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# 85 NOVEMBER 21 , 2016
# 85 November 21 2016
the town of Cuggiono and its immediate
surroundings in particular, and established here in The Hill neighbourhood.
The immigrants from southern Italy had
a little different history, at first: they chose to live in downtown St. Louis and they
chose to work in restaurants. Downtown
St.Louis is about 7 miles from The Hill: it’s
not that far, but in those days it seemed
quite far because they travelled on horseback! So, originally there were 2 Little Italies: The Hill, where settled Italians
from the north of Italy, and downtown St.
Louis, where lived Italians from the south.
But a few years before World War I, due
majority of our Businesses in The Hill are
restaurants, but we also have grocery
stores: the oldest one celebrated the
45th anniversary in business. The community also tries to provide every possible service that could be needed by its
citizens.
to population pressure, the southerners
immigrants moved to The Hill as well,
and the Lombardians and the Sicilians
started living together: that's when The
Hill became the official Little Italy in St.
Louis, and it has been for a century!
We do a variety of things: we do community outreach; we promote The Hill
towards local and national media; we
have a place where tourists can rest and
cool off when they are browsing through the Hill; we also have now an archive with many many stories and lots of
old records and pictures. There are also
some inhabitants of The Hill that are native speakers, and they organize Italian
Language classes.
Since there wasn’t any public transportation, no trains or busses to this area, and
it was quite far from the river, the Italians
became a self supporting community.
When the Sicilians decided to move in
The Hill for a while there were almost
two of everything, since northerners and
southerners spoke different dialects: for
example there were two reception halls,
one across the street from the other. But
there was only one Church: there was at
least one thing they were able to attend
together!
Many of our citizens belong to families
that have been living on the Hill for generations. I for example am a 4th generation Italian and I still live in my great
grandma house: this is a very common
thing here and it contributes to increase the continuity of the community, with
young people that may know the grandfather or even the great grandfather of
their friends and hear directly from them
the histories of their families!
You are the Director of The Hill Neighbourhood Center. Please tell us more
about it
The Hill 2000, formed in the 70's, and
The Hill Business Association are two
different associations with two different
boards with two different functions managed by volunteers with two different
functions: one for the health of the community, the other for the health of the
businesses. Together, they created The
Hill Neighbourhood Center, which they
The Hill 2000 organizes “La Festa”. How
many people do attend, and what hapThe Hill 2000 is all about the neigh- pens during this event?
bourhood: for instance, if there's a landlord, but he’s not keeping his property “La Festa”, the community party, takes
nicely, the organization can pressure him place in May and about 5,000 people atto do better to maintain a certain deco- tend every year to the event, to experienrum and safety in the community. The ce Italian craftwork, drawings and food.
We are an extremely active community:
pay jointly.
10 | WE THE ITALIANS
WE THE ITALIANS | 11
www.wetheitalians.com
www.wetheitalians.com