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Feb.13,2005 -Feb.20,2005 |
Columbus Centre Celebrates 25 Years
Villa Charities Executive Director discusses development of Italian-Canadian community
By Niccolò Marras
Originally Published: 2005-02-06
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Villa Charities Executive Director Pal Di lulio
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On October 10, 1980, the Columbus Centre was born. After close to 25 years of activity, Villa Charities Executive Director Pal Di Iulio recounted the main steps for us, outlining a possible future for the Centre.
What is the Columbus Centre, and what should it become?
"Twenty-five years ago it was a real piazza, a meeting point for Italians and Italian culture. Things change, however, and over the past 25 years the Italian community changed as well. Even the areas where many Italians live have changed, and many families moved to other parts of the GTA, mostly to the north, establishing new meeting points and new clubs. Columbus Centre is a piazza that needs to move, to come out of its walls and go where Italians have gone; it must become a 'virtual piazza'."
(Di Iulio is using the language of the younger generation; an older reader might have a hard time understanding what he means by a virtual piazza. People who used to go "in piazza" to meet with friends and take part in the cultural, religious and socio-economic life of a town will most certainly fail to get the idea. There was no Internet back then, and human relations were more direct.)
"We are telling those Italians who moved north of Hwy 401 not to worry that they don't live near us; we'll go to them, even if it entails greater costs. After all, that's why we built Villa Colombo 2 in Vaughan."
What does the Columbus Centre mean to Italians? Could it become a type of neuralgic centre for other, smaller realities?
"It's a symbol. The Columbus Centre is a symbol, but not just for Italians; also for the other communities of Toronto. A neuralgic centre? That would be nice, but I don't think it will happen. We will certainly collaborate with any new or similar centre established by the Italian community. Actually, I don't know whether we can call ourselves Italian; Italian-Canadian sounds more correct. We resemble an isolated tribe, we're different, and so we must defend our specific identity in Toronto."
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