Memories
Serroni/Royce Wedding November 9, 1947
Petronilla Zellitti - daughter of Louis Zilletti
Catherine Anesi - daughter of John Anesi
Virginia Serroni - daughter of Otto Serroni and Concetta DiUbaldo
Merle Royce - groom
Fred Necchi - his father, John Necchi, joins the Baudinos on book cover of Salone Italiano
Mary Ann Serroni - sister of the bride, Virginia
Angie DiUbaldo - daughter of Ubaldo DiUbaldo
Kay Babey Niemann is flower girl - granddaughter of John and Katie Baudino
Catherine Anesi - daughter of John Anesi
Virginia Serroni - daughter of Otto Serroni and Concetta DiUbaldo
Merle Royce - groom
Fred Necchi - his father, John Necchi, joins the Baudinos on book cover of Salone Italiano
Mary Ann Serroni - sister of the bride, Virginia
Angie DiUbaldo - daughter of Ubaldo DiUbaldo
Kay Babey Niemann is flower girl - granddaughter of John and Katie Baudino
DiUbaldo/Serroni Wedding 1924
Left to Right back row - Ubaldo DiUbaldo, Mike Cugnini, Alex Baldini, Frank Zellitti, Concetta Zellitti, Angelo DiUbaldo, Mary Fracassini, and Louis Baudino
Left to Right front - Lena Fracassini Buchanan, Concetta Serroni, Otto Serroni, Ida Fracassini Hollopeter, and Mary Fracassini DiUbaldo
Left to Right front - Lena Fracassini Buchanan, Concetta Serroni, Otto Serroni, Ida Fracassini Hollopeter, and Mary Fracassini DiUbaldo
Peter Dalla Gravesite
The San Juan County Historical Society of Silverton placed this marker on Peter Dalla's "unmarked" grave after Salone Italiano was published. His grave site is within a "stone's throw" of the Louis Sartore plot on Hillside Cemetery in Silverton. The photo is compliments of Betty Loffer of Durango, CO.
SARTORE FAMILY IN SILVERTON circa 1906
Angelina Sartore, Jenny Sartore Bonavida, Anna and Lina Bonavida, and Katie Sartore.
This would be after the murder of Peter Dalla and before Katie’s marriage to John Baudino. Jenny Bonavida would be expecting her third child, Emilio.
This would be after the murder of Peter Dalla and before Katie’s marriage to John Baudino. Jenny Bonavida would be expecting her third child, Emilio.
THE TRADITION OF BOILING WINE
by Kay Niemann
I find myself staring into a gleaming pot of shimmering, vibrant, red liquid, and it is as though I am mesmerized and in a trance. I become aware of the tiny currents of electricity flowing through my body, whispering recollections of the past. The warmth and aroma rising from the stove revives a feeling of wistfulness and nostalgia.
In my memory, I can see my grandfather looking at his pocket watch, noting that it is time to make preparations. He would go into the pantry and choose a special bottle of his precious wine. His knowledge of winemaking is a part of his Italian heritage, with skills handed down from many generations.
Through a window looking into my heart, I remember that my grandmother would be the one to create the magic. She would go to work, reaching for the large pot – the one they used every year for the ceremony…the one I am using now. She would pour the wine into this particular container and place it on the stove.
As children, we would struggle to keep our eyelids from drooping. We would be drowsy at this late hour, wondering if we could stay awake for the ritual. Earlier in the evening, we would have eaten a large meal and then played cards with all of the family members who had gathered. This was a special night, and we would welcome in the New Year together.
My mother would call us and we would stagger sleepily into the kitchen, where the pot on the stove was now the center of attention. Grandma had added cloves and cinnamon sticks to the wine, and it was now hot and simmering. My grandfather regarded his watch carefully, because he was the one to decide when the midnight hour had come.
When Grandpa gave the word, my grandmother would light a match and touch it to the wine, which was almost ready to bubble. Someone would turn out the lights as the alcohol in the wine caught fire and burned brightly in the darkness.
My mother continued this tradition with my children gathered around the same container filled with boiling wine. As the fire burned, their faces held the same sense of celebration and fascination that I remembered from my childhood.
I blink back these memories and return to the present, knowing that it is my turn to carry on this tradition. Everyone is focused on the pot of wine that is ready to boil. I touch the burning match to the steaming liquid and it ignites with a hot blast of flames. By this firelight we are hugging, kissing, and welcoming in the New Year.
