1 - A quantum leap for Italians in Montreal

With the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre, Luigi Liberatore gave interculturalism a home

Luigi Liberatore says that "The Canadian-Italian Foundation of Montreal was created in 1975, with the blessings of Mr. Trudeau, who at the time was trying and giving shape and substance to multiculturalism. The foundation served two purposes: satisfying the needs of our community, and bringing it to the centre of cultural exchanges with other communities. We lacked a physical place where these objectives could be achieved. Now we have it."
This place is the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre, a square building panelled with light-coloured concrete, being completed next to St. Leonard Town Hall in Montreal. Its 15,000 square metres include a 500-seat theatre, gyms, swimming pools, conference halls, child-care centres, offices for regional associations and patronages, meeting points for youth and seniors, beginning with a great piazza, a privileged Italian-style meeting point. When the building will be finished, $15 million will have been spent. Liberatore, who chairs the fundraising committee, managed to collect them mostly within the community, for an accomplishment with a great cultural and political value in a city where Italian is the third language after French and English.
In his elegant office on Rue da la Montagne, Liberatore cannot hide his satisfaction. But he wants to clarify something. "I wasn't alone in this enterprise", he says. "The dynamic committee I chaired included co-chair Marco Galella, Giuseppe Borsellino, Tony Meti, Enzo Reda, Salvatore Nicastro, and Silvio De Rose. This is no lip service, this is a sincere recognition of their commitment. In some instances, there are no soloists but only choirs, and it would be silly to try and appropriate merits due to all of us".
What does the construction of the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre mean for you?
"An important challenge. In my opinion, the Centre can mark the passage from Trudeau's multiculturalism to interculturalism, i.e. a situation where the various communities can dialogue among themselves with the same dignity. In a nutshell, this is the second phase mentioned last week by Minister Gagliano in his interview. So, the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre will be the tangible realization of the Italian community in Montreal, but at the same time it will be the place where our community will open the doors to the other communities, thus dismantling the fences around the golden ghetto that Italians abroad often build around themselves."
Do you think that the Italian community in Montreal will be able to take this quantum leap?
"Yes, I think so. Not just because our community is the third largest after the Francophones and the Anglophones, but also because the social conditions for going from multiculturalism to interculturalism are verified here."
Which are these conditions?
"You see, Quebec is Europe, with everything this implies. The rest of Canada, although with as many differences as you wish, has a Yankee culture. I'm not saying one is good and the other is bad. I'm only saying that Canada includes two different realities. Now, in the Quebec reality we Italians found our natural habitat, because we interacted with people that share our Latin roots, our virtues, and even our defects. Moreover, since the Quebecois always proclaimed their specificity, they recognized our own. We reciprocated by becoming the bridge between the two solitudes, making Francophones and Anglophones talk to one another, and everybody agrees that we succeeded. And yet, we have always been opposed to separatism. Since we always believed in the admittedly slim possibility to get the two founding peoples of Canada to talk to each other, we have the cultural tools needed to do the same with all the other communities. One could say that interculturalism, or the phase two of multiculturalism if you please, can start from us."
Do you think that building the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre will automatically turn it into the tool of interculturalism?
"Oh, I agree that it isn't enough. But having built it means we can now think our relationship with the other communities in an organic way."
A nice statement of principles, but how can it become reality?
"Considering that here the Italian community opened up more than elsewhere, dialectically interacting with the major communities, the matter is how to consolidate this openness. This is what we had in mind when the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre was designed from the cultural as well as architectural standpoints. I shall repeat it ad nauseam: this Centre is not a recreational club. It is a structure available to all those who wish to exchange their experiences, be they Italian, French, British, Chinese, or Hispanics. The spaces are not reserved only for patronages and regional associations, but also for cultural operators in need of adequate premises. Why do you think we included a 500-seat theatre? Don't tell me that is another statement of principles!"

