It is a known fact that Italians and Italian Americans have greatly contributed to the development of the United States of America (just think of Costantino Brumidi, Michael Valente, Frank Sinatra, Attilio Piccirilli, Primo Carnera, Rocky Graziano, to name just a few). Finding myself in the happy position of being an Italian myself in America, I would like to share the simple but great stories of some of these predecessors of ours, emblems of that “American dream” that unites so many migrants, then as now.
The list would be really long, and it was difficult to choose just five of the most beautiful contributions of Italians to America. So please forgive me if these my narratives of lives are limited, but are dictated by the needs of this site. And on the other hand, more to come.
Amadeo Giannini
The banker who raised California
Amadeo Pietro Giannini – or AP Giannini – was born in San Jose (California) in May 1870 to Italian parents (Luigi and Virginia Giannini) and is remembered today as the “American banker”. Son of immigrants, therefore, Amadeo found himself living in a society, that of frontier America, in full development and turmoil. In fact, the California Republic was formally established only after long battles with Mexico, in 1848, with the consequent gold rush that attracted a multitude of immigrants from all over the world. In this world, few were the rights reserved for immigrants, including the financial services granted by the credit institutions of the time.
These, therefore, were the premises that led Amadeo in 1904 to set up the first commercial bank, the Bank of Italy (Bank of Italy), an institution for saving and lending money and financial services to these people who were refused elsewhere. A few years later, in 1906, the city of San Francisco suffered a devastating earthquake. Despite the adversity caused by the acclaimed tragedy, the Bank of Italy continued to thrive, increasing customers, and capital and thus offering greater loan possibilities to the same customers, even helping financially the reconstruction of the city.
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The Bank of Italy expanded rapidly, prospering in the state of California through multiple branches, offering loans, mortgages, and so on, without discrimination (to Mexicans, Russians, Chinese, Greeks, etc.) and thus increasing Amadeo’s fame. In 1928, he converted his Bank of Italy into Transamerica Corporation and later, in 1930, into Bank of America, which to this day holds the title of the largest commercial bank in the world.
Giannini’s influence in the banking and financial sector remained stable even during the years of the Great Depression, allowing him to finance large agricultural development projects in the American territory, also supporting the nascent Hollywood film industry, and even participating in the huge expenses for the construction of the world-famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Who knows that his rapid rise had not been blessed from above, because it was he, Amadeo Giannini, a simple man, the son of Italian immigrants, who knew how to wisely manage the economic and social conditions of his time to his advantage, helping simple men, immigrants who, like him, they only had a desire to create a better future for themselves and their children.
Fiorello LaGuardia
New York’s most loved mayor
Fiorello Enrico “Henry” La Guardia (Americanized in “LaGuardia”) was born in New York in 1882, the son of Italian immigrants. Of humble origins, Fiorello (nicknamed the little flower due to his name but above all his short stature) became an example of a tireless worker from an early age, a promoter of the cause of justice. Thanks to his knowledge of five languages (English, Yiddish, German, French, and Italian), he greatly facilitated the registration and sorting phases of immigrants who, at the beginning of the 20th century, crossed the Ellis Island port of entry.
In the same years, La Guardia attended evening classes to become a lawyer at the University of New York. Thanks to hard work and dedication to the cause of immigrants, in an era full of social strife due to ethnic promiscuity, La Guardia was nominated as mayor of New York three times in a row.
An upright and highly ethical man, he earned the esteem of his contemporaries, despite being openly opposed to the moral conduct of the then corrupt and unregulated society. His indefatigable presence in defense of important causes became even more visible in the 40s, during the Second World War, when, feeling the urgency to contribute in some way to the war events on Italian soil, he became the voice of anti-fascist propaganda and anti-Nazi through Radio London. Even if, according to the chronicles, the limping Italian of him was difficult for the Italian listeners, men, and women of the Resistance, to understand.
In one of his latest acts, the mayor proposed building a new airport closer to Manhattan, in view of the increased expansion of the city and flights to and from it. The new airport thus became operational in 1939 and was finally dedicated to him a few months before his death in 1947. It is LaGuardia airport, an undying witness of his contribution to America and the world.
Frank Capra
The director of good feelings
Francesco Rosario Capra (Americanized to Frank Russell Capra) was born in Bisacquino, Sicily, in 1897. The seventh child of a modest family of farmers, he emigrated with his parents to America at the age of five. The journey lasted 13 days, remembered by Francesco in a biography as the longest and most horrible of his life. The family could only afford third-class tickets, and the travel conditions had to be extremely extreme for the little one.
Arriving at the port of entry of Ellis Island, in New York, in 1903, he undertook the long crossing of the United States until reaching California, and more precisely Catalina, where the family settled. There the young Francesco distinguished himself as a laborer and extra in the nascent Hollywood industry. There was no shortage of opportunities, especially in California, the land of gold. But the war came to disrupt a rapidly developing situation.
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Perhaps not everyone knows that Frank participated in the war effort as a war director, immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1941. Forty-four at the time, due to his age, he was not asked to enlist, but he decided to support anyway. the war efforts of his adopted country through the creation of the documentary series Why We Struggle.
