At the turn of the century, America was viewed as a land of freedom from the hardships of everyday life. During this time, millions of immigrants from all over the world, poured into America seeking that exact kind of freedom. Some were escaping oppression, while others immigrated seeking religious freedom. The Italians were one of the many ethnic groups that strove to overcome oppression and poverty in the New World of America. However, upon arriving in America, the Italians discovered many obstacles, which they had to overcome in order to adjust to life in their new home. Life for the Italians in Italy was a life that many would not expect. By the late 1890s and early 1900s, Italy had become one of the most overcrowded, and one of the poorest, countries in Europe (Jones 193).
Life was hard in Italy. Economic depression brought on by past rulers left certain parts of Italy nearly jobless. The few jobs that were available usually didn’t pay enough to provide food for everyone. There was little industry and barely any farmland for the poor peasants to attempt to grow food. “Conditions were particularly bad in the Mezzogiorno-the southern half of the peninsula and Sicily” (Jones 193).
During the eighth century, the Greeks successfully developed the Mezzogiorno, making it the heart of a great European civilization and a center for world commerce. This period of greatness continued throughout the Middle Ages. However, a few centuries later, it ended, and the Mezzogiorno began to crumble. Foreign rulers, such as the Spanish and the Bourbon, brought oppression to the people and neglect to the region. Throughout their reign, these two powers drained from the local economy in excess. They took bribes from the rich and weighed high taxes on peasants, who could not afford it. Even after the unification of Italy in 1861, which unified the Mezzogiorno with present day northern Italy, and the destruction of harsh rulers, the new centralized government in Italy continued still to neglect and exploit the poor, homeless peasants of the Mezzogiorno. This neglect and exploitation caused several economic difficulties in the region. Looking only for the easiest and quickest way to make money, the rulers overlooked any care and respect they had for the land they were destroying. Due to the clearing of land, “the topsoil became eroded, leaving a thin layer of dirt that was not thick enough to hold the precious moisture” (Washburne 9).
The Essay on Life as a World War 1 Soldier
Life as a World War I Soldier Life as a soldier in World War I was no “walk in the park” for anyone involved. The soldiers fought through plenty of gruesome battles that altered their lives in great ways. On the other hand some soldiers were able to still find joy and humor in their lives. For example one soldier, a Captain Alexander Stewart, describes in his diary how he was “annoyed when he had ...
The deforestation also spawned foul swamps, which were ideal places for the reproduction of the malarial mosquito. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of the economic decline in southern Italy. “Thousands of acres of vineyards were destroyed by plant lice, and a cholera epidemic swept the region, claiming fifty-five thousand lives by 1887″(Washburne 15).
The rapid decline of Italy’s economy and the spread of disease eventually drove southern Italians to consider leaving their homeland for a new life in America. The majority of Italian immigrants came to America between the years of 1901 and 1910, but there is still a significant number of Italians who came to America before the twentieth century (Jones 196).
The spread of disease in Southern Italy caused an internal migration of peasants to the richer, more northerly cities. The increasing numbers in the already overcrowded cities filled many Northerners with the desire to leave Italy. While the Northerners were fleeing the Southerners, the Southerners immigrated to escape complications from economic problems, namely poverty. “Southern Italians sought destinations where there was a strong demand for unskilled labor and where they could afford the travel expense”(Sowell 143).
Ironically, once in America, neither group found they had escaped what they were fleeing. The Italians, unlike other emigrants, never intended to become permanent residents elsewhere. The majority of the Italian immigrants were steerage-class single men, who came to America with the sole purpose of making money. Once they earned a sufficient amount, they would typically return to Italy. Italians with the intent to return to Italy, settled in the cities along the eastern coast, with 97 percent of these Italians passing through New York’s Ellis Island (Mariani 125).
The Term Paper on Italians in America
This paper discusses the waves of Italian immigrants that came to the United States in 1820-1880 and 1880-1920, and asks if being from a different region in Italy resulted in different treatment from American citizens. (10+ pages; 8 sources; MLA citation style)IIntroductionItalians are one of the largest groups of immigrants to come to the U.S.; they came to America at different times, with one of ...
