I sat down with our new Associate Editor, Gabriella Mileti, to bring you a little taste of where she comes from and who she is.
AS: How did you and your family find your way from Italy to Cleveland, Ohio?
GM: The story of my family is actually rather interesting. My father, Richard, was born and raised in Cleveland in the predominantly Irish neighborhood on W. 28th Street near St. Malachi's. My paternal grandfather was born in Rapallo, on the Italian Riviera. However, my great-grandmother was from Montagnana in the province of Padova and my great-grandfather was from Alcara Li Fusi in the province of Messina. The family resided in Milan, in fact, while I lived in Milan; I visited the house where they once lived. Sailing from the French Port of Le Havre on the ocean liner Paris, the family arrived in America on June 13, 1914. My paternal grandmother was born in Cleveland shortly after her family immigrated from Avezzano in the province of L'Aquila in 1906. My mother's side is a little less complicated. My mother, Giuseppina, was born and raised in the small town of Scido, nestled in the mountains in the province of Reggio Calabria deep in the south of Italy. It wasn't till the summer of 1974 when she had her first summer vacation from her brand new teaching job that she come to Cleveland, Ohio to visit her cousin, who was studying at John Carroll University and working at the Italian restaurant, the Roman Gardens in Little Italy. My father, Richard Mileti, also worked at the restaurant part-time and that is how my parents met. In 1976, my father went to Italy to visit her and in 1977 they got engaged. They were wed on August 3, 1978 in my mother's hometown in Calabria. Initially, they had planned to stay in Italy and live in Rome, but later they made the decision to make Cleveland their home.
AS: What are your educational and professional backgrounds?
GM: I grew up in University Heights, Ohio and attended Gesu Elementary School, Beaumont High School and continued my studies at John Carroll University. Throughout my college studies I worked in the handbag department at Saks Fifth Avenue and attended a couple of summer fashion courses in Milan, Italy, since I always wanted to study fashion. My parents had promised me that after I graduated from JCU, they would send me to Milan to study fashion the right way - in the fashion capital of the world. So upon graduating in May 2006, with a degree in Art History and minor in Italian Studies, I moved to Milan in October and began a three-year fashion styling course in Milan's most prestigious fashion school, Istituto Marangoni. While studying, I taught English to children and worked in two boutiques to maintain myself...Milan is not cheap and it was not easy at all! Then right before I graduated from Marangoni, I met with the administrator of the Placement office of the school. I remember it as if it were yesterday. He asked me, "So, Gabriella, what do you want to do?" I simply responded, "I want to work at a fashion magazine," and he sort of chuckled and said, "You and every other girl in Milan." I responded, "No, but I really want to work at a magazine...I came to Milan to do so." Two weeks later, I received a phone call from Italian Glamour asking me if I would like to come in for an interview for the Fashion intern position. Ecstatic, I fixed an interview with them. Just about a week after, I was called in for a second interview. The next day, I got the job. What then happened in the next few months was what really changed my life. About two months into my internship, the Senior Fashion Editor took a liking to how I worked and ironically, he was looking for an assistant. Talk about being at the right place and the right time! He took me under his wing, and I went from being the intern to the assistant to the Senior Fashion Editor, Edoardo Marchiori. As his right hand, I prepared and organized all of the photo shoots for Italian Glamour and traveled with him extensively throughout the world...a job a million girls would kill for.
AS: What were you doing prior to joining La Gazzetta?
GM: Before joining La Gazzetta in January 2012, I was living and working at Italian Glamour in Milan, Italy. I moved back to America on December 19, 2011.
AS: What got you interested in working for the paper?
GM: As you can tell, I come from a very strong Italian background. My heritage is one of the things most important to meâ¦it's who I am. It is fundamental not only to promote it but also to preserve it. La Gazzetta Italiana embodies all of that.
AS: Where do you see the trends of the newspaper business going?
GM: Newspapers have always been a part of our daily lives. Yet, as more people turn online, newspapers are becoming a little less popular. Despite this, I do not see them becoming absolutely obsolete. There are still more than 100 million Americans that read a newspaper daily. However, a challenge that newspapers are facing is switching to an online format all while making money out of it. As an alternative, newspapers are becoming available on smart devices such as the Kindle and iPad.
AS: What are some of the exciting things you will be working on at La Gazzetta?
GM: At La Gazzetta, we are striving to not only maintain our current readership but also appeal to the younger generation and broaden our reach. Really it will be up to them to carry on our culture and heritage into the future. We are looking to be more present online with our website and social media efforts. This year is a very exciting year for us, so stay tuned and connected!
