A steering committee of Italian American leaders has assembled to chart the path to meet this challenge.  Composed of attorney Leonard Amari, historian Dominic Candeloro, former Chicago Heights Mayor Angelo Ciambrone, Casa Italia Executive Director Vito D’Ambrosio, attorney and Fra Noi publisher Anthony J. Fornelli, Loyola assistant director of development Abby Leng, Metropolitan Planning Council project manager Marisa Novara, City of Chicago chief technology officer John Tolva, Casa Italia chair and president of Turano Baking Company, Tony Turano, and Senator Renato Turano, the committee has send out a call for all Italian Americans in the Chicago Area to support this momentous  initiative.  The group will conduct a multi-level fundraising campaign beginning with a focus on major gifts.  

To make a contribution,  contact Abby Leng at 312.915.7942 or [email protected] or visit Loyola’s Italian American website at LUC.edu/italianamerican/
Interested club leaders should call 708.345.5933 to arrange for committee members to visit their club meetings to discuss the project.

We need YOUR support and contributions.  Join our committee to make this momentous project a success.  Contact Dominic Candeloro at 847.951.9109 or  [email protected].

Talking Points for Casa Italia/Loyola Italian American Studies Endowed Chair

·         It will preserve 500 years of the history and culture Italians in America---which is at risk of being lost.  If trends continue, memory of our ancestors will be relegated to a few sentences in American History textbooks.

·         Italian Americans are marrying outside their ethnic group at a rate of almost 80% bringing into question the whole concept of an Italian American identity. 

·         The very success of Italian American in business and the professions has filled their lives with opportunities to pursue alternative interests at the expense of their identity as Italian Americans.  If our history and culture is not kept alive, we will forget where we came from.

·         In partnership with Casa Italia, this endowed professorship will provide public programming, conferences, exhibits, film and lecture series to the Italian American community, the campus community at Loyola and to the general public at Casa Italia.  This will strengthen the cultural mission of Casa Italia by linking our library, exhibits, and events to the resources (PR, technology, prestige) of a major university with 15,000 students.

·         The person in that position will be THE authoritative spokesperson in media, political, and academic circles on Italian American history and culture.  The professor will permanently be in a position to combat stereotypes and defamation.  The professor will be the “go to” person for media and government entities looking for solid information on issues that impact the Italian Americans on the city, state, national and international levels.

·         This position will offer the opportunity for Loyola Italian American students to learn about their cultural heritage and for all students to learn about the role played by Italians in American history.  One day these young people will carry the fight that was so nobly begun by a very small group of dedicated Italian-Americans.

·         Having this position would bring Italian American studies on par with Latino, African American, Polish, Hebraic, and other ethnic studies programs at universities around the nation. Participating in interdisciplinary efforts and generally integrating Italian American studies into the larger theater of the Humanities.

·         Loyola and Chicago Italians would join, SUNY Stony Brook (Sen. D’Amato Chair), Seaton Hall University (LaMotta Chair), Hofstra, Queens College, U-Cal Long Beach (Graziadio Chair), and  John Carroll University (Bishop Pila Chair) which have established endowed chairs in IA Studies in recent years. We want to produce a stream of bright, intelligent, informed and articulate academic Italian-American Champions. 

·         Casa Italia will link to college students as a venue for internships, research, and  artistic expression.

·         Giving provides an opportunity to document, honor, celebrate, and popularize OUR STORY and the men and women who made that history.   It will be a vibrant memorial to their hard work, perseverance, and success and will bring us the satisfaction that we have done our duty to honor their memory.  It is an opportunity to PAY IT FORWARD.

·         Examples of lost history:  personal letters, recordings of Italian language radio programs 1930-50s, documents relating to the Italian American Women’s club from the 1920s, easily accessible files of the newspapers L’Italia and La Tribuna Transatlantica.

·         Loyola already has strong offerings in Italian language and literature, European history, the Renaissance, the History of Catholicism, and the Rome Center study abroad program.  Adding Italian American History/Culture would provide students with an unparalleled opportunity to master Italian Studies from all angles.

·         We have allies in positions of power at Loyola, offering an unprecedented opportunity to increase the Italian presence at this 150 year old institution.  If not now, when?  If not us, who?      Combined with the donor names of Cuneo, Gentile and others, the new program will give Loyola a definite Italian flair.