Mabuhay ang Knights of Frosinone, Italia, at Pagpalain!

THE PROVINCE OF FROSINONE (Italian: Provincia di Frosinone) is a province in the Lazio region of Italy, with 91 comuni (singular: comune; see Comuni of the Province of Frosinone). Its capital is the city of Frosinone. It has an area of 3,244 km², and a total population of 489,042 (2005).

The Province was established by Royal Decree on 6 December 1926 with territories belonging to Lazio and to Campania. The Campania areas were the left valley of the Liri-Garigliano river, the district of Sora, the Comino Valley, the district of Cassino, the Gulf of Formia and Gaeta, the Pontine islands, which until then had been for centuries included in the Province called Terra di Lavoro, of the Kingdom of Naples (or of the Two Sicilies).

THE first traces of human presence in the provincial territory date back to prehistoric times: a famous skull of Homo erectus (the so-called Homo cepranensis, in the Prehistorical Museum of Pofi), dating from 800,000 years ago, constitutes the most ancient finding of the Homo species in Europe.

In historical times (10th-9th centuries BC), the area, previously occupied by the socalled Pelasgic civilization, was settled by Indo-European colonists. This arrival is echoed in numerous legends, like those of Aeneas and Saturn: the latter, ousted by Olympus, would come to Lazio to help the men and found seven cities whose name begins with "A" (for example, Alatri and Anagni).

In the 7th century BC the area of what is now the province entered the orbit of Rome, which made it the socalled Latium adiectum ("Adjoined Lazio"). However, Rome needed some 300 years to obtain a definitive victory against the Volsci and the Hernici, who became Romanized after the Social and the Samnite Wars.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the northern part of the province (usually referred to as Ciociaria) belonged to the Papal States. In the Middle Ages, the abbey of Monte Cassino was always a major landowner and a politically renowned element of the area. The southeastern part was a frontier area which was long claimed by the other major powers of the time, the Duchies of Benevento and Gaeta and the County of Aversa: annexed to the Kingdom of Naples under the Normans (12th century), from the late 14th century it became part of the county and then, with an independent status, of the Duchy of Sora. Pontecorvo remained a Papal enclave from 1463.

After the unification of Italy, in 1927 the Fascist government made Frosinone the capital of a province which unified different areas which belonged to the Papal and Neapolitan states: this move caused criticism, as they were considered too different in history, language and culture, especially by the Bourbon nostalgic party which maintained a strong position in southern Italy for many decades.

The creation of a new province, with capitals in Cassino, Formia and Sora and comprising the former territories of the Kingdom of Naples, has been proposed.

 

Filipinos in Italy are One

When united, they can not only elect a municipal councilor or get free Italian driver’s licenses or send home PhP3 million in aid to Haiyan or Yolanda victims, but more

by CARLOS MERCADO SIMBILLO

as told to Marc Guerrero

First exclusive news report by DFa Firenze

http://dfa-firenze.blogspot.com

All roads, airstrips and sealanes led to Educatorio Fuligno-Sala Blu Via Faenza, 48 Florence, Italy, for the Knights of Rizal Firenze’s most important Filipino, Italian affair of the year    

FLORENCE, Italy (Nov 16, 2013) - Two overseas Filipino groups from Florence (Firenze) and Tuscany (Toscana) are inspiring upon the more than 60 organizations in Italy that make the Filipino communities thrive by reliving the unification ideals of Jose Rizal some 126 years after he visited Rome in June 1887.      

Artist Carlos Simbillo in Florence described the two Pinoy blocs, the Confederazione Comunita Filippina Toscana (Centro-Coordinamento Filipino Leaders Associative NCA) and the Knights of Rizal (KOR), Firenze, as lead alliances that try to bring together Filipino compatriots regardless of class or creed. “One Filipino nation outside of the Philippine homeland” can, not only elect a municipal councilor in Firenze or get free Italian driver’s licenses or send home PhP3 million in aid to Haiyan or Yalnda victims, but more.

