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INTRODUCTION BY THE EDITOR
the Southern and Eastern Regions of the Dominican Republic,” and Edwin Espinal Hernández, “The Italian
Presence in the Cibao Region and in Santiago de los Caballeros,” which highlight the continuity of Italian
emigration, the roots of Italian families in the country, the number of emigrants, and the importance of these
families and their surnames in every aspect of their histories.
From the very beginning of this project, I have believed the great starting point should be remembered:
the Genoese Christopher Columbus and his companions were the first to interact with this island nation. Al-
though there are some who criticize the memory of Columbus, forgetting that he was a man of his time and a
builder of transatlantic connections, his contribution, his Italianism, and the fact that he changed the history of
the world cannot be ignored.
2
Columbus’s very Italianism is at times doubted in the Caribbean region, given
that the name adopted for him, Colón, emphasizes the Hispanic. But he was a deeply Italian figure, as such
by birth, and also multifaceted as well as archetypal of the globalization of the fascinating period that links the
Middle Ages to the modern age.
3
In this perspective, the contribution by Gabriella Airaldi entitled “Christo-
pher Columbus. A Man between Two Worlds” makes known the great navigator’s Italian dimension, as a Ge-
noese, along with several of his symbolic legacies, such as the name he bestowed on the beautiful Dominican
island of “Saona,” now in the Eastern National Park, in memory of one of Admiral Columbus’s companions,
Michele da Cuneo, and derived from the Ligurian city of Savona.
This discussion is followed by the story of the Italian clergymen and the Catholic Church, and their influ-
ence in the country. It begins with one of the most symbolic and prominent figures, the first resident bishop of
Santo Domingo, Alessandro Geraldini: an important diplomat, man of letters, clergyman, friend of Columbus,
and builder of the First Cathedral of the Americas. He was a central figure in epic pages of Dominican histo-
ry, including those devoted to his clashes with the Spanish governor, one of which involved a confrontation
over the condition and treatment of the natives, brought to consideration by Edoardo D’Angelo’s article titled
“Alessandro Geraldini vs. Rodrigo de Figueroa: The Dominican Church, the
Encomenderos
, and the Issue of
Indigenous Peoples.” D’Angelo is also the author, with Rosa Manfredonia, of “From the Mediterranean to
the Atlantic. The
Itinerarium ad regiones sub aequinoctialis plaga constitutas
(Itinerary) of Alessandro Geraldini
d’Amelia,” in which the figure of Geraldini the writer is understood in completely new terms. Professor D’An-
gelo’s original discoveries show that the book by the first resident bishop was indeed written by him and is not
the result of a Renaissance invention attributed to him. The figure of Geraldini is then rounded out by the very
authoritative reflections of his successor, the Archbishop of Santo Domingo Monsignor Ozoria, in the “Hom-
ily Given to Commemorate the Quincentennial of the Arrival of the First Resident Bishop of Santo Domingo,
Monsignor Alessandro Geraldini, First Cathedral of the Americas, September 17, 2019” on the occasion of the
Te Deum celebrated by Monsignor Ozoria to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first bishop’s arrival.
His words allow Geraldini’s intellectual and spiritual wealth and complexity to be fully appreciated. As I have
learned while visiting the country, Italian clergymen have made a fundamental contribution to the formation
of the Dominican educational system, as told to me by many former students whose lives were changed by
the education they received from such Italian clerics as the Salesians. The strength of the ties between the
Dominican and Italian Churches was also pointed out to me in conversations with Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús
López Rodríguez; Archbishop Francisco Ozoria; the Rector of the Catholic University of Santo Domingo; the
auxiliary Bishop of Santo Domingo, Benito Ángeles; and the Bishop of Higüey, Jesús Castro Marte. Some of
the important ties between the Church of Santo Domingo and Italy are described in the chapter by José Luis
Sáez, “Italian Clergy and the Catholic Church. Biographical Summaries,” which describes significant and still
beloved figures like Brother Rocco Cocchia, Father Fantino Falco, and Archbishop Pittini.
The political history section begins with an essay by Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, “Duarte and Mazzini,”
which includes not only the words of a great Dominican intellectual but also makes known the symbolic ties
between two individuals who played a major part in the independence of the two countries: the founder of
the Dominican Republic, Duarte, and one of the leaders of the Italian Risorgimento, Giuseppe Mazzini. In his
essay titled “Juan Bautista (Giovanni Battista) Cambiaso (1820-1886), Founder of the Dominican Navy and