New CIA chief speaks Calabrian dialect
The man United States President-elect Barack Obama has chosen to head the Central Intelligence Agency speaks the Calabrian Siderno dialect perfectly, the cousin of Leon Panetta told ANSA on Tuesday.
''When he was chief of staff for (ex-US president) Bill Clinton I went to see him at the White House and we understood each other perfectly both in our local dialect and in Italian, but not so much in English which I don't speak too well,'' Domenico Panetta said.
''Leon is very attached culturally to our home (Siderno). He told me he missed it dearly and wanted to visit the land where his family came from. But he was always too busy to do so,'' he added.
''Maybe in his new job he'll be able to come to Europe and to Italy and even visit us in Calabria. That would be really nice,'' the new CIA chief's cousin said.
Leon Panetta is the American-born son of Italian immigrants from Calabria.
He was Clinton's chief of staff at the White House after serving in the House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.
Siderno is one of the most important towns in the Calabrian mountainous Locride area, north of Reggio Calabria at the toe of the Italian boot.
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Calabria
That is amazing, I too am Calabrese, and very proud of it. My family has a spiritual attachment to Calabria, the Calabria known for it's generous, loving people and for their patron, St. Francis Di Paola, a hermit, who gave up everything for the love of God! May I just say that on a road leading to a small town of Montepaone, there is a replica of the Medjugorje Cross that a very spiritual family built in order that natives, and tourists alike would reflect on the cross, and recall, who gave His life for the human race..This is what the real Calabria stands for, for Jesus, for Truth, for Salvation. God Bless Calabria!!!!
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