Confederazione Toscana the Confederation of Filipino Communities Tuscany (CFCT) or Confedcomfiltoscana founded in May 2009 is an openhearted aggrupation of three dozen legitimate organizations across Italy from Tuscany inspired anew by the elected (Aug 13, 2013) leadership of the strategic partnership between a native of Quezon province, Divinia Capalad, former twice-elected City Councilor of Florence,  and a native of Cabiao, Nueva Ecija, Carlos Simbillo , CFCT president and VP, respectively; together with the whole collective comprised by Maria Teresa Salamero, Socorro Gecolea, Leandro Pinon, Marietta Cecconi, Grace Ramos, Amelia Bayongan, Alfredo Lugue and Richard Garcia.

Led by Filipino European Association (FEA) Empoli, Associazione Immigrati Filippini (AIF) Firenze and Impruneta, RMP Remittance, BDO-CBN Grupo, Cabalen Group of Florence, Comunita Cattolica Filippina di San Barnaba (Filipino Catholic Community Florence or FCCF), Iglesia ni Cristo, Guardians Brotherhood’s GBI-TBBG, GSBII BronzeWing Firenze Chapter, Blue Falcons GPII Montecatini Terme, Tau Gamma Phi- Triskelion, Alpha Phi Omega (APO)-Umac, Philippine-Italian Friendship Association Tuscany (PIFAT), Pilipino Immigrantes National Organization Italia-Arezzo (PINOI), Filipino Golden Group, UKP Litrato Klub, Comunita Filippine (COMFIL) di Livorno, United Group of Filipino Workers Siena, Filippino Comunita Arezzo, Viva Filippine, Filipino Independenza Group, Assemblea di Dio Missione Evangelica di Firenze, Barangay Centro Siena, Saranay Group, Timpuyog Group, Brigade of Serving Servants Foundation Montecatini Terme, KABATI Comunita Filippina Versiliese-Viareggio and others, the Confedcomfiltoscana works closely with the Philippine Embassy in Rome headed by His Excellency, Ambassador Virgilio Reyes Jr, and Honorary PH Consulate Florence headed by Honorary Consul General, Dr Fabio Fanfani, on matters of interest to all the Filipino communities in Italy, like immigration, entrepreneurship, education, sports, culture and solidarity.

The second group, the Highest Order of the Knights of Rizal in Manila headed by real estate developer, Sir Reghis M Romero II, is celebrating its 97th anniversary in Europe toda, by chartering its KOR Firenze or Florence chapter.

Elected the new Supreme Chapter Commander of KOR Firenze earlier, Sir Knight Carlos Simbillo leads (from 10AM to 5PM, Saturday, Nov 16, 2013) at Educatorio Fuligno-Sala Blu Via Faenza, 48 Florence, Italy, the KOR Firenze Chartering and Dubbing Ceremonies and Oathtaking of Officers that Ambassador Reyes, together with Dr Fanfani, KOR Firenze adviser, and other dignitaries are gracing as the great Filipino and Italian affair of the year.

KOR overall adviser for Europe and special assistant to Supreme Commander for European affairs, Sir Lino Paras, will induct into office under Simbillo: Sirs Dennis Reyes, deputy commander; Petronilo Jimenez, chancellor; Percival Capsa, pursuivant; Leandro Pinon, exchequer; Gil Baldovino, auditor; Mario Cadauan, archivist; Elmer Alvarez, deputy pursuivant; Jimmy Canosa, deputy exchequer; Romeo Paquerez and Armando Cruz, members.

Earlier, KOR Filipinas led by Don Emilio Yap Sr, Alfredo Lim, Hilario Davide, Jose D Lina, Romero et al conferred on President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III its highest honors in fitting ceremonies at the Manila Hotel.

