It is certainly not every day that families host get-togethers that involve the meeting of about 200 relatives using rented facilities. But such was the case last weekend as members of the DeFazio, Arcuri and Pane families – who are all descendants of immigrants from Castanga in the Calabria region of Italy – gathered together in East Sacramento for the 14th annual Calabrese Picnic.

On a picture perfect, sunny and mild weather day, these family members arrived at East Portal Park at 51st and M streets in East Sacramento to continue their tradition of enjoying each others’ company, sharing family memories and preserving their Italian heritage and culture.

For those familiar with the history of Italians in East Sacramento, the site of this event, which was held on Sunday, Oct. 10, made perfect sense.

After all, the park site had for many years served as the playground for those living in the now-historic “Little Italy” section of the city, which is roughly located from 48th to 58th streets between H Street and Folsom Boulevard.

For many people who unexpectedly passed by the park on this day, the gathering likely must have had the appearance of a community event, as opposed to a family affair.

But those attending the event knew better, as they were well aware of the many large, immediate, local families with the last names of DeFazio, Pane and Arcuri, as well as other families with last names directly linked to these three family surnames.

As opposed to plates mainly filled with traditional American picnic staples such as hamburgers, hotdogs and macaroni and potato salads, most plates at the event featured homemade foods such as chicken cacciatore, sausage and peppers, pastas, meatballs, risotto and Italian salads.

Although the event was very much an Italian gathering, there were various exceptions to this theme.

A prime example of how the DeFazio, Pane and Arcuri families have blended with other cultures can be seen through the potluck, which included some non-Italian food, including the most dominant of these offerings: pork and nopales (edible cactus), which is a Mexican dish.

Throughout the day, a friendly competition of bocce ball – an historic sport most closely related to lawn bowling and popularized in Italy many years ago – was played on the park’s bocce ball courts.

After about five hours, the tournament was completed, with the winners being Mark and Vickie DeFazio.

Bill DeFazio, one of the tournament’s coordinators, said that the tournament is a great way to bring the families together at the event.

Since the annual picnic is in its 14th year, Bill, a Sacramento native who graduated from Jesuit High School in 1967, said that it is important to recognize the people who founded the event.

“(My first cousins) Mark and Steve (DeFazio) were the original organizers (of the tournament). No question about it,” said Bill, who is the oldest of the DeFazio grandchildren. “So, Mark and Steve really deserve the lion’s share of doing this thing.”

Bill added that the event, which is held on the Sunday closest to Columbus Day, stemmed from the DeFazio family’s occasional tradition of getting together “every so often.”

“(The event’s roots dates back to about) 40 years ago, but it was never an annual event,” Bill said. “Somebody would just say, ‘We’re all going to go out. Let’s just all try to get together.’”

During its initial years, the annual event was held at William Land Park and featured a golf tournament, followed by a picnic.

When asked to share his feelings about the importance of holding the annual picnic, Bill said, “It’s huge for our families – the DeFazios, the Panes and the Acuris – to keep the tradition going, because we’re old-time Italian families in Sacramento and we’ve lived basically in the same area for probably 100 years, for the most part.”

Margaret (DeFazio) Jacobs, Rose Marie Pane and Louise (Arcuri) Schultz, a trio of the matriarchs of the three families, shared portions of their family histories for this article.

Passionately relating her family history, Margaret (DeFazio) Jacobs said that her grandparents, Joe and Bernadina (Piccoli) DeFazio, were the first members of her family to immigrate to the United States.

After settling in New York, Joe and Bernadina moved to East Sacramento in 1914.

Joe and Bernadina’s son, Louis DeFazio, who was Jacob’s father, married Christine Talerico on Feb. 24, 1924 in Utica, N.Y.

After moving to East Sacramento, Louis DeFazio became well-known for his grocery stores in such places as East Sacramento, Florin, Sloughhouse and West Sacramento.

Early immigrants of the Pane family to arrive in America were Rose Marie Pane’s grandparents, Giuseppi and Rosa Maria (Arcuri) Pane, and her great uncle and great aunt, Antonio and Malana (Mancuso) Pane.

A unique trivia of these couples is the fact that Giuseppi and Rosa Maria had seven boys and one girl and Antonio and Malana had seven girls and one boy.

Rose Marie, who resides in her family home that was built in East Sacramento in about 1935, said that another interesting part of this family trivia is that one of Giuseppi and Rosa Maria’s sons and one of Antonio and Malana’s daughters passed away in their childhood within months of each other.

