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This open-air architectural park was created by the Italian American Renaissance Foundation Museum and Library to express ethnic pride by demonstrating the many important contributions that Italy has made to the world’s architecture. As such, it is an interesting spatial "Mis-Re-Presentation" of local Italian Americans many of whom are descendants of migrant agricultural laborers who came to work in the sugar cane fields in the late nineteenth century. Today it is difficult to find signs of the substantial populations of Italians who once inhabited New Orleans’ inner city zones such as the "French" Quarter. Near the Slave Market, however, one can find an "Italian" grocery store, and, as to vernacular landscape, Italian names on fruit and vegetable businesses are visible clues to their earlier presence. |
