The influence of Italians in American cuisine, industry, sports, entertainment, and language is profound. Using photographs to illustrate more than a century of Italian experiences in the United States, the author provides an intimate and informed glimpse into the history of prejudice, hardship, celebration, and success faced by this rich Mediterranean people. A celebration of common men and women alongside notable Italian American celebrities and public figures, this book is a cultural photo album.--From publisher description.

Cultural integration is a continuous process which affects not only the immigrants arriving in a new country, but also the people native to that country. When Italian immigrants began arriving to America in larger waves they had to fight for acceptance into their new culture. In pursuit of the "American Dream," many moved to large cities and took unwanted jobs in factories or in construction companies. They worked under hazardous conditions for low wages. In attempts to preserve their own heritage many Italians settled in groups, forming rich cultural centers. First generation Italian Americans fought to overcome prejudice and to dissolve the negative associations with anarchism and organized crime groups. Second generation Italian Americans struggled for acceptance into American society which, to the dismay of their parents, sometimes meant forgetting their roots. Eventually, as the Italian people began making significant contributions to their new home, aspects of the Italian culture were gradually integrated into mainstream American culture. Italian Americans have made great strides in fighting for acceptance. Their struggle to find a balance between preserving their native culture and adopting the culture of their new home proves to be an ongoing process.

Recounts the history of the first Italian immigrants, from their journey from Southern Italy in search of economic opportunity, to their labor on the roads and rails of America, to their valuable additions to the American way of life.

SECOND EDITION -- February 2018 -- Preface to the Second Edition: Since its original publication, I have been extremely gratified by the positive reception the book has received not only from the Italian-American Community but also from the general public. In this, its second edition, I have expanded the original book by adding more stories taken from my parents' memoirs and new stories about growing up in College Point and living in Italy. With a view to making it a more complete resource for Americans with an Italian heritage, I have also further explored Italian-American history, traditions, folklore, and culture. Description of the First Edition: "To know who you are, you need to know from whence you came." This book contains the stories of three generations of Italian-Americans. It represents over one hundred and fifty years of family history. It traces the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of the Baratta family from Padula and the Visco family from Vico Equense, both of whom settled in Manhattan and subsequently moved to Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. The stories, which were taken from family memoirs and transcripts, are told by those who lived them in their own words and are placed in historical context. The book also includes the memoirs of the author which describe growing up in College Point N.Y. in the 40s,50s, and 60s, going to medical school in Italy and living in that country, finding his roots in his ancestral Italian hometowns, and practicing cardiology in New York City. Profusely illustrated, with maps and photographs on almost every page, this reader-friendly 434-page book, which was five years in the making, is a celebration of Italian-American culture. It explores Italian-American history, traditions, folklore, customs, music, food, values, and humor. The book also contains Italian proverbs and features recipes from Padula and Vico Equense. Please scroll up and buy the book. Enjoy, recall, and relive, depending on your age, the joys of growing up Italian-American in the 40s, 50s,and 60s, try the recipes, and journey with the Viscos and the Barattas as they emigrated from Italy in the early 1900s and made something of themselves and their children in America.

At the height of migration from Italy, children were recruited under the Padrone system and brought to North America to work as shoeshiners, musicians, and even acrobats. This interesting account is highlighted with full-color artwork and eyewitness accounts. Detailed maps show where they settled and how their traditions are still celebrated today.

The entire Italian American experience—from America's earliest days through the present—is now available in a single volume. This wide-ranging work relates the entire saga of the Italian-American experience from immigration through assimilation to achievement. The book highlights the enormous contributions that Italian Americans—the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States—have made to the professions, politics, academy, arts, and popular culture of America. Going beyond familiar names and stories, it also captures the essence of everyday life for Italian Americans as they established communities and interacted with other ethnic groups. In this single volume, readers will be able to explore why Italians came to America, where they settled, and how their distinctive identity was formed. A diverse array of entries that highlight the breadth of this experience, as well as the multitude of ways in which Italian Americans have influenced U.S. history and culture, are presented in five thematic sections. Featured primary documents range from a 1493 letter from Christopher Columbus announcing his discovery to excerpts from President Barack Obama's 2011 speech to the National Italian American Foundation. Readers will come away from this book with a broader understanding of and greater appreciation for Italian Americans' contributions to the United States.

Remembering Italian America: Memory, Migration, Identity examines the life of Italians in the United States and the role of migration and collective memory in the history of the construction of Italian American identity. Employing the concept of communicative memory, the authors explain the processes that gave shape to Italian identity in America and the ways in which a symbolic identity became concretized in Italian American oral histories. The text explores the Italy migrants left behind, transatlantic networks, the welcome received by the Italian newcomers, the socioeconomic fabric of Italian America, and the singular worldview that grew out of the immigrant experience. In exploring the role of memory in the construction of Italian American identity, the book analyzes the commonalities in the lives of immigrants, allowing the Italian American experience to speak to the circumstances of newer immigrant communities and allowing these new immigrant communities to speak to the Italian migrant history. Looking at Italian American culture from a multidisciplinary perspective, this volume brings various theoretical perspectives to bear on "what, why, and how" questions concerning the Italian American experience. This book will be of interest to students of ethnic studies, immigration studies, and American/transnational studies, as well as American history. Winner of the 2022 Italian American Studies Association Book Award

The Other Side is a sensitive, candid portrait of an immigrant culture from a third-generation perspective. Vincent Panella portrays his family in Italian villages and American neighborhoods, and what emerges is a critical but loving view of the Italian-American experience: its cloying love, intense frugality, obsession with security, and its strong sense of family cohesion. He writes of his boyhood in Queens, New York, his father's efforts to shape his life, and of the fact that “to be a member of an Italian family is never to be simply yourself.” The Other Side is also Vincent Panella’s personal journey, from rejection of his family to a realization that he cannot escape or deny his origins. This final recognition emerges after an extended visit to Italy, where he comes to know those in his family who remained behind. Thus Vincent Panella has written a book of journeys: a family’s journey from southern Italy to Hell’s Kitchen and the New York suburbs, a young man’s journey to a sense of identity. The story is given an added dimension by the author’s wife, Susan Sichel: Through her own photographs, and through her selection of photographs from family albums, Ms. Sichel further evokes the life and times of three generations of an immigrant family.