Culture, Italy’s gift to the world

Our Charleston chapter was established in January 2017 by Claudio Pastor, Executive Director of DAS Miami and Marina Gloria Bellelli, then General Consul of Italy for the Southeast of the US. Since then the President is Donatella Cappelletti della Porta, Vice President Eugene Massamillo, Treasurer Bob Gebhardt, Secretary and event supervisor Joe McGee.

The Dante Alighieri Society was founded in 1889 and in 1893 was formally established in Rome by Royal Decree of King Umberto I di Savoia for the purpose of preserving and promoting the Italian language and the wealth of cultural and social contributions of Italy to Western civilization.

At that time the DA Society had an important goal to reach. Italy was finally united in 1861 from a collection of independent states and regions controlled by foreign powers. Forging a nation out of the various loyalties was a daunting task. Not long after unification, a mass migration of Italians to other countries in Europe, North and South America, and Australia would begin. These millions of emigrants wanted to know and preserve a sense of Italian culture and language, for themselves and their children. At the same time, the richness of Italian culture and the beauty of the Italian language equally enthralled many people who were not of Italian descent. To reach out to these people in 1889, a group in Rome, led by the Italian poet Giosuè Carducci, formed the Dante Alighieri Society whose mission would be to promote overseas the language, literature and culture of Italy.

So the society was named for Italy’s greatest and most famous writer, Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy.
Initially centered in Italy, it soon expanded to cities throughout the world where Italians had settled and where other admirers of all things Italian could gather, learn and appreciate all that Italy had to offer across the spectrum of human endeavors.
With 87 chapters in Italy, it has grown to 500 chapters throughout the world – including one right here in Charleston.

We invite anyone in love with Italy to contact us!