With the purpose of contributing to the formation of identity feelings and to bring people closer culturally, the Casa de Iberoamerica in Holguin promotes an interesting project that will bring together natives and Italian descendants living in eastern Cuba.
Bárbara Martínez Pupo, project manager of the Casa de Iberoamerica, explains that the intention is to disseminate and consolidate Italian culture and language, help to strengthen ties, unite families and provide useful information for any procedure related to Italian citizenship, due to the fact Italian descendants although not too large in number have made a significant contribution to culture and history in the country.
To consolidate what was a long-standing desire of the institution, the specialist emphasizes, the support of Italian Nicola Pirone, journalist of TV Calabria and great friend of Cuba, who is the leader of the Filitalia International Foundation with branches in several parts of the world to which the one in Holguin will be added, has been valuable, a space where Italian descendants will play a leading role.
About the links of the Italic peninsula with the American continent, archeologist Yosbani Rodriguez Bruzon, researcher of the Provincial Delegation of Citma, points out:
“Italian migration to the lands of the ‘New World’ dates back to the times of Christopher Columbus and his expeditions of discovery of the Americas, in whose first crew, in 1492, he was accompanied by three other Italians. From 1750, with the formation of the historical region of Holguin, new families of Italian origin settled down that, although they did not surpass the several communities of Spaniards, they had a constant presence”.
The young man, a scholar of that migratory phenomenon, maintains that the transfer of natural Italians to America could have taken place directly or through Spain and as surnames that prove their presence in Holguin he mentioned Calvi, Casanova, Cernicharo, Lofforte, Manduley, Mastrapa, Mayolina, Pecorelli, Pitaluga, Vianello, Zuccarino, among others.
Recently, the Casa de Iberoamérica hosted the presentation of the book “Il Sogno Americano” (The American Dream), a compendium on Italian migration by anthropologist Giuseppe Cinquegrana and journalist Nicola Pirone, which constitutes an essential material to concretize the community of Italian descendants in this region of eastern Cuba.
With information by Aniel Santiesteban García
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