Lawrence Auriana was a kid from East Harlem that wanted to become rich. He was lookin for...
The Freedom To Fight Back

By Stefano Vaccara
LAWRENCE AURIANA is the new president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, one of the most important Italoamerican organizations in New York and in America. He is also a very successful businessman. He and his partner Hans Utsch manage the Federated Kaufmann Fund, which has been number one in the "mid-cap growth" category for the last 15 years; the fund started out in 1986 at three million dollars and now handles 3.5 billion. Auriana is also on the Board of NIAF (the National Italian American Foundation), and the very proud president of the organization which supports indigent orphans, Boy's Town of Italy, founded by Monsignor John Carroll Abbing over half a century ago. Auriana has been married for over thirty years to his wife Irene and they have a daughter, Christina.

We met with this new leader in the Italoamerican community at his office in a midtown skyscraper. Our purpose was to get an idea of his projects and strategies. As it turned out we also succeeded in getting the pulse of Auriana the man. This is an East Harlem kid's success story in his own words.

“I feel more like a New Yorker than an American or Italoamerican. My whole life I've never been away from Manhattan more than a month. It was the same for my parents, and for my grandparents, who came from Italy very young in the beginning of the 1900s, just kids, alone, with only a few dollars in their pocket, and they didn't know the language. Everyone is from the South - the Aurianas were from Vico Equense, between Sorrento and Amalfi. I was there last summer and it's a marvel, I can't understand how they could ever have left. My grandmother is from Sorrento but my grandfather met her over here. My maternal grandparents were the Spinas. My grandfather was from Alliano (Basilicata) and married a Calabrian from Santa Sofia d'Epiro. She was from the old Albanian community. When my mother and grandmother wanted to talk and didn't want my grandfather to hear, they spoke Albanian. My mother's 91 years old now, she grew up in America speaking all three languages: Albanian, Italian and English”.

“I was born in East Harlem in '44 and stayed there until I went to college, Fordham University in the Bronx. So I experienced East Harlem's whole transition from an Italian to a Latino neighborhood. East Harlem was like living in America and Italy at the same time. I remember in the elementary schools 90% of the kids were Italoamericans or new Italian immigrants. Little Italy had a different culture, a different vision of the world. My first close encounter with a culture other than my own was in the Bronx, because some of the students weren't Italoamerican. They were mostly Irish American. They ate differently, they had different holidays, different traditions...I remember the cafeteria, we Italians all sat together and the Irish and Polish kept to themselves. The first time I met a non Catholic was when I first began to work, and met some Jewish people. Before, I didn't have a single friendship with anyone who wasn't Catholic.”

Auriana grew up in East Harlem and became a very successful businessman, but the Catholic culture isn't always an advantage for people who want to make money.
“For me, I don't think growing up Italoamerican was a handicap in the business world. Historically many tools the US finance world uses, double-entry accounting for instance, are Italian inventions. Theoretically there are conflicts between the Catholic and capitalist philosophies, but Italians know how to be practical too.”

“There hadn't been any businessmen in my family. When I was very young I realized that to be successful in business, I'd have to study it. I wanted to get rich and for me that meant freedom and independence. But that was only one of the attractions - I saw the reflection of my career when I looked at the world of business, because I knew I was a natural risk-taker. Like life, business is a series of calculated risks, and I've always been at ease taking risks. I'm an entrepreneur who's not afraid of risk. If you're successful in business you make a lot of money, but just to accumulate it doesn't interest me. Some think like that, but for me, money is to make you free to do what you think is right. I'm lucky, because I enjoy making money. It's like a game, obviously you can't always win - and that's the key: you have to learn how to lose right, before you can start winning again.”

In the early 1900s an important role of the prominenti, the leading members of theItalian community, was their contact with mainstream America. What has changed about the role of the prominenti?

“Back then the prominenti were primarily role models for the rest of the community. One has to understand what the Italoamerican community is today. Successful Italoamericans still provide inspiration and direction, but charity is also an important role, and spreading the culture, which is what participating in Columbus Foundation activities is about. We grant scholarships. Last year we gave over 700 thousand dollars' worth and I'm expecting to reach a million dollars this year. In America if you have a good education you can get anywhere, you can achieve anything. In the past we haven't devoted enough resources to educating our children. But that's changing. Scholarships will always be one of the Foundation's main activities. And as for culture - in the past the prominenti didn't have to worry about the culture because they had first generation Italians all around them. The culture, traditions and language were thriving. But now we have the challenge of recovering some aspects of the culture that are lost. The challenge is how to keep the community Italian. Many have nothing left Italoamerican about them but a surname, but a great number want to recover what's lost, to rediscover their roots. That's a much harder thing for the Columbus Foundation to achieve than giving scholarships.”