The pot is removed from the burner and the fire burns out. The wine is poured into cups and we salute the New Year and taste the fiery liquid. The soothing warmth soon has us all ready for sleep.
As I reach to hug my grandchildren, I feel the surge of connection from my grandparents to our children. I smile with the thought that one day it will be their turn to carry on the ceremony. It is my hope that they will understand the importance of timeless traditions that bind us from generation to generation. When the day comes, and they light the fire and watch the flame burn on the wine…perhaps they will remember me.
In my memory, I can see my grandfather looking at his pocket watch, noting that it is time to make preparations. He would go into the pantry and choose a special bottle of his precious wine. His knowledge of winemaking is a part of his Italian heritage, with skills handed down from many generations.
Through a window looking into my heart, I remember that my grandmother would be the one to create the magic. She would go to work, reaching for the large pot – the one they used every year for the ceremony…the one I am using now. She would pour the wine into this particular container and place it on the stove.
As children, we would struggle to keep our eyelids from drooping. We would be drowsy at this late hour, wondering if we could stay awake for the ritual. Earlier in the evening, we would have eaten a large meal and then played cards with all of the family members who had gathered. This was a special night, and we would welcome in the New Year together.
My mother would call us and we would stagger sleepily into the kitchen, where the pot on the stove was now the center of attention. Grandma had added cloves and cinnamon sticks to the wine, and it was now hot and simmering. My grandfather regarded his watch carefully, because he was the one to decide when the midnight hour had come.
When Grandpa gave the word, my grandmother would light a match and touch it to the wine, which was almost ready to bubble. Someone would turn out the lights as the alcohol in the wine caught fire and burned brightly in the darkness.
My mother continued this tradition with my children gathered around the same container filled with boiling wine. As the fire burned, their faces held the same sense of celebration and fascination that I remembered from my childhood.
I blink back these memories and return to the present, knowing that it is my turn to carry on this tradition. Everyone is focused on the pot of wine that is ready to boil. I touch the burning match to the steaming liquid and it ignites with a hot blast of flames. By this firelight we are hugging, kissing, and welcoming in the New Year.
The pot is removed from the burner and the fire burns out. The wine is poured into cups and we salute the New Year and taste the fiery liquid. The soothing warmth soon has us all ready for sleep.
As I reach to hug my grandchildren, I feel the surge of connection from my grandparents to our children. I smile with the thought that one day it will be their turn to carry on the ceremony. It is my hope that they will understand the importance of timeless traditions that bind us from generation to generation. When the day comes, and they light the fire and watch the flame burn on the wine…perhaps they will remember me.
Hot Spiced Wine Recipe
Baudino Family Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup of red wine per person
3 whole cinnamon sticks
¼ cup whole cloves
sugar to taste
Pour the wine into a large 2-quart container and add sugar. Break up 3 whole cinnamon sticks into smaller pieces and add to wine. Add approximately ¼ cup of whole cloves to the wine.
Heat the wine almost to boiling point. When it starts to bubble strike a match and light the wine on fire so there is a flame.
Allow the wine to burn for a short time and then remove the container from the heat so the flame will die. Pour hot wine into cups and serve.
Click here to edit.
REVIEWS
Niemann's story tells of deep roots and hard work
My Turn
by Charlie Langdon
Durango Herald, March 18, 2005
Italian settlers' family histories a fine story. Family history is sometimes the best sort of history. This is clearly the case with Salone Italiano, Kay Niemann's informative and dramatic history of Italian immigrants in Silverton and Durango. Indeed, her book is, perhaps, the most compelling narrative chronicle of the Four Corners that I've yet had the pleasure to read.
I was unfamiliar with the recently published work until my wife Laura brought home a copy she had purchased from our longtime friend Nikki Bonaventura Morrissey at Durango Antiques Market. Both Nikki's mother, Sylvia, and her late father, Nick Bonaventura, are mentioned in Niemann's book. Furthermore, there is a photo of Nick as a youngster in 1926.
Indeed, there are nearly 100 photos in the book, as well as illustrations by Niemann's artist sister, Carla Urban. It was while glancing over the photos that I realized that I should take a closer look at the text. Many of the names were somewhat familiar to me.
Among them are Sartore, Giordano, Boggio, Dalla, Baudino and many others.
