Italian American

From Freepedia


An Italian American is an American of Italian descent either born in America or someone who has immigrated.

Although Italians arrived early to the new world, beginning with Christopher Columbus in 1492, and continuing with early Italian explorers John Cabot, Giovanni da Verrazano and Amerigo Vespucci, the largest wave of Italian immigration to the United States took place in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Between 1820 and 1978, 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the United States, including over two million in the years 1900-1910 alone (although about one-fourth of all Italian immigrants did not settle permanently in America and eventually returned to Italy). Only the Irish and Germans immigrated in 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

Common stereotypes continue to link Italian Americans to organized crime and restaurant workers [1], unflattering images which remain staples of Hollywood movies. During the Great Depression, a few southern Italians in America became involved in organized crime only as a way to escape poverty. Nevertheless, the National Italian American Foundation found that two-thirds of Italian Americans held white collar jobs in 1990 and that there were never more than a few thousand individuals in the Mafia.

Like other ethnic groups in the USA their political beliefs are diverse. The U.S. Congress includes Italian Americans who are regarded as leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

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

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Italian-American communities

Places that you would never suspect have communities of Italian Americans, such as Omaha, Nebraska and New Orleans, which is the first site of immigration of Italians and Sicilians into America, before Italy was even a complete nation unto itself. While the American South has traditionally had very few Italian immigrants, exceptions are noted in the industrial cities of Chattanooga, Tennessee and Birmingham, Alabama.

In Kansas City, Missouri, the areas known as "North of the River" (and the former areas of "The North End" and "Northeast Kansas City") have flourished with Italian-American families, mostly from Sicilian heritage, working on anywhere from 3rd to 5th generation. Kansas City was even notorious for its own crime-group, known as "The Black Hand", Mafia or The Mob, but not Cosa Nostra. Smaller "outfits" in cities other than New York and Chicago, like Kansas City, are virtually extinct or seemingly dying.

The following is a list of areas known for their concentrations of Italian Americans. It is not an exhaustive list.


California

Connecticut

Illinois

Massachusetts

Maryland

New York

New Jersey

  • Silver Lake section, Belleville, New Jersey
  • Nutley, New Jersey is 78% Italian
  • Seventh Avenue, Newark, formerly known to as "the First Ward."
  • According to the National Italian American Foundation, 7 of the 18 most heavily Italian American Counties in the US are in NJ. Among them: Ocean County (25.3%), Gloucester County (24.4%), Monmouth County (23.2%), Morris County (22.8%), Sussex County (22.2%), Bergen County (22.0%), and Hunterdon County (20.2%).

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Ohio



A list of people who have referred to themselves ethnically as "Italian," or have an Italian parent can be seen at the list of Italian Americans.

Italian in the United States

According to the Sons of Italy News Bureau from 1998 to 2002, the enrollment in 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 (besides English and Spanish) is the fifth (seventh overall) most spoken language in the United States (tied with Vietnamese) with over 1 million speakers.2


Image:Stop hand.png The factual accuracy of this section is disputed. Please view the article's talk page.

As a result of the large wave of Italian immigration to the United States of America in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Italian language was once widely spoken in much of the USA, 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 USA as late as the 1950s.

Image:Enemyslanguage.jpg

Author Lawrence Distasi argues that the loss of spoken Italian among the Italian American population can be tied to US government pressures during World War II. During World War II, in various parts of the country the US 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 US declared war on the Axis powers, many Italians, Japanese, and Germans living in the United States were interned. Among the Italian Americans, it was those who spoke the Italian language that were often looked on with the most suspicion by the US government, seen as primary candidates for internment.

Distassi claims that many Italian language schools closed down in the California Bay Area within a week of the US 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, the Italian language can still be heard amongst some older residents of New York City. Some ATMs in some New York neighborhoods offer services in Italian as well as English and Spanish.

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. These books reveal that during World War II, 600,000 Italians were required to carry identity cards that labelled them as "resident aliens," and 10,000 people along the West Coast were forcibly relocated, with about 250 being imprisoned 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 the US declared war on the Axis powers, many Italian language papers and schools were closed in the US almost overnight. Mr. DiStasi says that the internment of Italians in America "iced" the Italian American community.

Famous Italian Americans

Celebrities who are either full, half or partly Italian.

Image:Confessions On A Dancefloor.jpg

"A great deal of the world's most entertaining, creative, inspirational, artistic, beautiful and legendary people have been Italian"

Italian American Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients

Notes

  1. 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.
  2. Language Use and English-Speaking Ability: 2000

Useful links for Italian Americans

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.freepedia.org/Italian_American.html"


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