: About Me

Vincent Traina is a historian, teacher, and freelance writer with a museum and education background. Vincent has a BA in History and a BA in Communication Arts from Caldwell College. Trainas experience in museum education and historic preservation includes Waterloo Foundation for the Arts, Inc., the Passaic County Historical Society, and the Montclair Historical Society. He has also taught locally at Most Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Wallington and abroad for the British Institutes of Nicosia in Sicily. Vincent has been published by The Italian Tribune, Echoes (alumni magazine), NJIIAC, and Helium.com. He was awarded a scholarship from the National Italian American Foundation, has interviewed the great-granddaughter of Giuseppe Garibaldi, and is presently a member of the American Historical Association and Phi Alpha Theta.

My passion is ...

History, Italian culture, Films, Writing, Philosophy, Classical Music

I know too much about ...

World War Two

My parents always told me ...

that honesty is the best policy

My childhood ambition ...

to become famous

My favorite memory ...

living and teaching in Sicily

Why I write ...

to document the thoughts that the impulses in my brain happen to be generating at this moment in time. These words are more of a visual record of my mind's conscious expression. What I write is merely a reflection of my brain's temporary existence. I realize that I exist because of the previous millions of my kind struggling, surviving, & reproducing. By that reasoning alone, I know that it's wrong to forget about the past, neglect the present, and ignore the future. Indeed, life is beautiful!

My first job ...

Historical Interpreter

My best moment ...

I suppose that my "best" moment was when I visited Scoglitti and Santa Croce Camerina, the two small Sicilian towns where my family came from 100 years ago.

My inspiration ...

It may sound trite, but a great deal of my inspiration stems from the wisdom and guidance of my parents. The rich experiences I was fortunate enough to have had while working in Sicily also fortify my spirit and nourish my creativity.

Arts & Humanities > US History (Other) The history of Montclair, New Jersey

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Three hundred million years ago, the area we now call Montclair was flat and swampy. In fact, archaeologists doing excavations have discovered fossils that show it was once under water and had tropical temperatures. Then the Ice Age came, which ended about eleven thousand years ago. During this very long period, the formation of the mountains and rocks took place. Some of the mountains formed were the Watchung Mountains, which you can see in Montclair. When Henry Hudson landed in New Jersey in 1609, he came across the Lenni Lenape people. For hundreds of years, these people hunted through ...

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Writing:

• Marketplace Approved Writer
• Helium Charter Member