Oh Capitano!

J. Vecoli Rudolph, Francesco Durante, O. Venditto Elizabeth

Description

Italian adventurer and sea captain Celso Cesare Moreno traveled the world lying, scheming, and building an extensive patron/client network to establish his reputation as a middleman and person of significance. Through his machinations, Moreno became a critical player in the expansion of western trade and imperialism in Asia, the trafficking of migrant workers and children in the Atlantic, the conflicts of Americans and Native Hawaiians over the fate of Hawaii, and the imperial competitions of French, British, Italian, and American governments during a critically important era of imperial expansion during the nineteenth century. Oh Capitano! teases out Moreno's enormous peculiarities and fascination as well as his significance.Celso Cesare Moreno was simultaneously toxic, deceitful, and charming in equal measure. He wandered, adventured, cheated, exaggerated, promoted (mainly himself), and continuously created newly invented past lives. He repeatedly sought a role at the center of a globalizing world with gusto and had no qualms about lying or betraying others. He claimed at times to be the ruler of a Southeast Asian island that he then offered for sale to several western nations. He briefly became prime minister of Hawai'i. He testified before the U.S. Congress as an expert witness. He sought to promote a trans-Pacific cable project. He fought with the ministers and leaders of many countries (and with his fellow Italians and Catholic churchmen almost everywhere) but was more often ignored and rejected than feted. He was accused, probably with good cause, of abusing his obligations after claiming guardianship of the sons of King David Kalakaua of Hawaii. Dragged by his uncontrollable polemical passions, the old Captain died alone, unloved by anyone and with no significant relations to others.With its focus on Moreno, Oh Capitano! illustrates some of the most puzzling cultural traits of emigrant Italian elites. Called a "carpetbagger," "land pirate," "extinct volcano," among many other derogatory monikers, Celso emerges in this fascinating biography as a multifaceted, chameleon-like personality not reducible to a single epithet.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Oceanía
• Australasia
• Pacific Islands
• Sicily
• Oceania
• Italy
• History of Europe
• My Last Duchess
• Sicile
• Océanie

Informations

• Publié par: Fordham University Press
• Date de parution: 05 juin 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780823279890
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

O h C a p i t a n o !

Oh Capitano!

Celso Cesare Moreno—Adventurer, Cheater, and Scoundrel on Four Continents

Rudolph J. Vecoli andFrancesco Durante

Edited byD ONNA R. G ABACCIA Translated byE LIZABETH O. V ENDITTO

f o r d h a m u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s New York 2018

Copyright © 2018 Fordham University Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Oh Capitano! The Fabulous Life of Celso Cesare Moreno on Four Continents, 1831–1901was originally published asOh Capitano! La vita favolosa di Celso Cesare Moreno in quattro continenti, 1831–1901, © 2014 Marsilio Editori® s.p.a. in Venezia.

Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Fordham University Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Visit us online at www.fordhampress.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Vecoli, Rudolph J. | Durante, Francesco, 1952– author. | Gabaccia,  Donna R., 1949– editor. Title: Oh capitano! : Celso Cesare Moreno—adventurer, cheater, and scoundrel  on four continents/ Rudolph J. Vecoli and Francesco Durante ; edited by  Donna R. Gabaccia ; translated by Elizabeth O. Venditto. Other titles: Oh capitano! English Description: New York : Fordham University Press, 2018. | Includes  bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018004953 | ISBN 9780823279869 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN  9780823279876 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Moreno, Celso Cesare, 1831–1901. | Explorers—Italy—Biography. Classification: LCC G276.M67 V4313 2018 | DDC 910.92 [B] —dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018004953

Printed in the United States of America

20 19 18 5 4 3 2 1

First edition

c o n t e n t s

Preface rudolph j. vecoli Prologue francesco durante  Introduction to the English-Language Edition: “Was Moreno a Sociopath?” donna r. gabaccia Translator’Nsote

 1. The Traveler’s Spirit  2. The Treasures of Asia  3. The Challenge of the Pacific  4. The Little Italian Slaves  5. The Enchanter of Hawaii 6. Celso’sVendetta 7. ElectoralIntermezzo  8. The New Italian America  9. The Destiny of Hawaii 10. The Sunset Road

Notes Bibliography Index

v

vii

ix

xi xix

1 15 43 63 79 95 110 123 155 172

187 215 223

p r e f a c e

Rudolph J. Vecoli

“Fabulous” can have several meanings. One is that which is totally imagi- nary, as in a fable; another is “almost unbelievable.” In my estimation, Moreno’s life embodied both meanings. As his biographer, I have experi- enced both frustration and fascination seeking to determine where the imagined Moreno ends and where the “almost unbelievable” begins. Celso Caesar Moreno has been on my mind for quite a long time. I first encountered Moreno while researching my dissertation in the 1950s. A notice inUnione Italiana, an Italian-language paper published in Chicago, caught my eye. It reported that a “Prince from Malacca, Cesare Moreno,” had arrived in Washington to sell an island to the United States. Moreno’s letter, in response to that news, appeared in the issue of August 19, 1868:

Dear sirs! I read in your paper on August 5th that you wished to honor me with the title Malaysian Prince, which I am not and do not wish to be. Only permit me to tell how it is that I am in America and what I intend to do. In the many voyages which I have made between the British Indies and China, I heard much talk of a very fertile island not yet known or possessed by Europeans. In 1862 I undertook an expedition on my own account and risk. I was successful, landed, and took possession in my name, becomingCapo e Padrone(Head and Master), but notPrince.I then went to Italy,mia Patria, and offered it to the Government to make it a colony, which would have meant a great future for commerce and the Italian Navy, but instead for two years the Ministries of Italy gave me nothing but vague promises, without ever reaching a decision. I am here to sell it to the American 1 government . . .

The letter was signed “Signore Cesare Moreno, Capitano Marittimo.” What manner of man was this, I asked myself, who had thefegato, the gall, to claim to becapo e padroneof a South Sea island and to present himself to the president and Congress with an offer to sell them an island off the coast of Sumatra?

vii

viii

Rudolph J. Vecoli

Preoccupied for the next half century with teaching and administration, as well as research on other subjects, I put Celso on the back burner. Fol- lowing my retirement, I realized that, free at last, what I really wanted to do was to write Moreno’s biography. Over the years, I had caught glimpses of Moreno in various historical contexts: His campaign against “Italian slavery” in the United States, his exotic adventures in India, the East Indies, and China; his proposal for laying a transpacific telegraph cable; his brief tenure as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hawaii; his candidacy for the Italian Chamber of Depu- ties, and so on. An intriguing figure indeed —but one, however, who has been almost totally ignored by historians in both Italy and the United States. In various studies of Italian colonization and of the Italian diplo- matic service, he has been given only brief mention. Even in the fi eld of Italian American history, although he was reputed in 1900 to be the most famous Italian in the United States, he has received only passing reference. Almost all these mentions portray Moreno as a pure scoundrel. Such char- acterizations did not lessen my interest in Celso Cesare Moreno. Instead, they whetted my appetite to know more about him. That Moreno kept an archive of his papers, of this there is no doubt. That it did not survive him meant that the research for this book was more difficult and more challenging. Happily, in his numerous polemics, he quoted extensively from correspondence, government records, and news- paper clippings, including his innumerable letters to newspapers. I am indebted to many archives and various databases of manuscript collections that allowed me to gather a goodly number of his letters. William Nevins Armstrong, who figures in the narrative that follows, knew Moreno in connection with his Hawaiian adventure. In a scrapbook in the Armstrong papers at the Yale University Library, I found a clipping of an obituary of Moreno. Beside it, Armstrong had written: “Someone 2 should write a book about this fellow, but he was an absolute fake.” A harsh judgment, indeed. But Celso emerges from my research as a multi- faceted, chameleon-like personality not reducible to a single epithet.

p r o l o g u e

Francesco Durante

Rudi Vecoli first told me about his project to write a biography of Celso Cesare Moreno in a September 2004 email. Like him, I had stumbled onto Moreno while I was working on something else, and, like Rudi, I consid- ered writing a book about him. So when Rudi told me that he had started his project, I was enthusiastic. The following summer, Rudi retired and found the time to devote himself to it. He kept me updated about his research: his trip to Hawaii, his brief trips to the Library of Congress, and naturally, a trip to Italy, which ended in Moreno’s hometown, Dogliani. Emilio Franzina, another great historian of emigration, accompanied him and told me the trip was also a thorough and memorable tour of Pied- mont’s food and wine. I enjoyed following Rudi’s research from afar and seeing how enthusias- tically Rudi undertook it. It was a point of pride for me to see how Rudi valued my opinion on a series of small questions connected to this work. Then, on December 18, 2007, I received a terrible email. Rudi wrote that he had been diagnosed with incurable acute leukemia two weeks ear- lier. “It is a matter of weeks,” he added. All that, in three lines. The longer part of the message was instead dedicated to his book on Moreno, which risked remaining incomplete. “It would be a great satisfaction for me,” Rudi wrote, “if you would agree to be the joint author. There is no other person to whom I would entrust this work.” I responded immediately, with an unbearable pain in my heart. I told him that yes, I would find the time to complete his work. I could not have done anything else because I was indebted to Rudi for his openness, enthu- siasm, kindness, and his help with my work on Italian Americans. I had met him more than twenty years earlier in Minneapolis, in his “kingdom,” the former site of the Immigration History Research Center. I had decided to research the forgotten literature of the first generation of Italians who emigrated to the United States, and this was the place to do it. On a cold, pale spring morning, I began to consult the catalogs and made request after request. Someone must have told Professor Vecoli, who was the

i

x