Italian-Americans -- 1930s
The American experience for Italian immigrants (with particular emphasis on the 1930s) is the salient topic for this paper. The materials presented from scholarly sources in this paper show the positive and negative impacts experienced by Italian-American immigrants; those sources will also be critiqued and analyzed in the context of the experiences, including impacts such as discrimination that Italian-Americans went through during the 1930s.
Italians Arrive in the United States
Author Dale Anderson writes in his book Italian-Americans that between 1901 and 1910, there were more than 2 million Italians that came into the U.S. As immigrants. And from 1911 to 1920, another 1.1 million immigrants arrived (Anderson, 2006, p. 33). Those huge numbers of immigrants tailed off dramatically between 1921 and 1930, when about 455,315 Italians arrived. One main reason for the drop-off in immigration from Italy was the 1924 National Origins Act, which limited immigration, Anderson reports, adding that in the 1930s, the total number of Italian immigrants shrunk to less than 70,000.
There were ill feelings towards Italians (which will be reviewed further in this paper at a later point) based on Benito Mussolini's dictatorial fascism. Moreover, when Mussolini allied himself with the hated and feared Adolf Hitler, Germany's Nazi leader, the friction between native born Americans and new Italian immigrants grew and festered in many instances. Tensions ran high in the 1930s with reference to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and in fact the United States Government required "…more than six hundred thousand Italian-born Americans, or resident aliens, to register…as 'enemy aliens'" further alienated and isolated Italian-Americans (Anderson, 34).
On page 34, Anderson also talks about conflict within the Italian-American families because the children of those immigrants wanted to be known as "Americans" and wanted to adopt American lifestyles for themselves apart from their parents' cultural values brought over from Italy (Anderson, 34). The author notes that children of Italian immigrants "…could become acutely embarrassed when their parents' words or actions in public" made it totally apparent that they were Italians from the old country (34). Anderson quotes one unnamed child of Italian immigrants: "We were becoming American by learning to be ashamed of our parents" (34).
Italians in Newark New Jersey
There are many books and articles about the successes that Italian-American immigrants achieved, and it is surprising that more of these stories aren't made into movies or otherwise recounted in plays or perhaps in books. Perhaps movie producers prefer to use Italian stereotypes (mafia, gangsters, etc.) in movies, because the belief it they will sell better and make more money. In any event, the cultural lives of Italian-Americans are worthy of review and investigation in this paper.
Meanwhile how involved in cultural activities were Italians in Newark, New Jersey? It is clear they loved music and in particular they enjoyed opera. By the 1930s, according to author Sandra S. Lee, there were "at least six drama companies that performed in Italian at local playhouses" (Lee, 2008, p. 8). And in addition, Lee explains that there were five radio stations in Newark that broadcasted programs in the Italian language; there were two newspapers published in Italian. Also in Newark, there was the Columbus Hospital, built initially for the Italian community, Lee explains (8).
Silver Lake, a suburb of Newark, was home to Italians and each house "…had its own little tomato patch"; but if there was an open lot next to any of the houses in Silver Lake, neighbors would plant a larger garden "for goats to graze" as residents took jobs at several steam laundries in the neighborhood. Residents of Silver Lake had a building called the "West End Civic Association," where Italian women and men raised funds for "scholarships" and to promote community causes in the neighborhood. It was also a place for the community to come together. The first Silver Lake Fire Department station was built in the 1930s and Italian-Americans are proud to note that the very first badge -- Badge #1 -- was earned by an Italian-American named Paul Zaccone.
On the subject of culture, Silver Lake Italians celebrated the feast of St. Bartolomeo by organizing an annual procession through the town's streets; a big feast was enjoyed, a band played, and there were fireworks, very similar to the American holiday on July 4 (Lee).
Italian-American Stereotypes -- Jonathan J. Cavallero
According to Jonathan Cavallero writing in the peer-reviewed Journal of Popular Film and Television, the 1930s was a time when Italian-American heroes were on the rise but "denigration of Italians at large" (Cavallero, 2004, p. 52). Cavallero talks...
American Ethnic Culture What is an American? It is clear that Progressive era Americans from different backgrounds differentially defined precisely what being an American actually meant. Stephen Meyer wrote in the work entitled "Efforts at Americanization in the Industrial Workplace 1914-1921 that Americanization "…involved the social and cultural assimilation of immigrants into the mainstream of American life…" but that the process was of the nature that was comprised of "a unique and distinctly
Racial Exclusion in America When one thinks of racial exclusion, they usually think of the reconstruction period of the late 1800s and the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws prohibited blacks from drinking from the same water fountains, eating in the same restaurants, and ride in the back of the bus. Most ideas of racial exclusion are targeted at blacks, however, many other ethnic groups were the victims of racial
Both films irritated their relevant critical establishments, and in this way, De Palma's remade was truest to its source. Scarface 1983 savagery and energy united with its political portrait of the illicit drug trade form a memorable and powerful evocation of 1980s narco-corruption (Prince 231). One of the most striking disparities amid the 1932 Scarface and 1983 Scarface is between Tony Camonte, who makes a fortune through selling bear, but
Duke Ellington: "Symphony in Black" Symphony in Black, A Rhapsody of Black Life" is Duke Ellington's second motion picture. The film was directed by Fred Waller at Paramount Pictures and then was released during the mid-1930s. One of the most thought-provoking features of this short film is the lack of stereotypical, racist representations of African-Americans which deface earliest jazz movies. This motion picture showed Ellington as composer that was on the
So who is an American and what an America can or cannot do are questions which are critical to the issue of legalizing immigrants. Does being an American mean you cannot show allegiance to any other country? The images of people raising and waving Mexican flag had enraged many but it need not have. It should be accepted that people who come from different countries would forever hold in their
Change, however, rather than pure survival propels newly female created and depicted Italian women -- in Barolini, women are not forces of the home front and reaction and religion, as they are in male urban narratives. Rather, beginning even in Barolini's Italian Calabria, women propel a family destiny of fundamental change. After the first years of struggle, the woman and her husband relocate the family to upstate New York where
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now