Mr. Gaetano D'Aquino

Biographical Speech for Award Winner Gaetano D’Aquino

Written by Kathy DeSantis for verbal presentation on September 18, 2004.

     I am pleased to present my good friend Mr. Gaetano D’Aquino for the Business Award.   Isn’t the name “Gaetano D’Aquino” a perfect name for an Italian importer?  It’s unmistakably Italian! 

     Gaetano is being honored tonight for his many achievements and accomplishments in the importing business.  Despite serious obstacles such as language barriers and being an immigrant, Gaetano started his Italian Importing Company in 1977 only 10 years after relocating permanently in the United States.   

     His story is as remarkable as the man himself.   

     When Gaetano was a child he worked with his father in the food business in their home village of Siracusa, Sicily.  However, once eighteen, Gaetano decided to try something new and left Italy for Switzerland to study electronics as a career.  After five years of working with transformers and reactors, he took a vacation in Florida that changed his life forever.  While on that vacation, he met Silvia Altavilla.  They fell in love and were married in 1965.  At that point he decided to stay in the United States and pursue a career in electronics and take English classes.   With savings from his job as an inspector for an electrics firm he and Silvia purchased a little food market and bakery which he owned and managed for three years.  But Gaetano wanted more.  He had a dream of owning his own business and sharing some of the fine quality products from Italy that he knew from his childhood. 

     So, he went back to Italy and researched the possibility of importing Italian foods into the United States for the next four years.  Little did he know that the time would be well spent as was the struggle to establish his importing project into the mainstream markets in the United States in 1977.   

     As a one-man company Gaetano worked around the clock doing everything from accounting to sales trying to make an impression in a field of big, well established American markets, restaurants and products. It was a difficult and challenging time for the D’Aquinos. 

     Now let me tell you who this man really is.   Hardworking, honest, loyal, dedicated, good hearted and loves his family - these are just a few words that describe him.   

     Gaetano, many of us here identify with your efforts and sacrifice.   In those early days there must have been many times when you wanted to give up but the fact is, you didn’t.   Now you’re at the top of the industry!   We can’t go anywhere without seeing that beautiful name, your own “private label” on a bottle of some fine quality wine or food product.   That is marketing genius! 

     Besides being a successful businessman, Gaetano never forgot the first love of his life, Italy, or the people in his homeland.  When an earthquake devastated Southern Italy Gaetano was right there to collect and contribute to his fellow countrymen in their time of need.  

     Gaetano, I can NOT imagine life without you and the products from Italy that help make many of us feel at home again.  You also enabled Americans to appreciate and enjoy the cultures and traditions of our Italian ancestry.    

     Please join me in congratulating Gaetano D’Aquino our Business Award honoree.

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Kathy DeSantis © 2004