Havana, 18th September 2010
The cultural event "Pragmata en La Habana" was held on Saturday 18th September 2010 at the Marine Museum of Regla with the enthusiastic participation of over one hundred people descending from Italians and lovers of the Italian culture. A great event that joined the Italian spirit with the Cuban one.
Dr. Ernesto Marziota, Chairman of the Managing Committee of the Association for the Italian-Cuban Friendship "Miguel D'Estefano Pisani, Dr. Cinzia Oddi, Italian Consul in Havana on behalf of the Italian Embassy, Dr. Giuseppina Moscatelli, director of Dante Alighieri Cultural Association and the other members of the Executive Board presided over the meeting.
The Chairmanship submitted the book “Le 1001 storie degli Italiani nel Mondo”, the participation certificates and the silver custom brooches to the fifteen Cubans of Italian origin in Havana who participated in Pragmata competition as authors contributing to the creation of the book. The four other descendants of Camagüey and one of Mantua will receive their books during other events that will take place in their towns.
The authors of the book in Havana are: Loredana Benigni, Angel Luis Coto Valdés, Julia Bonelli Ramírez, Dalia Cisnero Silano, Rosa and Fiora Grisolia Soñora, Carmen Gianitelli Moreno, María Victoria Longo, Ernesto Marziota Delgado, Aymara Massino Escaño, Carlos Rafael Pérez La Regina, Pedro Andrés Pittaluga, Abel Rafael Sgambelluri, Mario Torres de Diego, Carmen Rayza Zito Valdés and Miriam Zito Valdés.
They are protagonists in most of the stories concerning them and they testified that at the auditorium.
On such occasion a congratulation message was sent to Dr. Monica Palozzi, president of the Cultural Association Pragmata, due to her brilliant realization of the competition, her dedication to the initiative and the result with a book full of stories that will let know more closely the Italian emigration in the world, without which most of that information would have been forgotten.
Dr. Cynthia Oddi’s speech concluded this fine event. She stressed the importance of the contribution from Cuba to the competition, reaffirming moreover that the Italian presence in the Pearl of the Antilles has very ancient origins, starting from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the late fifteenth century and then at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the city of Mantua (Pinar del Río) was founded by some Italian sailors (from Liguria and Venice) who were forced to do that due to the shipwreck of Mantova brigantine. Then she paid tribute to the Italians who participated as mambíes in the independence wars of Cuba and she finally remarked how much the Italian spirit is still inside the Cuban Italian people living here.
This wonderful cultural event ended with the artistic performance of the descendants with the pianist Adolfito Guzmán and his son, namesake, baritone, who sang “O sole mio”, the young talented flutist Abel Pérez and the singer Kenida Doval performed some Cuban and Italian songs. The young group “10 Octubre” executed some excellent interpretations.
(Text by Ernesto Marziota, organizer of the event)