There is something of Liguria even in Milk, a film featuring Sean Peen, which was released on the Genoase screens in 2008. It was one of the major nominees for the Oscars as well as one of the event films of the season. Through the bravery of cult director Gus Van Sant, the film tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay American politician who became a supervisor for the city of San Francisco and, because of his activism, was killed in 1978 by Dan White, a homophobic colleague.
The story is well-known; its character has become extremely popular in theatres and TV movies. In the English-speaking world, it is an icon of the fight for gay rights. However, on 27 November 1978, Milk wasn’t the only one to be shot. When the former police officer Dan White broke into San Francisco City Hall, he first headed to George Moscone, a 49-year-old Democrat who, since the beginning of his career, had fought for the rights of the poor, marginalized, and minority groups, and had defended Harvey Milk against the anti-gay campaigns led by his opponents.
Dan White wanted to be reinstated as city councillor after resigning in protest against Milk. Moscone refused to allow his return, and in response, White unloaded an entire clip into him before heading to Milk’s office to kill him too.
George Moscone, as his last name clearly suggests, was from a Ligurian heritage. More precisely, his name came from Fontanarossa, that small village in Trebbia Valley opposite Rovegno, where nearly all the residents share the surnames Moscone, Guaraglia and Chappellone.
After passing the famous town of Loco, immortalized by the poet Giorgio Caproni, and the small village where Giorgio “Custer” Garbarini polishes his vintage cars, visitors will find two large plaques in the main square. The first plaque honours Susanna Fontanarossa, mother of Christopher Columbus, who is believed to have been born in this area. The other is a sign for Piazza George Moscone (1929-1978), dedicated to the mayor of San Francisco.
Moscone’s American relatives are aware of the family connection, as it is shown in an online blog by a Californian who talks about their family trip to Italy a few years ago. “We visited Rome, Paris, London, and the Vatican to see the Pope,” they write, “but the real goal of our European trip was Fontanarossa, where the main square is named after George Moscone, ‘my grandfather’s cousin.’” They joke, “What’s the point of having a convention centre named after you when you can have a square?” referring to the massive Moscone Center in the heart of San Francisco, one of the city’s many tributes to its assassinated mayor. While the activist Harvey Milk is famous worldwide, the Ligurian George Moscone continues to be celebrated in San Francisco as the progressive politician who revolutionised the city, opening it up to modernity and minorities of all kinds, like Asians and Latinos, and who died while defending others’ rights.
The Rivalry of the Emigrants: Barbagelata vs. Moscone
California Senator George Moscone was born in 1929 in San Francisco to a family originally from Trebbia Valley. Interestingly, he became the city mayor in January 1976 by defeating another descendant of Ligurian immigrants: John Barbagelata.
John was a representative of the party’s conservative wing, whose surname is linked unmistakably to another Ligurian village located just a few kilometres from the Moscone family’s Fontanarossa. After all, the entire area was marked by a strong wave of emigration towards California during the first half of the 20 century.
The film starring Sean Penn wasn’t the only one to tell the story about Harvey Milk and George Moscone. In 1999, Execution of Justice-Il Giustiziere by Leon Ichaso, featuring Peter Coyote as Milk and Stephen Young as Moscone, was released; the film didn’t make it to the Italian screens, but it became available in the country on videotapes in 2000.
Even before this, The Times of Harvey Milk, a documentary featuring archival footage of Milk and Moscone, was released and went on to win an Oscar in 1984.
On this very same topic, there is also a play by Emily Mann and even a three-act opera that premiered in New York in 1985 with G. Sals portraying Moscone.
Many of these works also depict the murderer’s trial, who, interestingly, received a rather mild sentence. As one of the mitigating factors, the defense attorney cited the fact that White had eaten many hamburgers and other junk food in the days leading up to the crime. After serving only 6 years in prison, he returned to San Francisco where he ended his life shortly after, in 1985.
Renato Venturelli
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