Messina and Reggio Calabria earthquake
Under the aegis of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Cultural
Heritage and State Education Councilor's Office of the Region of
Sicily.
On the morning of December 28, 1908, at 5:21, Messina Strait, a tremor passed between Scylla and Charybdis, thus provoking one of the biggest natural calamities in our country’s history. In a few seconds, an earthquake and a seaquake of unprecedented violence destroyed the Strait’s shores of two regions, Calabria and Sicily, and the two opposite cities, Reggio Calabria and Messina.
100 years later, Gens Italica wants to remember this dramatic moment of our history by investigating the different aspects connected to the event, the international assistance and the migratory streams due to a new and deeper poverty. The path we have elaborated is not limited to memory; we intend also to document the way established by the civil society to face these events, showing how similar situations are faced today, as well as the future possibilities in favor of the whole humanity. .
To that end, Gens Italica Network and New York Columbus Citizens Foundation, in collaboration with the US Navy,, are going to realize an initiative in memory of the tremendous natural catastrophe and the American assistance to Sicily and Calabria soon after the calamity, as well as overseas in welcoming the new migratory streams.
The initiative will take shape in an itinerant exhibition presented in New York during the celebrations of the Columbus Day in October in the US Navy pavilion in Grand Central Station. The US Navy will be in charge of mounting the exhibition and transferring it to Italy on a US Navy ship.
Some collateral events, both in Italy and New York, will precede and follow the exhibitions in order to develop and deepen each single thematic aspect. Our central goal is to extend and fortify the relationships among the Italian communities all over the world, especially in those countries that supported Italy with their assistance and that were particularly receptive to welcoming the subsequent immigrants.
The Gens Italica website, exhibitions and meetings in Italy and abroad, documentation and documentaries will represent the points of contact and transmission to celebrate the anniversary of a very sad and mournful event, but also full of hope for the future This is a way to interest and involve new generations according our Association’s goal: to know in order to build. .
