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by Catherine Accardi   You can become a part of San Francisco's North Beach history and help create its future! Read on to find out how.   Although San Francisco had parks prior to the 1906 earthquake and fire, for the most part they were for sitting or strolling and not for recreational activities. In 1910, two open air swimming...

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New York and baseball's Yankees, it's a love affair that might've ended in some recrimination in the previous fall, but in spring, hope does spring eternal, and the Yankees become the main game in town. The Yankees, who start their 114th MLB season on April 1 on the road, launch their home opener on April 7. Fans have a passionate love-hate relati...

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Sicilian immigrants Guiseppe and Rosalie DiMaggio welcomed their son, Giuseppe Paolo, on November 25, 1914. His family lived in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California, where they worked as fisherman. When Joe was a boy, he and his brothers would play baseball at various sandlots and playgrounds around Fisherman's Warf. In 1932, h...

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Raccontare identità e rappresentazione degli Italoamericani non è mai stata impresa facile. E lo ha confermato anche la presentazione del libro di Maria Laurino The Italian Americans. A History che si è tenuta la scorsa settimana alla Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò della New York University. Il libro accompagna l'omonimo documentario della PBS diret...

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The Little Italy neighborhood in Chicago might be small, but it proudly holds onto its strong Italian heritage. Set between the two University of Illinois campuses near the west side, Little Italy once was the epicenter of the Italian community in Chicago.   Although the old neighborhood is now partly filled with college students, visitors c...

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by Rolando Vitale   Between 1900 and 1955, Italian Americans captured the greatest proportion of world boxing titles. Fifty-one champions and title claimants rose to the top of their respective weight classes, more than any other ethnic group.   Yet the outside world was oblivious to this remarkable success with his Italian identity u...

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Chaperoned by his parents after just becoming a teenager, James Fiorentino took an artist's leap of faith by bringing a prized Joe DiMaggio painting he had done of the legendary Yankee great to an autograph show that DiMaggio was appearing at.   Fiorentino reminisced: "He was always tough at these things and usually didn't sign artwork. He l...

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It started on May 15, 1941, with a single against Eddie Smith of the White Sox at Yankee Stadium. Seventy-five years later, Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak remains baseball's most iconic record. The Yankee Clipper's Summer of 56 captivated a nation still recovering from the Great Depression.   As the streak mounted, following DiMaggio...

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by Phil Angelo   From 1932 to 1953, every New York Yankee team that won the World Series had at least two Italian-Americans in the lineup. Joe DiMaggio is best known, but there was also Yogi (Lawrence) Berra, Phil (Fiero) Rizzuto, Vic Raschi, Frankie Crosetti and Tony Lazzeri.   Lazzeri was the first Italian-American baseball sta...

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In March 1949, Joe DiMaggio posed in Yankee Stadium, smiling, with another famous Italian-American of his era — each in his professional uniform — but their friendship would not endure.   On the evening of Nov. 5, 1954, the Yankee Clipper and Frank Sinatra hastily got up from dinner with friends at the Villa Capri in Hollywood and drove to a...

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