By Christa Romano
“One
day, I just woke up and realized that I had accomplished one of my dreams. I
really did do exactly what I’d always wanted to do.” Andrea Lanzone dreamed of
being an “Indians’ Picker.” In his terms a person who drives across America and
“picks up” American Indians in need of help.
After
spending his childhood living in Rome, Lanzone decided to follow his dreams and
at the age of 23 he moved to America, bought a 1977 Trans-Am and spent the next
two years visiting many Indian reservations and growing culturally and
professionally.
Lanzone,
41, is the assistant dean and a professor at John Cabot University in his home
city. The combination of his past experience and passion for his work make him
an important resource for the JCU community. He is considered a go-to person.
“He
is a bridge between the academic affairs and the student affairs here,” said
Pilar Murgia Imana, coordinator of Student Services at JCU. “Because he is also
a teacher he is able to read between the lines of the university, internally
and externally. He sees how this school functions from within the boundaries of
the classroom and from within the administrative system.”
His
first stop in America was in Arizona with the Navajo, the largest American
Indian nation, which Lanzone described as a “beautiful people with a very
strong cultural identity.” Lanzone loved the South West so much that he decided
to stay in the Navajo Nation for a while. Then he moved to South Dakota the land
of the Lakota Sioux. But he soon discovered that on the Great Plains, reservation
life could be very hard.
“The
conditions were horrible there. So many are unemployed or homeless, even today housing
is a big problem. There are youth gangs, there is very poor healthcare and the
alcoholism rate is tremendously high,” Lanzone said. “It is a third world and
nobody knows it. These people have been left alone.”
When
asked why he decided to dedicate many years of his life to American Indian
tribes, Lanzone said he has always been interested in the human condition in
relation to oppressed and underprivileged people. “The American Indians are a
minority and have been denied their rights. I wanted to know who is responsible
and how I can help,” he said.
Lanzone
believes that only a true American Indian has the right to teach their history
and so he tries to teach only what he is absolutely sure about the way that he
believes American Indians would like to represent themselves. “In my Native
American history class I don’t teach the white man’s history,” he said.
Lanzone
dedicated his double thesis and PhD to American Indians and is currently
working on publishing two novels about his experiences in America. From his involvement
in the field of human rights, Lanzone has always been interested in learning
about minorities, refugees and other people forced to become invisible to the
general public eye.
Lanzone
has also done extensive charity work and has helped raise funds with Trans-Am
77, a
R&R band that mostly covers musicians such as the Rolling Stones, Creedence
Clearwater and Bob Dylan – his favorite. He is one of the guitar players and
has been called “the soul of the music life at JCU” by other faculty members.
One day he will move out with his family to his country
house in Umbria where he produces olive oil. But before doing that, he would
like to take a pan-continental road trip with his son from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, the
southern-most point of South America. Reflecting on his past experiences,
Professor Lanzone leans back and smiles as he say, “But this time, my son Tommy
and I, will have a shining, brand new Ford Mustang!”
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