I opened the book on Saturday morning, read it all day with increasing admiration and excitement, and finished it on Monday. I called Nikki, who agreed on the book's excellence. She then gave me the author's phone number. A Durango native, Niemann currently resides with her husband, Jon, near Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Lena Baudino Babey, who still lives here. Self-described "corporate gypsies," the author and her husband have, in the past 30 years, lived in seven states and two foreign countries.
I mention all the above names because they well indicate the importance of family relationships in Niemann's chronicle. Indeed, her story is a veritable Who's Who among local Italian Americans.
Family members ran the Bellevue Saloon in Silverton and the Mascot Saloon in Durango. Hence, the title Salone Italiano. The book is the result of the discovery of more than 150 letters written from Colorado to family members in the Piedmont region of northern Italy from 1903 to 1940.
Niemann writes that she "was alerted to the letters by a distant cousin. Another cousin, Lino Naretto, had found the letters while cleaning out the attic of the family home. Realizing their historical value, Naretto had organized and numbered them in preparation for publication."
When I called Niemann, she continued the story of how the book came about. "I was excited by the letters from the beginning and my cousins invited me to help out with the publishing project. However, I soon realized that I didn't personally know enough to go forward without help." She spread word of the letters to friends and family, wondering how she could put all the pieces together.
On an extended visit here, she enlisted the aid of Silverton writer Freda Carley Peterson, author of The Story of Hillside Cemetery, a collection of biographies. She advised Niemann that the letters alone needed a deeper context so the reader could comprehend the full extent of the story. "She told me it might be best if I used the letters as the foundation of the story and that I should write it as a lightly fictionalized historical novel." She then went on notifying members of her extended family of the letters and asking for any information they might add. Indeed, she notified so many people that one wit wrote back, "the world is small and shaped like a boot."
It took Niemann four and a half years to write her book. At that time, she was living in Sydney, Australia. She used friends there as readers of the early chapters. They apparently liked what they read. One of them advised her on the specifics of minerals and ores.
A publication party for the book was held here by Niemann in September. The event was covered by Ann Butler in her column "Neighbors."
Salone Italiano is published by Western Reflections. The price is $17.95. Copies are available at Maria's Bookshop, as well as at Durango Antiques Market.
Charlie Langdon is the Herald's senior critic. Durango Herald,
Wisconsin Book Watch
February, 2006
Fiction Shelf
Salone Italiano
Kay Niemann
Western Reflections Publishing Co.
219 Main Street, Montrose, CO 81401
www.westernreflectionspub.com
1932738258 $17.95 1-800-993-4490
A historical novel with impeccable attention to background detail, Kay Niemann's Salone Italiano is based upon the true story of an immigrant family's efforts to survive and make a life for themselves in the southwestern Colorado mining towns of Silverton and Durango. Based almost entirely on actual letters written by members of the family, Salone Italiano reads with the fluidity of a fine masterpiece as it chronicles Angelina Sartore's struggle to keep the family together, Katie Sartore's forbidden romance with a member of a rival immigrant colony, to Phil Sartore's love affair with a well-known local prostitute, the threat of danger and gunfire, and more. A fascinating glimpse into daily life, triumphs, and travails of the distant past.
Sons of Italy
- Kay Niemann Salone Italiano
- Camille Cusumano I love you Like a Tomato
- Raymond Arroyo Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve
and a Nettwork of Miracles
- Donna Jo Napoli The King of Mulberry Street
- Paola Corso Giovanna's 86 Circles
I am please to tell you that the above books have been selected by the Sons of Italy for its National Book Club for the Winter of 2006.
The Sons of Italy's book club is dedicated to works on Italy and on Italian American issues, themes and history. Three to six fiction and non-fiction books from mainstream publishing houses are selected each quarter for a total of 12 to 24 titles a year.
We encourage our members in an estimated 700 chapters around the country to choose one or more of the books each quarter and to discuss it during their monthly metings. We also encourage them to buy copies of the books to donate to their local public and school libraries.
The news about our selections receives wide distribution. They are reviewed in Italian America Magazine, the most widely read publication in the United States for Italian Americans. They also are permanently posted on the Sons of Italy Web sit (http://www.osia.org), where they can be ordered throught Amazon.com.
.....
.....
