18 - Italian emigrants thrive Down Under

Professionals and artists from all fields make culture and roots proud in Australia

The fallout of 9/11 also reached Down Under, turning off some of the lights that the 2000 Olympic Games had turned on Australia. Take exotic tourism: people are travelling less and avoiding planes if at all possible. But Europeans and North Americans can only reach Australia in reasonable time by plane. Also, people's eyes reveal the same dispirited helplessness that can be found in every major capital, potential targets for an invisible enemy.
If the Olympic Games brought Australia as a whole on the front pages of newspapers all over the world, Sydney was the city that benefited most with new sport facilities, new road links, new hotels, better operation of its airports. A golden season was expected. Instead came the tragedy of the World Trade Centre, cooling the enthusiasm towards the Third Millennium.
This sunny city, crossed by the silver arrow of the monorail and overlooking a bay where dreams come naturally, did not lose its desire for the future, though. It's just holding it back, waiting for things to improve. Its sails are swollen, much like those built in concrete over the Opera House by Franco Belgiomo Nettis (an Apulian) and Carlo Saltieri, whose Transfield is Australia's biggest construction company, with subsidiaries in Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and New Zealand. I cannot avoid linking this country's future to what Italians have done and will do for it.
People like Claudio Alcorso (from Rome), Giuseppe Bertinazzo (from Trieste) and Lamberto Furlan (from Rovigo), who became stars in classical music, or George Baldassin and Salvatore Zoffrea, who did likewise in figurative arts. Also, the Venetian dynasty of the Grollos, who erected Australia's most beautiful buildings, and Alessandra Pucci (a Florentine biologist) and Carla Zampatti (a fashion designer from Cuneo) who were named Businesswomen of the Year for 1999.
The Governor of the state of Victoria is Venetian-born Sir James Gobbo. In the Parliament of the same state sit Carlo Carli and Carlo Furletti, and in the Federal Parliament sit Concetto Sciacca, who was born in Sicily and immigrated as a child in 1951, John Barresi, and Venetian Teresa Gambaro, the first Italian-Australian woman to succeed in politics.
"You can find Italians everywhere, so how could they stay out of parliament," smiles Marco Lucchi, journalist, working for SBS, the multicultural public radio and TV station. "If you want more Italian MPs, here they are: Sandra Nori, Labour; Santo Santoro, Conservative; Franca Arena, Morris Iemma, Giovanni Sgrò, all Labour; Carlo Furletti, Kevin Rozzoli, Vincenzo Montrone, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, Conservatives."
Lucchi was a pleasant surprise on this faraway side of the world for several reasons. He came here less than 10 years ago, so he's a part of the intellectual migration that replaced the immigration of labourers; he's a journalist, so he keeps his antennae pointed towards society and understands how it moves; and he's the son of one of one of my favourite colleagues, Enzo Lucchi, top reporter for Paese Sera and Il Giorno.
After retiring, Enzo bought a RV that he turned into his home and his office and travelled Italy alone, because he was a grumpy loner. One day we met in Lecce, and our professional and personal association was born. I had thought that, with Enzo's death, all this would be over. But here was Marcolino (as we called him as a child), bringing my past back and helping me understand the future of a country that still relies on Italians.
"Our future lies in our youth. I know, this is a truism, but Italian-Australian youth are really tough, maybe because they grew up in a country that was never tender with their parents and grandparents. Such as Anna Maria Monticelli, for instance, a successful director, actress and producer.
"Then there are other young people, 30- or 40-something like me, who came to Australia not because they were compelled to, but because they found better opportunities than in Italy, especially the possibility to compare notes and compete with people having other experiences and another history. People like architect Marika Asuike, of a Milanese mother and a Japanese father. She arrived in 1998 and opened one of Sydney's most chic stores where she sells Italian bags customized by her father. Andrea Gambacorti, from Rome, came with his parents some 20 years ago. The family has a passion for sailing, and nowadays they furnish the boats of Sydney's upper classes with Italian materials. Andrea also competed in several world championships of sailing and in three editions of the Sydney-Hobart, the most prestigious regatta held around here."
And the list goes on.
"Andrea Mignini from Perugia, engineer, built the tunnel linking Sydney's airport to the city. The project was part of the works in preparation to the Olympic Games. He opened the tunnel six months ahead of schedule. If you look at the news on TV, you'll find a slew of Italian-Australian journalists. Off the top of my head, I recall the names of Liz Foschia, Frank Coletta, Giulia Baggio, Nino Tesoriero, and Sharin Ghidella."
Enough names. Why did people like you, who could easily work in Italy, leave everything and come to Australia?
"I came because I fell in love with Lisa, a New Zealander I met in Rome. She was studying Art History at the university. She would have gladly stayed in Italy, but I was looking for a change, and I found that I felt really good here. I don't like making comparisons with Italy, but do you know how I ended up working at SBS, the equivalent of RAI? An ad in a newspaper, then a language test, and then a test of journalism, and I was hired. My friends in Italy asked me: 'Yes, but who did you know?' I did not know anybody at all, I swear. Can you imagine getting hired at RAI like this? Moreover, living in Sydney is to fantastic: a beautiful bay, beaches, vegetation, boats, a multicultural environment, friends of all races. Australians are much more relaxed than we are. They aren't as repressive as the Americans, and their social system works perfectly. I even learned to play cricket, which is not as boring a sport as many think.
"People of my age who left Italy for Australia, Canada or the United States, belong to another generation of emigrants, and not just because of their age. We are not looking for any job that could sustain us, but for the right job allowing us to enjoy life where we like. In the Seventies, emigration in Italy was called "free circulation of labour." It wasn't true, because people still emigrated to survive, so the choice was a forced one. Now the choice is free. It is just natural that people go and work where they find greater opportunities for accomplishment. There's more to life than work. If you want to call us new emigrants "citizens of the world," you may."
What sort of relationship exists between new and old emigrant?
"We belong to worlds apart, and contacts are at most merely physical. There's no feeling, you know. Personally, I only visit the "old" Italian community for professional reasons. They live wrapped in values that we "newcomers" do not possess; they have an idea of Italy frozen in time in the Fifties and Sixties, when we weren't even born yet. Their Italian character is often limited to eating Italian food, buying an Italian newspaper, following soccer, and organizing Italian-style marriages for their children. Their children and grandchildren are different. Let's be realistic: can you really consider Italian a 20-year old who was born and raised here and whose only connection with Italy passes through grandparents who arrived here 50 years ago?"
What do these cosmopolitan citizens miss most about Italy?
"Here one can find anything, from Nutella to Barilla pasta, from chinotto to mozzarella. If one misses something that cannot be found here, maybe the sunsets in Rome or Baroque architecture in Lecce, Italy is only an airline ticket away. On the other hand, I miss something that I can't find here, nor in Italy."
What do you miss?
"Touring the Australian outback or the rainforest with my father in his RV. What do you remember of him?"
The Red Brigades had murdered a police officer in Rome who came from a village in the province of Lecce. The year was 1980, if I'm not mistaken, and he was the first policeman killed by terrorists. The policeman received a solemn funeral in his hometown, and Marco's father reported it for his newspaper. He returned around 10:00 p.m. It was late, almost closing time, and there was entire page to be filled. He put a fresh sheet in his typewriter, lit a cigarette and began hammering nervously away. Five minutes later, when the first sheet was ready, he sent it to the pressroom without rereading it. So he did for four more sheets. I remember our typist who typed his article; she typed and wept at the same time. And yet the article made no concession to emotion; it was loaded with civic indignation. The same indignation that would allow Italy to defeat terrorism.

Publication Date: 2002-11-24
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2053