Christmas Celebration

On Saturday December 11, we had a small, informal get-together at board member Luca Dorigatti’s residence in Palo Alto.  Luca and wife Michela made a delicious vin brûlée which was accompanied by pandoro and a mega panettone.  As a special bonus, we all walked away with a bottle of Trentino Pinot Grigio donated to the club.  We had a special visitor, Luca’s nephew from Trento, Tomaso Giannuzzi. He is attending high school in California for a year.  Gemma Angeli Zueck and Laura Floriani Vitlacil entertained us singing “Tu Scendi dalle Stelle” and other songs in Italian.  

Grazie a tutti e buon Natale!

New Representatives Province of Trento & the Trentini nel Mondo Association

For several years board member Luca Dorigatti has served as both the US Consultant to the Province of Trento as well as the Western US Coordinator to the Trentini nel Mondo Association. He has decided to step down from both positions. Luca, thank you for your dedicated service to the Trentina community in the US!
The Province selected 15 new consultants to represent those countries that have a large concentration of Trentini. Amy Antoniolli of Chicago and Francesca Gottardi of Houston were selected for the US.
The Trentino nel Mondo Association selected 16 new coordinators worldwide. Michael Pancheri of New York was the Eastern US coordinator. He will now be the sole representative for the entire US.

Amy Antoniolli


Amy Antoniolli – New US Consultant

Amy is an environmental attorney and a consultant on renewable energy at Shiff Hardin. She lives in Chicago with her husband and two children.
In 1998 Amy participated in the first Trentino Youth World Congress. In 2000 she won a scholarship to study at the University of Trento where she received a Certificate in Italian and European Community Law. In 2016 she participated in a Trentino youth gathering in Rock Springs, Wyoming entitled Blueprint – Together Trentini. Amy’s grandparents, Agosto Antoniolli and Adelina Ferrari, were born in the Val Rendena.


Francesca Gottardi

Francesca Gottardi – New Us Consultant
Francesca Gottardi, one of two new US consultants to the Province of Trento. Francesca is originally from Pergine Valsugana. She now lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband. Francesca is an attorney and PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati in political science. She attained JD (Juris Doctor) and LLM (Master of Laws) degrees at the University of Cincinnati, where she is currently teaching international law. Francesca also has a Masters in Law at the University of Trento. In 2020 the University of Trento honored her as the “Alumna of the Year”, and she was invited to speak at the university’s commencement ceremony. Francesca speaks multiple languages. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, camping and marathon running.

Nuovo Console

The Italian Consulate of San Francisco has a new consul general, Sergio Strozzi. He got right into action throwing a pitch during the Giants Italian Heritage Night at AT&T Park. He also invited Bay Area Italian clubs to a meet-and-greet at the Consulate. Board member Luca Dorigatti gave a short presentation on behalf of the Circolo Trentino di San Francisco.

In the picture the new consul general Sergio Strozzi and Luca Dorigatti.

Capun

Cologna is a village in the municipality of Pieve di Bono-Prezzo.
Several families from Cologna settled in the Central Valley of California. The church in Cologna is named St. Rocco. August 16th is the feast day of St. Rocco, and in Cologna there is always a large celebration. Many of our members in the Central Valley do the same. Capun is a delicacy made on this occasion (note some refer to it as capuc). Below the recipe. Enjoy!

Recipe
2 loaves of dried grated French bread
2 loaves of fresh bread soaked in ½ gallon of milk
6 bunches of Swiss chard, cut and sauteed
2 large bags of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and sauteed 2 lbs. parmesan cheese, grated
1 lb. Swiss cheese, grated
2 lbs. dry jack cheese, grated
12 Italian sausages, casing removed and sauteed
2 lbs. bacon, chopped and sauteed
1 lb. butter, melted
1 ½ head of garlic, chopped and sauteed
4 yellow onions, chopped and sauteed
2 white onions, chopped and sauteed
6 eggs
1 head of celery, chopped
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
Salt & pepper

Mix all the ingredients together well. Make into paddies 2 ½” x 2 ½”. Wrap in concord grape leaves and tie with string in pairs of two – with the ingredients above, about 60 pairs. Place in salted boiling water for 20 minutes.

Happy Birthday Josephine

Longtime club member Josephine (Agostini) Costa celebrated her 95th on March 12th of this year. Josephine was born in 1926 in Escalon, California to Giuseppe Agostini and Maria Franceschetti. They were both from Cologna, a village in the municipality of Pieve di Bono-Prezzo, which in turn is in the Val del Chiese.
Giuseppe arrived in San Francisco in 1906, where he worked as a cigar dealer with his father. In 1916 Josephine’s mother Maria immigrated to the US after getting married. The couple moved to Escalon where Maria was a homemaker and Giuseppe planted figs and a vineyard. They had two other daughters besides Josephine, Annie Agostini (1924-1964) and Louise
(Agostini) Rampoldi (1931-2015).
In 1952 Josephine married Leo Costa, born and raised in California to a family of Italian origin. Josephine and Leo had three children, LeRoy (Melinda), Maryanne and Don (Palma). Leo first farmed tomatoes, watermelons, spinach, pumpkins and peaches. Then, sons Leroy and Don joined their father in farming peaches, wine grapes and walnuts. In 1993 they also installed a walnut huller. By the time Leo passed away in 2000, they had transitioned to growing only walnuts. They currently do commercial hulling and drying for 70 Central Valley walnut growers.
Josephine now has four granddaughters and three great-grandchildren. She celebrated her 95th with her family at Incline Village, Lake Tahoe.
We send our very best wishes to Josephine.

