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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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Giuseppe Grimaldi (b. 1891), from Scalea, Cosenza, ancestor of the journalist and diplomat Víctor Grimaldi
Céspedes; the spouses Blas Montesano Caputo and María Minervino Cavalieri, natives of Santa Domenica
Talao, Cosenza; Victor María Rossi; Carlos Arístides Cámara Bandini, a native of Florence; spouses Luis Sor-
rentino and Adelaida Visone; and José Russo Cino (1890-1980), a native of Santa Domenica Talao, province
of Cosenza, Calabria, who installed the first power plants for the lighting service in the city and in Moca. He
also served as consul general of Italy, and later founded the Rivoli theater. Others were spouses Ricardo Edu-
ardo Longo Campagna and Vicenza Antonia Minervino, and Dante Evaristo Pezzotti Salterucci, born in 1886
in Scalea, Cosenza province, Calabria; he was the father of Blas Pezzotti Tejeda, pharmacist, alderman, and
president of the Chamber of Commerce of La Vega whose name also graces an important park in that city.
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In La Vega, the brothers Antonio, José and Attilio Russo Cino brought the first Ford brand vehicles to that
city;
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Alejandro Leonetti and José Russo were promoters of cinema;
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and in the field of medicine, the names
of Felipe Héctor Biondi and the aforementioned Dante Evaristo Pezzotti Salterucci stand out, the former as
a physician and the latter as a pharmacist. Biondi was a graduate of the University of Naples School of Medi-
cine. He first settled in Santiago; however, his greatest contributions as a physician were in La Vega, where he
worked from 1870 to 1899. He returned to Italy in early 1905, where he died shortly after becoming paralyzed,
the result of advanced syphilis.
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Another immigrant in the area, Evaristo Pezzotti, held a degree in pharmacy. Born on April 4, 1885, in
Scalea, Cosenza, he first settled in Salcedo; by 1920 he lived in Sánchez, and in 1923 he was based in La Vega.
He owned the Central pharmacy, and later, in association with Carlos De Moya and under the company name
of Moya Pezzotti, he owned the Esmeralda pharmacies in Santo Domingo, Central in La Vega, and San José
in Sánchez. He died on May 12, 1929.
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In La Vega the admiration for Italy was evident: there was the Hotel Italia; Rafael Martinez Alba’s or-
chestra, the country’s first to feature mandolins, bore the name of La Napolitana;
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and the famous restaurant
of the spouses Francisco Soñé (Pancho) and Virita Garcia de Soñé, founded in 1911 across from Duarte Park,
was called La Gioconda as an allusion to the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, a copy of which hung
prominently on the wall of this establishment.
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Italians also shone in the civic life of La Vega. Lina Magdalena Longo Minervino served for decades as one
of the directors of the Instituto Comercial Vegano and the Padre Fantino Falco and Senda de Santa Teresita
companies. A street in that city, of which she was declared Adoptive Daughter, bears her name.
Also, in La Vega, Enrique García Godoy Ceara (1887 - 1947) was one of the most renowned artists in Do-
minican art history. His Italian identity was particularly manifested in the academic aspects of his work.
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The
Salesian brother Rosario Pilonero Milazzo (May 13, 1926, Canicattì, Agrigento - La Vega, November 9, 2017),
who arrived in the Dominican Republic in 1950, is also worthy of mention. Distinguished for his talents in
the field of agronomy, and considered one of the greatest agronomists in the country, he was professor and
later administrator of the Salesian Agronomic and Technical Institute (IATESA) in La Vega and treasurer at
the Aspirantado Salesiano and the Noviciado Salesiano Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Jarabacoa. In the field of
cooperativism, he was co-founder of the Cooperativa Vega Real in La Vega, and founder of the Centro de
Salud Obra Social Salesiana and the Cooperativa Don Bosco in Jarabacoa. He was awarded the Order of Merit
of Duarte, Sánchez and Mella in the distinctions of Knight (1975) and Official (2001).
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In terms of architecture, the urban contours of La Vega were enriched by the construction of the public
market, a replica of a Venetian market, the work of the engineer Alfredo Scaroina Montuori, who also built
the city halls in Moca (destroyed in the earthquake of 1946) and San Cristóbal.
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In the second half of the 1870s, the spouses Saverio Russo, a native of Orsomarso, and María Francesca
Cino, born in Santa Domenica Talao, arrived in Moca along with their children Domingo (1872-1942), who
was the founder of the first pharmacy that existed in Bonao,
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Alejandro, Angelo, Giovanna, Antonio, Attilio
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and José Russo Cino, the latter three already mentioned and based in La Vega. Two decades later, they were