Wikipedia also named a third power group among the 100,000 (conservative government figures) to “400,000 (according to Rhea Santos’ GMA TV7 show, Pinoy Abroad)-strong-when united Filipino Italian communities,” the Filipino Women’s Council. It fights for migrant women’s rights and lobbies on their behalf. Kababaihang Rizalista is following their footsteps. Being united in mind, heart, spirit and action can benefit compatriots currently in Italy and those still coming, as well. In 2007, Italy gifted Filipinos with a Filipino driver's license a free Italian driver's license.   

Selfdestructing?

BOTH the Firenze Rizal Knights and Confederazione Toscana are trying to synergize their Filipino compatriots’ acts into valuable programs that relate with Rizal’s idea also of “nationhood outside of the Philippines.” They converge at http://facebook.com/FilipinosInItalyR1 .

These 21st century or circa-21 campaigns are being done amidst random reports from local and foreign observers in Rome that many Pinoys across Italy have, for many decades, been “wasting their time, energy and money by overdrinking, picnic,(wo)manizing, gambling and other vices and into decadence.” A couple of associations of Filipinos in Italy is allegedly led if not well-oiled not by compatriots, but by ungracious Italians in conspiracy with unscrupulous Pinoys and lost Guardian bullies tolerated by their superiors in Rome. These sad commentaries are also rocking the Pinoy communities in Italy down the drain, Milan domestic assistant Xyza Abcon pointed out, in Tagalog, with Visayan accent.

There is an upside to the sad commentaries, though. “Filipinos of diverse persuasions come united or unified, like it or not, in but a few ‘fiestas’ or ‘celebrations:’ birthdays, weddings, funerals, revolutions and catastrophes (like the hurricane-ish Haiyan or Yolanda that almost erased Easter Visayas).”    

With compatriot Divinia Capalad, Simbillo and all the other selfless Pinoys across Italy were able to arrange for solid help and assistance to Yolanda victims from both Italians and Filipinos that they are sending back to The Philippines at an initial amount of PhP3 million or EU50,000.00 from the President of Tuscan Region Governor Enrico Rossi. More help from the Filipino-Italian bloc is forthcoming.

Florence Provincial President Andrea Barducci sent felicitations (in Italian language) to the Carlos Simbillo Knights of Rizal in Firenze:    

Translated in essence or substance (and not literally, like the Google mechanized pagsasalin) into Filipino or Tagalog language, Barducci meant:

“Di-hihigit sa pagkakataong ito na ang provincia ng Firenze at ang kanyang presidente ay napakalapit at nakikiisa sa komunidad ng mga Filipino. Ang anibersaryo ng Knights of Rizal ay nagkataong napasabay at napataon sa pinakagrabeng kalamidad na sumapit sa inyong bansa. Nakasisiguro kami na ang grabeng pinsala at salanta na dulot ng bagyong Haiyan (Yolanda) ay hindi makakayang buwagin ang pagkakaisa ng diwa, lakas ng loob at kagitingan na naipamalas na ng sambayanang Filipino. Higit kailanman ay ngayon dapat gunitain, alalahanin, ipamalas at tularan ang kadakilaan at kabayanihan, at pamana ni Jose Rizal. Nakalulungkot na ang martirio niya ay nasundan ngayon ng pagmamartir ng libulibong Pilipino na naging biktima ng isa sa pinakamalakas na bagyo na naranasan sa buong mundo. Gusto kong ipahatid sa pagkakataong ito ng paggunita at selebrasyon ng ika-97 anibersaryo ng Knights of Rizal sa Europa ang pakikiisa at pagyapos na parang kapatid ng mamayang Italiano sa buong sambayanang Filipino.”

But not only do Filipinos are interested in affiliating with Jose Rizal’s ideas and ideals.

