of Canfield, retired president of Bank One Youngstown. "We feel we're just about the last generation that can do that.
"Our heritage and culture has been watered down over the years. I don't think there's anybody behind us."
An endowed chair would head up a department at YSU that would teach culture and language and also train Italian teachers to teach in local grammar and high schools. The chair would also be active in the community.
The position would be funded by the endowment, safeguarded against budget cuts -- to "live on forever," Zennario said.
"The amount we're trying to raise, $2 million, at a time of economic depression, is monumental," said DeAngelo, of Canfield, a retired orthodontist. "So we're reaching out to the community. ... If the community becomes a part of it, the community can be proud of it also."
So far, $60,000 has been raised. Zennario said families or friends could contribute a donation together, payable over a five-year period. He added that rooms in YSU's DeBartolo Hall will be dedicated to those who make significant donations.
Uniting communities
Alongside the fund raising, the group aims to bring together the Italian-American community in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, Nunziato said. Across the region, there are various groups, separated by the regions of Italy from which their ancestors came or by their local communities or churches, he explained. Nunziato said he hopes this effort is "all-encompassing, healing and uniting."
"Italian-Americans ... built this valley, along with other ethnic groups," Zennario said. "But there's nothing we can point to and say, 'That's what Italian-Americans stand for in the Mahoning Valley, in the Shenango Valley. ... We need to make it perpetual so no one can take it away."
XFor more information, contact the College of Arts and Sciences at YSU, One University Plaza, Youngstown, OH 44555 or (330) 941-3410.