U.S. POSTAL SERVICE TO ISSUE BASILONE STAMP

Washington - August 25, 2004 - World War II hero John Basilone will be honored with a commemorative postage stamp in 2005, the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA) learned today from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone will be one of four Marines to be honored in a USPS Distinguished Marine stamp series that will be released sometime in 2005. The other Marines are Daniel J. Daly; John A. Lejeune and Louis B.
Puller.

The design for the Basilone stamp has been approved, but the date of its unveiling has not been set, according to USPS spokesman Mark Saunders.

John Basilone was the only enlisted Marine in World War II to earn both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, the nation's two highest military honors for bravery in battle. General Douglas MacArthur called him "a one- man army" for his valor in a battle with a Japanese regiment during the Battle of Guadalcanal on October 24-25, 1942.

During a fierce frontal attack with the Japanese, Sgt. Basilone was left with only two of his men. Under continual fire, he held off the enemy until replacements arrived. Later, with ammunition critically low and the supply lines cut off, Sgt. Basilone battled his way through hostile lines with urgently needed shells for his gunners, thereby contributing in large measure to the virtual annihilation of a Japanese regiment.

For his bravery, he was awarded the Medal of Honor and sent back to the U.S., where he helped raise more than $1 million in war bonds. He was offered a desk job in Washington, D.C. but preferred to return to his company.

Shortly after returning to the Pacific war zone, Sgt. Basilone was killed during the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. He was 29 years old. For his bravery in this battle, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. He also received the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

Italian Americans have campaigned for a Basilone stamp for nearly 15 years. Among the first was Peter Ippolito of Union, N.J. who collected more than 200,000 signatures, according to Manny Alfano of UNICO National, who also spearheaded the Basilone stamp campaign.

Soon Ippolito and Alfano were joined by OSIA under then-CSJ President John Dabbene.

OSIA lodges and members collected an estimated 60,000 signatures, petitioned the USPS and its Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee and enlisted the assistance of such political leaders as Sen. Jon Corzine and Congressman Bill Pascrell, both of New Jersey. These efforts were supported by petitions from the U.S.
Marine Corp as well.

"We cannot find the words to express our immense pride that this young war hero will at last receive the official recognition he so richly earned by his courage and sacrifice," said OSIA National President Joseph Sciame.

"This is a victory and a cause for celebration for all Italian American organizations and individuals. No one person or group can claim all the credit,"
Sciame said. "We worked together to make this happen."

OSIA has more than 600,000 members and supporters and a network of more than 700 chapters coast to coast. OSIA works at the community, national and international levels to promote the heritage and culture of an estimated 26 million Italian Americans, the nation's fifth largest ethnic group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. See www.osia.org.

SHARK TALE - Overview, Argument, & Position Summary

Currently in production at DreamWorks Pictures, and scheduled for release in October, 2004, Shark Tale is a computer-animated, children's film that, as DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg crows with unabashed pride, will be an amalgam of "...everything from The Untouchables to Some Like It Hot to all three Godfather films." The story's venue is a fictitious undersea world populated by anthropomorphic fish - not unlike Disney's Little Mermaid (1989), but with an exceptionally sordid twist. Like a perverse kiddie morality play, Shark Tale relates the unhappy results of one unlucky sea creature's involvement with the under-the-sea underworld. As viewed in the DreamWorks promos, the maritime mobsters take the form of cartoon sharks. And yes, with names like Don Lino and Don Brizzi, they are given unmistakably Italian American identities. For added 'authenticity', DreamWorks has lined up Robert De Niro, Michael Imperoli, Martin Scorsese, and others who have shamelessly built their personal wealth and fame on the prostrated back of Italic culture, to do the voice-overs.

“Leggi Libri—La Festa Del Libro”

The Italian Cultural Center presents….

First Annual Italian American Book Fair
Saturday September 25, 2004 9:30 am – 1:30 pm

1621 N. 39th Avenue, Stone Park 708-345-3842



Join us for a celebration of books by and about Italian Americans. Come see and hear the authors discuss their works and read selections from their writings. Participate in small discussion and book signing groups. Bring the kids to enjoy the Italian American children’s story time, featuring readings from La Befana, Pinnochio, and Richard Scary’s Il Libro delle Parole. Buy books at discount, win books in our raffle and auction, and browse through hundreds of titles that explore the Italian/Italian American Experience.



Meet and Greet these Distinguished Authors
Rita Ciresi, author of Pink Slip, Blue Italian, Sometimes I Dream in Italian, Remind me Again why I Married Youn and Mother Rocket, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award. Univ. of South Florida.
Peter D’Agostino, UIC professor and author of Rome in America: Transnational Catholic Ideology from the Risorgimento to Fascism. Winner of the 2003 Brewer Prize for Church History.
Rudolph Vecoli, Editor of Rosa, The Life of An Italian Immigrant Woman. University of Minnesota.
Gloria Nardini, author of Che Bella Figura! (about an Italian "ladies" Club in Chicago). Fra Noi columnist.
Tony Ardizzone, Chicago native and the author of six books including In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu. Flannery O'Connor Awardee. (unconfirmed at press time)
Kathy Catrambone, Le Cugine Italian American Book Club.

Delores Sennebogen, Fra Noi Food Columnist—From Ann’s Kitchen.
Luciano Iorizzo, Professor Emeritus SUNY Oswego Capone author.
Daniel Niemiec, Fra Noi genealogy columnist.
Admission is free but we request that you aid us in our planning by calling 708-345-3842 to let us know you are planning to come.



