On Monday, April 3, Shawn Baxter, the Cultural Attache responsible for Social Affairs, reopened the headquarters of the American Consulate together with Palermo’s Honorary Consul, Barbara Cucinella, and the city’s Mayor, Leoluca Orlando. Numerous professionals, artists, scholars and American researchers who live, study and work in Sicily were present.
“The relationship between Sicily and the United States is based on a centuries old friendship of strong historical and family ties”. History teaches us that The Kingdom of the Two Scillies recognized the United States when it accepted the credentials of U.S. consular agent John S. M. Matthiew, who was appointed to the position of U.S. Consul in Naples on May 20, 1796. The first US Consul for the island of Sicily was Joseph Barnes, who was appointed on February 10, 1802.
And let us not forget that the first representative from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the United States was Count Ferdinando Lucchesi.