Every October the Foundation organizes the Fifth Avenue Columbus Day parade. It's an enormous display, great exposure, but it only lasts one day. What are the new president's ideas for how to propagate a picture of Italoamerican culture different from the distortion continually produced by the Hollywood machine - among Italoamericans, but more importantly, among Americans?

“Most of distortion of the Italoamerican image in America is indeed created by the entertainment industry, which has stereotyped us - for them if we're not gangsters we're ignorant buffoons. They're always labelling us ignorant. This is a very serious problem and not easy to solve. It can be overcome, but a serious effort is necessary, conducted intelligently, and I believe no Italoamerican institution has ever made this effort. We need to do a scientific study of the psychological damage these stereotypes spreading via TV and the movies have done to Italoamerican youth, of how these kids end up seeing themselves. I think the results of a sociological study would show that serious psychological damage has been done. Why should the Italoamericans be the only ones to suffer this damage? Publicizing an independent study would instigate something. It may be we can find a way.”

A Newsweek article a few years ago announced that the Italoamericans were the last ethnic group that the media could attack with no fear of consequences. Is this partly the fault of the Italoamerican organizations, that they didn't manage to defend the community?

“Yes, there has definitely been a failure on our part. This is a serious problem and it must be dealt with in the most efficient manner. And not only the Italoamericans, but I'd say the Catholics also can generally be ridiculed by the media without any risk of serious consequences. Americans of Jewish origin have been more determined, and have succeeded. This doesn't happen to them anymore. Even the homosexual community has won careful, preferential treatment from the media, but the Italoamericans are still defenseless. Why haven't we been more efficient? I only know that there are many intelligent, successful Italoamericans who say to this problem 'Who cares? Why get upset about it?' But I keep thinking of the psychological impact on our youth of how other Americans see us. It's obvious if you're a successful Italoamerican you won't be hurt. As an individual you're still worthy of admiration. But if you're an Italoamerican in distress, these prejudices will pull you down further. The point is that we should recognize that how America looks at our community is very important. Many people, Rudy Guiliani for example, and others at his level, seem not to be worried about the problem. It must be faced. I know it takes time and a lot of resources. Past efforts have failed, so I'm being prudent. I have no magic formula, but I'm very anxious inside, I can feel its seriousness. I believe when Italoamericans look at a show like The Sopranos and say 'ma chi se ne frega' it's because of pathetic attempts at a response in the past. They want to avoid cattiva figura. Nobody wants to be associated with a new failure. But we aren't hypersensitive, that's not it at all. This is about justice for the community. America uses a certain code of behavior toward other groups and they should for us too. An Italoamerican student who wants to go to a prestigious university has an automatic disadvantage. That's not right. But I want to add this: Italians are so ingenious and tenacious that even if we start with a disadvantage, in the end we make it anyway. The objective of this foundation will always be to help our youth make it. I'm not sure how we can combat the media pulling us down, but I'm sure we can help our young people overcome the obstacles placed before them. Fear of failure? I'm not afraid of anyone, famous actors don't scare me, not even the Italoamerican ones. But we must proceed intelligently. As I said, we should get the best public relations agency in America, and a group of sociologists, and make a plan. We're a creative, strong people and we never have to feel inferior to anyone. To be successful in America the fundamental thing is consciousness of your possibilities, you have to believe in yourself”.

You chose the director Franco Zeffirelli as Grand Marshall of the Columbus Day parade, and the Minister of Italians Abroad, Mirko Tremaglia, as Guest of Honor. Why them in particular?

“For us the parade is still strategically fundamental. We're proud of its success. And it puts us in close contact with Italy because many of the Regions participate. I want greater involvement of Italy in the parade, in order to promote closer relations of the Italoamerican community with Italy, Italians still living in Italy, and Italians living in New York. There is some separation between the two communities here, and that's no good for either. We asked Zeffirelli to be Grand Marshall because he's one of the great men of the arts of the twentieth century, this century too. At almost eighty, he has just produced another great movie, Callas Forever.

