Marian Paravano Grubor (President of the Upper Ohio Valley Italian Heritage Festival)

West Virginia has a long history of Italian emigration. In 1910 more than 17,000 Italians were living there, making up 30% of the entire foreign-born population of the State: Italy even had a consular office in northern West Virginia. The majority of the Italian immigrants came from the south: Calabria, Campania, Sicilia. In 1907, the worst mining...