Italian American

Logo of Sons of Italy, which is the largest Italian American fraternal organization in the United States.

An Italian American is an American of Italian descent. The phrase may refer to someone born in the United States of Italian descent or to someone who has immigrated to the United States from Italy. Although Italians arrived early in the new world, Italian immigration to the United States effectively began in the 1880s, and peaked between 1900 and 1914, when World War I made movement impossible. By 1978, 5.3 million Italians had immigrated to the United States; two million arrived between 1900 and 1914. About a third of these immigrants intended to stay only briefly, in order to make money and return to Italy. While one in four did go back, the rest either decided to stay, or were prevented from returning by the war. Only English, Irish and Germans immigrated in equal or larger numbers.

In the 2000 U.S. Census, Italian Americans constituted the seventh largest ancestry group in America with about 15.6 million people (5.6% of the total U.S. population).¹

In the 1930s, Italian Americans voted heavily Democratic; since the 1960s, they have split about evenly between the Democratic and the Republican parties. The U.S. Congress includes Italian Americans, who are regarded as leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties; the highest-ranking Italian-American is Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader.

History

Most immigration from Italy occurred between 1880 and 1920. Most Italian Americans came from Southern Italy and Sicily as rural peasants. Italians lived in cities, mill towns and mining camps all over the Northeast, with New York City the favorite destination. A small proportion became garden farmers. They dominated specific neighborhoods (often called "Little Italy")where they could interact and find favorite foods. The immigrants arrived with very little cash or human capital; their manual labor was in demand. These neighborhoods were slums--with overcrowded tenements and poor sanitation. Tuberculosis was rampant. In the 1890-1920 period Italian Americans were often stereotyped as being "violent", "lazy", "dirty", "ignorant," and "controlled by the Mafia." In 1891, eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans were lynched when they were suspected of being involved in the Mafia and the murder of the police chief. This was the largest mass lynching in US history. [1]. These unflattering images remain staples of movies like The Godfather and in television shows like The Sopranos. The stereotypes have been perpetuated in works by leading Italian American artists such as writer Mario Puzo, directors Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and actors Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino, James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco and Edie Falco. According to the National Italian American Foundation, two-thirds of Italian Americans held white collar jobs in 1990. This organization has also asserted that the Mafia in the US never numbered more than a few thousand individuals. The Sacco and Vanzetti case also epitomized the discrimination and perceptions that Italian Americans faced during this time period. However, many Italian Americans are assimilating into the language, social structure and customs like most large immigrant groups. In addition, some Italian Americans belong to the fourth and fifth generation and have intermarried with other ethnic groups. Despite the fact that some Italian Americans today work in white collar jobs, there is still a very large blue-collar working class Italian American community. These Italians usually work in the construction, restaurant, or garment industries.

Italian American culture

Many Italian Americans still retain aspects of their culture. This includes Italian food, drink, art, Catholicism, annual Italian American feasts and a strong committment to extended family. Italian-Americans influenced popular music in the 1940s and as recently in the 1970s, one of their major contributions to American culture. In movies that deal with cultural issues, Italian American words and lingo are sometimes spoken by the characters. Although most will not totally speak Italian, there has been a dialect among Italian Americans in ethnic neighborhoods and was popularized in movies like "bada-bing".

Religion

Most immigrants had been Catholics in Italy. Observers noted they usually became more devoutly Catholic in America. Their faith was a distinctive characteristic in America; devout Italian Americans often identified themselves as "Catholics" when talking to coworkers or neighbors. But, a minority Italians came to America because of growing wealth of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy. So few Italian-Americans are found in Protestant churches like Anglican and other protestant denominations

In some Italian American communities, Saint Joseph's Day (March 19) is marked by celebrations and parades. Columbus Day is also widely celebrated, as are the feasts of some regional Italian patron saints, most notably San Gennaro (September 19) (especially by those claiming Neapolitan heritage), and Santa Rosalia (September 4) by immigrants from Sicily.

Italian Language in the United States

According to the Sons of Italy News Bureau from 1998 to 2002, the enrollment in college Italian language courses grew by 30%, faster than the enrollment rates for Spanish, French, and German. Italian is the fourth most commonly taught foreign language in U.S. colleges and universities behind Spanish, French, and German. According to the U.S. 2000 Census, Italian is the fifth (seventh overall) most spoken language in the United States (tied with Vietnamese) with over 1 million speakers.²

As a result of the large wave of Italian immigration to the United States of America in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, the Italian language was once widely spoken in much of the U.S., especially in northeastern and Great Lakes area cities, as well as, San Francisco and New Orleans. Italian-language newspapers existed in many American cities, especially New York City, into the 1990s, and Italian-language movie theatres existed in the U.S. as late as the 1950s.

This sign appeared in post offices and in government buildings during World War II. The sign designates Japanese, German, and Italian, the languages of the Axis powers, as enemy languages.

Author Lawrence Distasi argues that the loss of spoken Italian among the Italian American population can be tied to U.S. government pressures during World War II. During World War II, in various parts of the country, the U.S. government displayed signs that read, Don't Speak the Enemy's Language. Such signs designated the languages of the Axis powers, German, Japanese, and Italian, as "enemy languages."

Shortly after the U.S. declared war on the Axis powers, many Italian, Japanese and German citizens were interned. Among the Italian Americans, those who spoke Italian, who had never taken out citizenship papers, and who belonged to groups that praised Benito Mussolini, were most likely to become candidates for internment.

Distasi claims that many Italian language schools closed down in the San Francisco Bay Area within a week of the U.S. declaration of war on the Axis powers. Such closures were inevitable since most of the teachers in Italian languages were interned.

