I am 80% Italian according to 23 & me, which is not surprising because 6 of my 8 great grandparents were born Italian citizens. My grandfather’s name (on my Mother’s side) is even on the wall of Ellis Island as of the many Italian’s to migrate to America in the 1930s and 40s.
My grandfather, Nicolas, came here when he was 14 years old to find if his father. My Great Grandfather Dominick was working in Pittsburg PA and sending checks home to Italy. One day the checks stopped coming so my Great Grandmother sent her second oldest son on a quest to find him and see if he had died. My Grandfather had a treacherous trip, by boat to NY from Italy and was dropped off in NYC with no money and no way to get to Pittsburg PA to find his father. After he got through Ellis Island, he sat on the NYC streets crying, he hadn’t eaten in days, he was unable to speak the language and had no idea how he was going to get to Pittsburg. Luckily, an Irish cop found him and took him home where he gave my grandfather his first taste of American cuisine, apple pie on a paper plate. My grandfather said it was the most delicious thing he ever ate in his life. The cop called around to find some of my Grandfather’s second cousins living in Philadelphia. When the cop turned around to tell my Grandfather the good news, that he would help him meet up with his family in Italy, he noticed that the pie was gone and so was the paper plate. Apparently they didn’t have paper plates in Italy and my Grandfather thought this was part of the snack.
Some Italian facts about Italian immigration from the Italian Center:
On the eve of World War II in 1941 Italian-Americans were the largest immigrant group in the nation and in California. At the outbreak of war their loyalty was questioned. They were interned and relocated from the West coast and more than 600,000 were restricted nationwide. Their language and heritage were suppressed and their personal property seized. Their only crime was being of Italian ancestry. At the same time an estimated one million Italian-Americans served in the armed forces. After the war it was not popular to be too Italian. Many Italians changed their names and hid their ethnicity out of shame and fear. These events occurred within our living memory.
In the 40s, my Great Uncle (on my Mother’s side) was a street lamp lighter, who was paid $2 a day by the city of Philadelphia. With his paycheck, he spent on a $1 a-day on a linguist to help eliminate his Italian accent. My Great Uncle told us that he endured a great deal of harassment because of his accent and that it limited his job opportunities because he didn’t sound “American.”
My family (mostly in Philly) always celebrated Columbus day, as Italian-American heritage day from the time I was a little kid. To my disappointment, some school districts in NJ are trying to eliminate Columbus day and thereby erase the history of the Italian contribution to America.
New Jersey has 1.25 Million people who are of Italian Heritage. Some towns are heavily Italian, like Toms River, Brick, Middletown, Fairfield, Wood-Ridge, North Caldwell, Lavallette, Hammonton and more!
Interesting note about Hammonton, My Grandmother (on my Father’s side) and her siblings were child-labor workers shipped from Philly to work in the Hammonton blueberry fields. My Uncle (on my Father’s side) told me that they were chased by the KKK on paycheck day so they had to have police officers escort them back to the truck that drove them home to Philly for their own safety.
America was build on Italian power. Italian immigrants helped provide the labor for American factories and mines and helped build roads, dams, tunnels, and other infrastructure. Their work provided them a small economic foothold in American society and allowed them to provide for their families, which stood at the core of Italian-American life. My grandparents and great grandparents were also blue collar workers who didn’t finish high school.
I’m still connected with Italy, I still communicate with my Italian 2nd cousins (on my Mom and my Dad’s side) through Facebook because as everyone knows, Italian extended families are close. We have strong bonds and are proud of our History.
The Woke culture now wants to cancel Italian heritage because they are trying to view Christopher Columbus through the lens of America in 2022. He lived in a rough time, in a rough place that we can’t even imagine living in today. However, no matter what you think of Columbus, the movement to replace Columbus Day is viewed as anti-Italian, and anti-Catholic by the Italian community.
It seems like a group of pazzo woke people, with a solution no one wants, looked for a problem that no one had and managed to piss off Italian-Americans. Medagones are always creating sciocchezza.
No one in the woke community bothered to look into the bigger meaning behind Columbus Day; they only created rhetoric trying to eliminate Italian heritage and replace it with Indigenous people’s heritage.
Why?
There are 365 days in the year. Pick another day to celebrate Indigenous people and let us keep our day that was instituted in 1937 by President Roosevelt.
There is no reason to create imaginary tensions between families of Italian Immigrants and indigenous people. We can all celebrate our contribution to the American Dream.
#bringbackColumbusday
There was one huge missing piece of information that you missed. In 1891, 11 innocent Italian Immigrants were lynched in New Orleans for a crime they didn’t commit. The Prime Minister of Italy, Francesco Crispi, cut diplomatic ties with the US. The President at the time, Benjamin Harrison, wanted to make amends so he proposed a day in honor of Italians, October 12 and called it Columbus Day. For more information, listen to the Master Phil in Your Corner podcast, Episode #75 or watch the movie - Vendetta.
This is a great post. I love it.
This great nation was built by immigrants who came here legally, leaving behind their families and home countries under the most difficult and dangerous conditions and saddest circumstances. Our families who came before us came usually with nothing but the clothes in their backs and were willing to work hard simply for the joy of being an American. The majority of the illegals coming here today seek handout after handout. Free phone, free housing, free healthcare, on and on. It is no wonder this country is falling apart.