Congratulations and Best Wishes,
Dona De Sanctis, Deputy Executive Director
Neighbors
by Ann Butler
Durango Herald, Sept. 7, 2005
Italian roots run deep in Durango
There are a lot of stories yet to be told about the early days of Durango and Silverton. Kay Niemann has brought a new view to the past with Salone Italiano, her book about several Italian-American families who were influential in both communities.
Naretto is related to a prominent Italian family from the area’s early days, the Baudinos. Over the generations, several other names have become part of the story. Satori. Giardino. Bonaventura.
The book is also a family affair in other ways. Niemann’s sister, Carla Urban, added pen-and-ink drawings. Second-cousin Angela Peila Sundquist helped translate the letters and added scripted dialect into the story.
Niemann made a lot of connections to past generations during her research. Jeanette Naretto Lamay’s father, John Naretto, came from Italy to work in the Morning Star Coal Mine in 1922. It was located six miles west of Durango and was owned by his uncles, John and Tony Baudino. Genevieve Trione Robinson had only heard about Durango, but had maintained a steady correspondence with her first cousin, Connie Bonaventura Trontel, for over 70 years. The cousins met for the first time after the book was written. When second, um third?, cousin Dee Cleary heard about the project, she was so excited that she and her husband, Mike, flew from Jefferson City, Mo., to Sydney, Australia, where Niemann was living at the time.
Niemann, who was born and raised in Durango, graduated from Durango High School in 1961, and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree at Western State College. She spent much of her adult life as a music teacher and now lives in Westlake Village, Calif.
Her book is available at Maria’s Bookshop, Antiquities, the Durango Antique Market and the Animas Museum. It also can be found at several stores in Silverton and on Amazon.com.
My Turn
by Charlie Langdon
Durango Herald, March 18, 2005
Italian settlers' family histories a fine story. Family history is sometimes the best sort of history. This is clearly the case with Salone Italiano, Kay Niemann's informative and dramatic history of Italian immigrants in Silverton and Durango. Indeed, her book is, perhaps, the most compelling narrative chronicle of the Four Corners that I've yet had the pleasure to read.
I was unfamiliar with the recently published work until my wife Laura brought home a copy she had purchased from our longtime friend Nikki Bonaventura Morrissey at Durango Antiques Market. Both Nikki's mother, Sylvia, and her late father, Nick Bonaventura, are mentioned in Niemann's book. Furthermore, there is a photo of Nick as a youngster in 1926.
Indeed, there are nearly 100 photos in the book, as well as illustrations by Niemann's artist sister, Carla Urban. It was while glancing over the photos that I realized that I should take a closer look at the text. Many of the names were somewhat familiar to me.
Among them are Sartore, Giordano, Boggio, Dalla, Baudino and many others.
I opened the book on Saturday morning, read it all day with increasing admiration and excitement, and finished it on Monday. I called Nikki, who agreed on the book's excellence. She then gave me the author's phone number. A Durango native, Niemann currently resides with her husband, Jon, near Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Lena Baudino Babey, who still lives here. Self-described "corporate gypsies," the author and her husband have, in the past 30 years, lived in seven states and two foreign countries.
I mention all the above names because they well indicate the importance of family relationships in Niemann's chronicle. Indeed, her story is a veritable Who's Who among local Italian Americans.
Family members ran the Bellevue Saloon in Silverton and the Mascot Saloon in Durango. Hence, the title Salone Italiano. The book is the result of the discovery of more than 150 letters written from Colorado to family members in the Piedmont region of northern Italy from 1903 to 1940.
Niemann writes that she "was alerted to the letters by a distant cousin. Another cousin, Lino Naretto, had found the letters while cleaning out the attic of the family home. Realizing their historical value, Naretto had organized and numbered them in preparation for publication."
When I called Niemann, she continued the story of how the book came about. "I was excited by the letters from the beginning and my cousins invited me to help out with the publishing project. However, I soon realized that I didn't personally know enough to go forward without help." She spread word of the letters to friends and family, wondering how she could put all the pieces together.
On an extended visit here, she enlisted the aid of Silverton writer Freda Carley Peterson, author of The Story of Hillside Cemetery, a collection of biographies. She advised Niemann that the letters alone needed a deeper context so the reader could comprehend the full extent of the story. "She told me it might be best if I used the letters as the foundation of the story and that I should write it as a lightly fictionalized historical novel." She then went on notifying members of her extended family of the letters and asking for any information they might add. Indeed, she notified so many people that one wit wrote back, "the world is small and shaped like a boot."
