When I was 12 years old, I found a birth cer- tificate with my date of birth on it, but I didn’t recognize the name. Until then, everyone called me ‘Joanna Josephine.’ Or J.J. My OHIP card even read Joanna too, because back then the government offices weren’t so picky. I didn’t know my real name was Giovanna Giuseppina because Giovanna Giuseppina sim- ply didn’t exist, or she did, but inside a forgotten drawer my parents thought I would never look in. She couldn’t come out because my parents wanted me to fit into the quaint Canadian Dutch town in Niagara that he had immigrated to when he was a teenager.
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When I asked my father Onofrio (who everyone called ‘Ono, Rio, or what I never understood, Nick) about life growing up in Sicily, he would recount the most interesting stories, but when he felt that my questions were hitting too close to home, he would always say the same thing: “Italy is the past; Canada is the future.” But when I found that birth certificate, I didn’t just find a document. I found a missing part of myself, and from that day onward, I made everyone in town, from teachers to classmates to parents, call me Giovanna (jo-VAHN-na not Gee-oh-VAN-ah). My life has been a continuous embracing of my dual heritage and pursuit of my lost roots ever since. Having said that...Welcome to the Heritage Issue, graced by the rare and wonderful Giada De Laurentiis on the cover!
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The question that I was asking going into this issue was “Does heritage matter in the Fourth Industrial Revolution?” To find out, I personally sought out Italian North American greats in different industries who, through their brilliance and innovative minds, are revolutionizing fields from food and wine, finance, technology and sports and breaking the Fourth Wall of what it means to be Italian, in and outside of Italy in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Surely heritage couldn’t play a role in this day and age... or could it?
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What I discovered after interviewing these greats is that our heritage is our materia prima, the raw material of our identity buried deep within us, and that we rarely tap into it to reap the priceless gift of authenticity. Like an open root, we cap it with novelty, day-to-day life, the new world, always looking for a future that doesn’t exist. But when you remove the cap of money, fame, and accomplishment, we uncover what we are made of. And that hurts. Throughout this jour- ney to explore the value of heritage, I realized that true heritage is uncompromising. It doesn’t shun innovation but embraces it from a place of deep understanding and respect for its origins. As we nav- igate the dualism of the gift of our heritage passed down from our ancestors, we realize that authenticity is embracing our origins and innovation is not the future, it has always been part of our story, creating the narrative as we go.
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This materia prima is the glue that binds us: the families we nurture, the meals we share, the codification of our language, the depth of our history, the passion, logic, and expertise passed down through generations, the faith we find and the love we cultivate in prioritiz- ing the intangible over the tangible. It’s about finding comfort in the familiar scents and tastes of home, understanding that every dish we choose to cook is a memory we choose to make. While immersed in developing this issue, I had a profound realization—one that will expand our horizons beyond any single cultural legacy and may chart an ambitious new course for this timeless publication’s future...but for now...as you turn these pages, I invite you to reflect on your own her- itage. What invisible treasures do you carry? What memories bring you light in unfamiliar times? How do you honor your past while creating your future?
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In closing, this Heritage Issue is more than un tuffo nel passato (a dive into the past)—it’s a way to finding the missing pieces of ourselves and each other. It’s a reminder that in honoring our heritage, we find not just nostalgia for a past home, but the strength to build new ones.
With gratitude,
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Giovanna G. Bonomo
Editorial Director & Editor-in-Chief
Concepteur of the multimedia brand Lost & Found in Italy
