68th Anniversary of the Liberazione
April 25
5 pm, Royce 306, UCLA

For several decades April 25th represented the most important date in the Italian Republican calendar. With the word Liberazione it celebrated both the final victory of the Allies over Nazism as well as the deeper ‘liberation’ of all Italians from a nation born out of diplomatic intrigue rather than popular participation. The popular-military insurrection that accompanied the final push by the Allies gave the Italian Resistenza the mythic stature of representing at last a true Risorgimento of the Italian people. Among the many who fought for this liberazione were not only Italians. One of them, Walter De Hoog, was a Dutch citizen who lived in Milan and decided to take up arms and fight alongside his Italian friends for the liberation of his host country. Walter, aka Tulipano (or Martino) now lives in Santa Barbara, California, and has collected his memories of that period in a memoir entitled Tulipano published in both Italian and English. 

Prof. Claudio Fogu (UCSB) will introduce Walter de Hoog in a reading of excerpts from Tulipano followed by a discussion with the audience. 

Co-sponsored by UCLA Department of Italian Studies, UCSB Department of French and Italian Studies, and Istituto Italiano di Cultura Los Angeles