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# 72 •nOvemBER 16 , 2015
There are many ways to
analyze the contribution
of the Italian Americans to
the society, the economy,
the culture, the greatness
of the United States. One
of these ways is celebrating those who have given
their talent and
their hard work to
build monuments
known and loved
by every American, and not only
by the Americans.
There’s an Italian
who contributed
with a very important role to build
a unique monument, the most famous of the United States. Only a
few Italian Americans know of
him, and almost
nobody knows his
story in Italy: we’re
talking about Luigi
Del Bianco, chief
carver of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Douglas Gladstone
has written a book about
this, “Carving a Niche for
Himself: The Untold Story
of Luigi Del Bianco and
Mount Rushmore”, and
he accepted to tell us so-
mething more about this What was Del Bianco’s
very talented and brave job in the construction of
fellow Italian.
Mount Rushmore?
Douglas, who was Luigi Luigi was responsible for
Del Bianco?
giving each of the presidential faces their "refiBorn in 1892, Del Bianco nement of expression."
He did more than
blast away at the
granite to sculpt
the four figures he gave the monument its soul, as
anyone who has
looked into the
pupils of Lincoln's
eyes can attest.
was from the municipality
of Meduno, in the Province of Pordenone, which
produced a lot of talented
taiapiera (stonemasons).
The area is known as Friuli
Venezia Giulia. These artisans were called the "Spizzapiera di Midun."
Please tell us something
about
your
admirable
commitment
against the United
States Department
of the Interior's
National Park Service (NPS), which
has consistently
refused to recognize Luigi Del Bianco as the chief
carver of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
Well, first and foremost,
thank you for your kind
and gracious compliment. I suppose I am a
WE THE ITALIANS | 7
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