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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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A new generation, Manuel Arturo Pellerano García, son of Pellerano Peña, has joined
Diario Libre
, where
he serves as vice president of the newspaper company.
The Bonetti family, which has had a considerable presence in the world of trade, business, and the military,
did not have major representation in the press like the Billinis and Pelleranos. The first of the family, Giovanni
Nepomuceno Bonetti Judice (1782-1840), a native of San Remo, Liguria, arrived in the country at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. He married María de las Angustias Garó; their sixth son, José Ramón, born in
1824, married Julia Ernest in 1848. José María Bonetti Ernest, born in 1859, was the initial pillar of the family,
in the opinion of his grandson Mario Bonetti.
Emilio Rodríguez Demorizi, in his work
Seudónimos Dominicanos
, makes only three references to the Bonet-
tis.
11
José María Bonetti Ernest, under the pseudonym Chiro, authored the article titled “El amor” that ran in the
newspaper
El Oasis
on September 16, 1855. The children of Bonetti Ernest, the brothers Ernesto and Rodolfo
Bonetti Burgos, were sportswriters under the pen names Gigante and Birrito, and Filding McGraw, respectively.
An unusual case given the circumstances pertains to Angello Schiffino, who was born in Santa Domenica
Talao, Cosenza, Calabria. A first-generation migrant, he appeared as early as 1908 in Santiago as manager of
the society magazine
Amantes de la Luz
—the most prestigious of the time—which he had joined in 1907. In
1910 he was one of the directors and editors of the newspaper
Ego sum,
and in 1913 he directed the political
newspaper
El Demócrata
. A follower of Juan Isidro Jimenes, he served as deputy chairman of the provincial
board of the Jimenista party in 1914 and general secretary in 1916. He had literary inclinations, as revealed by
Santa Margarita
Ligure, the locality
from which the
Pellerano family
originates.
© Andrea Vierucci