“Zeffirelli has had a great impact in theatre, in cinema, and in the opera. It's also important to us that for years most of his work has been in English, and that he has had a very significant impact on the arts in the city, through the Metropolitan Opera. About a third of the sets used at the Met are his design. His work has changed opera. And not only in New York, but around the world. So Zeffirelli is an obvious choice. And he's not only a great artist but a great humanitarian. Mr. Zeffirelli was gracious enough to allow us, as part of the Columbus Day celebrations, to preview Callas Forever at the Ziegfeld theatre, as a fundraiser for the Zeffirelli Scolarship for the Arts at the Columbus Foundation. The money we raise, from tickets to sponsorships, will go to this scholarship fund. I think it’s very important to help young artists in financial need.”

“Mirko Tremaglia is Minister of Italians Abroad in Berlusconi's cabinet. This year we established a new category: Special Honored Guest from Italy. He's our very first. It's only appropriate, since he is the representative of Italians living abroad. He was very instrumental in obtaining the vote for them in Italy recently. Now they can vote in the Italian national election. So it has all come together very nicely, because Italian politicians now will be more concerned with Italians living abroad, and I think this will benefit both groups.”

Let’s go back to Auriana the businessman. You are one of the greatest experts in this country on the stock market. How do you see the near future? After all that's happened in the last 13 months, is the worst over, or still to come? And the possible war against Iraq, what do you think about that in economic terms?

“I'm optimistic. The US stock market is going through one of the worst corrections or declines of the last hundred years. In duration and depth it rivals the 1929 market decline. In some aspects it is worse than the market decline of 1974-75. I think the market is in a process of forming a bottom here and I view the current stock market as a great opportunity to make money. But you have to be patient, you can’t expect to buy today, in this enviroment, and necessarily beam up tomorrow. The market may be down tomorrow. So the best advice I can give individuals is to establish a program to buy a little bit of stocks every week or month, on a dollar cost averaging basis. Between now and the end of the year I think the market will bottom.”

So the US stock market is still the place to be for investors?
“I think the US market is the best place for individuals to invest and increase their capital for the long term. The current scandals relating to corporate malfeasance only convince me more that the market is the place to invest for the long term. Despite all these scandals, the US market is the most honest and the most liquid in the world. The reason we have these scandals in the newspapers is because of a good system of regulations and corporate government. You never hear about scandals like this overseas, where there is more corruption than in the US. So I take them as a positive sign because corruption has been uncovered. I think the attitude is changing and the market is going to be even more open and transparent in the future. So you have to look at the long term to be a successful investor. In 1998-99, when we were in the middle of the bubble and prices were going up every day, to unrealistic levels, that was the time to be cautious. Now is a time to be brave. The economy and the stock market have been going down primarily because the huge speculative bubble in ‘98-99, the great excessive spending in some areas, in telecommunications and technology - when you have a big bubble like that you have to go through a correction and create excess capacity. We are in the process of working through that now. So the economy and the stock market were weakening before 9-11. Since then the psychological problems hanging over the market, Enron, Worldcom, the danger and threat of war, and the 9-11 tragedy, have made things psychologically much worse. But the underlying fundamentals of the US economy are sound. I mean we are in the process of coming out of this recession.”

“The foreign policy of the Bush Administration, in terms of the economy I think it's probably good. If I understand well, the first thing we are going to do in Iraq is seize control of the oil fields, to prevent them destroying their own fields. This is economically positive, for the US to have control of the second largest oil fields in the world. This is really a new foreign policy evolving, where the US is going to use its might, is going to use its position as the strongest economic and military country. I can’t quarrel with a policy where you use your strength. I think it's good for us and for the world. Is the military threat from Iraq as near-term as the president wants us to believe? I really don’t know. I think there is for sure a long term threat and I support the president and his policy. I don’t mind using America’s power to do what's needed for our security, to protect us against people who threaten us. The US is the strongest country in the world and the other countries should take us seriously, there is nothing wrong with that.” “Italy has been one of the most real and vocal supporters of the US. I'm pleased with the Berlusconi government. I think Italy should continue looking more to the US and less to Europe, because our system has been proven the better model. It seems to me Berlusconi has understood this, and that he looks to the American model more than any other European politician does.”

Berlusconi comes out of business, like Bloomberg. Is this the future of politics?
“Here in America at least, business is the real world, a competitive world that has stripped itself free of bureacracies. It's a world where you have to understand reality and face it. So I believe it's a positive thing when a businessman enters politics, because he has a great deal to offer. Berlusconi is a self-made man, and as I said, he looks to the American model more than to the Brussels bureacracy. In my view, Italy is in good hands.”