Matteo Baceda and Family
Matteo Baceda also attended the picnic along with his wife Jennifer, nearly 7-year-old daughter Stella and 18-month-old twins Oliver and Camilla. They brought along their homemade strudel. Yum! Matteo is from Trento, but he has lived in the Bay Area since 2001. He founded Modernus, a company born “out of a love for what Italy does best, manufacture and design products that are in
our daily lives.” They mainly work on commercial projects. Recently they entered the demountable wall market, with a product inspired by feedback they received from architects and designers around the country. His small, self-financed company is always looking for new talent to bring onboard.
Matteo studied at the University of Trento and then worked in London. After that, he attained an MBA at Dartmouth College in New
Hampshire. Then he landed a job in credit derivatives at JP Morgan Chase in New York. It was there that he met his wife Jenn. In 2001 the
Gap offered to relocate Jenn to San Francisco. They gladly accepted the move. Matteo, Jenn e famiglia, benvenuti al Circolo Trentino di San Francisco!

Mary Elmstrom
Mary Elmstrom recently found out about our club through the Trentini nel Mondo website. She says her grandmother was a regular subscriber of the Trentini nel Mondo magazine. Her maternal grandfather, August Boni, was born in 1897 in Pennsylvania. His parents were Fioravante Boni and Paola Gallazzini from Villa Rendena. Her maternal grandmother, Lena Schivalocchi, was born in Alliance, Ohio. Her parents were Francesco Giuseppe Schivalocchi from Darzo and Maria Stenico from Trento. Mary travelled to Val Rendena twice about 10-12 years ago and met cousins from the Gallazzini family. Since then she has been studying Italian and improving “piano, piano”.
Mary grew up in Berkeley. She met her husband Gary while attending UC Davis. They raised 3 children in Leesburg, Florida, where Gary was a research Professor of Horticulture for 26 years. They transferred to Woodland, California in 1995 and to San Rafael 3 years ago. They are delighted to be back in the Bay Area. Their daughter Kris, son-in-law Aaron and grandson Jax live nearby, and Mary is enjoying her role as “nonna.”
The Val Rendena is well known for its knife sharpeners. We have other club members with origins in the Val Rendena: Ben Maganzini, Maria Mortati (Polli) and Bruce Cozzini. Mary
looks forward to meeting them and the rest of us.

Frank Giunta
Some new members attended the picnic in Alameda. The first was Frank (Franco) Giunta. Frank is originally from Western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. He has lived in the Berkeley/Oakland hills for the past 40 plus years, but he had no idea there was a Trentino club. He found out about our club from Debbie Corradi, President of the club in Minnesota. He descends from the Serafini family of Bleggio in the Valli Giudicarie, about
20 miles west of Trento. Frank’s first visit to the area was in 1969, and he has been back
many times since. He knows other Trentini that are not part of our club, and he plans to recruit them. Benvenuto Franco!!

Federico Menapace
Federico Menapace has been in the MBA program at Stanford University for the past few years. He also has various degrees in civil engineering from the Universities of Trento, Michigan and Trieste. He is working on several projects, including one with Luca Cattoi, a developer and entrepreneur from Arco, Trentino. Luca has visited the Bay Area on several occasions and has become friends with several of our club members. Luca, Federico and others have created a travel reservation program, www.TravelNuts.com. They are currently testing the program out at a hotel operated in Santa Cruz by club members, Dan and Elena Aspromonte. The Aspromontes have been delighted with the results.

Carmella Weintraub
Carmella Weintraub lives in Santa Cruz. Her Trentino ancestors, Zanoni, Bergamo, etc., came from Campodenno and Denno in the Val di Non. Carmella studied child psychology at San Jose State, married and had children before embarking on a career in art and fashion. She learned to sew at a young age from her grandmother. She runs sewing and design classes for youngsters in the Santa Cruz area.

