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2014

November 22, 2014

Brancati’s “Don Giovanni in Sicily ” … Surely No Greater Contempt for Sicily … Plato: “Beware the Poets and Tragedians”

Tom Verso
Top: "American Girl in Italy" (Florence); Bottom Rt.: Poster for 1967 movie version of Brancati's book

The relentless theme of this blog is the profound irony that in the country with near seventeen million southern-Italian Americans there are no dedicated university Patria...

October 30, 2014

Lu Sicilianu … Its Origins and Evolution

Tom Verso

The education system is THE most important instrument in the Terroni-izing process (as per Pino Apriel’s book "Terroni" and discussed repeatedly on this blog) whereby the...

October 16, 2014

Sicel-Sicilians and the Birth of Sicilian Culture

Tom Verso
"Jouneying to the Godedess" http://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/goddess-hybla/

Most histories of Sicily make a passing almost obligator comment about the three ‘Original Sicilians’ encounter by the Greeks when they began colonizing the island in 735 B.C..

September 26, 2014

Terroni-ism in Sicily Today

Tom Verso

Consistent with the theme of this blog (i.e. the Mediterranean heritage of near seventeen million Americans of southern Italian descent), the first sentence in the abstract of a...

September 7, 2014

“Siciliana” … The Book Every Sicilian-American Should Read! … But Can’t! … Too Little Education – Too Many Terroni-ized Teachers

Tom Verso

Legendary Italian-American scholar Fred Gardaphe, himself a candidate for beatification, says: “Gaetano Cipolla should be elected the secular saint of Sicily … the American...

August 12, 2014

Academic Freedom - Illusions and Hypocrisy … America vs. Italy

Tom Verso
Socrates Paid the Ultimate Price for Genuine Academic Freedom

I cringe when I hear: “The Founding Fathers”. This cliché is cited to justify all types of moral, political and legal judgments. The problem is the Founding Fathers’...

July 22, 2014

Italian-American Intellectuals … Immigrant Working-Class Revolutionaries vs. Bourgeois Progeny …What Difference a War Makes!

Tom Verso

The epitaph carve on the tomb of Tina Modotti reads in part: “…steel and wire combined with snow and pollen to make up your firm and delicate being.” /// /// The combination...

July 2, 2014

“The Sea-God’s Herb - Essays & Criticism 1975-2014” … A Song of Post-Modernism

Tom Verso

When I first saw the “Italian American Writers Association” (IAWA) notice of “The Sea-God’s Herb – Essays & Criticism” by John Domini, my first thought was: “I...

June 20, 2014

Menighetti & Nicastro’s “History of Autonomous Sicily (1947-2001)” … Sicily’s Tragic Flaw?

Tom Verso

“History of Autonomous Sicily (1947-2001)” … First, profound appreciation to translator Gaetano Cipolla; inter-cultural studies are carried on the backs of highly...

May 24, 2014

“Extra Virginity – The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil” … Implications for Southern-Italian American Cultural History

Tom Verso

No doubt this book is of great interest to culinary aficionados; but it is NOT a ‘food book’!