Additionally, Ronnie Pane, who is a first cousin to Rose Marie, said that these children were the youngest born to each family.

Today, Rosie “Doty” Taylor, who is in her mid-90s, is the only survivor of these 16 children.

Schultz said that her uncle Joe Arcuri and her aunt Elvira (Massoni) Arcuri first arrived in America in the early 1900s. The couple soon traveled from New York to Roseville, where they had three sons and three daughters.

Joe Arcuri supported his family through his employment as a railroad worker in Roseville.

Shortly after the arrivals of Joe and Elvira Arcuri, who emigrated from Italy at separate times, Schultz’s father, Louis Arcuri, immigrated to the United States with his sister, Rosina Arcuri.

After coming to Sacramento in 1916, Louis Arcuri married Margaret DeFazio.

And following the death of Margaret, Louis Arcuri married Ellen Margaret Harris in 1928 and moved to Elk Grove.

Altogether Louis Arcuri, who worked various jobs, including his work as a taxi cab driver, laundry and hotel worker and used car and tire garage owner and operator, had 12 children.

Schultz, a 1949 graduate of Elk Grove High School, said that she appreciates the picnic’s ability to maintain her family’s history and heritage.

“(The picnic) keeps our family together and keeps our heritage up for our children,” Schultz said. “It’s through us that they learn about their heritage. We talk to them and tell them about their family, so they won’t forget where they come from.”

Although some attendees of the picnic expressed their concerns regarding the future existence of the event, 12-year-old Marissa DeFazio, the daughter of Steve and Sheri DeFazio, is among those of the younger generation who are dedicated to continuing the annual gathering.

“(The event) is really important to me and I learn a lot about my family history (at the picnic),” Marisa said. “It’s really fun. I would want to keep (the event) going (in the future).”

lance@valcomnews.com

Among the premier historic landmarks of the East Sacramento area is East Portal Park and just about anyone who knows about this neighborhood park is familiar with its bocce ball courts.

As the centerpiece of the park, which has deep Italian roots, are the courts, which on just about any given afternoon or evening are occupied by groups of people engrossed in the game, which brings out heavy doses of both competitive spirit and camaraderie.

Originally connected to the rich Italian culture of East Sacramento’s historic Little Italy neighborhood, the game initially drew only men of Italian descent.

But despite continuing to draw about 45 percent Italian players to the courts, the sport is more closely a representation of the diversity of the community.

No longer is it a men-only sport and the East Portal Bocce Club, which is part of the United State Bocce Federation, consists of members with heritage from throughout the globe.

This decision to allow women and non-Italians to join the club was initiated in 1991 through the club’s then-president Vic Cima.

As a result of this decision, many new faces joined the club and became educated about bocce ball, which is believed to have been derived from a more primitive Egyptian version of the sport.

 

The first bocce clubs

Popularized in Italy, where the first bocce clubs in modern times were established, the game, which is generally played in groups of two or four and most closely related to lawn bowling, was brought to the United States by Italian immigrants who came to America in masses during the turn of the 20th century.

Originally played in Sacramento at Southside Park as early as the 1930s, the sport has been a staple of East Portal Park since its opening in about the early 1940s.

Although bocce has been played at East Portal Park since the park’s early years, it was not until the early 1970s that the club was founded under the direction of Tony Peretti.

As a proud Italian, American and war veteran, Peretti founded the East Portal Bocce Club Fourth of July Tournament, which continues to be held each year and begins with the Pledge of Allegiance and the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner.”

The club hit one of its lowest points during the beginning of its second decade, as membership dropped by about 50 percent.

This decline in membership was not indicative of the popularity of the sport, however, as is evident by a joke among members at the time that the club had “too many visitors at Nicoletti’s” – the funeral home at 5401 Folsom Blvd.

In response to the club’s membership woes, Cima recruited new members from the Piemonte Reale Benevolent Society, where he was serving as president.

Cima’s inclusion of women and people of other cultures proved to be the biggest turnaround for the club, which grew to more than 150 members by the late 1990s and now consists of about 260 members of which about 80 are female.

Additionally, membership of the club ranges from about 20 years old to 93 years old and the average age of its members is 65 years old.

 

Diversity and depth

East Portal Bocce Club President Bob Martinez is a prime example of the diversity of the club.