 

 

Giacinto, aka Gino, Galliani
Gino Galliani, a founding member of our club in 1980, passed away on July 17th in San Jose. He was born in Lardaro in the Valle del Chiese, which is part of the Valli
Giudicarie. He was the first in his family to receive an education beyond high school. He had a promising career in the Italian forestry service, but his mother encouraged him to seek a life of greater opportunity with his 2 brothers in Canada. On the trip to
New York, he met Paula who was headed to LA. They stayed in touch and married in 1958. Soon later they had son Richard and daughter Aurelia, both residents of
the South Bay. At the young age of  37, Gino became a widower and had to raise the children on his own. Gino worked for Italian Swiss Colony, where he put to use training he received in Italy as an enologist. In the 1960s the winery was the second most visited tourist spot in California next to Disneyland. As we all recall, Gino was a talented speaker and loved to socialize.
So, he became a tour guide at the winery. In his off-time he worked fixing up
his real estate investments. Gino lived in Cloverdale for 50 years. He spent the last couple of years in Lardaro where he remodeled the house he inherited from his parents. Gino always brought cheerfulness and humor to our club events. His presence will be sorely missed. Our sincere condolences go out to Richard and Aurelia and their respective families.

Passing of Nadia Holober, Vice-Mayor of Millbrae
Nadia Holober passed away on May 8th at the age of 54 from a private battle with cancer.
Her parents, Antonio Vitlacil and Laura Floriani Vitlacil, immigrated from the Valsugana
to Canada, where Nadia was born. When Nadia was 4, the family moved to the Bay
Area. She graduated from the University of California Berkeley and the Hastings School
of Law. She was a firm believer in social justice and worked tirelessly for her local
community. In 1982 she met her husband, Richard Holober, while working on a political
campaign. They had two boys, Reuben, 25, and Evan, 21. In 1991 the family settled in Millbrae where Nadia volunteered to put on the city’s 50th anniversary.
She served on the city council from 1999 till her passing except for a 2-year gap
caused by term limits. From 2003- 04 she served as mayor. Accomplishments included Millbrae’s landmark new library, sister-city relationships with
Malta, Chile and China, the town’s acclaimed grease cogeneration plant and a balanced budget. Nadia was also a Eucharist minister at her church and an avid gardener. We send our heartfelt condolences to Nadia’s friends and relatives, and in particular to Antonio, Laura, Richard, Reuben, Evan and her siblings.

Kelly Kielar Sessi
Kelly Kielar Sessi passed away on May 3rd from a long battle with cancer. She was
delighted to witness her 2 oldest daughters get married last year. She also celebrated her
only grandchild’s first birthday and took her on a trip to Disneyland. Our club sends
profound condolences to her husband Martin Sessi, to their 4 children, Nicole, Kaitlin,
Kyler and Isabella, to their granddaughter Adrienna, and to all other family members.

 

 

Visitors from Rovereto
In October Dan Aspromonte hosted from Rovereto Sara Bozzi and her father Claudio and Fabio Bertolissi and his father Massimo. They traveled through California, Arizona and Nevada visiting several national parks and other sites along the way. Noteworthy to us members of the Trentino diaspora is Fabio’s research on Trentino emigration. In 2009 he published a thesis at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice on Trentino immigration to Bosnia, and then from Bosina to Agro Pontino, the former marshland south of Rome. The Trentino History Museum Foundation awarded him the year’s best thesis on Trentino
emigration. Vincenzo Mancuso from the same Foundation interviewed many of our club members last year, and snippets of those interviews will soon appear on television in Trentino. Most of emigration to Bosnia occurred 130 years ago from Aldeno, about 6 miles southwest of Trento, to Mahovljani. Why Bosnia? In part it was an effort by the Austro-Hungarian Empire to stem the rush of immigrants to the Americas. Fabio cites several reasons for Trentino immigration in that period of time: the international financial crisis; changes in political borders; flood disasters; diseases that devastated vines and mulberries (silk). The town of Aldeno, on the banks of the Adige River, was affected by all the above, but in particular by a calamitous flood in 1882. Most of those who settled in the Muslim-dominated Bosnia were poor farm laborers. They were given land to cultivate. They grew grapes and established a flourishing wine industry. On the cover of the July issue of the Trentini nel Mondo magazine, there is a photo of the monument that was recently erected in Mahovljani in honor of these immigrants. The story does not end here. In 1818, after WWI, Trentino was no longer part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. Bosnia became part of Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav government wanted these Trentini to serve in the military. Only a few had become citizens. They appealed for help, and in 1928 the Italian government granted them passports. In 1940 nearly the entire Trentino population of Mahovljani, about 100 families, sold their land and transferred to the marshlands of Agro Pontino, south of Rome. Mussolini had embarked on what he referred to as “the battle of the swamps.” With an army of workers he had these swamps drained, stripped of malaria and made into arable land. The Trentini, with origins in Aldeno, remained united, and many established noteworthy vineyards and wineries.
Some Trentini remained in Bosnia. The Province of Trentino is now providing them assistance in establishing productive vineyards and quality wines. In the future Fabio would like to trace Trentino involvement in the grape and wine industries of Brazil. In the meanwhile he is working on a project for the Trentino History Museum Foundation. He is researching the archives of Vallagarina to document migratory trends towards the end of the 19th century, mostly destined for Brazil. Rovereto and 16 other municipalities comprise the district of Vallagarina. Fabio offers his generous assistance to any of our members who are researching their ancestry in Vallagarina.