Tanti auguri! Buon compleanno!

In the picture: Josephine celebrating 95th surrounded by her loving family at Incline Village, Lake Tahoe: Tim & Ashley Enserink with daughters Ashley & Claire in front; the Costas – Amy, LeRoy, Melinda, Josephine, Maryanne, Don & Palma; Brittany & Stephen Oldfather

Trentino Genealogy

For those interested in pursuing their family roots, we encourage you to visit TrentinoGenealogy.com. Many of our members have also joined the corresponding Facebook page. Lynn Serafinn is a master of Trentino genealogy. On her website she also hosts the Filò magazine, with each issue dedicated to a different area of Trentino. Click here to receive a free subscription of the paper version of the magazine.

Passages 2020, Remembering those we lost.

Vittoria Piasente Guerra

Club member Vittoria Piasente Guerra passed away on November 9, 2020. She was born in 1935, 2nd youngest child of Fortunato Piasente of Castello Tesino and Maria Assunta Granello of Pieve Tesino. Her mother had 13
children in all, but 4 died in infancy.
At the time Mussolini gave a ribbon award to women who had several
children. Vittoria’s mother proudly wore that ribbon.
At the age of 33, Vittoria came to California to visit her sister, club president Giuseppina Piasente Alvarez. She met fellow Italian, Marco Guerra. They married, formed a family and settled in San Francisco and then in Fairfield. Church bells rang in Tesino commemorating her life.

Donald “Don” Rossotti

Donald “Don” Rossotti passed away at his home in Salinas on June 26, 2020, husband of club member Rena Rossotti Prevedel. Don followed in his parents’ footsteps farming artichokes and a variety of line vegetables. Rena’s parents, Aldo Prevedel and Ida Dorighi, were from Brez in the Val di Non. They immigrated to Superior, Wyoming, and then to the Ogden, Utah area where Rena was raised.

Trentino – Wine Region of 2020 & Other Wine News

Wine Enthusiast, a world premier wine magazine based in New York, selected Trentino as the Wine Region of the World 2020, “unrivaled in Italy for its diversity.” There are 164 wineries in Trentino, 77% of the production being in white grapes and 23% in red. Organic grapes comprise 12% of the total, and that percentage is constantly increasing. The main importers of Trentino wines are the US, the UK and Germany. Wine Enthusiast adds:
“The Trentino region is one of the most dynamic, multifaceted, quality terroir driven wine-producing areas in the world today.”
In 2005 Wine Spectator, the “Bible” of the wine world, named Cantina Mezzacorona one of the “Top 20 Value-Oriented Wineries” for its quality and reliability. Only 5 European wines were on the list. Mezzacorona’s Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay were acclaimed for their “refined varietal aromas and vibrant acidity”.

Ferruccio Pisoni

The Trentino nel Mondo Association was founded in 1957 as a bridge to the many Trentini that had emigrated to other lands. In 2017 they held an anniversary celebration in Trento. Speakers included Honorary Association President Bruno Fronza and Past President Ferruccio Pisoni. Bruno Fronza visited the Bay Area 41 years ago and helped launch our club. Ferruccio Pisoni attended the 2004 ITTONA Convention hosted by our club. He recently passed away. The Trentino nel Mondo featured Ferruccio Pisoni on the front cover of the November/December 2020 issue of their magazine.

TrentiniAmericani.com

UPDATE 20/4/2021
Dear Supporters,
We have reached the fundraising campaign goal to support the post-production of the documentary.
A big Thank You to everyone for the support! This project is possible thanks to you and your generosity.
The documentary editing process will be a long and exciting journey. The goal is to release the documentary by the beginning of 2022.
Supporting the project is still possible and open. 
Any additional donations will be used to extend the TrentiniAmericani web page and publish the film’s extracts.
Subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates on the project. 
Grazie!

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Film documentarian Vincenzo Mancuso on the left in San Francisco with the President of the Seattle Trentino Club, Mary Beth Moser, and her husband Rich Rotruck

September 2020

Many of you know Vincenzo Mancuso, the documentarian commissioned by the Trentino Historical Museum to interview Trentini in the US. A few years back Vincenzo interviewed several of our members and produced a short documentary that was featured on Trentino television and elsewhere. Click here to view the series of short documentaries that were produced by Vincenzo and shown in Trentino. Vincenzo would like to assemble a full-length documentary entitled Trentini Americani tapping into the over 160 interviews he conducted from 2009 to 2018. L’Italo Americano newspaper featured the project in a full-length article entitled
Preserving Memories, Strengthening Identities: The Trentini Americani Project.

Unfortunately, the Trentino Historical Museum can no longer fund the project. Hence, Vincenzo has reached out to the Trentino community for help. As he says: This film is about your history, your memory, and your families.
Vincenzo has budgeted $9000 for the project. He has received donations for just over half that amount. Costs will cover the ollowing: selection and editing of interviews (Seattle / Idaho / Montana), 16 mm and super8 archive digitization (Solvay, NYC, Colorado, Pennsylvania), editing of episodes (NY/ Colorado / Wyoming / California / Pennsylvania), audio editing, music copyrights, stock footage, translations and subtitles (Italian-English) and graphics and post-production.

We encourage you to donate to this project by visiting trentiniamericani.org.