The immigrants who did stay, though, used the money they earned to bring the rest of their families to America. These Italians tended to spread out across the country and settle in cities like Chicago, Detroit, and various cities in California. Once in America though, the problem facing all Italian immigrants was finding a job in which to make such money. The very early Italians primarily found jobs as venders of statuary, organ grinders (with a monkey in tail), or as railroad workers. However, Italian immigrants, who were “unable to speak any English, relied upon the services of the padrone, an Italian labor boss”(Jones 198).
The padrone did everything that needed to be done for the Italian immigrants. The padrone acted like caregivers for the Italians by finding them good jobs, housing, and by being their interpreter. The padrone would normally round up a group of unskilled workers in Italy, contract them with a company in America, and then ship them over much like cargo, for a profit. On the whole, the padrone seemed like an Italian immigrant’s best friend, but in reality they cheated them out of money by deducting large amounts of money from them to pay for their food and housing. Once the Italians discovered the wickedness in the padrone and the padrone system, the immigrants quickly abandoned it. After the padrone were gone, the Italians faced the problem of finding jobs on their own. The Italians, being unskilled, often “performed the lowliest tasks for meager wages” (Wittke 442).
Some of these jobs included street cleaning, builders of sewers and streets, or street peddlers. In order to feed the entire family, however, women and children had to work as well. Children worked at an especially early age, and often did not attend school. Shoeshine boys and street venders were typical occupations for such children. Women mainly worked in the garment industry, or “sweat shop labor” and avoided employment in domestic servant jobs. It was rare that the Italians would take charity, and even more seldom that the women would turn to prostitution for money. Besides the pressure of finding a job, the status of their living conditions was another serious problem that faced the Italian immigrants. Italian immigrants were forced to live in overcrowded, vermin infested and dirty ghettos because of their meager and limited incomes. These ghettos were nicknamed “Little Italys.” Many of those who lived in ghettos such as these had little or no contact with non-Italian Americans. Men who lived in mining camps were used to not having proper facilities in which to bathe, and so many did not wash for months at a time. The unsanitary conditions made disease common and the death rate high among Italians.
The Essay on Italian Neorealism in Rome, Open City, Bicycle Thieves, and The Road
I. Introduction Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, and Fellini’s The Road share common ground in their makers’ country of origin and the general theme appropriated: they are all made by Italian filmmakers to convey the reality of their country during the post-World War II era. Above the typical collective philosophies of an wave or generation of filmmakers, the purpose of ...
Poor nutrition and the unhealthy conditions made illnesses like tuberculosis and influenza spread rapidly through the crowded areas. As their knowledge of the English language developed, the Italians rose up the social status ladder. This knowledge benefited Italians by allowing them to move away from the slum areas and into more sanitary and fitting conditions. The most positive way that this knowledge aided Italians was by helping them to get better paying jobs. Many Italians found jobs as doctors, lawyers, or intellectuals. And following that, Italian-Americans began to spring up in political offices. “The first major Italian American political figure was Fiorello H. LaGuardia, who became first a congressman and then the legendary mayor of New York for more that a decade” (Sowell 166).
The Italians adjusted to the American way of life very quickly and they were also able to face harsh obstacles, such as finding work, a place to live and overcoming prejudices, in order to move up on the social stepladder. Besides these adjustments, there is still one topic about Italian immigrants seldom heard. This topic is how the Italians had positive effects on cities and the American way of life. One such effect was the Italian settlement in Indiana, especially in the city of Indianapolis. The very first Italian that came to Indiana arrived about 150 years before Indianapolis existed as a village (Divita 8).
The Essay on Ethnic America Thier Immigrants Today
Ethnic America Today, America is made up of many different kinds of people. There are so many cultures that make America unique. Ethnic America, by Thomas Sowell, gives an excellent example about why these different groups immigrated from there homelands to come to America. Sowell also mention's the economic and cultural contributions made by these different cultures to our nation. The author ...
The first Italian in Indiana was Enrico Tonti. Tonti, a modest and humble Italian born near Naples, traveled in 1679 around the northwest part of what was to be modern-day Indiana. Tonti was following Robert Cavalier de LaSalle, the French explorer who was the first European to visit the state. The two men made camp and spent the night near what is today South Bend and although the two did very little while in Indiana, it should be noted that Tonti was the first Italian to set foot in Indiana. A century later, the Italians settled in Vincennes, which was the first permanent European settlement in Indiana (Divita 8).
