Close

For many, the term “Italian American” evokes images of Italian enclaves in metropolitan areas throughout the east coast, the Midwest, and northern California, to name a few. Literary works such as Miss Giardino, Christ in Concrete, and The Fortunate Pilgrim constitute celebrated representations of the Italian immigrant’s work ethic and ability to e...

543

One of four children, Leonardo Aiello was born in Bagheria, Sicily, to Angelo and Angela Buttitta Aiello. He grew up near grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides of the family. Among his favorite meals were two Sicilian specialties his grandmother prepared. Cuccia, a “soupy dish” of ceci beans and whole wheat kernels, was served on th...

2350

American-Italian Federation of the Southeast has started the Fundraising Campaign to erect the 16' High Monument to the Sicilian Sugar Cane Harvester. Sixty-Thousand Sicilians were recruited to work in Louisiana's Sugar Cane fields from 1870-1920. We have started fundraising for a 12' high monument to be placed on a 4' pedestal to honor those whose...

1550

In June 2021, mutual friends introduced Marianna Gatto — the executive director and cofounder of The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles (IAMLA) — to Harvard-educated lawyer, law professor, and Pueblo, CO native Fred Galves. A year prior, Galves had been hired by the city of Pueblo to serve as the mediator when tensions surrounding the city’s hi...

1135

I have spent my life in this corner. Sometimes when I spend a lot of time working in the back and my customers don’t see me in the store, they get worried. When I arrived in the 1950s it was all countryside, there was no other store but only orange and lemon trees, just like in Sicily.” The corner Rosario Mazzeo is talking about is the one between...

1301

“Pasquale: Tales of a Brooklyn Grocer’s Son” by Peter M. Franzese has been released worldwide. This detailed, 414-page memoir tells the life story of Pasquale “Pat” Franzese, the author’s grandfather, through the memories he shared and wisdom he gained over ninety-two years of life. An exploration of family history, Italian-American culture, and ho...

400

The first U.S.A. book presentation on the “Birth of New Biccari in Philadelphia” was held at the History of Italian Immigration Museum (HIIM) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, November-19. The HIIM is in the heart of the Little Italy enclave of South Philadelphia. Our host for the event was the Filitalia International & Foundation organiza...

2234

When Lisa DeNatale set out to obtain Italian citizenship based on her Sicilian lineage, things got complicated fast. Non-Italians can obtain citizenship if an ancestor was born in Italy, even one as far back as great-great-grandparents. DeNatale's paternal grandparents, for instance, were born in Sicily and came over to the U.S. in the early 1900s....

816

Jews in Sicily celebrated traditional Sabbath services for the first time in 500 years last month when Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Washington, D.C. delivered a Torah to the newly established synagogue in Catania. Having been expelled from Spanish territory, which then included Sicily and southern Italy, by Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand...

548

Italy increasingly intercultural It used to be said that Italy has transformed over the years from a country of emigration into a country of immigration: this phrase has never been true and, even more so, it is not true now because it is belied by data and facts. People have never stopped leaving from Italy, and in the last few difficult years of l...

918