58 / 540
57
Rosa Consuelo Delgado Brea descend from to this family.
Bartolo Bancalari built the Samaná pier and shed in 1894.
He became a naturalized Dominican citizen on May 22,
1907.
The children of Angelo María Vicini and Anna
Cánepa were Giuseppe, María (1837–1926), Juan Bautis-
ta-Gio Batta (1847–1900) and Andrés (1848–1928), all na-
tives of Zoagli, Genoa. The Vicini and Porcella families
of Santo Domingo descend from them. Giuseppe married
María Trabuco in Zoagli, and only one child, Angiolino
Vicini Trabuco, travelled to the Dominican Republic after
having been summoned, like so many other relatives, by
their uncle Juan Bautista (Gio Batta).
53
Angiolino Vicina
married San Carlos native Dilia Ariza Lapuente in the Ca-
thedral of Santo Domingo on September 8, 1928.
54
María
Vicini Cánepa married Andrea (Andrés) Porcella fu Gia-
como in Zoagli. One child Giovanni (John) lived in New
York, where he died on August 16, 1954.
55
Another was
Angelo Porcella Vicini, who was invited to come to the Dominican Republic by this uncle, Gio Batta, and he
established a family in Santo Domingo (further information about this family appears later on).
Juan Bautista (Gio Batta) Vicini Cánepa came to Santo Domingo in 1860 at the age of twelve to work
with Nicola Canevaro, a native of Zoagli. He married Mercedes Laura Perdomo Santamaría at the Cathedral
of Santo Domingo on November 29, 1872.
56
He also had children with María Dolores Burgos Brito, one of
whom, Juan Bautista Vicini Burgos (1871–1935), served as president of the Dominican Republic from 1922 to
1924. Andrés Vicini Cánepa settled in the country
57
and married Isabel Perdomo de Soto, a relative of his sis-
ter-in-law, Mercedes Laura, at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on August 8, 1879.
58
The Mena Vicini, Keller
Mena, and Vicini Castillo families descend from Andrés.
Angelo Porcella Vicini (1864–1927), from Zoagli, Genoa, was the son of Andrea Porcella fu Giacomo
and María Vicini Cánepa. He was a merchant, a consul and
chargé d’affaires
for the King of Italy in 1924. He
married Tomasa Leonor Cohen de Marchena (1865–1924) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on December
12, 1886. She was a native of Santo Domingo and had a Sephardic Jewish ancestry background.
59
They had ten
children and over twenty grandchildren, whose descendants established roots in the Dominican Republic and
in North America.
Marcelino Origlia Serra (?–1881), in the records consulted he appears with the surname Orillia. A native
of Liguria and the son of Giovanni Origlia and Antonia Serra, he married María del Socorro Negrete Gutiérrez
(1830–1869) at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on May 16, 1863.
60
As a widower, he married María Altagracia
Bona Hernández (1843–1902) again at Cathedral of Santo Domingo on February 20, 1871.
61
Since he only had
daughters, his surname has disappeared.
Aurelio Octavio Napoleón Ortori (1864–1935) made significant contributions to meteorology and nav-
igation in the Dominican Republic. Born in Genoa and the son of Ottavio Ortori, he graduated as a navy
commander in 1886. He arrived in the country in 1892 at the helm of the schooner La Gaviota owned by the
commercial firm of Juan Bautista Vicini. He served as a captain in the Dominican Navy, first officer of the
Presidente cruiser in 1900, and Director of Meteorological Services in 1924. He guided the nation during the
devastating Hurricane San Zenón in 1930. He married Dominican citizen Graciela Díaz (1880–1936); they four
children.
62
He became a naturalized Dominican citizen in 1933.
63
The Sturla family
during an outing in the
early twentieth century
(José Gabriel García
collection, the National
Archives).
© Antonio Guerra
Juan Bautista
Vicini Cánepa
(1847 – 1900), from
the José Gabriel
García collection, the
National Archives.
© Antonio Guerra
ITALIAN IMMIGRATION TO SANTO DOMINGO