Despite the pressures of the US government during World War II, now more than ever, children of Italian heritage, especially paternal heritage, are given Italian names, and raised in traditional Italian ways. The Italian language is still spoken and studied by those of Italian American descent, and it can be heard in various American communities, especially among older Italian Americans. During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, interest in Italian language and culture has surged among Italian Americans. Today's Italian American youth no longer take for granted the impressive contributions Italians and Italian Americans have made to Western civilization, especially in the areas of fine art, music, science, literature, architecture, and cuisine.

There is, however, a dilemma for Italian Americans who consider re-learning the language of their ancestors. The formal "Italian" that is taught in colleges and universities is generally not the "Italian" with which Italian Americans are acquainted. Eighty percent of Italian Americans are of Southern Italian origin; therefore, the languages spoken by their families who arrived between 1880-1920 were most likely variations of the Neapolitan and Sicilian languages with perhaps some degree of influence from the standardized Florentine dialect. Because the Italian of Italian Americans comes from a time just after the unification of the state, their language is in many ways anachronistic and demonstrates what the dialects of Southern Italy used to be before the assimilating programs of the north. Because of this, Italian Americans studying "Italian" are often learning a language that does not include any of the words and phrases they know, and which their ancestors would not have recognized at all.

Italian American Internment During World War II

The internment of Italian Americans during World War II has often been overshadowed by the Japanese American internment. But recently, books such as Una Storia Segreta by Lawrence DiStasi and Uncivil Liberties by Stephen Fox have been published, and movies, such as Prisoners Among Ushave been made. These books and movies reveal that during World War II, roughly 600,000 Italians who were citizens of Italy but had not become American citizens were required to carry identity cards that labelled them as "resident aliens." Some 10,000 people in war zones on the West Coast were required to move inland. About 250 supporters of Italian Fascism were held in military camps for up to two years. Lawrence DiStasi claims that these wartime restrictions and internments contributed more than anything else to the loss of spoken Italian in the United States. After Italy declared war on the U.S., many Italian language papers and schools were closed almost overnight because of their past support for an enemy government. President Roosevelt ended most restrictions on October 12, 1942; in 1943 Italy overthrew Mussolini, switched sides, and became an American ally.

During World War II, many Italian Americans joined and were drafted into the army to fight the axis powers. An estimated 1.2 million Italian American men served in the armed forces during World War II; this was 7.5% of the 16 million total who served.

Italian American communities

Areas known for their high concentrations of Italian Americans include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Ohio, Florida, California, Illinois and Massachusetts. In cities across the country, Boston, Chicago, Miami, New York City, and Philadelphia have large Italian communities.

State Totals

Distribution of Italian Americans according to the 2000 census

Number of Italian Americans

1. New York 2,890,408
2. New Jersey 1,590,225
3. Pennsylvania 1,547,470
4. California 1,533,599
5. Florida 1,147,946
6. Massachusetts 918,838
7. Illinois 739,284
8. Ohio 720,847
9. Connecticut 652,016
10. Michigan 484,486

48. Alaska 17,173
49. South Dakota 8,437
50. North Dakota 5,437

Percentage of Italian Americans

1. Rhode Island 19.7%
2. Connecticut 18.6%
3. New Jersey 16.8%
4. New York 16.4%[2]

Notes

# Brittingham, Angela, and G. Patricia De La Cruz. Ancestry: 2000. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, 2004.#Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000# Documentary movie "Italian Americans and Federal Hill" to be released September 2006. [See also Richard Annotico's review at http://www.italystl.com/ra/2547.htm]

References

* Baily, Samuel L. Immigrants in the Lands of Promise : Italians in Buenos Aires and New York City, 1870-1914 (1999) Online in ACLA History E-book Project
* Bona, Mary Jo. Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers (1999)
* Diggins, John P. Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America (1972)
* D'Agostino, Peter R. Rome in America: Transnational Catholic Ideology from the Risorgimento to Fascism (2004).
* Gans, Herbert J. Urban Villagers (1982)
* Guglielmo, Thomas A. White on Arrival: Italians, Race, Color, and Power in Chicago, 1890-1945 (2003)
* Gardaphe, Fred L. Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution of Italian American Narrative (1996)
* Hobbie, Margaret. Italian American Material Culture: A Directory of Collections, Sites, and Festivals in the United States and Canada (1992)
* Lagumina, Salvatore J. et al eds. The Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia (2000)
* Stefano Luconi. The Italian-American Vote in Providence, R.I., 1916-1948 2005
* Nelli, Humbert S. The Business of Crime: Italians and Syndicate Crime in the United States (1981)
* Nelli, Humbert S. Italians in Chicago, 1880-1930: A Study in Ethnic Mobility (2005).
* Prendergast, William B. The Catholic Voter in American Politics: The Passing of the Democratic Monolith (1999)
* Sterba, Christopher M. Good Americans: Italian and Jewish Immigrants During the First World (2003)
* Whyte, William Foote. Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum (1993).

Useful links for Italians in USA

* Ministry for Foreign Affairs
* How to vote Abroad
* How to vote Abroad FAQs

External links

* H-ItAm daily discussion email group moderated by scholars
* National Italian American Foundation
* National Organization of Italian American Women
* Sons of Italy in America
* ItalianAmericanShowcase.com
* Towards a New Italian American Identity
* L'IDEA MAGAZINEA Magazine for the Italians in USA
* ItalianAmericanTalk.com
* The Italian American Press

Italian American: Encyclopedia BETA

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