Mussolini's ghost

>> Images of dictator linger in Little Italy

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Frank knows fascism. "My grandmother went to a fascist camp in Rawdon. My mother marched in fascist parades. My grandfather spent three years detained during the war in Petawawa, Ontario, along with other fascists," says the 46-year-old TMR resident. But during this Italian Week, Frank became upset by what he feels is his community's refusal to renounce the local enthusiasm for fascism past.

He points out that the Casa d'Italia, a 1936 building at 505 Jean Talon E. and considered home to the Italian community, honours the fascist leader in a marble plaque just inside the doors to the right. "I think it's disgusting and disgraceful that there should be anything anywhere that should commemorate that part of history, even unconsciously," says Frank, who doesn't want his last name printed because he has repeatedly spraypainted the inscription, only to see it restored. He's also opposed to Mussolini's likeness that adorns the ceiling of the Madonna della Difesa church on Dante. "I had to walk out on my grandmother's funeral because I found it too disturbing having this guy on the ceiling of the church looking down."

Mussolini took power in Italy in 1922 and immediately repressed democracy and attacked socialists. In 1935 his troops attacked Ethiopia, dropping 280 kilogram of mustard gas on villagers and strafing the Red Cross. Soldiers posed with the severed heads of the sick and elderly they had killed. Mussolini's forces wiped out entire communities in Libya and killed tens of thousands of Yugoslav civilians. Many more were starved to death in concentration camps. Historians have noted that other vital documents detailing Italian war atrocities and Mussolini's attacks on cultures he deemed inferior have long been mysteriously unavailable.

But there still seems little to support the notion that local Mussolini memorabilia be removed or destroyed. "It makes as much sense as having the Taliban blast the Buddhist shrines," says Guilano D'Andrea, President of Alliance Quebec's East End chapter. "You don't get rid of it because it offends certain people. By that logic separatists are correct in throwing paint on statues of Queen Victoria or beheading the John A. McDonald statue." D'Andrea describes the tribute to Mussolini as "a reminder to the Italian community of where their local history came from."

Joe Fratino, President of the Casa d'Italia, doesn't consider the plaque in his building a provocative political statement. "I always tell people, 'Look at the building, it has the fascist symbols all round it.'

"Mussolini was held as a god. He did plenty of good things for Italy," says Fratino, whose father-in-law, Dieni Gentile, was a local fascist leader until his death six years ago, dyiung unrepentant, in spite of having been interned for three years during the war. Gentile's Italian club on Dante, now a café, was once criticized for its Mussolini-flavoured décor, which included a bust of Il Duce. The items have been placed in the back of the club. "I think we're passed that. History is history, let's move on," says Fratino. "It used to make me mad when people would criticize it, but now I realize that [the fascist representations] bring people to Little Italy and that's a good thing."