The Traveler’s Spirit Vecoli, Rudolph J; Durante, Francesco
Oh Capitano,
06/2018
Book Chapter
Before there was a Capitano Marittimo Moreno, there was the boy, Celso. We could ask what in his childhood instilled in him such wanderlust and lofty ambitions, and what then could have sparked his ...penchant for exoticism and risk. We could find an answer in his education, both in his family and in school. It would be useful to know what that boy learned from parents and siblings, what his interests were, who were his friends and teachers, which books he read, who were his heroes and who his villains. But if Celso kept a diary or wrote a memoir,
The New Italian America Vecoli, Rudolph J; Durante, Francesco
Oh Capitano,
06/2018
Book Chapter
Returning to the United States, Moreno resumed his now long-standing habits as a lobbyist in Washington, buzzing around the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the White House. In the White ...House garden he cut cinnamon and coffee leaves to send to Faldella and explained that he had collected the seeds of those plants in Sumatra and replanted them there in the past.¹ Newspapers remained an integral part of his world. Moreno continuously proposed articles and submitted letters to a number of Italian, Italian American, and American papers (above all theWashington Post, which became one of his regular outlets,
Electoral Intermezzo Vecoli, Rudolph J; Durante, Francesco
Oh Capitano,
06/2018
Book Chapter
Intertwined with the lengthy affair of the three Hawaiian youths, Moreno’s Italian pit stop in the early 1880s involved another matter of interest: Moreno’s attempt to build a political career. His ...Roman acquaintances were essential for this purpose, and one in particular was Giovanni Faldella. They met in February 1881 at a banquet at Rome’s Central Hotel organized by thecolonia mondovita, people from the town of Mondovì in Piedmont. Moreno was a somewhat exotic attraction because of his recent exploits in Hawaii, and he was the object of toasts and compliments. Deputy Carlo Rolfi, a writer, journalist, and Faldella’s
In May 1868, Moreno disembarked in San Francisco after a long Pacific crossing and presumably finished his trip to New York on the recently completed transcontinental railroad. Why America? As he ...would write thirty years later, he had come at the request of William H. Seward, then secretary of state, through the intermediaries General John A. Dix, the U.S. ambassador to France, and Wisconsin Senator James R. Doolittle. He intended to “negotiate the United States’ acquisition of Pulo Way, known in the Malaysian archipelago as Moreno’s island.” Dix’s letter of recommendation stated that Moreno “has lived for many years in
The Enchanter of Hawaii Vecoli, Rudolph J; Durante, Francesco
Oh Capitano,
06/2018
Book Chapter
On November 14, 1879, Moreno disembarked in the balmy port of Honolulu to a warm welcome. Nine and a half months later he departed hastily under threat of lynching. In less than a year, he became a ...central figure in the political crisis that culminated in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Unlike many episodes of his career that left no enduring mark on the historical record, Moreno has been immortalized as a “fascinating but baffling figure in Hawaiian history.”¹ Ralph Kuykendall, the leading historian of Hawaii, devoted a chapter in his monumental history to the “Moreno Episode,” which
The Sunset Road Vecoli, Rudolph J; Durante, Francesco
Oh Capitano,
06/2018
Book Chapter
After his outburst inHistory of a Great Wrongand the battle for Hawaii, Celso Caesar Moreno ended up on the margins of the public life that had absorbed him for so long. Hard blows had been inflicted ...upon his credibility. The old Captain, however bold and self-confident, had to retreat to a more subdued existence. This did not stop him from continuing to frequent places of power with a certain assiduity. A newspaper reported how the untiring figure of the “habitual visitor” was perpetually in the corridors of the Capitol during the sessions of Congress. He was busy chatting
The Destiny of Hawaii Vecoli, Rudolph J; Durante, Francesco
Oh Capitano,
06/2018
Book Chapter
In the spring of 1887, Moreno published a new pamphlet,The Position of Men and Affairs in Hawaii, a long “Open Letter to His Majesty King Kalākaua,” dated Washington, August 7, 1886.
From the first ...lines there was a new request for reimbursement of the expenses that Moreno incurred for the maintenance of Wilcox, Booth, and Boyd. The bill should have been settled at least six years earlier, but the king had remained deaf and blind “at the instigation of your Guizot, the Mormon criminal Walter Murray Gibson,” forgetting “your duty as an honest man, friend, and king.” Since July
A multipronged, interdisciplinary approach to understanding Naples, a metropolitan complex that defies any simplistic approximation.This book is addressed to “lovers of paradoxes" and we have done ...our utmost to assemble a stellar cast of Neapolitan and American scholars, intellectuals, and artists/writers who are strong and open-minded enough to wrestle with and illuminate the paradoxes through which Naples presents itself. Naples is a mysterious metropolis. Difficult to understand, it is an enigma to outsiders, and also to the Neapolitans themselves. Its very impenetrableness is what makes it so deliriously and irresistibly attractive. The essays attempt to give some hints to the answer of the enigma, without parsing it into neat scholastic formulas. In doing this, the book will be an important means of opening Naples to students, scholars and members of the community at large who are engaged in “identity-work." A primary goal has been to establish a dialogue with leading Neapolitan intellectuals and artists, and, ultimately, ensure that the “deliriously Neapolitan" dance continues.Stages an encounter, at once critical and celebratory, with historical and contemporary Naples, a city that presents itself as an irresolvable paradox for its ability to remain intellectually and culturally animated (“delirious"), even in the face of its recurring economic and political crises.Establishes a dialogue between a diverse cast of intellectuals and artists and engages them with broader international debates.
