Societa Italiana Seeks Kindler, Gentler Fascism

The once and future king is speaking on his cell phone.

Dan Rinaldi, CC '05, is standing near the Columbia gates, waiting for other members of the Societa Italiana, Columbia's Italian-American cultural appreciation club, to arrive. When they get here, the club will take a trip to La Pizza Fresca, a Gramercy restaurant. Dinner will be served and beverages imbibed, all on Columbia's tab.

And then something unusual will take place: at the end of the dinner, Dan will be officially crowned the next president of the Societa Italiana.

Most clubs hold elections to determine who will lead the organization in the upcoming academic year. But starting with this semester, the current presidents of the Societa will hand-pick the next year's leaders. Welcome to Columbia's first self-proclaimed fascist student organization.

"This club isn't ready for democracy," said Adam De Fazio, CC '03 and current co-president of Societa Italiana. "Maybe it'll be ready in five or six years. But first we have to create a culture that will be conducive to Italian solidarity."

Rinaldi, who is currently on the Societa's board, feels confident that he'll be able to take the reigns. "I feel like I'm following in a long fascist tradition that's representative of my family," he said before his coronation dinner. "The tenor of my home environment is fascist."

De Fazio said that he and co-president Rosemarie Iaconis, BC '03, decided to tilt the club's constitution toward anti-democracy earlier this year.

For Iaconis, inspiration came from researching her senior thesis, which explored the role young people played in Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship.

"Mussolini trusted the youth," said Iaconis in an interview on Sunday night. "Before that point, Italy was a big mess. There was no order. Mussolini came to power and he restored order. The youth basically came up with their own version of what fascism was. It was basically a boy-scout group for them. Women were liberated to an extent."

Such was the case with the Societa Italiana, said De Fazio and Iaconis.

"We want to establish order and we want to turn to the youth," said Iaconis. "That's why we've turned to the underclassmen Italians, to reestablish some semblance of order. And by making way for the youth, we're going to revolutionize the youth."

The young people in question are a group of five underclassmen who, by presidential fiat, were made members of next year's Gran Consiglio, or Grand Council of Ministers.

"I looked to join because I'm Italian," said Jackie Aiello, BC '06 and next year's club secretary. Aiello joined the club shortly after arriving at Barnard last fall. "I was born in Italy."

Aiello, like other members, doesn't seem to have a problem with the changes made to the constitution. "Everyone's really cool," she said.

Greg Sanzone, CC '06 and next year's minister of culture, agreed.
"[Rinaldi is] an impressive leader who speaks in perfect paragraphs," Sanzone said.

In the mid-1990s, the Societa was the on-campus Italian-American Students Association, De Fazio said. But late in the decade, the club was transformed into an Italian cultural-appreciation organization.

"We showed up and there were four people in the club and only one was Italian," he said.

Now, the club has expanded its ranks, and has hosted several high-profile events on campus. There are also more Italian Americans in the club, De Fazio said.

Rinaldi took some time to discuss his five-year plan for the Societa. "We'd like some more membership," he said. "We're still looking for a quintessential activity. There's Carnevale, but since we do that with the Brazilians, we can't really claim it as our own."

"We're trying to promote a kinder, gentler fascism," Iaconis said.

She and De Fazio have been co-presidents for the past year.
While most Societa events are highly publicized, the coronation dinner was meant to be a quiet affair. "The hard-core members were invited, as well as next year's board," Rinaldi said. "It's a way to close up the year and talk about next year. It's also a way to express our appreciation for Adam and Rosemarie."

Rinaldi was crowned shortly after 8 p.m. The ceremony lacked most of the splendor of fascist propaganda films, however. For one thing, Rinaldi had to make his own crown out of a tattered brown paper bag.

"I looked for olive branches and a centurion helmet [to crown him with]," De Fazio said. "But I couldn't find either one."

Eventually the group made their way to La Pizza Fresca, where they celebrated Rinaldi's coronation over a three-course meal. Before the group started the main course, Iaconis gave a "Toast to the Duce," in which the table cried, "Benito! Big Ben!"

The general consensus among the "capi delle gran consiglio" was that the evening well-received.

"It was definitely a success," Iaconis said. "There was a chemistry like no other. Everyone got along, there was order, there was the youth. There were civil debates. There was laughter, there was crying. There was everything."

Back in Morningside, news of the changes in the Societa's constitution raised eyebrows.

"I agree that democracy very often doesn't seem to work," David Tuck, CC '03, said. "But it does seem to me that it's rather presumptuous that you should have the sole direction." But, he added, "I'm not sure that I have my finger to the pulse of Columbia's throbbing extracurricular community."

Even Rinaldi looked skeptically at his new unlimited power. "In some ways, we're perpetuating the stereotype we've been fighting to dismantle for so long," he said.

Still, for members of the Societa Italiana's executive board--the "capi di tutti capi"--the coronation will be an event they won't soon forget.

"I'm not going to cry because it's over," Iaconis said. "I'm going to smile because it happened."