AMHS MOURNS PASSING OF LONG-TIME MEMBER PINO CICALA

On April 10, 2017, our community lost a valued member and a friend to many of us, with the passing of Giuseppe Antonio Cicala, known to all as Pino.

For more than half a century, Pino did much to promote Italian culture, music and language. He came from Fiumedinisi, a small town in Sicily, and ended up living a few blocks from the White House—a real immigrant success story!! Through his devotion to all things Italian, Pino was knighted by the President of the Italian Republic in 1990 as a Cavaliere dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana and earned many awards over the years, including the Lido Civic Club’s Man of the Year Award in 2006 and the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Lifetime Achievement Community Leadership Award presented at the 2014 annual gala.

Pino was also honored with a heartfelt tribute given by Simonetta Baldassari at the “Canzoni di emigrazione e nostalgia” event held at Casa Italiana on February 5, 2017, attended by over 200 people.

For many years, Pino hosted a radio program welcoming new immigrants by name, as he himself was welcomed when he came here in 1955. Later on, he hosted TV broadcasts and became active in organizations such as the Italian Cultural Society and the Lido Civic Club, where he helped raise money for a beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus. He was one of the founding members of NIAF. Later on, he maintained the AMICO website which gave timely news updates about Italy.

Pino’s “day job” was as an architect who was one of the planners of the Women’s Museum of the Arts on New York Avenue and who worked on many other buildings, including the famous Watergate.

Pino was a faithful member of Holy Rosary Church for many years, helping in the effort years ago to get the historical preservation designation for the church. Each spring he helped to organize a religious service with a procession that kept alive the traditions of his Sicilian hometown, Fiumedinisi. He was also a longtime member of AMHS and attended many of our events throughout the years.

When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, Pino told his worried friends, “don’t worry, I’m tough!!” And he was a fighter right up to the very end. He passed away at the age of 89 years young.

The loss to our community was expressed by many who knew him over the years. Father Ezio Marchetto, Pastor of Holy Rosary Church, called Pino, a long-time parishioner, “a brilliant and inspiring person with a great devotion to his heritage.”

AMHS member Roberto Severino, who was Pino’s long-time friend and fellow card-playing briscolani, said “Pino was a very good person with many qualities and an incredible number of friends.” Another of Pino’s long-time friends, Jim DeSantis, said “It often occurred to me that I had never met anyone like Pino because of the incredible range of his knowledge, the depth of his wisdom and a true caring for those he knew and his unique way of expressing it.”

Another AMHS member, Romeo Sabatini, recalled that his friendship with Pino went back to the 1960s when Romeo first moved to the area. Said Romeo: “We did many things together, not only his website, but when he had the TV program on channel 14, I participated... his death and just a week ago the passing of [AMHS member] Nick Ferrante...another dear friend...makes me very aware of our own vulnerability, fragility on this earth.”

And AMHS member Maddalena Borea had this to say about Pino, a good friend who was a big fan of her cooking: “La comunitá italiana ha perso la sua voce. Pino non è più, ma restera’ nel cuore di quelli che hanno avuto la buona fortuna di conoscerlo. Dio lo benedica e benedica noi in questo periodo di lutto.”

AMHS member Maria Marigliano and Holy Rosary’s Musical Director said “he will be so deeply and sorely missed—a true legend in our midst and a great man who will not be forgotten for all that he did for his fellow Italians and our wonderful Italian community.”

The funeral Mass took place at Holy Rosary Church on April 21 with a reception afterwards in Casa Italiana.

The church was filled with many AMHS members along with representatives of the Embassy of Italy and military in their dress uniforms, members of the organizations Pino was a part of, and numerous other friends. Sicilian singer Marco Fiorante, a friend of Pino and his brother Melo, sang the Ave Maria. A moving tribute was given by Father Ezio, who said that in addition to receiving many well-deserved accolades for his work in the community, Pino showed us an example of a faithful Christian life. Pino’s son Luigi, an artist, talked about his father’s love for the arts and how, as a boy, his father would take him to visit museums and art galleries. Then AMHS member Francesco Isgrò, editor of the Voce Italiana newspaper, gave a moving eulogy describing Pino’s achievements and what he has meant to our community, concluding by saying Pino “was indeed our Voce Italiana.” Our sincerest condolences to Pino’s family, particularly his brother Melo. Riposa in pace, Carissimo Pino! (Submitted by Nancy DeSanti).