Luigi Liberatore is not new to endeavours straddling the border between business and culture. Elmag Investments, which he's founded and chaired, has been supporting Italian cinema and art for a long time ago. "We do it," says Liberatore, "because culture is an important part of life." And one can easily understand how important it is in his life. Upon stepping into his studio, project folders and computers alternate with statues and paintings.
But Liberatore, born in Bonefro in the province of Campobasso, wasn't always a patron of arts. He was destined to run the company created by his father and a partner of his, Foschi & Liberatore, which had been building the most beautiful constructions in North America for decades. And so Luigi took over Foschi & Liberatore in 1966, interrupting his Engineering studies because his father was forced to retire due to his fluttering heart.
"We specialized in aluminum, concrete and glass panelling," Liberatore says now. "And I must say we had some success. When I took it over, in 1966, I had six workers. In 1979 I merged it with Prefac and floated it on the Stock Exchange. When I left the company, selling it to its employees, there were 1,500 workers, and our portfolio included some very prestigious buildings: Place des Jardins and the Montreal Convention Centre, the offices of Alberta Power and Telephone and those of PetroCanada in Calgary, the CIBC Building in Toronto, the Syracuse Stadium in the State of New York, the Philip Morris Building in New York City, the IBM Building in Indianapolis, and the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa."
Why did you sell the company to your employees?
"Because at the time I was more interested in real estate and investments. That's when I created Elmag Realty, which experienced a rapid growth from 1985 to 1990, and which managed to weather with little damage the great recession of the early Nineties, thanks to its solidity. This stemmed from the fact that we had identified three sectors, still in their infancy at the time, that eventually became strategic."
Which sectors?
"Biotechnology; we were among the first to understand the potential of Biochem Pharma and invest in it. Environment and telecommunications, where we believed in the internet right from the start. I have to recognize that these intuitions gave me deep satisfaction, both financially and personally."
What sort of personal satisfaction?
"My activities with Foschi & Liberatore first, and Elmag later, allowed me to take active part in the social, economic, and artistic development of the community. In the Seventies I was an active member of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association, and eventually was elected to the Board. In the same years I became Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian-Italian Foundation of Montreal. As you note, my activity in this organization is almost 30 years old. In the Eighties, I was on the Board of Directors of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Montreal, and eventually chaired it, and in this capacity I was able to restructure and re-launch it. In the late Eighties I was elected councillor of the Montreal Board of Trade, and in 1991 I became its President. It is in this post that I gave my contribution, a contribution I deem not entirely negligible, to the dialogue between the two solitudes."
What was your contribution?
"The fusion between the two most vital economic organizations of Quebec, which had not been talking to each other for at least a century: the Anglophone Montreal Board of Trade, and the Francophone Chambre de Commerce de Montreal. I am really proud of that operation, which was cultural as well as financial. But I did other things: I administrated two big hospitals and several foundations, and for five years I was the Governor of McGill University."
An intense life.
"Yes, indeed, maybe even too intense. It forced me to put family behind my other interests. I'm trying to make up for the time spent, and artistic interests give substance and value to my quality time."
Why did you match your business activities with your support to culture?
"You see, I believe that the history of the Roman Empire can give us an illuminating lesson: Rome conquered the world with its mighty armies, but it kept it for centuries with the strength of its civilization, with its constantly evolving culture. I'm thinking of law, engineering, art. We Italians, heirs of the Romans, continue to fascinate the world because we conquer it with the might of our culture, of our economy, but especially because we teach people how to live. I think that supporting culture in all its expressions is a duty, and even a responsibility, for those Italians who have the sensitivity and the means to do it. We at Elmag accept this responsibility with all the burdens it entails, which often means investing significantly in artists and projects of great value."
Does this activity give you a return?
"The real return on investment lies in the awareness of helping worthy people to emerge. And that's no small thing. Cultural operations are never done for today, but for tomorrow. If you prefer, for posterity."
Even Maecenas had understood this, when he financed Horatius and published his works, thus allowing him to reach us. In more recent times, Adriano Olivetti had also agreed. Do you feel a new Maecenas?
"No, no. I'm just an entrepreneur who invests in Italian intelligence and culture. I do this because I'm Italian, but especially because it is essential, as well as convenient, to invest on a product that's been storming the market for centuries: our culture. However, I share your opinion on the role played by both Maecenas and Adriano Olivetti."
What is 'Italianity' for you?
"I'll answer with an example. I married a Francophone, Janette, who bore me three children: Gaetano, Marco Andrea, and Maria Jose. I worked hard, day and night, and couldn't devote much time to my family, so I was unable to transfer much of my Italian character in my children. However, even if I never forced them, they decided to study Italian. What I mean is that 'Italianity' is almost a magic spell: one cannot immunize against it. One can learn to be an Anglo-Saxon, for instance, deciding to immerse oneself in Anglo-Saxon culture. 'Italianity' cannot be learnt: it must be breathed, lived. It captures you for life, even if your contacts with it are as fleeting as mine with my children."
This is an act of love for Italy.
"No, I still am an entrepreneur who reasons with its mind led by his heart. I'm a technician, not a poet. And then I never forget an Italian proverb: 'Do something evil and think about it, do something good and forget it.' If you allow me, I'd say that the bottom line is that today I have very little to think about."

Publication Date: 2002-12-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2177