Buon Giorno!
After a year and a half of paperwork, research, historical archives, meetings with the Italian Consulate, purchasing extended family members birth, marriage and death certificates, apostilles, notaries, exemplifications, and translations…yesterday, Jan 25th 2012 (our middle daughters 22nd birthday), I received my paperwork that I have been recognized as an Italian Citizen in the town of Bisceglie where my Great Great Great Grandfather Mauro Zingarelli and my Great Great Grandfather Donato Zingarelli and my Great Grandfather Antonio Zingarelli were all born. My birth certificate, my divorces and my marriages(I have had three) are also now registered there. However unimportant, my name is now written beside the story of our Italian ancestors.
For as long as I can remember, I was raised appreciating Italian culture and food. My dear Gram (who was Italian only by marriage to my most handsome grandfather Charles Zingarelli) had Italian flags, canisters of pasta, figs with almonds or walnuts, red and orange biscotti cans, amaretto, anisette, and everything breathing red green and white in her living room. They made homemade red wine and Italian sausage in their garage. We ate, we laughed, we talked loud, we hugged, we drank, we ate more…The pulse of Italian in my blood was the only culture I identified with even though I’m hesitant to divulge we have bits of French, Irish, Scottish and my father still believes we covet a tiny part Cherokee Indian (from his mothers side).
Although I have traveled the world, I have been traveling to Italy (mainly Roma) once or twice a year for the past 15-20 years. It is the only place on the planet I feel totally at home in my own skin. Someday, I dream to live there on a more “full time” basis. Yet today my heart aches to breathe in the history in Rome, meet my friends for dinner, eat the best gelato on the planet, touch the old doors, stand in front of a Caravaggio, paint with my art mentor, and walk the tiny town that was founded on my birthday looking to find myself an art studio…..or perhaps find myself a new apartment?
Today, I am thankful my nephew Zachary wants to be an Italian citizen as badly as I do. I owe it to him that our citizenship is more than just a pipe dream. Thank you my sweet nephew for cheering me on!
Today, I am proud. Proud to have my ITALIAN papers. Proud I carry such history inside myself. Proud to be a ZINGARELLI. Viva l’Italia!
Rochelle Carr Studio and Gallery