Martinez, who is an East Sacramento resident of Mexican heritage, was first introduced to the game while vacationing with his wife in Monterey.

“We were staying by the Presidio right there by the wharf and it just so happens that in the Presidio itself there are three bocce courts and so I was kind of watching these guys playing bocce,” Martinez said. “The Sicilians were coming off the fishing boats in the late afternoon and they were playing the Mexican restaurant workers from the (nearby) restaurants. They invited me to play and I just rolled a few balls and I just got really interested in (the sport).”

A friend of Martinez later invited him to the East Portal Park courts, where he became more acquainted with the game and soon afterward joined the club.

Although each member of the club is proud of their own particular heritage, Martinez said that those who become involved in the game of bocce ball join an intimate group of people who are like a big Italian family.

“Once you (get involved with bocce ball), everyone starts recognizing you and you feel a part of something much bigger,” Martinez said. “It’s like an extended family and everybody’s Italian when you start playing bocce.”

Martinez, who joined the club seven years ago, said that although bocce ball is a very simple game to learn, it is undeniably a very challenging sport.

“A lot of people know this and it’s like (one of the club’s members) Chito (Negri) said, ‘It takes about 20 minutes to learn bocce, but it takes a lifetime to learn the strategy.’ And it’s true. It’s a simple game that’s easy to learn, but it can be very complex to learn in terms of strategy and that strategy is what’s endearing and creates kind of this opportunity for exchange in banter. So, I would say that anyone who is interested in learning something that is not all that difficult to learn the rules of (would likely) enjoy this game. You can be as good as you want to be. All you have to do is stay with it and the more you’re with it, the more you realize all the nuances that are associated with this game and the people and the camaraderie. It’s great.”

 

Mr. Bocce Ball

Poggio, Italy native Dante Urbani, 77, who is known as “Mr. Bocce Ball,” said that he is very aware of the strategy of the game.

“There’s a lot of strategy,” said Urbani, who grew up with the sport and joined the local club 10 years ago. “You have to have a lot of finesse and you have to be convinced that you are better than everybody and that gives you more of an edge. You have to have a lot of confidence, but I think that people should just have that in general in life and feel secure about things.”

Another member of the club, 84-year-old Ottavio Luchini, said that his memories of bocce date back to about 1935 when he used to play the game in his native town of Massarosa, Italy, near Lucca, with his childhood friends, Basilio, Renio, Filippo, Sandrino and several others.

“When I was in Italy, we used to play with rocks on the dirt, because we didn’t have any balls or courts,” Luchini said.

Although he first arrived in Sacramento on Feb. 4, 1949, Luchini said that he has only been playing bocce in the capital city since about 2000, since he was a longtime card player at the Dante Club.

 

Known nationwide

The East Portal Bocce Club is far from just a community story as the organization has gained much recognition as a premier club throughout the nation.

And being a premier Northern California club is alone quite notable, considering that the majority of the nation’s bocce clubs are located in Northern California.

Hanging from the wooden rooftop that covers a pair of the East Portal Park’s four courts is a banner, which celebrates the 2004 USBF B-bracket national champions, which was won by a team consisting of Jim Fellos, David Zaffa, Jack Roupp and Jack Toige.

With efforts being made to add bocce to the sports of the Summer Olympics, the club hopes to have a few of its members become Olympians, including Vern Cooper, who is currently ranked No. 10 in the United States.

Cooper, who is working toward his goal of participating in the World Bocce Championships, is also a certified world bocce referee.

Martinez said that he enjoys being a part of the rich tradition of bocce ball at East Portal Park.

“It really is something that’s community affirming and I’m very much committed to the East Sacramento community and to me, bocce is very much a part of its lifeblood,” Martinez said. “It sustains and enhances the community and it brings that cultural vitality and to me, that’s what makes it so special. And also, I just love playing it, so anything I can do to encourage others to play, I want to do it.”

And encourage, he does, as Martinez said that he always advocates new membership in the club.

With league play occurring every Monday through Thursday from the spring through the fall, Martinez noted that generally the best time for newcomers to visit the courts is on the weekends.

“There is always somebody down here on the weekends who is willing to talk to people about the club,” Martinez said.

Those desiring to learn more about bocce ball, the club or are interested in becoming a member of the club can call Martinez at (916) 717-1947 or visit the Web site www.eastportalbocceclub.com.

 

E-mail Lance Armstrong at lance@valcomnews.com.