By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
The West Haven Columbus Day Committee will honor its “primo italiano” at the city’s 21st annual Columbus Day Celebration.
Aniello Cappetta, who owned and operated Cappetta’s Italian Imports in Allingtown for nearly a quarter century, will receive the committee’s Italian American of the Year award Friday at City Hall, 355 Main St.
The award is bestowed annually on an Italian resident, or couple, who personifies service in West Haven’s close-knit Italian American community.
“I am very proud of being Italian and very happy to receive this honor from the city of West Haven,” Cappetta said.
Cappetta, 71, will fete the Italian navigator and observe his ancestry with scores of his closest friends and loved ones, along with an array of dignitaries and descendants of folks from the old country clad in red, white and green.
Accompanied by Italian music, members of the West Haven Italian American Civic Association will escort Cappetta to the steps of City Hall at 11:30 a.m. for his special recognition.
A lunch will follow in the First Congregational Church of West Haven’s Fellowship Hall, at 1 Church St. opposite City Hall on the Green.
In the indomitable spirit of Christopher Columbus, Cappetta is a testament to the promise and greatness of the United States.
“Aniello Cappetta is a proud Italian man who has called West Haven home for a very long time,” Mayor Nancy R. Rossi said. “He and his wife, Palma, raised their children and established their business here. Aniello is the head of a hardworking family that gives back to the community. It is my great pleasure to honor him as West Haven’s Italian American of the Year.”
Columbus, a son of Genoa and an experienced seaman, set sail aboard three Spanish ships across the Atlantic Ocean in the summer of 1492, a bold expedition that pushed back the boundaries of the known world and opened up a new continent for future generations.
Cappetta, one of 13 siblings, was born and raised in the town of Acerno in the province of Salerno, Italy. He served in the Italian air force and also worked as a carpenter.
In 1970, at the age of 22, Cappetta and his wife, the former Palma Malangone, also a native of Acerno, left their home in southwestern Italy and came to America for “a better life and to start a family.”
After the couple settled in New Haven, he worked for a construction company in West Haven.
In 1972, Cappetta and his wife opened their first restaurant, Mama Lucia’s in Ansonia, becoming the first family members to open a food establishment.
The couple sold the restaurant in 1976. For the next eight years, they worked in housekeeping at the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven while raising their four children: Luigi, Rosa, Donato and Maria.
The couple moved their brood to West Haven in 1983.
A year later, Cappetta and his wife started a new venture and opened LP Video on Route 1 in Allingtown. The store, which sold Italian American films, introduced the couple to the great people of West Haven, he said.
In 1989, the couple returned to the food service business and opened Cappetta’s Italian Imports across the street from LP Video. The business at 188 Boston Post Road started as a deli and specialized in food items from Italy.
A few years later, Cappetta’s expanded to offer pizza and other Italian specialty foods and provide catering services.
Before long, the business that Cappetta and his wife built in the heart of Allingtown became “the go-to spot” for home-style and hard-to-find Italian foods.
Although he handed it down to sons Donato and Luigi in 2013, Cappetta, whose wife passed away in 2016, still spends much of his time at the neighborhood institution, now Cappetta’s Italian Imports Pizza and Catering.
Rossi will present Cappetta with a mayoral citation recognizing his civic-minded contributions and good works — noble qualities that epitomize the city’s top “paisano” of the year.
Cappetta will receive an Italian flag from Paul M. Frosolone, president of the Italian American Civic Association, and Josephine Matera, former president of the Italian American Ladies Auxiliary, as well as a jacket embroidered with his new title, Italian American of the Year, from Rossi.
The cultural event will include remarks from mayoral Executive Assistant Lou Esposito, the master of ceremonies, and an Italian blessing from Michael Abbott, director of ministry at Notre Dame High School.
It will also include renditions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the Italian national anthem by Liz Levy, followed by a greeting from Rossi.
Cappetta’s propensity for community service includes serving as an ambassador of his rich heritage.
He is a longtime member of Club Napoli in Northford and the Italian American Club of East Haven.
Cappetta lives on Pagano Court, a cul-de-sac off Jones Street near First Avenue, and has nine grandchildren.
His name will join the 20 previous Columbus Day recipients on a plaque in City Hall.