It took Niemann four and a half years to write her book. At that time, she was living in Sydney, Australia. She used friends there as readers of the early chapters. They apparently liked what they read. One of them advised her on the specifics of minerals and ores.
A publication party for the book was held here by Niemann in September. The event was covered by Ann Butler in her column "Neighbors."
Salone Italiano is published by Western Reflections. The price is $17.95. Copies are available at Maria's Bookshop, as well as at Durango Antiques Market.
Charlie Langdon is the Herald's senior critic. Durango Herald,
Wisconsin Book Watch
February, 2006
Fiction Shelf
Salone Italiano
Kay Niemann
Western Reflections Publishing Co.
219 Main Street, Montrose, CO 81401
www.westernreflectionspub.com
1932738258 $17.95 1-800-993-4490
A historical novel with impeccable attention to background detail, Kay Niemann's Salone Italiano is based upon the true story of an immigrant family's efforts to survive and make a life for themselves in the southwestern Colorado mining towns of Silverton and Durango. Based almost entirely on actual letters written by members of the family, Salone Italiano reads with the fluidity of a fine masterpiece as it chronicles Angelina Sartore's struggle to keep the family together, Katie Sartore's forbidden romance with a member of a rival immigrant colony, to Phil Sartore's love affair with a well-known local prostitute, the threat of danger and gunfire, and more. A fascinating glimpse into daily life, triumphs, and travails of the distant past.
Sons of Italy
- Kay Niemann Salone Italiano
- Camille Cusumano I love you Like a Tomato
- Raymond Arroyo Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve
and a Nettwork of Miracles
- Donna Jo Napoli The King of Mulberry Street
- Paola Corso Giovanna's 86 Circles
I am please to tell you that the above books have been selected by the Sons of Italy for its National Book Club for the Winter of 2006.
The Sons of Italy's book club is dedicated to works on Italy and on Italian American issues, themes and history. Three to six fiction and non-fiction books from mainstream publishing houses are selected each quarter for a total of 12 to 24 titles a year.
We encourage our members in an estimated 700 chapters around the country to choose one or more of the books each quarter and to discuss it during their monthly metings. We also encourage them to buy copies of the books to donate to their local public and school libraries.
The news about our selections receives wide distribution. They are reviewed in Italian America Magazine, the most widely read publication in the United States for Italian Americans. They also are permanently posted on the Sons of Italy Web sit (http://www.osia.org), where they can be ordered throught Amazon.com.
.....
.....
Congratulations and Best Wishes,
Dona De Sanctis, Deputy Executive Director
Neighbors
by Ann Butler
Durango Herald, Sept. 7, 2005
Italian roots run deep in Durango
There are a lot of stories yet to be told about the early days of Durango and Silverton. Kay Niemann has brought a new view to the past with Salone Italiano, her book about several Italian-American families who were influential in both communities.
Naretto is related to a prominent Italian family from the area’s early days, the Baudinos. Over the generations, several other names have become part of the story. Satori. Giardino. Bonaventura.
The book is also a family affair in other ways. Niemann’s sister, Carla Urban, added pen-and-ink drawings. Second-cousin Angela Peila Sundquist helped translate the letters and added scripted dialect into the story.
Niemann made a lot of connections to past generations during her research. Jeanette Naretto Lamay’s father, John Naretto, came from Italy to work in the Morning Star Coal Mine in 1922. It was located six miles west of Durango and was owned by his uncles, John and Tony Baudino. Genevieve Trione Robinson had only heard about Durango, but had maintained a steady correspondence with her first cousin, Connie Bonaventura Trontel, for over 70 years. The cousins met for the first time after the book was written. When second, um third?, cousin Dee Cleary heard about the project, she was so excited that she and her husband, Mike, flew from Jefferson City, Mo., to Sydney, Australia, where Niemann was living at the time.
Niemann, who was born and raised in Durango, graduated from Durango High School in 1961, and went on to earn her bachelor’s degree at Western State College. She spent much of her adult life as a music teacher and now lives in Westlake Village, Calif.
Her book is available at Maria’s Bookshop, Antiquities, the Durango Antique Market and the Animas Museum. It also can be found at several stores in Silverton and on Amazon.com.