Di Stefano honors journalist and politician Vincent Massari
(ANSA) – L’Aquila, March 3 – A monograph by Alessio Di Stefano for Radici Edisoni honors Vincenzo “Vincent” Massari (1898-1976), the Prosthesis who introduced Ignazio Celone to the United States. Reporter, editor, trade unionist, politician.
The volume “Vincent Massari – Chronicles of Abruzzo in America” re-imagines the story of an immigrant who gave and received much of America, without ever forgetting his small hometown, Loco de Marcy (L’Aquila). When Vincenzo Massari boarded Taormina to get to the United States, he was 17 years old. Upon reaching Ellis Island, he discovers that, while on his way, the ground in Avizzano has shaken, obliterating towns and cities around what was known as Lake Fucino until a few decades ago.
Massari thus became a survivor, saw the world that no longer existed, and soon began collaborating with the Italian-language press, at first to denounce the living conditions of those who, like his father, worked in the mines, and later to create a bridge between Abruzzo and America.
First as a trade unionist, journalist and publisher, then as a staunch anti-fascist and promoter of Celonian action, starting with “Fontamara”. The first newspaper founded, Marsica Nuova, bore its homeland in its name.
Other liberating experiences followed, accompanied by a political passion that brought him into contact with important exponents of Italian-American culture, including the anarchist Carlo Tresca.
Finally, rising from the House of Representatives to the Senate, Sayings for a Dream: The Birth of the University of Colorado based in Pueblo, his hometown.
With the help of a fund that Vincenzo “Vincent” Massari donated to the same university, Alessio Di Stefano reconstructs the life and career of a man called the “Italian Lion”.
The book will be presented tomorrow, Saturday 4 March, at the Sala Di Nicola in the municipality of Avezzano (L’Aquila) and on Saturday the 11th at the Mondadori Library in Pescara. (handle).
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