The Neighborhood: The North End becomes Columbus Park in Kansas City
We’re back on the road across the United States, exploring Italian American traces, stories, and people in each of the 50 states. Today we stop in Kansas City, home to a vibrant community dedicated to celebrating its Italian roots. Jody Valet has graciously agreed to serve as our Ambassador in Kansas, and she is working on an exciting documentary t...
Sabino and Michela Curcio and Rocco Loguercio (Growing Up Italian)
In an attempt to explain Italian Americans to Italians like me who live in Italy, an indispensable tool has been as successful as it is deserved is “Growing Up Italian”. I met them at the Italian American Future Leaders conferences, and every time they publish a short video in which I have the pleasure of expressing my opinion, I receive many messa...
Camilla Calamandrei (Author of the documentary "Prisoners in Paradise")
During World War II more than 51,000 Italian soldiers were brought to the United States as Prisoners of War. The award-winning documentary film “Prisoners in Paradise,” recounts the story of the young soldiers brought to the US as POWs, their romances and friendships with American women, their contribution to the Allied war effort, and — for some —...
Danielle Salasavage (Secretary for the Centro Culturale Italiano di Buffalo's Board of Directors)
There’s a whole lot of Italy north of Manhattan. The New York State, for obvious reasons, is often associated with New York City, but it’s actually vast and diverse, and home to many Italian Americans - even in the area known as Upstate New York. One of the most important cities in this regard is Buffalo, right on the Canadian border. This is where...
John Calvelli (Chairman of the Board of NIAF)
NIAF (National Italian American Foundation) is the most important organization representing the Italian American community, and this year it celebrates its 50th anniversary. 2025 is also a year of change for its Chairman of the Board, and since last April, this crucial role has been held by one of the best people I know: John Calvelli. John is an e...
Andrè DiMino (President of the Italian American One Voice Coalition)
Perhaps the most important of the things we struggle to understand here in Italy, regarding the needs and struggles of the Italian American community, is the constant fight against stereotypes and cancel culture that has affected and still affects our brothers and sisters of Italian American nationality. However, this is a fundamental issue, one th...
Marianna Gatto (Executive Director and co-founder of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles)
The interview you're about to read is particularly dear to me, both for the subject it addresses and for the person who represents it. The history of Italians in Los Angeles has always fascinated me because it is somehow different from that of those who emigrated from Italy and settled on the East Coast of the United States. There are certainly sim...
Lorenzo Tavazzi (Senior Partner and Head of the Scenarios and Intelligence and International Development Area of The European House - Ambrosetti)
Last October 25 the Italian Embassy in Washington hosted the presentation of an extraordinary strategic study on development opportunities in the US for Italian companies, prepared by The European House - Ambrosetti (TEHA) and masterfully narrated in front of an audience of more than 100 Italian and American stakeholders by Lorenzo Tavazzi, Senior...
Pete Melucci (Founder and President of the Arizona Italian American Chamber of Commerce)
We the Italians kicks off the new year on the West Coast, specifically in Arizona, the Grand Canyon State. It is here that we are welcome by a great friend, someone with a big heart in which the two flags that represent all of us proudly wave. Pete Melucci is our Ambassador in Arizona, the founder and President of the Arizona Italian American Chamb...
Stephanie Longo (Author of the paper "eEthnicity: Social media, Italian Americans, and Cultural Identity")
While in 2024 We the Italians took its first steps into the metaverse and the use of artificial intelligence, one of the innovations of 2025 for us will be a more effective and comprehensive approach to social media. We look at new technologies and the future with curiosity, interest and confidence. There is one person in the Italian American commu...
Arnaldo Minuti (Italian Consul General in Boston, MA)
Among the most fascinating American cities to host and represent the relationship between Italy and the United States, certainly Boston, Massachusetts, New England is very important. Here past and future, tradition and innovation meet, and Italian creativity is well represented by many researchers and innovators. This year Boston has one more reaso...
Andrea Cammarato-Van Benschoten (Author of the book "Italians of Newark: A History")
Until a few years ago there were ten Italian Consulates in the United States, because there was also one in New Jersey, in Newark. It was a very bad choice to close it ten years ago, in my opinion, because the area is very populated with Italians and Italian Americans, and the two Consulates in New York and Philadelphia, which had to share the resp...