14 - Minds in the USA but hearts in Italy

Italian emigrants find success in Venezuela despite political and economic hardships

This country has a great future behind it," smiles ruefully a disillusioned Enzo Gandin, a Friulian from Gonars (near Udine), squinting his eyes in the Venezuelan sun. "When I arrived, in 1951, I fell in love with it at once. The climate was splendid and jobs were aplenty. It was like Switzerland on the Caribbean. Then, after the fall of dictator Marcos Perez Imenez, came a great crisis, and Venezuela has yet to recover from it. However, this country has immense natural resources. Think of oil, for instance.Rivers of it are underground. But those resources have not become public patrimony."
What about today? "Today, the climate is still splendid. And we have a lot of regrets." He hates regrets, so he spends much of his time in Udine. He can afford it because, after retiring, he splits his life between Venezuela and Friuli, i.e. between his daughters Claudia (architect in Caracas) and Sandra (designer in Udine). Two years ago, the latter chose to return to the place her father left 50 years earlier. Gandin is the president of the Fogolar Furlan of Caracas.
Gandin's story is one of unusual entrepreneurship, out of the traditional patterns of agriculture, construction and trade. With his brother-in-law, Domenico Detto, an Apulian from Canosa, he was the first to introduce continuous forms to Venezuelan banks and traders, and the first in South America to manufacture chemical copy paper.
"But before making it to the presses," he says, "I worked as an accountant in the workshop of an uncle of mine who had called me here. A quiet and profitable job, but as I told you, after the fall of Marcos Perez Imenez, recession struck. My uncle soon understood that the wind was changing and went back to Friuli. He was right, but I lost my job. Not one to lose heart, I took up a job with Nestlé, in a cocoa-processing plant in El Tocujo, deep in the interior. After a while, my brother-in-law and I embarked in the adventure of making forms and copy paper. We worked hard, but succeeded, I have to say."
As did, for instance, the Pellicciari family, who created a metallurgical empire in San Cristobal, or the De Filippos, another Italian-Venezuelan dynasty, who own a big tire manufacturing plant in Barquisimento called Coven Caucho. The road to success was also tread upon by Miguel Angel Burelli Rivas, the former Foreign Minister; Jorge Giordani, current Minister of Economic Planning, who got his degree in Bologna; another former minister, Humberto Calderon Berti, who ran the Ministry of Energy in the previous cabinet; Eddo Polesel, who chairs the Venezuelan Industrialists' Association, and Michele Castelli, professor and executive director of the new Amerigo Vespucci University. These are just a few randomly selected names among the many crowding my notebook, all of them Italian-Venezuelans who contributed to the greatness of this country.
Egidio Romano, immunologist and hematologist, director of the Venezuelan Research Institute, apologizes for his 'lame Italian', as he calls it. "I came here from Guardia Piemontese, in the province of Cosenza, as a child, and I've forgotten something. However, when I go back I pick up the language in no time." He goes back quite often, especially to Trieste, because the organization he leads collaborates with the Institute of Genetic Engineering in the Friulian capital.
The Venezuelan Research Institute is the fourth largest scientific organization in Latin America. "Argentina, Mexico and Brazil come before us," lists Romano. "We could do more, especially because our field of interest is extremely up-to-date: transplants and studies on antibodies and antigens. Unfortunately, we only have 3,500 researchers in Venezuela; we should have at least 20,000 to do a thorough job."
Romano has regrets. "Not teaching Italian to my daughter. My job left me precious little time to devote to my family, and my wife, who's a Venezuelan, could not teach her. My daughter reproached me for years, and is now studying it on her own; there is no lack of schools teaching Italian here. Our youth have a keen interest in learning as much as possible about their roots." What about those who are Italian citizens? Are they interested in voting for the Italian Parliament as well? "Some of them are, many more are not," says Romano. "You see, these kids are Venezuelan for every practical effect; they are curious about Italy, but I don't think that their curiosity extends to politics. Italian language, culture, music, cinema, fashion and economy all rank higher than politics, in their interests."
Bruno Teodori is the principal of the Italian school Agustin Cudazzi in Caracas, one of the two largest in the capital (the other is called Bolivar y Garibaldi) where the Italian language is taught. The Cudazzi is the only legally recognized Italian school. Teodori, therefore, enjoys a privileged observation point on the Italian-Venezuelan youth.
"Third generation kids feel the strongest connection to Italy," he remarks. "We notice that by the increasing enrollment. It's a sentimental connection with many, readily understandable reasons. A rational attraction is felt, on the other hand, towards the USA."
What do you mean? "I mean that the cultural and economic presence of the United States is just as strong here," explains Teodori. "After all, they're just beyond the Caribbean Sea, maybe a one-hour flight. A great many young people, both Venezuelan and Italian-Venezuelan, go there to study and of course feel the influence of their economic system and of their many business opportunities." And so? "So, we could say that young Italian-Venezuelans have their mind in the United States and their hearts in Italy. And yet I don't see this as a limitation."
Why? "Because American pragmatism coupled with Italian fantasy, inventiveness and sensitivity will come in handy when these youngsters become managers: handy for Venezuela, for the USA and for Italy. In an era when cultural nationalism is fading and ideological barriers have been torn down, we must think to a new social subject matching the best of the past and of the future. It seems to me that young Italian-Venezuelans, with their minds in the States and their hearts in Italy, might well be what we are looking for."
In the tropical night, my plane turns slowly before pointing its nose towards Australia. Caracas is down there, a receding forest of lights. The Switzerland of the Caribbean is trying to leave the season of regrets: Italians will be once again instrumental. But this time, children and grandchildren will be those pursuing the future.

Publication Date: 2002-10-27
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1929