The best known of these Italians was, perhaps, Piedmontese Francesco Vigo. Vigo is known for giving George Rogers Clark the information and money that later aided him in capturing a fort from the British in Vincennes during the late 1770s. Vigo is also said to have made Indiana “American”, and his contribution was memorialized when the county containing present-day Terre Haute was named for him (Divita 8).
Other notable Italians in Indiana include Mother Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio, who founded the Poor Clare convent in Evansville in 1897, and Father Januarius M. D’Arco, who was a pastor at Liberty in Union County for 20 years and was also the first Italian-born diocesan priest in Indiana. Italians had been settling in Indianapolis years before the Civil War. According to Professor James J. Divita of Marian College, many of the Italians came to Indianapolis because of the economic opportunities that the state had to offer. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many major railroad lines intersected in Indianapolis and continued on throughout America in all directions. These railroads were ideal for the transportation of goods and materials, and while looking at a map, the Italians thought Indiana looked like the crossroads of America. These two factors led many Italians to come to Indianapolis to work as confectioners, or merchants of produce. The Italian confectioners operated stands at busy intersections like Illinois and Washington streets in downtown Indianapolis. The Italians also operated stands at the City Market and around the old Marion County Courthouse. Today, these areas are occupied by the Marion County Jail and by parking lots. The Italian confectioners “reputedly introduced the banana to the city, which earned several of them the nickname ‘the banana kings'” (Divita encyclopedia).
The Essay on United States Immigrants Immigration America 2
Immigration America is known famously throughout the world with the nickname "The melting pot." The reason behind this is that America is extremely diverse and has many different people. Immigrants give America the chance to know the culture of many countries. They bring in their culture, religion, economic benefits, and ideology to America. I believe that the United States should allow legal ...
The selling of bananas and other produce has been an Italian tradition in Indianapolis for over a hundred years (Indiana’s Italian Immigrants video).
Today, many of the Italian confectioner’s descendants still dominate the city’s produce industry. Unlike the slums and ghettos of Italian immigrants in major cities, the “Little Italys” of Indianapolis were significantly more sanitary. A wonderful example of this was the “Little Italy” located on the south side of Indianapolis. Today, lovely houses, warmhearted and neighborly people, and the famed Holy Rosary Parish populate this area. However, about ninety years ago, this area was home to Indiana’s largest Italian population (Divita encyclopedia).
The Italian immigrants who settled the area were called Sicilians, who emigrated from the little island off the coast of Italy called Sicily. Sicilians, who were known for their strong religious beliefs, gained authorization in 1909 from Bishop Francis Silas Chatard to organize an Italian national Catholic parish. Immediately following the authorization, Father Marino Priori opened Holy Rosary Parish (HRP), not just to the Sicilians, but to all Italians in Indianapolis (Divita 15).
Many Italian traditions, that are still practiced today, came from the founding of HRP. One of these traditions is the Italian Street Festival, which HRP holds annually around the end of June. The festival is a celebration of Italian food, life and culture. On the Saturday of the festival, a religious procession is held in which a statue of the Blessed Mother is carried through “Little Italy.” The procession is then followed by a mass held in the beautiful church of Holy Rosary (Indiana’s Italian Immigrants video).
The century old neighborhoods of the early Italians in Indianapolis and all across America still stand today, due mostly because of family traditions, which are very important to the Italians of yesteryear and call for family to live very close to one another. The Italian immigrants faced harsh lives in order to attain their status in today’s society. “Many Italians speak of harsh times when they came to America by boat, but the descendents of those immigrants are happy to be a part of the land of the free, and are proud of the efforts their ancestors made” (Indiana’s Italian Immigrants video).
The Essay on Harvard Encyclopedia Italians Immigrants 1980
There are so many different ethnic backgrounds in the United States today, but they didn't all originate here. People of all nationalities started immigrating here in the 17 th Century. Just in the short time from 1900 - 1955, over fifteen million people immigrated to America. These fifteen million people consisted of Italians, Irish, Polish, Germans and many more. They had to form huge ...
In the end, one can see that in order to keep the traditions of America’s heritage alive, people must pass down the stories and truths of the immigrants struggle to live in America.