It was a series of propaganda, but not of creating a fictitious image of prosperity and absolute control of the leader, as was the case with Leni Riefenstahl under contemporary Nazism. Why we fight wanted to educate the younger generations about the American patriotic spirit and explain why people went to the front to fight, sacrificing their lives to win against dictatorial forces.
In the years immediately following World War II, he directed a series of films that met with some success: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and perhaps his best-known masterpiece, It’s a Wonderful Life, from 1946.
From those black and white films of his (but not only), a sign of an era that no longer exists, we remember him today for his sensitive and dreamy emotional and dramatic narration, a 360-degree portrait of human emotions, with representations vivid with every man’s anxieties and fears, hopes, and dreams. His contribution to American and world cinema lies precisely in having transmitted to the public – yesterday as well as today – positive films, with simple and uplifting messages, of ordinary men and women, of that George Bailey who realizes in a way so sudden of the value of his life intrinsically linked to the lives of many. Because we are all actors and protagonists of that great show of this wonderful thing that is life.
Giuseppe “Joe” Paolo DiMaggio
The baseball champion and husband of Marilyn Monroe
Giuseppe “Joe” Paolo DiMaggio, the son of Italians who emigrated to America, was born in the Bronx in 1915. His father, a fisherman, tried to introduce him to the family trade, but Joe ended up hating the smell of fish, delighting instead since very young with baseball. From the beginning, the young DiMaggio proved to be excellent in this sport which led him to be noticed by the Yankees, the Major League Baseball team from New York: a star was born.
Rapidly rising and in the midst of a busy sports star life, Joe met one of the most memorable divas in world film history: Marilyn Monroe. She, as she seems to have confessed to her biographer only a few years later, had no intention of going out with a sportsman; he was completely unaware of the importance of that meeting. However, there was an immediate attraction between the two and, after a few months, Marilyn was introduced to Joe’s family, which was followed by the wedding.
Theirs seemed like a love story destined to last forever, but the spotlight always focused on Marilyn marked the beginning of the troubled life of the young couple. Through ups and downs, the relationship began to falter. The causes were many, but probably Joe’s inability to bear the fame of a sex symbol wife, who despite her attracted a lot of (too much) male attention. Strong characters, those of Marilyn and Joe, who ended up crashing once too often, leading to the dissolution of their union, which was wrecked in divorce 3 years after marriage.
The rest is history: Marilyn’s love affairs, Joe’s attempts to win her back, followed by both other fleeting unions, up to the actress’s tragic death in 1962, and Joe’s growing remorse for never asking her to get back together. After all, as he himself admitted, Marilyn was forever the love of her life. Joe DiMaggio continued to honor her memory by sending dozens of red roses to her grave for more than 20 years. Joe died of a heart attack in 1997, leaving a void in the hearts of many. This man, the gentle giant who perhaps can now embrace his Marilyn again and make peace with her past.
Giuseppe “Joe” Petrosino
The policeman who defied organized crime
Giuseppe “Joe” Petrosino, was born in Italy, in Padula (Salerno), in 1860, from a family of modest means. Despite the scarce substances enjoyed by the family – the father, a tailor, apparently was barely able to provide for the decent support of his children and his wife -, in 1873 he emigrated with his mother, father, and brothers, settling in Little Italy, the New York district with a high rate of Italian immigration.
The atmosphere in Little Italy must have been very unstable, given that the high migration density generated a growing crime. This could have influenced the choices of the young Giuseppe, who, perhaps driven by a civic sense, became part of the police force first as a garbage man, to then distinguish himself as an informant. His was a very important role, precisely in this multi-ethnic society in which there was a lack of effective communication between immigrants of various languages and the police.
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Joseph was able to quickly climb the military ranks until the appointment of chief of police. In this era of harsh racial prejudice, in a multifaceted society made up largely of immigrants, Petrosino had to earn the respect of his colleagues (mostly Irish immigrants) and compatriots on a daily basis: those same Italian immigrants who with his work he was keeping to mind.
His fame did not stop. The United States was facing another nascent scourge, probably a product of that immigration already described: what would later become universally known as the Mafia. Theodore Roosevelt, first police chief himself and later President of the United States, promoted him to lieutenant, entrusting him with the command of the Italian Legion, a group of Italian agents set up to counter the action of the Black Hand, the first form of organized crime.
In full swing, and just to follow an important lead, Giuseppe returned to Italy. He didn’t know that this would be the last time he would ever see his America. In 1909 he arrived in Sicily, where he was murdered with three gunshots by the very mafia he was trying to defeat. Thus ended the rise of a hero of his time, remembered since those years as a martyr in the fight against organized crime.
His funeral, held in New York, was followed by 250,000 people mourning the loss of a valiant fellow citizen. Giuseppe Petrosino had American citizenship, but he remained Italian at heart: that Italy, his country of origin and in which he had mockingly died in the fulfillment of his actions, he who had helped to bring order to the tangle of streets of Little Italy. , he who had brought back a new light and respect in the perception of the collective imagination of the Italian immigrant at the beginning of the twentieth century.
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