Nino Host Venturi

Giovanni Host-Venturi, also known as Nino Host-Venturi (Fiume, June 24, 1892 - Buenos Aires, April 29, 1980) was an Italian politician and historian. Member of the Sursum Corda, during World War I, he was captain of “Arditi” and an irredentist, his name is linked to the historical events of Fiume designed by Gabriele D'Annunzio.

In Fiume in April 1919, Giovanni Venturi created the “Legion of Fiume”, consisting of a core of volunteers officially to defend the city from the French army contingent in the city, but them considered pro-Yugoslav. As a Fascist exponent Host-Venturi was among the advocates of forced assimilation of non-native populations present in Venezia Giulia. In a speech held on May 23, 1925 at the Congress of strian Fascists, he denounced the use of the Slavic language by local Slovenes and Croats during their church attendance. In 1927, at a conference that took place in Trieste, Host-Venturi with Bruno Coceani, Joseph Cobolli and other leaders of Friuli Venezia Giulia, outlined the guidelines for a complete Italianization to the alloglot minority in Friuli, Venezia Giulia and Zara.

Although he passed in the ranks of fascist hardliners, Host-Venturi, like Mario Carli, was sometimes considered a "fascist of the left."

In the second half of the thirties he become State Undersecretary for Shipping, then, between 1939 and 1943, Minister of Communications. Five months before the fall of fascism, for reasons that are not known to us, Host-Venturi was ousted from the government by Mussolini as a result of a deep reshuffling of the government operated by the "Duce." He does not take positions during the Italian Social Republic. He moved to Argentina in 1948. He died in 1980 having committed suicide in Buenos Aires.

His son Franco, born in Rome in 1937, but emigrated at an early age in Argentina with his family, became a painter and known cartoonist. Frank was seized in Mar del Plata in 02/24/1976 and was considered officially as a desaparecido in the eighties.