Oscar Zueck, former president of the Trentino club of Mexico City, paid us another visit in September. Now that he is retired, he is finally finding time to complete a thesis and book on Trentino immigration to Mexico. He is also trying to establish an online business in Mexico, selling vintage LPs and CDs. He has been collecting music for years, and now he wants to turn his hobby into a business. He bought boxes and boxes of LPs and CDs on this trip to California. While on a short stopover in Santa Cruz, he celebrated his 60th birthday with Dan Aspromonte. They had lunch and tiramisu for desert. Tiramisu literally means “pick-me-upper”, appropriate for someone reaching a milestone like 60.

Last June Jari Ognibeni, Alberto Gasperi and Giorgio Casoni of Spinnvest in Rovereto organized a visit to the Bay Area for several high tech entrepreneurs. At the time the officers of our club joined them for dinner at Donato’s Enoteca. Rinaldo Cis, Tarcisio Pedrotti and Luca Dorigatti from our club also lent their assistance to the group.
Alberto Tafner, President of the Trentini nel Mondo Association, followed up with a letter praising us for welcoming this group with open arms.
Spinnvest brought another group to the area in December. Some visited Tarcisio’s company, Distinct Corporation, and we met up with a contingent of the group in Palo Alto one evening. Spinnvest plans on organizing ongoing trips to the Bay Area. The goal is to create partnerships and new opportunities for businesses in Trentino and beyond. We look forward to meeting up with them in the future.

Rino Zueck and Gemma Angeli Zueck married on February 23, 1963 in Santa Cruz. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Santa Cruz surrounded by family and friends. They received a special blessing from Father Albert Mengon from our club. Gemma was born in 1934 and raised in Cloz, Val di Non along with 6 brothers and sisters. Rino was born 10 months later in the adjacent village of Brez. In 1950 Rino’s family immigrated to Colorado. After a stint in the Air Force, Rino relocated to Santa Cruz to be near his sister Elena and his Prevedelli cousins in Watsonville. Gemma arrived on December 23, 1962, and they married exactly three months later. The couple had two children, Roseanne and John. Rino worked for San Lorenzo Lumber for over 40 years. After many treasured years raising their own children, they have been blessed with three grandchildren – Elizabeth, Joshua, and Christopher.
Congratulations to Rino and Gemma on reaching this milestone!

Consul General Mauro Battocchi

Consul General of Italy in SF a TRENTINO!
Mauro Battocchi is from Tione, about 20 miles west of Trento. It is a town in the Valli Giudicarie with a population of around 3,600. According to the newspaper Trentino, his mother and brother still live in Tione. His father passed away, but his brother continues the family business, wholesale distribution of food products to hotels and stores. His sister, on the other hand, lives in Arco and teaches at Maffei, a secondary school in Riva del Garda.
One of our members, Maurizio “Tito” Ghezzi of Sunnyvale, is also from Tione. Che mondo piccolo! (It’s a small world!) He fondly remembers Mr. Battocchi’s father: un uomo benvoluto (a well-liked gentleman). The consul general is known to be as amicable as his father, as shown in this video message:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqjUt8MA8gw.
A Foreign Service officer specialized in economic issues, he worked in the private
sector from 2008 to 2012 at Enel, a multinational power company, as Vice-President for
international governmental affairs. Previously he headed the desk for trade and
investment promotion at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome (2003-2008),
supporting the internationalization of Italian firms abroad. He was also the head of the
economic section of the Italian Embassy in Tel-Aviv (1999-2002) and served at the
financial section of the Italian Embassy in Bonn (1995-1999), taking part in the
negotiations for the start of the European Monetary Union. He graduated in economics at
Bocconi University, Milan, and received a Master’s degree in public policy at Princeton
University. Born in the Alpine region of Trentino, he likes hiking and skiing.

Mauro’s blog is at http://sanfranciscoitaly.com. It is chock full of very interesting
information. Consult the archive to get a quick view of its contents.