Our Heritage

There has been a substantial Italian American community in St. Louis since the 1860’s. While there have been many Italian organizations, there was not one for those who could trace their ancestry to Sicily. In the spring of 1993, twelve members of the St. Louis Chapter of UNICO National were attending a planning meeting and they talked about the different Italian organizations in St. Louis. The subject came up about why St. Louis did not have a Sicilian club. As discussion continued they decided to start one and set a date for the first meeting.

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The first meeting of the Sicilian Cultural Association was held on April 18, 1993, with eighteen people in attendance at this inaugural meeting. Reverend Leo J. Spezia, who was active in many of the Italian American organizations, was selected to be the Chaplain. At that meeting, tribute was paid to Frank LoPiccolo. Frank was a travel agent and he had been active in the Italian community and had talked about starting a Sicilian organization for several years. Sadly, Frank passed away in October, 1991, while traveling in Italy. Yet, his dream of a club dedicated to the Sicilian and Italian culture was to live on. Our founding members included Baldo Gandolfo, Gabriele Lancia, Antonino Lombardo, Michael Lombardo, Alphonse Lordo, Anthony Lucido, Vincent Misuraca, Vince Monteleone, Michael Santangelo, Angelo Sita, George Stark, and Rio Vitale.