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Fulgenzio Pomponio scese dalla nave “America” a Ellis Island il 26 luglio 1921. All’età di soli 22 anni aveva alle spalle esperienze tutt’altro che simpatiche. Nato in uno sperduto paesino dell’Appennino abruzzese era uno dei “ragazzi del ‘99” ovvero di quella leva straordinaria arruolata nonostante la giovanissima età e spedita al fronte per arres...

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Let's go back to the topic of regional emigration and after Sicily, Abruzzo and Puglia, this time we talk about the emigration from Lucania (Basilicata) to America. We do this thanks to a documentary produced and realized, with the contribution of the Basilicata Region, by a young talented Lucanian, Ileana Disabato, whom we thank and to whom we giv...

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Brooklyn, New York, 1948. My immigrant father, Francesco Pietanza, a merchant steward and cook from Mola di Bari, Italy arrived at Ellis Island on the S.S. Coronado in search of his younger brother. Despite the racketeering longshore waterfront and the underlying discrimination that peppered the streets of his chance destination of South Brooklyn,...

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Nato in Sicilia Carlo Mignano vive a New York dal 1962. Dopo essersi diplomato da un liceo nel Queens ha prestato servizio nella Guardia Costiera USA per un periodo di quattro anni. Dopo il suo congedo è andato a studiare a Parigi ottenendo un Diploma in Lingua e Cultura Francese. Ha poi frequentato il CUNY Hunter College e l’Università di New York...

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Francesco “Frank J.” Zappalà nacque, il 24 maggio 1897 a Santo Stefano in Aspromonte, provincia di Reggio Calabria, da Giuseppe (“barbiere del paese”) e Carmela Penna. La famiglia Zappalà giunse ad “Ellis Island” nel 1908. Il piccolo Francesco, oramai per tutti “Frank J.”, mostrò, sin da subito, una vivace intelligenza. Fondamentale fu, per lui, l’...

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Christian R. Greco found the earliest known photographs of his family by accident. In the wake of President Trump’s decision to walk back some protections for young undocumented immigrants, the historian and legal activist couldn’t help but think about his own family’s immigration experience and his father’s journey to New York from Italy in Octobe...

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The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is proud to announce that NIAF Co-Chair Patricia de Stacy Harrison and NIAF Vice Chair Robert E. Carlucci have been named recipients of the 2017 Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO). The medals are presented each year on historic Ellis Island to a select...

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“The moment of arrival was euphoric, and then silence fell upon them. They were afraid they wouldn’t be let in. The question on everyone’s mind was ‘Will we enter or not? Will they let us pass?’” This is the scene Maurizio Igor Meta told me he repeatedly came across in the many diaries he read, written by European immigrants coming to New York via...

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People are moving more freely across borders and continents and this has kept the topic of immigration in the world’s headlines and sparked widespread protests. The Pew Research Center projects that by 2050, more than one-third of US schoolchildren “younger than 17 will either be immigrants themselves or the children of at least one parent who is...

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“Il nonno di papà si imbarcò a Napoli nel 1890 e, dopo giorni di navigazione, arrivò a New York. In quel periodo, nel novembre del 1890, gli emigranti sbarcavano al Barge Office di Battery Park…” racconta Maurizio Igor Meta, attore, scrittore e regista che dal 2014 lavora a Ellis Island. Ellis Island  è un progetto multidisciplinare che inizia dall...

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