The recognition is dedicated in particular to personalities who have offered and are offering a fundamental contribution to the social and cultural life of the United States.
Of Samnite and Lucan origin, as well as a great fan of the Napoli team, Bill De Blasio represents for the new generations an important testimony of Italian-Americans who preserve the love for Italian culture and southern culture in particular.
With the assignment of the Dorso Award to Bill De Blasio, the jury also intended to honor the compatriots of southern origin who, over the years, have brought the name of Italy to the top in the United States, keeping their roots alive and creating increasingly strong ties with the South.
“Bill represents the southern message in a positive and extremely significant way – declared the mayor Gaetano Manfredi – he is a man of great value, talent and great democratic commitment who governed one of the most important cities in the world, an expression of a mature democracy and inclusive and multinational economic development. It is an idea very close to the cultural idea of Naples which has done so, in its history and in its dimensions, in a similar way. But Bill, in addition to his skills and abilities, is also a man who in his political action has not forgotten his roots and has governed New York somewhat as a southerner, bringing the thought and cultural values inherited from his origins in Campania”.
“The 44th edition of the Dorso Prize could not have had a more significant prologue than the delivery of the International Section to Bill De Blasio in the Town Hall – said the president of the Dorso Association, Nicola Squitieri – it is precisely in Naples, in fact, that this award was born back in 1970.
To the mayor Gaetano Manfredi, who in 2020 was the recipient of the recognition for his prestigious scientific and cultural curriculum, I address the thanks of the Association and the wish that Naples will achieve, under his leadership, new and important objectives of economic and social development”.