Vincenzo Ancona

When poet and folk artists Vincenzo Ancona died on February 23, 2000, the Academic & Cultural Programs succeeded in having The New York Times publish this obituary. 

Copyright The New York Times

March 5, 2000

Vincenzo Ancona, a Poet, Is Dead at 84

By Eric Pace

Vincenzo Ancona, a Sicilian-born poet who was known in his homeland and among Sicilian-Americans for his poems in his native tongue about the immigrant experience, died on Feb. 23 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 84.

Mr. Ancona was born and educated in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, worked as a fisherman and farmer there and began composing poetry before moving to New York in 1956 with his wife and their four children.

In his adopted city, he worked in a broom factory and a jewelry workshop, learned very little English, and continued writing poetry in Sicilian, which some enthusiasts consider a separate language but which most people consider a dialect of Italian. He attracted a following in Canada as well as in the United States and Sicily, admirers said. In one poem he wrote:

          Immigrants, illegal aliens and tourists

          Have found a place in this country.

          In this great land you can find every blessing

          Even if thorns at times will prick your hands.

Mr. Ancona also wrote poems that told "vivid tales of his life as a farmer, stories of bandit folk heroes and humorous tales," said Dr. Joseph Sciorra, a scholar of folklore who is assistant director for academic and cultural programs of the John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute at Queens College.

Mr. Ancona delighted in a spoken poetry that is meant to be said, not read. His poems follow rhyme schemes and meter from the original Sicilian.

In 1995 Mr. Ancona's 80th birthday was celebrated at a social club in Bensonhurst, which he liked to call, in Sicilianized fashion, "Bensinosti, Brucculinu."

During the party at the club (he was its poet laureate), he said through a translator: "I like oral poetry. It's like music, it's alive. To understand the poem, you must hear the voice."

Cassette recordings of recitals Mr. Ancona gave were copied and distributed among Sicilian-Americans in New York City, Buffalo and Canada, Dr. Sciorra said. Written renderings of Mr. Ancona's poems include the 1990 book "Malidittu la Lingua" ("Damned Language"), a bilingual edition with translations by Gaetano Cipolla and accompanying cassette recordings of Mr. Ancona reciting his work.

Mr. Ancona was also a folk singer and sculptor. He used salvaged telephone wire to weave depictions of scenes like grape harvesting and threshing. His telephone-wire sculptures were shown at the Museum of American Folk Art in a 1988 exhibition, "City Folk: Ethnic Traditions in the Metropolitan Area," and in other shows.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia; two sons, Steve and Joseph, and two daughters, Maria Guadagno and Josephina Navarra, all of Brooklyn; a brother, Giuseppe, of Brooklyn; a sister, Maria Marchese of Holbrook, N.Y.; 6 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

A Sicilian-American friend, Nino Provenzano, who is also a poet, recalled that Mr. Ancona, who used metric measurements back home in Sicily, used to say when he saw native New Yorkers doing things he thought were strange: "What do you expect? These are people who measure with their feet."