Newark celebrated Italy’s National Day one day in advance, last June 1, in the exclusive location of the Newark Club [2].

The notables of the Italian and Italian-American community of New Jersey attended the event, together with Consul General of Portugal in Newark Maria Amelia Paiva, Newark City Clerk [3] Robert Marasco, representative of the General Council of Italians Abroad Augusto Sorriso and President of the New Jersey Com.It.Es. Paolo Ribaudo. Guest of Honor of the event was Consul General of Italy in New York [4] Natalia Quintavalle. Italian-American soccer player and New Jersey native Giuseppe Rossi [5] was also present, representing the world of sports.

This year’s celebration of the Feast of the Republic in Newark constituted the occasion for the Italian and Italian-American community in New Jersey to wish farewell to Consul General of Italy in Newark [6] Andrea Barbaria. After four years of service in Newark, Barbaria has been assigned to the Mission of Italy in Tehran, Iran, a position that Consul Quintavalle defined in her speech as “a very difficult and prestigious one.”
 

In his farewell speech, Consul Barbaria chronicled the evolution of the Italian Consulate in Newark, upgraded from an administrative office to a fully fledged Consulate in 2008, when Barbaria was appointed.

“At the time we set many objective for this office, such as maintaining continuity with the work done by my predecessors and developing deeper relations with the local authorities, and especially the City of Newark,” Barbaria stated.

Among the many important objectives accomplished by Consul Barbaria during his mandate were the strengthening of the connections between the entrepreneurial reality in Italy and New Jersey, as well as the widening of cultural relationships with the academic institutions of the Garden State, such as Rutgers [7] University, Montclair [8] State University and Princeton [9] University, an activity that will play a very strategic role in 2013, proclaimed “The Year of Italian Culture in the United States.”

Both Barbaria and Quintavalle mentioned in their speeches how important the cooperation of the Italian and Italian-American community of New Jersey will be as this very important opportunity to promote Italian culture and heritage in the United States approaches.

Another very important result achieved by Consul Barbaria, in partnership with Consul Quintavalle, is the development of a special partnership among the two Consulates of Newark and New York. “Thanks to Consul Quintavalle’s continuate support, the two banks of the Hudson River have never been so close,” Barbaria commented.

Elaborating on his experience in Newark, Barbaria said: “Our goal was to create a young Consulate, ‘un Consolato giovane,’ that could assist our vast community both in everyday office tasks, but also building the grounds for new relationships in a versatile reality such as the Garden State,” a reality the complexity of which was also noted by Consul Quintavalle in her remarks. 

“During my visits to New Jersey, when Consul Barbaria would accompany me everywhere, I observed how complex and multifaceted the Garden State is, from its academic institutions with their dynamic departments of Italian, to the presence of important Italian enterprises in New Jersey, such as Ferrero [10] and Colavita [11],” Quintavalle said.

“Judging from the ever growing number of fellow citizens in this jurisdiction and from the support the entire community has demonstrated throughout these four years, I think we can be pretty satisfied with our job,” Barbaria concluded, before saying a very emotional “arrivederci” to New Jersey.