460 / 540
459
ITALIAN JOURNALISTS
poems he published in 1908, but he earned his living as a merchant; he was registered as a mercer in 1903 and
jeweler in 1906. Between 1908 and 1909 he became a partner in the Taveras y Schiffino company. He died in
Santiago on May 26, 1932.
12
The journalist Salvador Pittaluga Nivar (1933-2006) certainly deserves mention. He is the descendant of
Salvatore Pasquale Pittaluga Marsano (1844-1899) from Sampierdarena, Genoa. We do not know Pittaluga
Marsano’s profession or the date of his arrival in the country; however, we do know that he married Elisa
Cambiaso Robert. In 1889 they had a son, Juan Bautista Francisco Pittaluga Cambiaso (1899-1958), who mar-
ried Amada Genoveva Nivar León (1898-1988), who were in turn the parents of Salvador Alfredo Pittaluga
Nivar, who was born on February 16, 1933 in Santo Domingo.
An attorney, journalist, moderator, and defender of freedom of the press, Pittaluga was among the found-
ers of the National Union of Professional Journalists. He is also credited as the founder-director of the Domini-
can Institute of Journalism (Instituto Dominicano de Periodismo - IDP), a school that trained a sizable number
of media figures as well as politicians in the country. In addition, he created awards such as the “Caonabo de
Oro” of journalism and was an ardent defender of the free press through his commentaries. He also worked
for international media—ABC Madrid and Radio Wado USA—and directed the television program
Actuali-
dades
and the short-lived newspaper
La Tarde Dominicana
. After Trujillo’s assassination in 1961, he played a
distinguished role in the struggles for freedom in general and in the practice of journalism. His television pro-
gram
Actualidades
provided a popular space for balanced opinion. This enabled him to serve as moderator for
the debate between Juan Bosch, the presidential candidate, and the Jesuit priest Lautico García, in the sensitive
context of the country’s first free elections in December 1962.
13
We have encountered several Italian migrants with the surname Sturla; however, Pedro Conde Sturla
(1945-), who now concerns us, is the third generation of Antonio Sturla Chiossone, who had a son (Ama-
deo Sturla Marrero) with a woman whose last name was Marrero. Amadeo married Asunción Richetti, with
whom he reared six children, who were all born in San Francisco de Macorís, and from whom several gener-
ations located in the northeast part of the country and Santo Domingo descend. Hilda, one of the daughters,
married Alfredo José Luis Conde Pausas, and they had two children, Alfredo and Pedro Conde Sturla, who
was born in San Francisco de Macorís on April 2, 1945, and who is still working as a journalist.
14
In 1963 Sturla began his studies at the University of Santo Domingo and became a politically militant
member of the Popular Socialist Party, which later became the Communist Party. He participated in the
Constitutionalist Revolution led by Colonel Caamaño in 1965. His first novel,
Uno de esos días de abril
(2012),
centers on his revolutionary experience. He later studied in Monterrey, Mexico, and graduated with a doc-
torate in literature from the Università degli Studi di Roma «La Sapienza.” After returning to the Dominican
Republic in 1975 he worked intermittently in advertising, and beginning in 1978 he devoted himself to teach-
ing as a professor of history and literature at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, from which he
retired with the distinction of professor emeritus after 30 years in the profession. With an incisive and critically
direct voice, he has written about literature and history, particularly prose narrative, which he considers a
superior and more official literary form. Due to difficulties with censorship, he published in alternative news-
papers such as
Impacto Socialista del Partido Comunista
and
Vetas
, the literary magazine of dissent. In 2008, he
began writing for the cultural page of
El Caribe
. But where he found far greater freedom was at
Clave
—in both
its online and print editions—and in its successor
Acento
, which veers more toward literary criticism. He writes
frequently for his own column, “Botella en el Mar,” as well as his blog
Taller de Letras
, where he publishes his
works and posts reviews and criticism of his works.
His literary production includes history, poetry, and prose; however,
Cuentos negros revertidos
(2004), prob-
ably his most representative work, is filled with humor, satire, and criticism of anything that reeks of power:
state authoritarianism, corruption, racism, ecclesiastical hierarchy, and elitist privileges.
“If someone were to ask me,” he maintains, “for the title which has brought me the greatest pride, I would
say that I was a writer, that I was a teacher, that I was once a soldier under Colonel Caamaño.”
15