Gustavo Monasterios, a 47-year-old Venezuelan citizen, recently had his Italian citizenship recognized after a lawsuit he brought led to the overturning of a restriction on citizenship by descent in Italy. The so-called “minor issue” had ended the dreams of citizenship for hundreds of thousands of Italian descendants, particularly in the Americas.

Background

The restriction, which was first applied by individual judges in 2019 and later rubber-stamped by a lower section of the supreme court in 2023, had been used to deny citizenship to many Italian descendants. The rule change had blocked the paths to citizenship for many, including Monasterios, who had lost his initial suit for citizenship in 2021 and his appeal in 2023.

Monasterios’ grandmother, Rina Laveder, had moved from Italy to Venezuela as a child and had married a local man, naturalizing in 1956. Monasterios’ father, also called Gustavo, was born in 1944 while his mother was still an Italian citizen. However, due to the restrictions on citizenship by descent at the time, Gustavo and his brother Pedro were born Venezuelan, despite their mother being Italian.

Impact

The overturning of the restriction is expected to affect thousands of Italian descendants who had been denied citizenship due to the “minor issue”. Many of these individuals, like Monasterios, have strong ties to Italy and had been seeking to obtain citizenship. The change in the law is seen as a victory for those who have been fighting for their right to Italian citizenship.

Another individual affected by the restriction is Joseph Spinelle, an American-Italian who had been separated from his family for two years due to the rule change. Spinelle’s family had planned to get citizenship and move to Italy, but the restriction had blocked their paths. Spinelle was eventually recognized as an Italian citizen, but his family was not, leading to a difficult situation for the family.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.