ITALIAN NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA

Foreign- language newspapers in America, from Ukrainian to Japanese—just to skip the most obvious ones like Italian and German—were born to meet the immigrants’ need for information about relevant events in their countries of origin. It was the only source of information available, since they couldn’t read English and—even if they could—the American press wouls barely mention those far-away places. Moreover, the mainline press completely ignored what was taking place in immigrant neighborhoods. Naturally, as these immigrants were absorbed and their feelings for and memories of the old country vanished, the foreign-language press became progressively smaller and focused mostly on the local issues that effected people where they lived. There is another factor that must be considered in order to understand the decline of foreign language press: the journalists. Initially they had all been educated in the coutry of origin, whose language they could write fluently. Speaking specifically about the Italian community, today it is practically impossible to find an Italian American, educated in America, who can write correct and proper Italian. Others who were educated in Italian schools have lost the ability to express themselves with precision and fluidity. Historically, this was similar to what happened to German immigration which was arguably the most educated to come to America. With reference to this community; in a general atmosphere of decline, two different phenomena took place; representative of distinct traditions. After the fall of Nazism, the German population of New York split into two groups: one followed publications that represented, with moderation, the German tradition; the other, mostly Jews of German origin, gravitated around periodicals that reflected a world-wide agenda. In addition there were several periodicals published in Yiddish, the language (or dialect) of the German and Eastern-European Jewry with a long tradition of renown literary works. Italians, who never had to confront this kind of divisions, were never forced—psychologically or otherwise—to learn English. There are still elderly people in New York who speak only the dialect of Campobasso[1] or Terlizzi,[2] interspersed with a few rough English words; but in general America has been able to absorb the immigrants with the assimilating prowess of big snakes that don’t bite their preys but smother them then swallow them whole. This is what mandatory education did to children who, once they had learned English (or American), would become a model but also a threat for their parents who never managed to learn the language. Children were also instrumental in keeping in and anchoring their parents to this country, preventing them from returning as they had originally dreamt of doing: fare l’America [to do America] (that is, to get rich) and then return to Sorrento[3] (or the native village) with a nice nest egg to show off to those who stayed behind.

The new Italian American press, as I mentioned before, is written and read primarily by the new generations, children or grand children of the first poor immigrants. The distinction between these cohorts is very important not only in terms of language but also economic status. They are better off than their parents and belong to a different social class: they own a house and often a small business; and are members of professional associations. An ever increasing number has gone even farther; especially in business but also in the legal profession and in politics, including the court system (in America judges are elected officials.) In the medical field they are more commonly general practitioners rather than specialists. They are present in considerable numbers in education, especially at the secondary level. Some have achieved great stature in the arts; in particular in painting, sculpting and music (less so in architecture). Many are active labor organizers. Rarely do they excel in theoretical mathematics and scientific research. Many of these choices are due to the natural predisposition of Italians, such as an inclination for the arts, but many are also due to the socio-economic circumstances of their families of origin, most of which urgently needed that children started to earn money when still young. Additional reasons are the resistance and diffidence on the part of the rich native Anglo-Saxons toward all immigrants but in particular toward those who did not speak English and did not belong to Protestant[4] churches. It is impossible to conduct an accurate survey since there has never been a serious and credible census of the success stories of Italians in the United States. Millions of dollars have been spent for banquets, monuments and festivals of all kinds, but not even a modest amount was ever spent for a publication that could be the equivalent of the Golden Book of Italian Americans.

Returning to the topic of the Italian American press, there are some middle-brow publications written both in Italian and in English, a notable example of which is the Gazzetta del Massachusetts,[5] published in Boston by a valiant defender of the Italian language, Dr. Giacomo Grillo, a true journalist who knows how to write about a range of topics, from politics to popular culture. He is also a veritable gold mine of memories and anecdots about the heroic and at times sordid colonial press that prospered and whitered in a matter of a few years or even months in the neighborhoods of the Little Italies. Grillo is an expert on the history and literature of the United States and is a lively and competent speaker. Another example is the Italamerican,[6] a monthly bilingual magazine published in New York that carries the syndicated column of a notable American writer with strong ties to Italy, Igor Cassini (a Georgian name), better known with the nickname Cholly Knickerbocker[7]. Before I start describing these periodicals, I want to alert my readers that we cannot judge them using Italian criteria. At first glance, the Italian eye would equate them to small-town newpapers and, at second glance, to gossip magazines. The right perspective must take into account the great difficulties inherent in publishing in a foreign language with a limited target audience that is inevitably not part of the country’s cultural avant-garde. A reasonable comparison would be an American citizen who arrived in Rome and, with an American eye, judged the local American tabloid,[8] which looks like a provincial American newpaper; although in Rome it can count on a potential readership of at least ten thousand Americans, both permanent residents and visitors, all of whom well off or even wealthy; with well paid jobs in the film industry and similar fields. To the contrary, Italian dailies and periodicals in America could never count on a similarly educated and wealthy audience.

The Gazzetta del Massachusetts (current name: Post-Gazette) was founded by a courageous, energetic and adventurous southern Italian, James V. Donnarumma, born on December 26, 1874 in San Valentino Torio, in the province of Salerno, who had arrived in America at the age of fifteen. It is profoundly different from comparable Italian publications. Boston by now has become a provincial town, which means it no longer has the power and size of other major urban centers. However, it still has a strong cultural tradition and retains financial power. Little of this, however, is present in the Gazzetta. The first sheets in Italian language published in Boston were born in the North End, near the port, where the Irish had first settled. The Irish were pushed out by the Italian immigrants who presently are still dominant in the area. Boston’s North End is a typical neighborhood where monuments of the American Revolution, such as Paul Revere’s house and graceful Protestant churches—like the Old North Church—are totally surrounded by Italian stores, cafés, restaurants and small businesses. On the sidewalks, local urchins run around like in Naples, yelling at each other in a Bostonian slang. In the earlier days this neighborhood was full of mutual aid societies, notaries public and fraternities devoted to the organization of parades for the patron saints of Irpinia,[9] Sicily, Liguria and, later, Calabria. Those publications reported the names of people who attended banquets, played the pipe for the rich folks in the community who had a paid subscription and, at time, shamed and intimidated the prominents who were not subscribers into buying space for an ad or at least make a donation. Whether the leaflets were named Giuseppe Garibaldi or The Horsefly or The Caudine Forks[10] the content didn’t change much.

To this day the Italian American press consists primarily of reports of weddings, baptisms, deaths and trips to Italy. New entries are college degrees and elections to various offices, from judge to city councilman to governor, all signals of the changing fortunes and the position of Italian Americans on the socio-economic ladder. Aside from gossips, the local newspapers are forgettable and carry very little news with the exception of press clips taken from Italian publications that arrive by ship. Yet, in the past, these little newpapers were watering the plant of nationalism. The editors often were dropouts of Italy’s classical schools [liceo classico] and they were responsible for transmitting incomplete notions of Ancient Rome and the Risorgimento[11] to the children of the southern peasants who had arrived to America lacking even a primary level education. They taught the immigrants the basics of national pride and how to pronounce the names of Dante, Petrarch, Leonardo and Michelangiolo[12] [sic]; names they had never heard before in Italy and that now they would use to defend themselves from the scorn and derision of native Anglo-Saxons. This defensive role, played by even the least respectable of the Italian American press, still continues to this day as demonstrated by the reactions of all the Italian publications in the United States—in English and in Italian—to the recent television broadcast of a drama series on the criminal world of Chicago, which is depicted exclusively as an Italian enterprise.[13] The show was sponsored by some of the most important American companies.

New York, September 10, 1961