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Angelo Castanza has been elected by the board of directors to chair Casa Italia for a two-year term. Joining him as fellow officers are Jo Ann Serpico as vice chairman, Cathy Lange as treasurer and Paul Basile as secretary. A past president of the Calabresi in America Organization, Castanza has been a member of the board since 2014 and served as vi...

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Retired Army Col. Renato Bacci has been elected by the board of directors to helm the Italian American Veterans Museum. Joining him as officers are retired Navy Commander Joseph Troiani as first vice president, retired Army Maj. Lorenzo Fiorentino as second vice president, Army veteran Mark DiSanto third vice president, Steve Corbo as treasurer, Eu...

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Flowers of Italy Club President has announced that Chicago businessman Frank Di Piero will be honored as the Man of the Year at the club’s 59 th annual Dinner Dance at 6:30 p.m. on March 28, 2020, at Villa Brunetti Banquet Hall, in Franklin Park. “I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Flowers of Italy Club for this tremendous honor,” said D...

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Casa Italia will honor tireless community leader Jo Ann Serpico as Woman of the Year at its Golden Anniversary Gala on Feb. 8 at Belvedere Banquets in Elk Grove Village. “Jo Ann has been a pillar of the community for decades,” says Casa Chairman Peter Volpe. “We’re so lucky to have her as a board member, and we’re so honored that she has agreed to...

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The tradition began two centuries ago, when a mid-December procession bearing the Madonna del Triunfu from Palermo to Ciminna arrived later than expected. “They were supposed to arrive at 6 p.m., but they didn’t make it into town until 1 a.m.,” explains Tony Napoli. “They had been eating and drinking along the way, so they were happy and dancing.”...

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Just off Chicago’s shoreline during World War II, the U.S. Navy trained more than 15,000 carrier pilots on a pair of coal-fired, side-wheel passenger steamers transformed into “flattops.” Not every pilot landed successfully on the pitching decks of the USS Wolverine and USS Sable, and many aircraft plunged into the watery depths. Today, more than 1...

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The Comboni Missionaries will honor Joseph A. Russo at their annual dinner dance on Nov. 30 at Manzo’s Banquets in Des Plaines. (708-354-1999) As a boy growing up in Cicero, Russo enjoyed learning about his Italian and Calabrian heritage from his extended family. From those experiences, he decided he wanted to make a difference in the world. As a t...

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While growing up in the Taylor Street neighborhood, Ralph Triggiano dreamed of becoming a photographer. That dream became a reality during World War II, when the Navy trained him to be its eye in the sky over the Pacific. For two years, he took reconnaissance photos of enemy positions from 10,000 feet in the air, helping to turn the tide in the war...

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Some of Chicago’s best young singers will perform arias and art songs by iconic Italian composers at the Italian Cultural Center at Casa Italia’s Vocal Scholarship Awards Dinner and Concert. The event will start at 2 p.m. on Nov. 10 in the Mentesana Weber Chandelier Room of the Community Center at Casa Italia and feature a wine-and-cheese reception...

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The Italian American Studies Program of Loyola University Chicago, together with Casa Italia, is pleased to sponsor a special workshop: "Cooking up the Past. Recovering Family Tradition". Led by Michele Fazio, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. of English, University of North Carolina, Pembroke. Wednesday, October 9, 2019 at 7:00 Pat Casa Italia, 1621 N 39th Ave,...

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