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# 82 AUGUST 22 , 2016
# 82 AUGUST 22
Nassau Community College and Stony within the ethnic enclave according to
Brook University.
Italy’s regions. For example, I grew up in
a part of Brooklyn that was not just ItaAnd then of course there are numerous lian, but heavily Sicilian; and it was Sicifeasts, religious feasts, named after va- lian that was the first point of reference.
rious saints.
You’ll find other examples in big cities
where the Italian neighborhoods were
Is there a difference among the Italians regionally identifiable. I don’t think that
in Long Island and the ones in the New you have that same display of regional
identification in the Long Island commuYork boroughs?
nities, I can’t see them as playing a role.
Well, it’s a tough question to answer. I
think that in the big cities, like New York That’s one thing that comes to mind, in
City, where there were numerous Italian other aspects they have similarities in
neighborhoods, they were in fact settled terms of organizations and feasts to honor Saints, display and cook Italian food,
teach Italian language, and so on.
Besides those about the Long Island Italians, you wrote several other books. I’d
like to ask you about a couple of them.
The first is “The Humble and the Heroic:
Wartime Italian Americans”. This is a very
interesting and important topic…
During the Second World War, the participation of the Italian Americans in the
armed services like the army, the navy,
the marines was extraordinary: even
though it’s hard to get definitive numbers the impression is that the Italian
Americans participated in numbers far
beyond their percentage of population.
There has been figures thrown out that a
million or more American soldiers were
of an Italian background: whatever the
figure is, there has been little material
published about this, you’ll find other
immigrant groups that have a lot more
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2016
books and articles written about them.
My book was a combination of historical
record, through research, and my own
reflections and recollections of what
went on in that period. I was not in the
service, because I was a bit too young,
but most of my friends ended up in the
armed services. I examined not only the
battlefront, where there were heroes like
John Basilone, but also the home front,
the participation of many immigrant Italians to work on behalf of the war effort.
A quick example. At one point General
Eisenhower visited a clothing factory in
Brooklyn owned by Italian Americans,
where he congratulated and thanked
them for making the uniforms for 16
million people in the armed services:
an activity not as dramatic as the battlefront, but one in which people on the
home front were helping the war effort
in various capacities. And so it was a labor of love for me, a labor I’m glad I got
it out there.
but the biggest single ongoing reason
for discrimination is the issue of crime.
You are also the author of “Wop! A Do- Even before Italian immigrants started to
cumentary History of Anti-Italian Discri- come in large numbers, one could read
mination”. Please tell us something more in the most prestigious newspapers and
about this
journals about crime in Italy: robbers
and bandits became almost a steady
I wrote that in the early 1970s, I think it was diet so by the time they came here the
published in 1972. The Italian immigran- Americans were already thinking about
ts were considered by the Americans as them as criminals. Of course this image
illiterate, and many of them were; but that continued with the mafia and then with
was held against them, and they were The Godfather.
criticized for going around begging for
alms. Another reason for discrimination So, this is something with an ongoing
was the Catholic religion: American Pro- basis for discrimination, and I think it still
testants looked upon these newcomers continues to a degree, not as severe as it
as ignorant. There were other reasons, used to be, but it’s still there: and I think
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