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Overview. And They Came to Chicago traces the 150-year history of Italians settlement in Chicago, from early arrivals who laid the foundation for burgeoning Italian enclaves to the Italian American contribution to politics and labor, the arts and culture. Combining rare historical footage and photographs, interviews with prominent Italian ...
ETHNICS, ACHIEVERS, 1850-1985. Dominic Candeloro. Historical Research and Narrative. I talians have been in Chicago since the 1850s. Until 1880 the community consisted of a handful of enterprising Genoese fruit sellers, restaurateurs, and merchants, along with a sprinkling of plaster workers. Most Chicago Italians, however, trace their ancestry ...
- Frank Sinatra
- Mother Cabrini
- Joe Dimaggio
- Enrico Fermi
- Lucky Luciano
- Mario Puzo
- Lee Iacocca
- Geraldine Ferraro
- Anthony Fauci
- Antonin Scalia
People may remember Frank Sinatra for hits like "My Way," his Oscar-winning performance in From Here to Eternity and his adventures with the Rat Pack. More than that, the proud son of Italian immigrants arguably did more than any other individual to shape the course of American entertainment and popular culture after World War II. He became the fir...
Born outside Milan in 1850, Francis Xavier Cabrini heeded the request of Pope Leo XIII and moved to the U.S. in the late 1880s to serve the millions of Italian immigrants who were flocking to its shores. She founded her first American orphanage in upstate New York in 1890 but refused to stay put, fielding calls to help the abandoned, sick and desti...
While not facing the outright discrimination endured by African Americans, Italian American baseball players weathered their share of ethnically charged abuse in the early 20th century. Such stereotyping was apparent in a 1939 Life profile of Joe DiMaggio, which made sure to note that the New York Yankees star "never reeks of garlic." But DiMaggio ...
In 1938, Enrico Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on radioactivity and the discovery of new elements. But a career highlight for most was just the beginning for the University of Rome physicist who, after defecting to the U.S. to escape the regime of Benito Mussolini, oversaw the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in Ch...
One could choose from a lengthy list of Italian-speaking racketeers who loom large in American culture, but it was Lucky Lucianowho made the biggest imprint by establishing the template for modern organized crime in the States. Born Salvatore Lucania in Sicily in 1897, Luciano came of age in New York City's Lower East Side and put his talents to us...
If Luciano created the blueprint for organized crime, then Mario Puzo is responsible for igniting the public's love affair with the subject thanks to the 1969 publication of The Godfather. Raised in the gritty Manhattan neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, Puzo saw plenty of tough guys run the streets but had no personal experience with gang activity. N...
The only individual to lead modern-day operations of two of the Big Three American automakers, Lee Iacocca followed a classic rags-to-riches storyline to become one of the most celebrated executives of his era. Born Lido Iacocca to a hot dog vendor who was decimated by the Great Depression, he took an engineering degree to a sales position with For...
A schoolteacher turned criminal prosecutor and congresswoman from Queens, Geraldine Ferraro entered the limelight in 1984 by joining Democratic presidential hopeful Walter Mondale to become the first woman and Italian American to earn the vice-presidential nomination on a major party ticket. But her time as a political power player was short-lived....
In 1981, nearly 40 years before he became a ubiquitous media presence during the onset of COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauciof the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases learned of a strange new sickness within the gay community. He plunged himself into the research of HIV/AIDS despite a lack of bureaucratic support, taking the important st...
The first Italian American named to the United States Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia was a giant of the conservative movement that took shape during the Reagan administration. Scalia changed history by the very nature of his position, from his vote to end the 2000 presidential recount that handed the election to George W. Bush to his determination t...
Oct 9, 2015 · 6. Al’s #1 Italian Beef says its founders invented the signature Chicago sandwich in 1938, when slicing the meat thin was a Depression-era necessity. The roast beef is soaked in meat juice, then ...
Here, Italian and Polish workers on the Grand Trunk Line pose at Fifty-third Street and Kedzie Avenue in 1910. The marking beneath the third man from the left is for Gennaro Bruno. Buy the Book: Italians in Chicago by Dominic Candeloro. Italian immigrants came to America ready and willing to work. “Pane e lavoro” (bread and work) was their ...
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Mar 9, 2023 · Italians in the Windy City. Before the mass immigration of Italians to Chicago in 1850, a handful came to what would become the Windy City long before the American Revolution. The most notable Italian to set foot in Illinois was Enrico Tonti, from Gaeta, Italy. In 1680, he served as a soldier in the French Army and was a member of the La Salle ...
In 2000 more than a half million residents of the region identified themselves as of Italian ancestry. Italians began trickling into Chicago in small numbers in the 1850s, working largely as merchants, vendors, barbers, and other artisans. By 1880, there were 1,357 Italians in the city. Successful as saloonkeepers and restaurateurs, some ...
