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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
36
founder of the Dominican Republic’s Navy, Giovanni Battista Cambiaso. These events and celebrations
were important moments in making the shared history known, and they allowed fruitful contacts to be
established with cultural institutions and the academic world of this country, facilitating participation in
the book.
Many thanks to the prominent figures who agreed to honor this project with their authoritative introduc-
tory words: the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader; the Minister of Culture, Carmen Here-
dia; the Mayor of the National District of Santo Domingo, Carolina Mejía; and the President of the Academia
Dominicana de la Historia, José Chez Checo. I am also very grateful for the introductory remarks written by
distinguished Italian government officials, including the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation, Hon. Luigi Di Maio; Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Cultural Activities, Hon. Dario
Franceschini; the Director General for Global Affairs of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Interna-
tional Cooperation, Luca Sabbatucci; and the Secretary General of the Italo-Latin American Institute (IILA),
Antonella Cavallari.
I am thankful to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for having sup-
ported, by funding the extraordinary
vivere all’italiana
program, projects arising out of this book, such as the
graphic novel with ten iconic stories derived from it, published in printed and digital editions and distributed
in Dominican schools.
I would finally like to thank the sponsors, Santo Domingo Motors-Grupo Ambar, ACEA, DOMICEM,
Rizek Cacao, Grupo Inicia, and Grupo Puntacana for having believed in and supported publication of this
book.
It was a pleasure to work with Father Joseph Chorpenning and Carmen Croce of Saint Joseph’s University
Press, who immediately grasped the importance of an American academic edition enriched with essays by
American professors. I am very happy that authors from the United States decided to participate as well, thus
contributing to the success of this work.
Dr. Michael R. Hall, in his contribution “Ricardo Pittini: Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santo Domingo
(1935-1961),” sheds light on two important Italian figures of the Dominican Republic Church. They are Bishop
Ricardo Pittini and the Apostolic Nuncio Lino Zanini. Monsignor Pittini is an important figure in the Domini-
can Republic church in that he contributed to safeguarding the church during politically difficult times. Bishop
Zanini as Apostolic Nuncio played an important role in allowing the Vatican diplomacy to send decisive mes-
sages to the Dominican government, thus changing history.
Dr. Michael Kryzanek offers interesting reflections on the diplomatic relationships between Italy and the
Dominican Republic in his essay titled “Contemporary Italian-Dominican Relations.” He highlights how past
diplomatic relations between Italy and the Dominican Republic can now be renewed today due to the prepara-
tory work of recent years and how the vast preparatory work translates into greater opportunities for the two
countries in the economic, cultural, and political spheres.
It was a pleasure to work with Andrea Campana, and I thank her for her dedication and important help in
copy editing the collection. It has also been a pleasure to meet the Italian publisher Umberto Allemandi, who
believed in this project from the start and decided to publish the Italian and Spanish editions of a book that is
as technically rich and complex as the history it recounts.
I am convinced that this book will help nurture an awareness of past history, and I hope to promote new
opportunities, while at the same time fostering further research on a subject that deserves closer study. As
can be seen from this Introduction, I discovered many of these fascinating and enlightening stories through
individuals I was privileged to meet and who felt it important to share them with the Italian Ambassador. I, in
turn, felt it was my duty to present them in a scientific and unified manner, wishing to involve readers, starting
with the Italian community but also including all Dominican friends of Italy, in what I learned.
I hope this volume will also be of value to those interested, in general, in the contributions of Italy and
Italian communities around the world, as well as in the cultural, social, economic, and political dialogues aris-