Twelve true-blue Italians, namely, Sirs Salvatore Olivari dela Moneda, Ferdinando Marchiani, Franco Canova, Franchesco Barberi, Vincenzo Cortese, Teodoro Monescalchi, Giuseppe Collura, Sergio Andreangeli, Antonio Stella, Fabio Zanni, Fabio Monescalchi and Antonio Iannaccone of Frosinone, Italy, are also doing the investiture into what shall come to be known as Knights of Rizal Frosinone (yes, not of, for and by Filipinos, but by native Italians).

Simbillo forecasted that more KOR chapters across Italy and Europe will also affiliate with the Rizal fold in the years to come.

Filipino Italians form the fourth largest migrant communities in Italy, behind the Romanians, Albanians and North Africans. They were reportedly able to plough back to their families in the Philippine homeland in annual remittances an average US$500 million (trailing in fourth place the Filipino remittances from the US, Saudi Arabia and Canada, until 2007) which were observed as “dwindling.” The decline was attributed to not only the unemployment and other economic challenges Italy and the European Community also face as the years went by. Italy, however, remained the joint largest European migration destination for Filipinos “for many good reasons about living life to the fullest, like having healthcare of value, for instance,” Simbillo, a permanent resident in Italy, was waxing poetic. Three years ago, the artist underwent a very expensive angioplasty that the Italian healthcare system subsidized, at cost. Colleagues teased him, he could have been dead by now if he went under the knife, in Manila, due to insufficient funds.

A first overseas Filipino, Rizal visited Italy 126 years ago. According to joserizal.ph, the greatest Filipino hero toured Turin, Milan, Venice and Florence. He reached the eternal city of Rome on June the 27th, 1887 and was thrilled by the sights of the Capitolio, Roca Tarperya, Palatinum, Forum Romanum, Museum Capitolinum and the church of Santa Maria, the maggiore. He went to the seat of the Catholic Faith and Popes City of Vatican on June the 29th and was impressed by its magnificent edifices, specially Saint Peter’s Church, also a feast day as Rizal’s on the same year. Every night, after sightseeing the whole day, Rizal returned to his hotel, very tired “as a dog,” but sleeping as a god, he wrote his German best friend Ferdinand Blumentritt whom Rizal sent a flower he plucked from the palace of Septimius Severus garden. The great doctor who was gallivanting like a dog in Italy did not waste his energy with vices during his two weeks’ stay in Rome before he embarked on a return to the Philippines for his martyrdom that rocked Mother Spain. God had a mission for Rizal; he accomplished it. Filipinos in Italy wanted to relive Rizal, circa-21. - With additional report: Marc Guerrero, marc_guerrero@journalist.com, http://about.me/marcguerrerocommunicationsinc

DiyaryoFilipino, circa-21

DiyaryoFilipino al-Italia - Firenze or DFa Firenze takes liberty, with great honor and pride, in taking off where the great Tagalog daily broadsheet newspaper Diyaryo Filipino of the Nineties by National Bookstore's Benjamin Ramos, National Artist for Literature Virgilio S Almario, now chairman of Commission on Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino), poet laureate Lamberto E Antonio and Visayan newsman in English Yen Makabenta et al,left.

DFa Firenze is not yet publishing in Manila or the Philippine homeland, though.

DFa Firenze will first see the light in an ancient Italian city that is acknowledged as the "birthplace of the Renaissance:" Florence, Italy.

Florence or Firenze (Fiorenza or Florentia in Latin) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.

The Renaissance or Rinascimento in Italian, meaning "to be reborn," was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe.

As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of learning based on classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch, the development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.

In politics, the Renaissance contributed the development of the conventions of diplomacy, and in science an increased reliance on observation. Historians often argue this intellectual transformation was a bridge between the Middle Ages and the Modern era. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, who inspired the term "Renaissance man".

