Mary Jo Gagliano (Author of "La Storia: Birmingham's Italian community")

La storia dell'emigrazione italiana a Birmingham, Alabama

Dec 22, 2014 5097 ITA ENG

It is known that millions of Italian immigrants went to the big cities on the two coast: but some of them spread all over the United States, looking for a place to start a new life. Those who went to smaller and less known places, in smaller but not less important communities, had an experience that is similar but at the same time different than their fellow Italians in the big cities.

In Birmingham, Alabama, Italians are now celebrating their heritage with a beautiful exhibition, and they won't stop at it: that is why we are so glad to welcome Mary Jo Gagliano, who planned, organized, managed and brought this project to fruition, with the help of some members of the Italian American Heritage Society of Birmingham.

Mary Jo, please tell us something more about this wonderful project sponsored by the Italian American Heritage Society of Birmingham, Alabama: "La Storia: Birmingham's Italian community"

I feel that I must give you a small history on the Magic City of Birmingham, and tell you a few important facts about Vulcan Park and Museum, where the exhibit is on display. There is a mountain overlooking Birmingham called Red Mountain, and the mountain is named so because it was one of the major iron ore vein being mined in the formative years of the city. A few leaders of the City of Birmingham wanted to showcase the iron and coal industry in Alabama. They decided: what better place than the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri? So they decided to build a statue, and it won the grand prize.

An Italian immigrant Giuseppe Moretti, whose credentials scanned the world, agreed to complete a plaster cast of the Greek God of Iron, Vulcan, in forty days. Giuseppe took the plaster cast to New Jersey and there with the assistant of sixteen Italian immigrants cast the 56 foot God of Iron. It was shipped by train to Birmingham and workers in Sloss Furnaces poured the cast with pig iron to form the 56 foot statue. After the World's Fair, the statue was on display at the State Fairgrounds. Many years later Vulcan was set atop a stone monument built by Italian Immigrants, most who lived in Birmingham and a few from other areas of the US.

I heard from one of our members that Vulcan Park and Museum was looking for an Italian organization to help them in compiling an exhibition focusing on Italian immigrants. I phoned them and spoke to the Director of education. He responded that the next exhibition at VPM would showcase the Birmingham downtown black District. I immediately responded that an exhibition featuring the Italian immigrants to Birmingham would be perfect to follow the one about the Birmingham Black community. The Italian immigrants, not being accepted into any white Anglo-Saxon communities, made their home in the black communities and opened their businesses in those communities.

I must say that I believe that the directors agreed with me, because he wasted no time in getting back to me. Once these decisions had been made, I began the planning stages, asking for society member to volunteer on various committees. We planned a memorial book where one could place their beloved family members from the first generation through present generations. We also designed a bronze plaque for the Italian families to honor their immigrant ancestors by having their names engraved on the plaque.

My co-chair Leone Chiarella along with another member, Angie Piazza Giardina, sold corporation advertising and family memorials for the memorial book. With the memorial book funds, the bronze plaque purchases, and of course a few social events, we raised $65,000. We collected artifacts, oral histories, photos documents from the Italian immigrant families. There was a great amount of material collected, but we feel that this is only a drop of information from a large pool of ancestors of these Italian immigrants in Birmingham.

It took 16 months from inception to the opening of the exhibit. I must say that when I walked into the exhibit on the opening night I truly felt the presence of my bisnonna, nonno, nonna, uncles and of course my father standing beside me with tears streaming down their faces. For me, it was a heart-warming experience, a moment of triumph not just for me but for each Italian immigrant who made their home in Alabama. I felt honored to have been appointed a Chair of this exhibition La Storia.

The exhibition opened on September 19, 2014, and is having a big success. Are you and the Italian American Heritage Society of Birmingham planning to go on with other initiatives about this topic?

Yes, the exhibit is opened at Vulcan Park and Museum until Sept 18, 2015. During this time, the IAHS has hosted and will be hosting monthly educational events at VPM and other venues location in Birmingham. To name a few: a seminar on obtaining dual citizenship; a book talk with one of our members who has published several books, one being an award winning bio of his father in World War II; a cooking demonstration, a charity bike ride ending in front of our Cathedral for the blessing of the bikes.

A particular mention, among these activities, is deserved by a bus tour of the original mining towns where our immigrants worked and some perished in the mines; of the early Italian cemeteries, where one can view crude grave markers of unknown Italian immigrants; and of the first Catholic Churches for the Italian Immigrants. The guide of this tour is Carlo Roppa, from Carrera, Italy, who worked as a sculptor in Birmingham. Carlo sculpted a beautiful bust and base honoring a priest by the name of Giovanni Canepa born in Genoa, Italy who was sent to Birmingham by the Pope to administer to our ancestors and was very instrumental in establish three Catholic churches in Birmingham.

The Italian American Heritage Society of Birmingham will also host "The Magic City of Birmingham's Italian Heritage Festa" in a very large city park located in the center of Birmingham's municipal buildings, on May 16, 2015. The festa will begin with a procession of the blessed Mother carried through the street of our city and brought to the park for the crowning of the blessed Mother. This will be the first year to organize and hold an event of this caliber and we will be keeping this for now to a one-day event.

The IAHS mission statement is to encourage, promote and preserve Italian culture and heritage with its activities centered upon Italian traditions, foods, language, history, religion, folklore, customs, celebrations, music and family genealogy. In order for the IAHS to carry out this mission statement to its fullest we must strive to raise the money to build an Italian American Cultural museum in the city of Birmingham.

What's the story of the Italian emigration to Alabama and the South Eastern States?

In the years from 1870 to mid1920's, I would venture to say that 90% of the Italian immigrants came to Alabama from Sicily and southern Italy. What brought them to America was the inability to own land by the oppression of various countries controlling Sicily, drought, hunger, and lack of jobs; but also the American opportunity to work, to be able to earn money to buy food to feed their families and the belief of a better future. Italians are hard workers who believe in ownership.

How about the actual presence of Italians in your area, either Italian Americans or Italians born in Italy and now working or studying there? Are there many of them, and who are they?

There are no official censuses for the numbers of the Italian Americans in Alabama. I feel that there are possibly hundreds of thousands living in Alabama. In Birmingham and its surrounding areas there are close to forty, maybe fifty thousand persons of Italian American heritage, which includes those who emigrated from Italy over the previous fifty years. There are those who moved into Alabama from other states for various reasons; employment, corporate move, family, education, and our world renowned medical centers in Birmingham such as the University of Alabama Hospital, the Kirkland Clinic, the Children's Hospital of Alabama and the University of Alabama School of medicine.

Which are the most important "Italian" places in Alabama? A neighborhood, a museum, a park, a monument?

In Alabama there were neighborhood where Italian immigrants came and build their community: they were farmers. Then their land was bought out to build the Air Museum and then the Birmingham airport. Now there is no more an Italian neighborhood in my town. There are few couples of churches that are still standing, built by the Italian immigrants.

And then, as mentioned before, we have Vulcan: that is our Italian monument in Alabama. It is the second tallest statue in the world, behind the statue of Liberty; the largest iron figure ever cast in the world, the biggest statue created in the United States. It was sculpted by an Italian immigrant, and placed upon a stone base built by Italian immigrants.

That's the only land mark and that's why I fight so hard to open this museum, because we need a place! The mayor of the city of Birmingham, William A. Bell, is behind us 100%.

For one year, we can also boast that we have the exhibit "La Storia". In September 2015, we will have to dismantle it, but I must remain passionate to bring our dream of having an Italian American Heritage Cultural Museum in the Magic City of Birmingham, Alabama.

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