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Interview: Bill Jennaro
Among the more than 300 festas that every year celebrate Italy in the US, a number that seems impossible but instead is real, today our interview will bring us to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Let’s face it, this is not the first city that comes to our mind when we think about the American places of the Italian emigration: and probably it isn’t even in the top ten.
Still, every year a huge, impressive Festa Italiana shows with a big success an incredible interest, love and passion for Italy, something that we the Italians who live in Italy wouldn’t imagine. This year the festa will be from july 18 to july 20. We’ve talked about this with Bill Jennaro, former chairperson of the Festa and now “just a volunteer”, as he humbly said to us, with a patience, a kindness and a love for our country that you don’t find every day.
Bill, thank you very much for your time. Please tell us something about FestaItaliana in Milwaukee
Bill, thank you very much for your time. Please tell us something about FestaItaliana in Milwaukee
FestaItaliana Milwaukee is a celebration of Italian Heritage and culture and food, and it is located on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan –one of the five great lakes of the US. The location, the Summerfest Grounds, is a permanent facility where events are often organized; the people who operate the grounds are an organization called Summerfest, very nice people: the director of all the grounds, is half Italian, his mother was from Calabria. He is a very nice man very helpful to us.
Each summer there are many ethnic festivals in this facility: Italian, Polish, German, Irish, Mexican, Indian, Arab; plus a pride festival, so eight festivals every summer. The oldest is FestaItaliana, first established almost 40 years ago, is the outgrowthof 4 street festivals in the summer time in Milwaukee.
Each year there would be these festivals in what’s called the Italian district in Milwaukee, the “Little Italy”: this was the oldest neighborhood in the city. People who came were not only Italian people; people came there because they enjoyed the culture, the food and the music.