March 2025 Italy in Los Angeles: Marianna Gatto, welcome back to We the Italians

The interview you're about to read is particularly dear to me, both for the subject it addresses and for the person who represents it. The history of Italians in Los Angeles has always fascinated me because it is somehow different from that of those who emigrated from Italy and settled on the East Coast of the United States. There are certainly sim...

Joe Gale is a great example of the fire, heart and independence borne from our Italian blood. His mom Roseanne Tramo Gale’s grandparents, the Testas and Bonannos, emigrated to the United States from Sicily, and settled in South Philadelphia. The Tramos’ son, Carmen “Charles” Tramo, moved to Overbrook with his wife Marie where they kept their tradit...

Linda Bernardi spent four years building her Malibu dream home, putting the finishing touches on the coastal Sunset Mesa estate late last year. On Jan. 7, she watched it burn to the ground. “I absolutely knew I would never live in L.A. again,” she said. The days and weeks after the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires saw mass migration for displa...

The bond between Italian music and America has always been strong, with melodies and traditions crossing oceans and blending cultures. Among the many iconic songs linked to this connection, That’s Amore is probably among the most iconic. Performed by the legendary Dean Martin and released in 1953, the song remains a cultural phenomenon still today,...

It is every researcher’s dream to discover historical material, untouched by others, just waiting to be shown the light of day. Heirlooms hidden in basements, pictures in old dust-covered photo albums, and letters stuffed in books can all lead to discoveries of great personal and academic importance. Jo Ann Cavallo, Professor of Italian at Columbia...

Wednesday March 5. 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm EST. The History Museum - 897 W. Thomas Street, South Bend, IN 46601. Joe Agostino and colleagues discuss the history, heritage, and contributions of local Italian Americans. Joe is one of several members of local Italian American clubs that provided substantial assistance to The History Museum’s exhibit Traditi...

The complex relationship between Italian-American identity and racial classification has been a recurring theme throughout HBO’s groundbreaking series The Sopranos. When Christopher Moltisanti declares that Italians aren’t white people, he taps into decades of cultural history and ongoing debates about ethnicity, race, and American identity that co...

Giuseppe Martuscelli immigrated to America from Santa Maria di Castellabate in 1967. Once here he began work as a cook. On weekends, in the little spare time he had, he would attend the dance-hall get-togethers in South Philadelphia. It was there that he met Anna, also an immigrant from the Salerno area, in Castel San Giorgio. They married in 1973...

In May 2023, on a regional train from Naples to Pompeii, I was reading a memoir by an American woman. She'd moved to Naples for an internship, met the love of her life, and, despite regularly indulging in ragù and sfogliatella (a sweet pastry), had somehow lost 20 pounds. Lucky her, I thought with admiration and slight envy. I, on the other hand, f...