[1][2] For 42 years he served as president of the Columbian Federation of Italian-American Societies founded on Columbus Day October 12, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois.

[4] He emigrated from Italy in 1915, after studying at a Catholic seminary in the town of Penne (now part of the province of Pescara), just a few days before the devastating 1915 Avezzano earthquake, which resulted in thousands of casualties.

Upon arriving in the United States of America to Ellis Island, he settled in Las Animas County, Colorado, before finally moving to Pueblo with his parents.

As a staunch anti-fascist, he worked in journalism and served in trade unions as a teenager, collaborating with newspapers primarily read by Italian Americans.

In 1960 he received the Star of Italian Solidarity from the President of the Republic Giovanni Gronchi, in recognition for having cemented the good relations between Italy and the United States.