L'Italia

Prelude To War :: Panels

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L’Italia was the Italian American newspaper in San Francisco, and Ettore Patrizi was its editor and publisher. The issue shown here displays a comparison of Italy’s “puny” colony in Africa compared to the huge colonial empire of Great Britain. Patrizi would eventually be accused of being a fascist leader in the West, and excluded from California. The three fencers were students at the Italian School in Fugazi Hall in San Francisco. The school, two other photos of which are on this panel, was considered a fascist training ground and closed with the onset of war. Nella Panelli, who gave us the photo, is the young fencer in the center.

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Ettore Patrizi, editor and publisher of L’Italia, the Italian newspaper of California; the exterior of his San Francisco office is pictured in the bottom photo.
The August 1935 edition of L’Italia depicts the relative amounts of colonial territory held by other European powers compared to Italy’s, to defuse protests about Mussolini’s moves into Africa.
Three fencers from the Doposcuola (after-school Italian language school) fencing team at Casa Fugazi in San Francisco’s North Beach. The government closed the school during the war. Nella Panelli, middle, donated these photos.
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