A very small but pretty village in Ciociaria as Trivigliano is and the Virginia Chamber of Deputies have one thing in common: John Avoli.
How is it possible?
Magic of professionalism, generosity and stubbornness of a people of Ciociaria and of the beauty of the United States where for many their American dream has come true.
But let's retrace the history of the Avoli family to get to today's story.
It was 1954 and John's father left the village of Trivigliano alone to go to the United States where he started a small shoe business. Hard work and a lifetime of savings to reunite his family and only in 1959 did his wife and their children join him.
John Avoli was born in Trivigliano thanks to an aunt who was a midwife and remained there until he was 9 when he embarked with his mother to join his father. It was January, in winter, just after Christmas and it was very cold.
Curiously, the ship was called Cristoforo Colombo and the voyage was so stormy that it recalled the adventures of Columbus who left to discover the Indies.
The good weather and the end of seasickness found them only when he arrived at the port of New York, at that time Ellis Island was already closed and John immediately joined his father in Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Then they move about 8 hours away to a coal mine in Weirton Virginia.
The coal industry was so large that it attracted people from all over the world. There were so many people, languages and cultures that it seemed to be experiencing what many years later McLuhan defined as the 'melting pot', a melting pot of races (borrowing the name from a 1908 novel by Israel Zangwill).
John was enchanted by this world so different from that of the small Ciociaria village, but he had to immediately learn to fit into such a context. It was January, school had already started and he didn't know a word of English.
Every day a different struggle to fit in, but then everything changed when others began to appreciate his sporting skills and he became one of the school's mainstays on the American Football team.
There was no real community in his village of Trivigliano, but the Italians had created their own group and with all the other immigrants they helped each other. It was like 'living with so many mothers and so many fathers, everyone minded the children of others and were ready to help them grow'.
And thanks to sport, John won a scholarship to the University of Richmond and thus begins the second part of his life with a good set of prospects and opportunities.
He became an English teacher and sports coach and married a teacher. He continued to study and grow in his profession.
Education within the community and adolescence in an 'extended family' left him the desire to continue doing something for others. A fertile ground that pushes a man to political life and so John became a councillor and then mayor of Staunton.
A much loved mayor as the citizens vote for him for 16 years!
At the same time he was also involved in culture and became director of the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia in Charlottesville. His work at the museum led him even more to foster intercultural exchanges and the integration of different cultures and the museum becomes a point of reference for people from many American states.
Today John Avoli is the 20th district representative to the House of Delegates, one of the two branches of the Virginia General Assembly along with the Senate.
But what is his relationship with Trivigliano and what still unites him to this small town located on the top of a mountain from whose belvedere you can admire the whole Anticolana Valley and Lake Canterno?
His sister had not moved to America and their bond has always been strengthened by mutual travel. His parents, then,during the 1980s returned to live in Trivigliano after their retirement.
This is how he started organizing cultural trips to Italy every year and from the 90s until his retirement in 2017 he brought about 3,000 Americans to Trivigliano.
In fact, every journey to discover Italy ended with a stay of about 4 days in Trivigliano where people could experience the true Italian lifestyle, one of those of small towns so rich in traditions.
They could experience the warmth of people who know each other and who live the day as one community.
Perhaps this very sense of community is what has characterized John's entire life and which has helped him to integrate in America. Perhaps this common sense of people spending their lives together is what unites Italy and America outside the big cities.
È così che inizia ogni anno ad organizzare viaggi culturali in Italia e dagli anni ’90 fino alla sua pensione nel 2017 ha portato circa 3.000 americani a Trivigliano.
Infatti ogni viaggio alla scoperta dell’Italia terminava con un soggiorno di circa 4 giorni a Trivigliano dove le persone potevano provare il vero stile di vita italiano, quelle dei piccoli paesi così ricchi di tradizioni.
For all these reasons and for having always built bridges between Trivigliano and the United States, John Avoli received the Town Ambassador award from Mayor Ennio Quatrana and from Discoverplaces.travel.
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