Piacere, my name is Luigi Santino La Tona and I have kissed the sun in both our beautiful province of British Columbia and many places around Italy. 

I was born as a first generation Canadian in Winnipeg to parents who immigrated from Abruzzo and Sicilia.  My mother had an affinity for cooking the best spezzatino in our neighbourhood while my father got involved in the Italian community part time and took me to the local soccer matches the other half of the time, all while keeping up to date on his ross’ e nero AC Milan team.

Always longing for pommodoro fresco, in 1986 we set off to Italy for an indefinite amount of time.  We relocated to my mother’s hometown of Lanciano, specifically Santa Maria Imbaro, where my grandparents lived.    To my young 6 year old surprise, there was a queen of cooking there too and she was my grandmother! My grandfather worked in the campagna while she kept busy feeding her family.

Finally, my parents came to the decision to move back to Canada in 1989 and we have lived in British Columbia since. 

Yearning for more knowledge of my background, I spent 5 years of my life travelling throughout Italy and many parts of the world.  The interaction I have had with different cultures and the fresh fruit, fish, and air I have tasted while travelling on my own made me realize my passion. 

Upon my return, I vowed to get serious about my education and thus enrolled in UBC and looked to the study of International Relations to bridge further book smarts with my past experiences.  Once I learned about the opportunities one could receive in the UBC Arts Co-op program, I jumped at the chance to combine paid work experience with my studies. The co-op program has been a valuable asset in allowing me to see the opportunities that are out in the ‘real world’ and to get experience in different situations.  I worked hard and was accepted to work for the Canadian Border Services Agency at the International Airport in Vancouver for my first co-op term this past summer.

The language skills I gained while travelling and the passion for keeping my Latin skills updated have proven a great asset in my current position as many paesanos do enjoy seeing the beauty our province withholds. My Italian language capabilities were very important in this position as I helped many travellers who could not speak English. When I heard the “I don’t speak very good English” in the recognisable accent, I was quick to jump into helping them in Italian.  “Veramente, parla Italiano?”  “Certo!”

My Italian language skills helped me on a daily basis, even if I was not directly helping in Italian as my latin roots were born from the Italian Language.  This has therefore given me a greater access to learning French and Spanish.

Before graduating I will be doing 3 more 4-month co-op terms, and would welcome the chance to work locally in an Italian environment, or for an organization in Italy. For more information about hiring a UBC Arts Co-op student, please contact my program at 604.822.1529 or arts.co-op@ubc.ca. Lots of information about the program is available at http://co-op.arts.ubc.ca.