The mayors of Terrasini, Sicily, and Gloucester took the first step last Thursday to cement a sister-city relationship between the two historic fishing communities.
Many of those who are part of Gloucester’s storied Sicilian fishing community can trace their roots to Terrasini. This includes Mayor Greg Verga, whose grandparents on his father’s side came from the city on northern coast of Sicily to the northwest of Palermo. It’s a comune known for its fishing and tourism.
America’s oldest seaport already has sister-city relationships with Lunenburg and Shelburne in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Tamano City, Japan.
On Thursday at 4 p.m., Terrasini Mayor Giosuè Maniaci and his delegation squeezed into the mayor’s office on the first floor of City Hall where Maniaci put on a red, white and green sash before a short signing ceremony and pictures.
There, the delegation met Verga’s daughter, Julia, and aunt, Nina Verga Francis, a first-generation American whose parents came from Terrasini.
“Like many families in Gloucester,” Verga said on Facebook after the visit, “ours has roots in Sicily, so this connection feels especially personal.
“I grew up in a house where my father came from a Sicilian-speaking home, and my mother came from a Portuguese-speaking home, so English was the language we learned,” he told the delegation.
Also on hand was former Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken, who had been working on a sister-city arrangement between Gloucester and Terrasini when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. The pandemic delayed progress on this idea of the two becoming sister cities. Romeo Theken, now the deputy commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game, continued efforts to forge the relationship after leaving office at the end of 2021 after being defeated by Verga.
Romeo Theken stepped in to translate as the friendship agreement was signed by the mayors to start bringing the two communities together.
“We are excited to begin the process of officially becoming sister cities with Terrasini,” Verga said.
A sister-city relationship is a long-term, cooperative relationship between two cities in different countries through which cultural, educational, business, and technical exchanges take place.
Earlier in the week, the Terrasini mayor and his group attended a reception at St. Peter’s Club downtown. A farewell reception was held Thursday night at the Causeway Restaurant on Essex Avenue, according to Facebook posts by Romeo Theken.
Instrumental to the visit’s success was Giuseppe Cracchiolo, a native of Terrasini who grew up with Maniaci. He’s a local electrician who owns Caffe Sicilia on Main Street. Romeo Theken contacted him during the pandemic to start the collaboration.
Cracchiolo said the delegation last week paid a visit its sister city in Warren, Michigan, and decided this would be a good chance to visit Gloucester to start the process toward a collaboration.
“This city is so much like in Terrasini,” Romeo Theken said. “And a lot of the immigrants that came here came from Terrasini, like your grandparents,” she said to Verga, “like our parents and grandparents and everything else.”
Romeo Theken said Maniaci brought documentation to start the sister-city relationship to allow both communities to cooperate and work together. She also said Gloucester has lost many fishermen at sea, with many coming from Terrasini and other parts of Sicily. Theken said Terrasini is considering creating a statue similar to The Man at the Wheel along a portion of community similar to Stacy Boulevard.
Through Romeo Theken, Maniaci thanked Cracchiolo.
“He says he wants to thank Giueseppe Cracchiolo because if it really wasn’t for him, none of this would have ever happened,” she said.
What did Maniaci think about Gloucester?
Romeo Theken said he loves Gloucester.
“He says it’s like his hometown,” she said. “He says it’s absolutely beautiful, the way that the culture is here, and the history is here, you walk around, it’s just like it is in Terrasini. He says he doesn’t want this to stop. The reason why he wanted this was is because the next generation has to know who we all are.”
Ethan Forman may be contacted at 978-675-2714, or at eforman@northofboston.com.