La festa della fratellanza italiana: Gianni Grohovaz and the Celebrations of Italian Memorial Day in Toronto, 1960-1975

Abstract

This article examines the Italian Memorial Day celebrations held in Toronto between 1960 and 1975. These celebrations were organized and conceived by poet-activist-exile Gianni Grohovaz during his tenure as director of the now defunct Italo-Canadian Recreation Club (ICRC) in Toronto. Using the Grohovaz Fonds at the National Archives of Canada, the article explores how the Memorial Day celebrations brought together Grohovaz’s passions as artist and community activist. The celebrations were an attempt to fulfill the ICRC’s mission of uniting Italians by transcending politics, religion, and regionalism while also allowing Grohovaz an opportunity to represent his own life as a veteran and exile from his hometown of Fiume. Through a study of Grohovaz’s Memorial Day celebrations, much can be learned about the changing identity of Toronto’s bourgeoning Italian community after World War II, its relations with the host and mother countries, and of the limits of trying to overcome persistent regional identities through national memory.