There is a consensus that the Renaissance began in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century. Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of Florence at the time; its political structure; the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici; and the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy following the Conquest of Constantinople at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

The Renaissance has a long and complex historiography, and in line with general skepticism of discrete periodizations, there has been much debate among historians reacting to the 19th-century glorification of the "Renaissance" and individual culture heroes as "Renaissance men", questioning the usefulness of Renaissance as a term and as a historical delineation.The art historian Erwin Panofsky observed of this resistance to the concept of Renaissance.

It is perhaps no accident that the factuality of the Italian Renaissance has been most vigorously questioned by those who are not obliged to take a professional interest in the aesthetic aspects of civilization— historians of economic and social developments, political and religious situations, and, most particularly, natural science— but only exceptionally by students of literature and hardly ever by historians of Art.

Some have called into question whether the Renaissance was a cultural "advance" from the Middle Ages, instead seeing it as a period of pessimism and nostalgia for the classical age, while social and economic historians of the longue durée especially have instead focused on the continuity between the two eras, linked, as Panofsky himself observed, "by a thousand ties".

The word Renaissance, whose literal translation from French into English is "Rebirth", was first used and defined by French historian Jules Michelet in his 1855 work, Histoire de France. The word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century.

DFa Firenze is envisioned by its 21st century of circa-21 publishers and editors as a newspaper in Filipino or Tagalog (covering all other major languages in The Philippines), English and Italian with both printing press-produced and digital editions.

Avanti and Diyaryo Filipino

Filipinos are almost always Italian-inspired in their ways and passion.

Abante tabloid daily newspaper in Manila was inspired by Avanti! the Italian newspaper http://www.avantionline.it/.

Abante's first publisher was National Artist for Literature, Virgilio "Rioalma" Almario. Fresh from Rome in the late-1980s, Almario got PhP500,000.00 and he founded Abante with screaming headlines that listed down and named names as to who were the homosexuals in the Senate, among others No-No's during that era. He run out of money after a few months and offered the publishing management to the Valdez accounting firm. Not long after, the firm passed on the management of Abante http://www.abante.com.ph/ to the Macasaet father-and-son who, back then, was successfull in turning Malaya broadsheet daily newspaper into a gold mine.

Stories from the grapevine had it that "Abante started to publish on May 1988, the newspaper was famous for its adult column entitled 'Xerex Xaviera,' which also appeared on its sister paper Abante Tonite. In 2003, Regal Films released its film based on Xerex story, it was a trilogy and starred by sexy star Aubrey Miles. In mid-2004 Xerex stopped publishing columns to give way to a shifting to all-family paper."

Avanti! ("Forward!") is an Italian daily newspaper, born as the official voice of the Italian Socialist Party, published since 25 December 1896. It took its name from its German counterpart Vorwärts, the party-newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

First housed in Rome, Avanti! moved to Milan in 1911. While it advocated neutrality on the wake of World War I (which it viewed as an imperialist conflict), the paper was becoming infused with the militarist and irredentist attitudes of its editor at the time, future Fascist leader Benito Mussolini (who had risen to prominence as an opponent of Filippo Turati during the Italo-Turkish War). Mussolini's dissent caused his ousting from the party, Avanti!'s direction being taken over by Giacinto Menotti Serrati, Mussolini then started his own paper Il Popolo d'Italia with Syndicalist and Republican dissidents from the Socialist Party.

The paper's headquarters were set on fire by Mussolini's Blackshirts on 15 April 1919, and it was banned by the government in 1926. From that point on, Avanti! was issued as a weekly, and was edited in exile – first in Paris and then in Zürich, at the Ristorante Cooperativo.

With Mussolini's first fall in 1943, the paper returned to Italy. However, its circulation was drastically curtailed due to changes in political options after World War II. After losing its popularity, Avanti! ceased to be a respectful newspaper merely becoming a party-newspaper of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI).

After Abante, Almario published Diyaryo Filipino - the only 1990s daily broadsheet newspaper in Filipino or Tagalog language.

Welcome, DiyaryoFilipino al-Italia (DFa Firenze), Mabuhay!

Grazie!