BILL NUMBER: ACR 248	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Canciamilla and Pescetti

                        AUGUST 22, 2002

   Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 248--Relative to Italian
American Heritage Month.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   ACR 248, as introduced, Canciamilla.  Italian American Heritage
Month.
   This measure would recognize October 2002 as Italian American
Heritage Month in California.
   Fiscal committee:  no.




   WHEREAS, Italians and Italian Americans have made great economic,
cultural, and political contributions to the United States; and
   WHEREAS, Italians and Italian Americans have been essential to the
building of this nation's infrastructure, helping to build its
metropolitan centers, railroads, highways, and subways; and
   WHEREAS, Italians and Italian Americans, including Hall of Fame
baseball player Joe DiMaggio, Hall of Fame football coach Vince
Lombardi, renowned singer and songwriter Frank Sinatra, Nobel Prize
winner Enrico Fermi, Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, and
Oscar-winning director, writer, and producer Francis Ford Coppola,
have provided entertainment endlessly enjoyed by millions throughout
the United States; and
   WHEREAS, Italians and Italian Americans, like Francis B. Spinola,
the first Italian American Member of Congress and Antonin Scalia, the
first Italian American Supreme Court Justice, have made significant
contributions to the democracy of this nation; and
   WHEREAS, During the Civil War, the 39th New York Infantry
consisted of 830 Italian Americans, known as "the Garibaldi Guard,"
who fought in the Union Army from Bull Run to Appomattox, and two
Italian Americans, Brigadier General Francis Spinola and General
Luigi Palma di Cesnola served as Union generals; and
   WHEREAS, Two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
Maryland's William Paca and Delaware's Caesar Rodney, were of Italian
descent; and
   WHEREAS, "Rosie the Riveter," who became a symbol of American
women who took their men's places in factories during World War II,
was Italian American Rosie Bonavita; and
   WHEREAS, One of Italy's most famous sons, Christopher Columbus,
has been further immortalized in a statue that resides in the rotunda
of the California State Capitol; and
   WHEREAS, The Bank of America, the largest bank in the country, was
established in 1904 by Amadeo Pietro Giannini in San Francisco,
California; and
   WHEREAS, Italian American brothers Ernest and Julio Gallo began
producing wine in 1933, which led to the launch of California's wine
industry and the establishment of the largest wine producer in the
state; and
   WHEREAS, Italian Americans have founded some of America's oldest
colleges and universities, including the University of Santa Clara in
California, founded by Italian Jesuits John Nobili and Michael
Accolti in 1851; and
   WHEREAS, Five million four hundred thousand Italians immigrated to
the United States between 1820 and 1991, which has resulted in more
than 26 million Americans of Italian descent, making them the fifth
largest ethnic group in the United States; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That October 2002 be recognized as Italian
American Heritage Month in California, in recognition of the great
contributions that Italians and Italian Americans have made to this
state and this nation.                                ____
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