Italians have had to deal with various stereotypes on the road to full acceptance in the American melting pot. Even today, some say we have yet to “melt.” The iconic organ grinder with his monkey and tin cup is a relic of the period when vendors of all types and nationalities made a living on the street. A tragic phase of this very public employment saw Italians as young as nine panhandling as itinerant musicians on the street corners of NYC and other major cities.

It is a sad fact that children arriving from Italy in the 19th century often were emmeshed in a system that mimicked enslavement. So great was the traffic in exploited children from Italy that between 1855 and 1874, over 100 advertisements were posted in the New York Herald for the return of “lost” Italian boys. These were child musicians, musicanti vagabondi, who had escaped from their exploiters, not their families.