Sometimes, it is through a third person’s account that we get to know someone. We learn interesting facts and we delve into them. Anecdotes and other information arise that spark interest and curiosity. What follows is an immediate and instinctive fondness.
Even if we don’t know him personally-- his life choices; his willingness to help others; his serene determination to get close to other people in order to resolve, or at least soften, their suffering; his calm acceptance of the simple and unique values of his ancestral culture and, at the same time, his openness and sensitivity towards the cultural values of the place where he lives-- lead us to conclude that we are dealing with someone endowed with a strong and fascinating character.
This is exactly what happened once we got to know Briano Di Rezze personally, albeit by telephone. We expressed our interest in getting to know him better and eventually sharing his story with our friends. Following a formal yet courteous reluctance, he agreed to write about himself, in preparation to meet us in person in 2023, when he plans to take (se Dio vuole) a family trip to Italy and Casalvieri.
BRIANO DI REZZE lives in Canada where he works as a professional psychotherapy researcher specializing in Autism. But let’s hear from Briano himself.
valcominosenzaconfini
GROWING UP AS AN ITALO-CANADIAN
by Briano DI REZZE
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to parents Anna and Gino Di Rezze who both have roots in Casalvieri. My grandmother (Pasqualina Greco) was pregnant with my mother when she came to Canada from Casalvieri by boat and settled in Windsor, Ontario. My father’s side of the family immigrated from Iaoccuci to Toronto. Both Windsor and Toronto were big immigration locations for Italians. This was especially true for Casalveranni where the Casalvieri Club was founded in Toronto and the Ciociaro Club was established in Windsor. I was fortunate to have family who were founding members of each Club – my zio Angelo Di Rezze (Casalvieri Club) and my nonno Nicola (Ciociaro Club). My sister (Daniela Di Rezze- Campione) spent a lot of time in our childhood participating in events at both clubs which taught us about our culture – values, faith, food, clothing, history, and how life was (and should be) lived in community.
Being close with my family in Toronto and Windsor and part of the Italian-Canadian communities in both cities (4 hours apart) I came to understand the importance of having family support each other and the common traditions coming out of Casalvieri. However, I growing up in Canada there were other traditions that were different and not all Italian families had embraced. Hockey was one of those Canadian traditions because of how foreign it was and dangerous it seemed, many children of Italian immigrants were not allowed to play the sport. My parents felt differently and encouraged me to play hockey, a sport that I loved. I started playing competitively later than most children, but always wanted see how far I could go with the goal of playing university hockey. On this journey, I found myself at 17 playing hockey in Europe for a summer – playing in front of hundreds (and sometimes close to a thousand) people in Austria, Germany and Italy (Brunico).
Ice palace in Brunico during the tour in Italy
An amazing experience that launched me into on the path that eventually led me to playing at the University of Toronto and winning ‘Rookie of the Year’ in my first season in 1996. Being part of the team and hockey community was a brotherhood that I am thankful for, but always was one of a few ‘Italians’ on the team, which was a novelty (except when I played Andrea Boccelli in the dressing room before a game).
Life at Home and building a career
Playing hockey at university was a great achievement and life-long friendships, but I knew that I wanted a career in health care. I went into the field of occupational therapy – a profession that works with people with disabilities to help them be more independent in their life and participate in their own communities.
With the 1997/99 Toronto university team (Briano is fourth from the right of the second row)
After graduating in 2003, I worked in the field of Childhood Disability at the largest centre in Canada – Holland Bloorview Children’s hospital. Working in this field opened my eyes to the needs of children and the lack of research in the area to support them in having a childhood like I remember having.
Married in 2004, to my lifemate and Calabrese fine girl (Mariana De Bartolo) who was raised with similar family values growing up. Support from both of our families allowed us to continue to explore our professional passions. We have been blessed with two beautiful children, Christian and Evangeline, who love their family and Italian heritage and I am proud to say they embrace the values of family and community commitment that we have raised them in. God willing, we are hoping to bring them to Italy to see both Casalvieri and Cosenza in 2023.
Professional life
For my career, as a therapist I saw the limited research that was available for clinicians to use to guide how we could improve the lives of children with disabilities, especially autistic children. For this reason, I did my PhD and post-doctoral training at McMaster University to train as a clinician-scientist.
At the time, there was a lot of research dedicated to finding the cause of autism and how to cure it, but my experience was that there were many autistic children and autistic children growing up into autistic adults that require help…now. In this time, it was evident that similar challenges were experienced by all children with disabilities and their families – difficulty in childhood and participating in their communities.
TED talks
As a result, I decided to focus my research on how we can improve the lives of all children with disabilities and their families in a way that can embrace their abilities and provide them with the support they need to live happy and productive lives. We continue to see how children with disabilities are born in many families around us, and my work aligned with a Childhood Disability Research Centre at McMaster University called CanChild. CanChild’s research network includes international partners that are world-renowned in doing research that improves the lives of children with disabilities, and their families.
In 2014, I became a Scientist at CanChild and was hired as a Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University. My work with graduate students included training clinical and research students in areas of research that included increasing childhood participation in independent living, school engagement and employment. More recently, I have become the co-Director of CanChild with developmental pediatrician Dr. Olaf Kraus De Camargo. Our tenure as co-Directors will begin in July 2022 with the goal of continuing to be a world-leader in childhood disability research, and the aim to build more partnerships worldwide (especially Italy).
Vision for the future
My commitment to family and community has truly driven me personally and professionally to ensure that my children have the values of compassion, acceptance of difference and to help others who have not had the same opportunities, especially those not as fortunate to have roots in Casalvieri.
translation by Davide Iacobelli
