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Italian Americans don’t even number 100,000 in Los Angeles, accounting for just about 0.25% of the city’s population, but Italian food has made an outsized impact on the culinary landscape. Pizzerias, trattorias, and osterias generally get the most buzz, but L.A. also has several Italian delis that feed thousands of people per week. Angelenos shoul...

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Sounds like an anomaly, doesn’t it? A “poor man’s banker,” but that’s what thousands of disenfranchised immigrants called the gracious Amadeo Pietro Giannini. His contemporaries referred to him as “America’s Banker.” The son of Italian immigrants, Virginia and Luigi, Amadeo was born on a farm in San Jose, California on May 6, 1870. At 7, he was tra...

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As a third generation Italian American born in the baby boomer era, I remember growing up getting bits and pieces of my family roots from my parents about my paternal and maternal grandparents who emigrated from Southern Italy around 1910.  My Aunts and Uncles of the second generation also provided me insight into their early upbringing as children...

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A famous photograph of Mulberry Street at the turn of the 20th century shows a neighborhood brimming with life. The street is packed with recent Italian immigrants, young and old. Carts and buggies crowd the streets like cars do today, with merchants selling products out the back. Produce stands are in front of buildings in the same way that outdoo...

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Located on the top, flat part of Verona, Penn. — running parallel to the main street, about one-half mile away — was Second Street where I grew up.  The topography made it special, but more notably, it was all of the hustle and bustle in this mixed Italian, German, Croatian, Irish and Polish neighborhood that made it shine. As youngsters, we put up...

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One of the greatest and most beloved players in Indians history is about to be immortalized forever. The Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday unanimously approved allocating funds to help complete a statue of Tribe legend Rocky Colavito. The Italian American Brotherhood Club in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood is behind the effort and has been s...

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It’s nervy to call something the last of anything, especially when it comes to neighborhoods. But as residents of The Hill in St. Louis see it, their community isn’t just the city’s Little Italy—it’s the last one in all of America. Scusi? What was that? You can almost hear the recriminations and curses coming from North Beach in San Francisco and B...

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Mario Scilipoti left his newly wed and, unbeknownst to him, pregnant wife behind in their mountainside Sicilian village when he departed for the United States. The 23-year-old did not speak English. He did not have, or need, a visa when his ship, the Patria, sailed past the Statue of Liberty and landed at Ellis Island. He did not have a lucrative j...

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I am pleased to announce the 2021 Italian Week organized by myself and the Italian division at Loyola University Maryland that will be held virtually on ZOOM from February 21 to 25. The topic this year is Little Italies: the Impact and Importance of Italian Language, Heritage, and Culture in the U.S.  Our own Dr. Marc De Simone from Baltimore will...

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Construction has begun on site at our Little Italy San Jose Cultural & Museum! Demo around the perimeter, chimney and basement is underway in preparation for the home lifting and foundation work for the "Italian Cellar" basement bar. Also got the massive antenna taken down. We saved 300 of the bricks from the chimney to be repurposed in our Little...

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