The grandson of Italian and Eastern European immigrants, Anthony Delstretto was born in Detroit, Michigan, where he grew up among Italian, Polish, and Irish blue-collar families during the 1950s.
After retiring as a high school teacher, coach, administrator, and as executive director of a educational non-profit, Delstretto’s lifelong interest in genealogy led him to discover presumably 'lost' relatives still living in Italy. The experience inspired him to research, write, and independently publish his first historical novel, The Last Italian - A Saga in Three Parts, at age 70. Since its debut in 2020, the novel has been well-received, at one point reaching Amazon's '#1 Best Seller' status in one of its fiction categories, and continues to attract readers.
In 2024, drawing largely from his wife’s rich Spanish/Cuban heritage, Anthony released his second book, The Ever Faithful Isle - A Novel of Old Cuba, which, like his first, explores the theme of multi-generational families caught in the violent crosshairs of relentlessly unfolding history.
Anthony and his wife hold dual United States and Italian citizenships and reside in the American West, close to their family.
Primary Research Sources for
THE LAST ITALIAN: A Saga in Three Parts
BOOK ONE: God's Teeth
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BOOK TWO: Fate's Restless Feet
A Box of Sand
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THE EVER FAITHFUL ISLE: A Novel of Old Cuba
Compilation of Colonial Spanish Terms & Document Related Phrases
Ophelia Marquez, Lillian Ramos Navarro Wold
Society of Hispanic & Ancestral Research Press (1998)
Midway City, CA
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Rebecca J. Scott
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Brian H. Pollitt
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Marriage, Family, and Ethnicity in the Early Spanish Caribbean
Ida Altman
William & Mary Quarterly (April 2013) pp 225-250
Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture
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La Comida Mambisa: Food, Farming, and Cuban Identity, 1839-1899
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