Authors and publishers interested in participating should contact Dominic Candeloro at 708-756-7168 D-Candeloro@govst.edu

On Seized Mafia Land, a Harvest of Good Food

Friday, August 06, 2004

Agriculturalists in Sicily have formed co-ops and taken over fields once held by gangsters. They see their niche produce as an anti-crime effort.

Los Angeles Times
By Tracy Wilkinson
Times Staff Writer
August 5, 2004

SAN GIUSEPPE JATO, Italy — Antonio Castro, a young agronomist with mud on his boots and sun in his skin, says he can't let himself think too much about the previous owners of the land he farms: Sicily's most ruthless Mafia bosses.

If he spent time worrying that the owners might get out of jail and return to kill him, he wouldn't be able to get his work done.

But after dark, when he settles in for the night at the newly renovated stone villa (and future bed and breakfast) that was seized from convicted gangland murderer Giovanni "The Butcher" Brusca, Castro is not alone.

"I say I'm not afraid," he said, "but I sleep with three dogs and a gun."

Castro and his agricultural co-op are part of a consortium that is farming thousands of acres of Sicilian land confiscated from Mafiosi and then marketing the fruits of its harvest — pasta, vegetables, wine, olive oil — under a label that proudly declares the products' crime-fighting provenance.

The seizure of Mafia assets has long been an important weapon in Italian authorities' arsenal, but only in the last couple of years has legislation allowed the transfer of property to groups such as Castro's.

It's not a big business yet, but the Libera consortium, the umbrella of 800 anti-Mafia organizations, including Castro's co-op, says the project is attracting notice from followers of the Slow Food movement and similar boutique foodies. Libera products can be found on the shelves of one of Italy's major supermarket chains.

More important is the symbolism: Turning the land against its onetime owners shows the possibility of breaking the Cosa Nostra's hold on at least one aspect of its considerable economic power, advocates say. The act is both redemptive and cathartic, bringing life and bounty from a land stalked by gruesome death and terror.

Castro's co-op — named after Placido Rizotto, a union activist killed in 1948, presumably by gangsters — is housed, appropriately, in the police station of this small town about 15 miles southwest of Palermo. The co-op chalked up about half a million dollars in sales last year, when it produced more than two tons of pasta; so far this year, it has corked 13,000 bottles of white wine.

When they started out, Castro and his fellow agronomists met resistance and chilly stares from residents of the Sicilian towns that were once the dominion of assorted dons. It was difficult to recruit workers for the land, Castro recalled. But now laborers seek him out, he said.

Castro, 31, studied in Florence but was always intent on returning to his native Sicily. He hated the fact that, everywhere he went, his home's name was associated with the Mafia.

These days, he traverses the island's sharp, golden valleys and lush green hilltops in a beat-up blue Fiat Uno, clocking more than 2,000 miles some months.

Down one rutted dirt road, in a sun-parched 15-acre field just outside the town of Corleone, Castro and his hired hands are grafting sprigs of the well-regarded Nero d'Avola red grape to vines that have gone unworked for two years. (The combination makes a more resistant, higher-quality grape, Castro explained.) This patch belonged to a nephew of Salvatore "The Beast" Riina, notorious "boss of bosses" for years until his arrest in 1993.

One of the farmhands said he was not afraid to till such blood-steeped soil, though he would give only his first name, Antonio, and Castro later confided the man's nephew quit out of fear.

"We are here to sweat," said Antonio, 54, pausing to chat and leaning on his hoe. "If we don't work it, someone else will."

A few miles away, the co-op is raising grain, lentils and chickpeas on a 150-acre farm confiscated from Riina. Durum wheat is milled into semolina and hauled to a pasta maker in Corleone, the town made famous by author Mario Puzo in "The Godfather."

At the shop's entryway, a poster painted by schoolchildren takes up the Libera spirit: "Where there were bad plants from the Mafia, now there are grains of freedom. Free pasta for free people."

Corleone and seven other towns in the area have agreed to participate in the land-confiscation project and help the agricultural co-ops with equipment, housing and verbal support, no small thing in this still-suspicious region.

Up the road, the stone villa that once belonged to Brusca sits above a breathtaking valley covered in yellow and lavender wildflowers and freshly planted cherry and plum trees. Cows can be heard mooing in the distance, as hawks fly overhead. The initials of the Brusca family still hang in wrought iron above the heavy wooden door of the main house.

With about a quarter of a million dollars from the European Union, Castro and his co-op have renovated part of the building and installed a restaurant, though they are awaiting permits to open it to the public. With more refurbishing, they plan a bed and breakfast.

The Bruscas were the biggest crime clan in San Giuseppe Jato. Giovanni Brusca, who owned the villa, was arrested in 1996 and eventually confessed to dozens of killings, including one in which he had the 11-year-old son of a rival dissolved in acid.

The boy's picture decorates the label of a fruity white wine that is being produced by another anti-Mafia co-op, Tempio del Monte Jato (Temple of Mt. Jato), which has also opened a restaurant for weekend patrons.

Giuseppe Randazzo, who runs the place, said he's not convinced that the work of a few farmers, chefs and vintners is going to make much difference in challenging the "very entrenched" Mafia.

Castro and the president of his co-op, Gianluca Faraone, think they are safe, for now. The Mafia has turned its sights away from agriculture and to more lucrative businesses such as construction, they noted.

"The Mafia is not interested in confrontations right now, and to attack a group of agronomists would be a major confrontation," the 30-year-old Faraone said.

Maybe. But a few weeks after The Times visited, arsonists burned 25 acres of wheat on confiscated land that Faraone's co-op was farming. The fires were set just as the co-op began celebrating the harvest.

Shark's Tale Lampooned by Italic Institute of America

Spielberg's Hipocrisy & Rudeness nicely Lampooned by Italic Studies Institute

Bravissmo!