Italian American History and Heroes

The need for new heroes became painfully evident when a mob of Italian Americans fatally shot African American teenager Yusef Hawkins in the streets of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn on August 24, 1989. The world witnessed the utter lack of leadership in the Italian American community as conservative politicians, out-of-touch academics, and self-congratulatory prominenti were silent and ultimately useless in building bridges between the diverse citizens of New York City.

While Italy offers countless sources for inspiration in the works of seventeenth century painter Artemesia Gentileschi, Marxist political theorist and social activist Antonio Gramsci, author and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, playwright, actor, and 1997 Nobel Laureate in Literature Dario Fo, non-violent social activist and anti-mafia crusader Danilo Dolci, to name just a few, I have also sought out unsung Italian American heroes and heroines who offer me much more inspiration than dubious role models like Christopher Columbus or Lee Iacocca championed by many Italian Americans.

In the early 1990s, the now defunct Italian Americans for a Multicultural United States (IAMUS) brought together a group of progressive Italian Americans committed to combatting ethnic chauvinism, racism, sexism, or homophobia.

In 2001, a group of feminist filmmakers, writers, teachers, musicians, artists, dancers, historians, photographers, and community activists formed Malìa: A Collective of Italian American Women. Malìa — Italian for a spell or a charm — creates "cultural events which explore our Italian roots, but that are multi-ethnic in subject, scope, and design."

Bibliography:

• Philip Cannistraro's article "The Duce and the Prominenti: Fascism and the Crisis of Italian American Leadership" (PDF file).
• Philip Cannistraro and Gerald Meyer, The Lost World of Italian-American Radicalism: Politics, Labor, and Culture (Wesport, CT: Praeger, 2003). Read Marcella Bencivenni's review.
• Nunzio Pernicone, Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel.
• Gerald Meyer , Vito Marcantonio: Radical Politician, 1902-1954.
• Paul Avrich, Sacco and Vanzetti:  The Anarchist Background (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991).
• Ardis Cameron, Radicals of the Worst Sort:  Laboring Women in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1860-1912 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993).
• Donna Gabaccia, Militants and Migrants:  Rural Sicilians Become American Workers (New Brunswick: Rutgers UniversityPress, 1988).
• Donna Gabaccia and Franca Iacovetta, eds., Women, Gender, and Transnational Lives: Italian Workers of the World.
• Donna Gabaccia and Fraser M. Ottanelli, eds., Italy’s Workers of the World: Labor, Migration, and the Making of Multi-Ethnic Nations (University of Illinois Press, 2001).
• Steve Golin, The Fragile Bridge: Paterson Silk Strike, 1913
• Nancy Hewitt, Southern Discomfort:  Women’s Activism in Tampa, Florida, 1880s-1920s (Urbana: University of IllinoisPress, 2001).
• "Italian American Radical Press" (special issue), Italian American Review.
• Gary Mormino and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City:  Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987)
• Michael Miller Topp, Those Without a Country: The Political Culture of Italian American Syndicalists (Univ of Minnesota Press, 2001).

 

 

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