Italian American Digest Summer2019DigestDraft2 (2) | Page 11

SUMMER 2019 I talian A merican D igest CLUB NEWS PAGE 11 An Exciting Spring for the Italian American Saint Joseph Society By Darryl Cortello 49 years of anything is potentially a bit much. For the Italian American St. Joseph Society, it’s just a prelude to a grand celebration. In 2020, we will celebrate our 50th year of Italian heritage and our annual St Joseph’s parade. Our 2019 parade and weekend was a great success! Our weekend began at the New Orleans Riverside Hilton on Friday afternoon. As usual, our great friend David Greco, owner of Mike’s Deli in Little Italy in New York, worked tirelessly preparing a 500 lb. bowl of pasta con sarde. The dish was amazing and was gone in just over an hour! We drank wine and danced and filled our bellies. Friday night a dinner was held in honor of our dear friend, John Viola, our 2019 parade honoree. John was born in Italian American Saint Joseph Society’s 2019 Honoree Dinner. Pictured here are Terry Villani and John M. Viola, honorees of the 2019 IASJS St. Joseph Day Parade. Brooklyn, New York. He has not missed a parade since his first ride, many years ago. He is past President of the National Italian American Federation and has guided us through the relationship that we now have with NIAF. On Saturday night, we paraded through the French Quarter as we have done since 1970. Our beautifully decorated floats carried the most beautiful young signorinas, clad in white dresses. 500 eager marchers in tuxedos followed. The weather was perfect as were the spectators. The fun of this parade never gets old! We completed our St. Joseph’s celebration with a Gala at the ballroom in the Hilton. Sugar Shaker kept the dance floor bursting full with their perfect song selections. They, of course, played Che La Luna as we danced the Tarantella. Imagine what our 50th anniversary will bring… Italian POWs and their Sicilian-American Sweethearts By Megan Celona Between 1942-1946, the U.S. held 50,000 Italians prisoners of war in camps spread across twenty-three states. The American press depicted the average Italian POW as easy going, humble, not too disciplined, sloppy in appearance, not dangerous and unlikely to escape, and generally happy to have hot food and showers. After Italy’s surrender, the armistice required both sides to return POWs, but as the German army took control of the POW camps in Italy, Italian POWs remained in the U.S. On March 13, 1944, the U.S. established the Italian Service Units (ISU), a voluntary military unit with unarmed Italians led by their own officers and supervised by senior Allied officers. Of the 50,000 Italian POWs, 36,000 volunteered to be in the ISUs. Recruits had to undergo a physical exam and a mental interview to make sure they did not hold fascist views. They were then given a standard G.I. uniform with a green ‘ITALY’ patch and earned $24 a month, $8 in cash and the rest in coupons. They were also given English lessons. New Orleans was home to nearly 11,000 ISU soldiers. They typically worked on plantations, in warehouses, and on the docks, substituting for the many Louisianans who had left to fight in the war. ISU soldiers did not live in isolation, they became a part of the community. Author Elisa Speranza found, ‘“During and after the war, there was a large population of Sicilian Americans that lived in New Orleans, and with the Italian soldiers being at Jackson Barracks, they became suitors for the daughters of these families. While I continued doing research, I found I was inspired by these stories of love and was on a parallel path with fiction and non- fiction.” Speranza and AIRL curator Sal Serio have been working to locate and preserve the records of these POW families. On April 20, 2019, Speranza and Serio hosted a lecture: All’s Fair in Love and War: The true story of Italian World War II prisoners-of-war in New Orleans and their Sicilian-American sweethearts to present their findings and share this little known piece of New Orleans history. The event was attended by many and they hope to host the event again in the fall. If you have any information on POW families, please reach out to Elisa and Sal! Elisa Speranza 504-390-2741 [email protected] Sal Serio Curator, American Italian Research Library Located in the East Jefferson Regional Library 4747 West Napoleon Avenue Metairie, LA 70001 email: [email protected]