La California is a small village between Cecina and Bibbona on land that once belonged to the former commune but was later transferred to the latter. As a settlement, it dates back to the Paleolithic and peaked during the Etruscan civilization in the first millennium BC, with a population of just over 1,000. But did you know they submit ballots for the US presidental elections too?
Residents of La California, an Italian town, have held farcical ballots for US presidential elections since 2004. Although La California residents’ votes do not count, the results of each election are sent to the nearby US consulate in Florence.
The Voting Gag
The link between La California and the United States has remained strong over the years, so much so that the Tuscan village claims to have hosted the first unauthorized polling station for an American presidential election outside of the United States in 2004. The idea came from writer-directors Michele Cogo and Francesco Merini.
As the United States of America is the world’s greatest power, affecting and determining the fate of the planet, why shouldn’t we have the chance to vote for their/our President too?
Michele Cogo and Franceso Merini, Writers
The ballots were presented to William W. McIlhenny, the American consul general in Florence, who stated that the voting represented the future. However, rumors say that Bush’s third-place finish caused some diplomatic embarrassment. Merini and his team documented the event and its aftermath in the film Il Presidente del Mundo or The President of the World.
The right candidate for the American presidency at this moment in history would have been Bernie Sanders. Too bad he didn’t make it in the primaries. So I would choose the lesser evil, Joe Biden. Trump’s reelection would be a planetary disaster.
Stefano Marmugi, Councilor for Culture
(Source: Atlas Obscura)
The Origin of the Town Name
The origin of the name is unknown and widely debated. Every Gabbanese, as the people of La California are known, has its own version. The most famous, which was made into a film by director Nello Correale in 1999, is that once Italians began migrating to the United States in large numbers, swindlers lured poor Sicilians onto small boats with the promise of a trip to California, only to dump them on the Tuscan coast but keep their money. It is said that the Southern migrants, bewildered and disoriented, named the town after their hoped-for destination. But Andrenacci has shown that the village known as La California existed before that time.
Another legend involves Buffalo Bill’s Wild West circus’s 1890 European tour and a butteri challenge to local cowboys. Andrenacci, in his book California, Oltre il mito (California, Behind the Myth), offers a different solution to the mystery: a man named Leonetto Cipriani.
Cipriani is an essential figure in the history of La California. He was born in Corsica in 1812 and grew up in Livorno, where he became involved in the Risorgimento, or the movement to unite Italy. Cipriani’s family owned some land in Cecina, which he treasured throughout his career as a military and political leader.
He stayed in Cecina until 1850, when he came across a copy of the French newspaper Journal des débats, which featured a report on the newly formed state of California, describing it as a paradise on Earth for its temperate climate, astonishing vegetation, and unlimited richness in minerals, gold had been discovered there only a couple of years before.
Cipriani eventually settled in Belmont, California, and made his fortune there, where a primary school is still named after him. He traveled the country and was one of the first Europeans to visit and document the Mormon settlement that would become Salt Lake City. His trip to America ended in 1855 when he was recalled to Italy.
Around this time, the Gabbani family’s small plot of land hosting a restaurant was given the name La California, which explains why they’re called Gabbanese rather than Californian. (Source: Atlas Obscura)
Image from AtlasObscura