The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 338
NOTES
1 Francisco Gregorio Billini Aristi was born on May 25, 1844,
in the city of Santo Domingo. His parents were Hipólito Billini
Hernández (1822-1903) and María de Regla Aristi Guerrero (b.
1823). Francisco Gregorio’s father was part of a family of eleven
siblings, children of Juan Antonio Billini Ruse and Ana Joaquina
Hernández González. Among these are José Antonio (b. 1812),
Epifanio (b. 1820), Hipólito (b., 1822), Miguel (b. 1827), and Fran-
cisco Xavier (b. 1837). The first three are considered national pa-
triots, while the last two embraced the priesthood. The last was
the famous philanthropist Father Billini. The origin of the Billini
family goes back to the town of Alba, in the Piedmont region of
Italy, where Juan Antonio Billini Ruse was born, the son of José
Antonio Billini and Juana Dominica Ruse. Juan Antonio belonged
to one of the battalions that made up the Leclerc expedition in
1802. Having been wounded, he retired to the town of Baní,
where he settled. There he became the foundation of an honor-
able family that produced heroes, photographers, poets, artists,
philanthropists, and a president.
denciales-francisco-gregorio-billini/.
2
Dominican.
3 In the General Index of Cuadernos Dominicanos de Cultura
1943-1952, Diario Itinerante aparece como La Vida Itinerante.
1943-1952 Los Cuadernos Dominicanos de Cultura ... – PUCMM.
i n v e s t i g a r e . p u cmm . e d u . d o : 8 0 8 0 / xm l u i / . . . / 2 0 . . . /
EEED_19800949_79-104.pdf.
4 Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, Pintura y Escultura en Santo Do-
mingo, Colección Pensamiento Dominicano (Santo Domingo:
Julio D. Postigo e Hijos Editores, 1972), 105.
5 Rodríguez Demorizi, Pintura y Escultura en Santo Domingo, 122.
6
loads/2017/07/troncososanchez.pdf.
7
Dominicana.
8
html?auth-id=242044.
9 BILLINI. Origin of the surname BILLINI in the Dominican
Republic. Juan Antonio Billini Ruse (1787-1852), a native of Alba
Pompeii, Piedmont arrived in the early nineteenth century. He
was a merchant and shipowner. He married Juana de Mota Arve-
lo in 1811 in Santo Domingo. After his first wife died, he married
Ana Joaquina Hernández González in 1819.
ianos-a-quisqueya-2/.
10 ARZENO. Origin of the surname ARZENO in the Dominican
Republic. A native of Zoagli, Genoa province, Liguria, Sebastián
Arzeno (1781-1851) arrived in Puerto Plata in the mid-nineteenth
century. He married María del Carmen Rodríguez.
ianos-a-quisqueya-1/.
lang/es/cognomi/Arzeno/Italia/.
11 BILLINI, 19.
12 DIVANNA. Origin of the surname DIVANNA in the Domin-
ican Republic. José Divanna Majolino (1869-1964), from Santa
Domenica Talao, Cosenza, married María Sánchez Rodríguez (b.
1879) in 1894 in Santiago, where they ran a business in the Palmer
Hermanos commercial establishment.
ianos-a-quisqueya-4/.
13 Jeannette Miller, Paul Giudicelli: sobreviviente de una época oscura
(Santo Domingo: Publicaciones Galería de Arte Moderno), 1983.
celli/Italia/.
14 ROTELLINI. Origin of the surname ROTELLINI in the Do-
minican Republic. Luis Rotellini Fago, from Rome, married Eve-
lina Coén Mansuit in Santo Domingo in 1849.
15 PIANTINI. Origin of the surname PIANTINI in the Domini-
can Republic. José Eugenio Piantini (1791-1871), a gunsmith, em-
igrated from Italy to Santo Domingo in the early 19th century.
He married Florentina Blanchard (b. 1794).
16 BONNELLY. Origin of the surname BONNELLY in the Do-
minican Republic. The siblings Francisco Ulises (1825-1870), José
Arístides, and Anne Nelly Bonnelli Coutín emigrated in 1846
from Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands, to Puerto Plata. They came
accompanied by their mother, María Luisa Coutín (b.1800), who
had already been widowed by Pedro Bonnelli (1798-1843), a na-
tive of Corsica. The surname underwent changes in Puerto Plata
and became Bonnelly.
ianos-a-quisqueya-2/.
17
lo/Italia/.
18 MENICUCCI. Origin of the surname MENICUCCI in the
Dominican Republic. Orestes Menicucci Chiardini (1876-1950)
was born in Fucecchio, Tuscany. He arrived in Santo Domingo
in 1902. He was a sculptor, decorator, and artist who worked in
painting and plaster ornamentation. He married María Mercedes
Rodríguez Núñez (b. 1884) in La Vega in 1909. Julio Amable
González Fernández, “Unique Surnames (6 of 9),” Hoy, Areíto
supplement, Genealogical Capsules, July 14, 2012.
ianos-a-quisqueya-6/.
19
Nova/Italia/.
20 ROMANO. Origin of the surname ROMANO in the Domini-
can Republic. Antonio Romano de Rivera, a native of Montecal-
vo, Campania, Avelino, married María Josefa Díaz Félix in 1814
in Azua.
21 SANGIOVANNI. Origin of the last name SANGIOVANNI
in the Dominican Republic. Originally from Valenza, Pied-
mont. Domenico Sangiovanni Cino and his wife María Rosa
Grisolía Di Vanna arrived in Samaná at the end of the 19th
century from Santa Domenica Talao, Cosenza, accompanied
by their three children: Bonifacio (d. 1928), Paolo (d. 1936),
and Vincenzo Sangiovanni Grisolía (b. 1880). The Sangio-
vanni Grisolía brothers were merchants and owners of the
Sangiovanni Brothers business establishment. Paolo married
Matilde Pérez Álvarez, while Vincenzo married María Balbina
Pérez Álvarez in 1904. Later, the spouses Giovanni Sangiovan-
ni Forestieri and Giuseppa Russo Di Puglia (1882-1975) and
their three children, Inmaculada, Ercilio Ernesto, and Luis
Sangiovanni Russo, left Santa Domenica de Talao, Cosenza,
for America. After a stopover in Cuba, they arrived in Puerto
Plata in 1919,
mayo201819.htm