[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12633-S12634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ITALIAN HOSPITAL SOCIETY

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I 
note that the Italian Hospital Society is celebrating its 60th 
anniversary with a dinner and awards presentation on Sunday, November 
16th. It is a most notable organization guided by compassion and 
philanthropy to assist the hospital and health services of Italian 
communities in New York.
  This year's ceremonies will salute four eminent Italian-Americans who 
have brought the hopes of the Italian Hospital Society closer to 
reality. I am especially gratified that the committee honors a doctor, 
a businessman, a union leader, and the principle inspiration of my 
life, my mamma.
  I can speak with particular knowledge and delight about Mamma, known 
to the public as Antoinette Cioffari D'Amato. She was born and grew up 
in Brooklyn, the daughter of Italian-American parents. In growing up as 
her child, I was able to see the qualities, character and enthusiasm 
for life and for family which the society salutes in her public life. 
It was she who inspired confidence, exercised discipline and demanded 
the pursuit of education. It was she who was the foundation for 
responsibility to the community and for civic involvement.
  In her marriage of 61 years to my father, Armand, a teacher and son 
of Italian-American parents, she was a prototypical ``mamma''--cooking, 
cleaning, exhorting, reprimanding and loving her three children, 
Alfonse, Armand, and Joanne. During World War II, while my father was 
in the Army, she worked in a defense plant. As part of the emigration 
from Brooklyn to Long Island, the D'Amato family moved to Island Park 
where she and Dad continue to reside. Both still work in the insurance 
brokerage which has been the family business for over 60 years.
  It was my political campaign for the U.S. Senate in 1980 that brought 
Mamma and her many talents to a wider audience. The advertisements she 
made for my campaign made me a winner. Ever since she has been 
unstinting as an active and enthusiastic citizen of New York. She has 
had a special interest in affordable housing services for older 
citizens through her membership on the board of the New York Foundation 
for Senior Citizens Inc. She is a television celebrity and the author 
of her own cookbook--``Cooking and Canning with Mamma D'Amato.''
  I commend the Italian Hospital Society for the honor they give my 
mother for her public participation; but, for all the lessons and love 
of the private Antoinette Cioffari D'Amato, only a hug and a kiss are 
the proper awards.


                             Ernesto Jofre

  Ernesto Jofre, a native of Chile, came to the United States as a 
political refugee in 1976. He had spent the 3 previous years as a 
political prisoner of the Pinochet dictatorship. He joined Local 169 of 
the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers' Union [ACTWU] as an 
auditor. Subsequently, he served Local 169 as an organizer, business 
agent, assistant manager, and then became manager and secretary-
treasurer in 1993. He then became manager and secretary-treasurer of 
the Amalgamated Northeast Regional Joint Board of the Union of 
Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees [UNITE!] in 1994.
  He is a vice president of the New Jersey Industrial Union Council, 
Member of the boards of directors of the Amalgamated Bank, the Jewish 
Labor Committee, and Americans for Democratic Action. He is plan 
administrator of the health and welfare funds and pension funds of 
Local 169, UNITE.


                         Mario Spagnuolo, M.D.

  Dr. Mario Spagnuolo was born in Naples in 1930; he graduated cum 
laude from the School of Medicine of the University of Naples. He 
trained in New York City at St. Claire's Hospital, the Irvington House 
Institute for Rheumatic Diseases and Bellevue Hospital. He was the 
director of the Irvington House Institute and associate professor of 
medicine at New York University Medical School.
  He has written about 60 research papers in rheumatic diseases and 
several articles for textbooks. An editorial in the New England Journal 
of Medicine accompanying one of his papers, in January 1968, defined 
the paper as an extraordinary clinical investigation. The Journal 
reprinted one of his articles in 1996, 25 years after its publication 
in 1966, as a ``Classic in Medicine.''
  He has practiced internal medicine in Yonkers for the last 25 years. 
He has been president of the Westchester Health Services Network. He 
practices at St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, where he was 
director of medicine and is now chief of the medical staff and a member 
of the board of trustees.
  He is married to Kathryn Birchall Spagnuolo. They have four 
children--Mario, Sandra, Peter, and Eugene, a daughter-in-law--Linda, 
and three grandchildren--JoAnne, Matthew, and Stephanie.


                           Vincent Zuccarelli

  Vincent Zuccarelli was born in Mongrassano, a small town in Calabria, 
Italy. He started his education in the seminary and continued through 
the ``Liceo Classico.'' He was a private tutor of classical languages, 
Latin and Greek, for the students of the Middle and High Gymnasium 
School and was head of electoral office in his jurisdiction for 5 
years.
  Vincent came to the United States in 1958. In 1959, with his 
brothers, he engaged in and formed the food business in Mount Vernon, 
NY and Florida known as the Zuccarelli Brothers.
  He has been married for 43 years to his wife Nella and has three 
sons: Mario, Fiore, and Joseph. Vincent and Nella also have six 
grandchildren: Vincent, Nelli, Marie, Juliana, Joey, and Danielle. He 
and his wife reside in Bronxville, NY.
  He joined the Calabria Society in 1985, and has become an active and 
proud member. He is the first dinner-dance chairman of the Casa Dei 
Bambini Italiani Di New York. Mr. Zuccarelli is a member of the Council 
of the National Italian-American Foundation of Washington, DC, 
promoting education for the Italian-American values and traditions, and 
presently he is the NIAF Westchester County Coordinator.

[[Page S12634]]

  The society continues the work of so many who came to this country as 
immigrants seeking freedom and a new life in America. But the bonds of 
kinship and of nationality were often the only protections in a society 
where intolerance and discrimination was the more likely welcome.
  Having done so much over the past 60 years, the Italian Hospital 
Society has embarked on a new mission to create an Italian Home for the 
Aged as an independent assisted living facility where Italian-Americans 
and all elderly and infirm can receive the finest assistance. As they 
note in their mission statement: ``Unfortunately many of our own 
parents and grandparents have suffered isolation, depression and 
feelings of frustration due to cultural and language barriers. It is 
the mission of the Italian Hospital Society to ameliorate this 
difficult situation by providing a supervised facility that would be 
comforting and familiar to our aged community while providing for the 
physical as well as psychological welfare of these individuals.''
  Mr. President, I ask to share with our colleagues the joy I have as 
son of one of the society's honorees and thank them for all the work 
that they do as a society and for the honors and respect they show 
toward their four honorees. They and the society inspire us 
all.

                          ____________________