Commemorating Italian Month in Mississauga: culture, style, history
MISSISSAUGA – It is the month for commemorating and celebrating the Italian contribution to the development of Canada and the evolution of the culture we call the Canadian ethos. One fashioned by unbridled ambition, undaunted perseverance in the face od adversity, and the belief that hard work – no matter how taxing – could produce a future enviable everywhere.
Contemporary Mississauga is one such place. What was once home to quaint, quasi rural communities (think of Cooksville, Clarkson, Port Credit, Lorne Park, Streetsville, Erindale, Malton etc.) barely 51 years ago, is now a thriving city approaching one million inhabitants. Gone are the golf courses I used to frequent as a university student and the tomato farms to where I used to drive my mother and aunts to “harvest” fruit for the annual tomato and sauce ritual.
Italian Canadians have been there from the very beginning: unpretentious, doing their best as they grew their families, opened businesses and contributed to social infrastructures. In the late sixties, friends and relatives from the “Little Italy” on the Danforth (Pugliesi) or St. Clair (Laziali) began transfer themselves to this new-found land.
A city emerged over the decades that is now the 7th largest, demographically, in the country. While the ethnic Italian population is no longer as large as it once was, its impact is noted through the recognition of those who stayed, endured and [helped] transform[ed] “a sleepy hollow” into the dynamic modern city it is today.
Several community organizations – Mississauga Italian Canadian Benevolent Association (MICBA), Roseto Valfortore Cultural Centre and the Huron Park Italo Canadian Seniors Club (HPICSC), among them – joined with the Fashion Circuits Series group, ItalFlorists and Treport Convention Center among others, to highlight some long-time deserving individuals in the City and to raise funds for Trillium Health Partners.
This year’s theme promoted by Fashion Circuit Series, co-organizers, was Educate. Showcase, Grow. Innovate. They highlighted the contributions of nine individuals and/or their organizations to life in Mississauga. Master of ceremonies, Ester Paris Mauro honoured them all in her presentation: Irene Chito (Irene’s Celebrity Cakes), Guerino Molinaro (Molinaro’s Fine Italian Foods Ltd.), Jim Colalillo (Colalillo Automotive), Domenico Vincenzo Cristiano and Domenica Cristiano (Aurora Meat and Cheese), Giancarlo Bozzo (La Villa Bakery and Fine Foods), Frank Stendardo (HPICSC), Adelio Cicchetti (Deri Bakery), Nando Iannicca (Peel Regional Chair) and the entire executive of the Roseto Valfortore Cultural Centre. Provincial Cabinet Minister Rudy Cuzzetto was also in attendance.
Of course, this being Italian month, the event would have been sorely lacking if not for the attendance and parade by the Carabinieri, Bersaglieri and Alpini, all of them ushered by a superb Soprano, Caterina Gliosca (Coro San Marco), and Carmine Spada, accordionist.
The celebration this year featured something specific to the Ciociaria district of Lazio (pre-Roman era Region whose capital is Frosinone). The shoes – le ciocie – which give the area and its people the name, the ciambelle – a staple Sunday bakery product – and of course the distinctive folkwear women used to don to highlight their attractions… à la Gina Lollobrigida.
Speaking of whom, the elegant ladies of Fashion Circuit Series did their best in dance and style to emulate.
Here below is a photogallery from the event, with some videos
