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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | DECEMBER 2024 51 The Italian American Club met on Nov. 14 and members brought a dinner-type dish to share and enjoyed each other's company during the evening. The Steering Committee arranged for a gelato truck to be parked in front of The Courts during the evening, as we have done previously. The gelato was very good, and was enjoyed by club members and other residents of our community who stopped by The Courts parking lot to buy gelato. Residents of our community were welcomed again and this time the gelato truck also sold doglato for our fur babies. Our Christmas Party will be on Friday, Dec. 13 at 5 pm at Russo's Italian Restaurant in Banning. We will have a gag gift giveaway during the evening, so please respond to Barbara by email if you plan to attend. The cost is $10 a person for members of the club. Barbara or Jerry will collect the money for Russo's prior to Dec. 10. RSVPs are necessary in order to prepare the proper food for the event. Please RSVP and pay on or before Dec. 10 if you plan to attend the Christmas Dinner Party. The Italian American Club consists of residents of Four Seasons of all backgrounds and is open to all residents. You do not have to be Italian to join our group or come to our meetings. We would like for you to come and visit with us. Please have a healthy and happy holiday season. ~ Barbara Dipoma, (805) 377-2616, and Jerry Monahan, (951) 212-8898 Italian American Club On Oct. 26, 44 people gathered for the eleventh anniversary of the Four Seasons Rainbow Group. Good company, news updates, and much laughter were shared among those present. is month our selection for the Famous LGBT Americans series is John Francisco Rechy, a gay novelist. Of Mexican-Scottish descent, Rechy was born in 1934 in El Paso. A graduate of the University of Texas, El Paso, he also studied at the New School for Social Research in New York. Rechy has written 17 books and two plays. His books focus on sexual and social outsiders and occasionally draw on his Mexican-American heritage. His rst novel, City of Night, was published in 1963. It relates the experiences of a young gay man who makes his way to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. e book describes the gay bars and pickup locations of that time and the people who frequented them. Besides his books about gay themes, other books reect a veneration for family, culture and religion, such as: Our Lady of Babylon and e Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez. In 1997, Rechy received PEN-USA-West's Lifetime Achievement Award. When presenting the PEN Award to Rechy, author and Washington Post book critic, Carolyn See, stated, "His individual vision is unique, perfect, loving, and strong … [He uses] his talent to illuminate the lives of the scorned and the ignored … He speaks for those who can't speak for themselves … [He] has always been the steadfast champion of the disregarded." In 1999, Rechy received the William Whitehead Lifetime Achievement Award from e Publishing Triangle. At the presentation, author and critic, Michael Bronski, said, "[He]. . . forever altered how mainstream American culture wrote about, saw, experienced, and conceptualized homosexuality … What [he] has given for more than 30 years is a wonderful and terrifying gi, a vision of a complicated, complex, and wonderful world." Rechy has written essays for e Nation, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Times, New York Magazine, and other publications. Rechy has taught literature and lm courses for writers in the graduate division of the University of Southern California. He lives in Encino with Michael Ewing, his mate (Rechy's preferred term versus "partner" or "husband"). For more information about John Rechy and on the sources for this article, please go to the Rainbow Group's Facebook page or request a copy via our email (rainbowgroup@myyahoo.com). ~ Dan Hazeltine and Frank Galvan Rainbow Group

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