Luisa LoCascio

Luisa LoCascio Matarazzo was born in Montclair, New Jersey in 1937 to a Sicilian mother and father who came to the States in 1913. Her father told her many glorious stories about his hometown of Cerami, Sicily and when anyone asked if she was Italian, her father taught her to say: “No, I am Sicilian.” Luisa has taken the stories her father told her about Sicily to write her memoir. Like her father she is a born story-teller and her memoir serves as a reminder to all Sicilian and Italian Americans of the rich tapestry of their heritage in their ancestral lands. In addition she is a poet and in her poems, she reflects upon growing up with six siblings, a long marriage with children and grandchildren, followed by divorce at age seventy-five. She has traveled extensively through Italy, France and Sicily with her paint-box capturing the light caressing the landscapes in her watercolors. On a recent trip she stopped in Puglia to teach English as a second language to high school students.