イタリア系アメリカ人

イタリア系アメリカ人

イタリア系アメリカ人 (イタリア語)
2019年米国国勢調査局のアメリカ人コミュニティ調査によると、イタリア系アメリカ人の州別分布
総人口
17,767,630 (5.3%) 単独または組み合わせ 5,953,262 (1.8%) イタリアのみ 2021年推定、自己申告[1] 17,285,619 (2015) [2] 17,566,693 (2010) [3] 17,829,184 (2006) [4] 16,688,000 (2000) [5] 14,664,550 (1990) [6] 12,183,692 (1980) [7]
人口の多い地域
アメリカ合衆国北東部（ニューヨーク、ニュージャージー、ペンシルベニア、デラウェア、マサチューセッツ、メイン、ニューハンプシャー、コネチカット、ロードアイランドの各州）、イリノイ州（特にシカゴ）、ボルチモア・ワシントン、オハイオ、セントルイス、カンザスシティ、ミルウォーキー、デトロイトの各州、カリフォルニア州（ロサンゼルス、サンフランシスコ、サンディエゴなど）、フロリダ州（特に州南部）、大西洋岸、ルイジアナ州（特にニューオーリンズ）の各州、デンバー、ラスベガス、フェニックス、アルバカーキの人口が増加している地域
言語
英語 イタリア語 イタリアの様々な言語 イタリア系アメリカ人ピジン語（イタングリッシュ語とシクル語を含む）[8] [9]
宗教
カトリックが主流だが、ギリシャ正教、プロテスタント、ユダヤ教を信仰する少数派もいる。
関連民族
イタリア系アルゼンチン人、イタリア系ボリビア人、イタリア系ブラジル人、イタリア系カナダ人、イタリア系チリ人、イタリア系コロンビア人、イタリア系コスタリカ人、イタリア系キューバ人、イタリア系ドミニカ人、イタリア系エクアドル人、イタリア系グアテマラ人、イタリア系ハイチ人、イタリア系ホンジュラス人、イタリア系メキシコ人、イタリア系パナマ人、イタリア系パラグアイ人、イタリア系ペルー人、イタリア系プエルトリコ人、イタリア系エルサルバドル人、イタリア系ウルグアイ人、イタリア系ベネズエラ人、イタリア系オーストラリア人、イタリア系南アフリカ人、イタリア系イギリス人、イタリア系ニュージーランド人、シチリア系アメリカ人、コルシカ系アメリカ人、コルシカ系プエルトリコ人、マルタ系アメリカ人、サンマリノ系アメリカ人およびその他のイタリア人

イタリア系アメリカ人（イタリア語：italoamericani）は、イタリア系または部分的にイタリア系の血を引くアメリカ人である。イタリア系アメリカ人研究協会によると、現在の人口は約1800万人で、2010年の1600万人から増加しており、米国の総人口の約5.4％に相当する。イタリア系アメリカ人は北東部の都市部と中西部の工業地帯の 大都市圏に最も多く集中しており、米国の他の多くの大都市圏にも重要なコミュニティが存在する。^[10]

1820年から2004年まで、イタリア系移民の波の間に約550万人のイタリア人が米国に移住した。移住の波は数回に分かれ、20世紀に南イタリアから到着した人の数が最も多かった。当初、いわゆる「渡り鳥」と呼ばれる独身男性の多くは、イタリアの家族に送金し、その後イタリアに戻った。

1880年代に移民が増加し始め、その前の50年間の合計の2倍以上のイタリア人が移住した。^{[11] [12]} 1880年から1914年まで続いた最大の移民の波では、400万人以上のイタリア人が米国に移住した。^{[11] [12]}この波で最も多くが来たのは南イタリアで、当時は主に農業地帯であり、何世紀にもわたる外国の支配と重い税負担によって住民の多くが貧困に陥っていた。^{[13] [14]この大規模移民の時期は、1914年8月の}第一次世界大戦の勃発とともに突然終了した。1920年代には455,315人の移民が到着した。^{[15]彼らは、} 1924年の移民法によって制定された新しい割り当てベースの移民制限の条件の下にいた。^[16]イタリア系アメリカ人は視覚芸術、文学、料理、政治、スポーツ、音楽などに貢献し、アメリカの社会と文化に大きな影響を与えました。^[17]

1880年以前にアメリカにいたイタリア人には、クリストファー・コロンブスをはじめとする多くの探検家といくつかの小さな入植地が含まれていた。^[18]

イタリアの航海者や探検家^[19]は、ヨーロッパ人によるアメリカ大陸の探検と開拓において重要な役割を果たした。ジェノバの探検家クリストファー・コロンブス（イタリア語：クリストフォロ・コロンボ [kriˈstɔːforo koˈlombo]）は、スペインのカトリック両王のために大西洋を横断する4回の航海を成し遂げ、ヨーロッパ人によるアメリカ大陸の広範な探検と植民地化への道を開いた。

もう一人のイタリア人、ジョン・カボット（イタリア語：ジョヴァンニ・カボット [dʒoˈvanni kaˈbɔːto] ）は、息子のセバスチャンとともに、16世紀初頭にヘンリー7世のために北アメリカ東海岸を探検した。1524年、フィレンツェの探検家ジョヴァンニ・ダ・ヴェラッツァーノ（イタリア語：[dʒoˈvanni da (v)verratˈtsaːno]）は、フロリダとニューブランズウィックの間の北アメリカの大西洋岸を探検した最初のヨーロッパ人であった。 ^[20]イタリアの探検家アメリゴ・ヴェスプッチ（イタリア語：[ameˈriːɡo veˈsputtʃi]）は、1501年頃に、新世界は当初推測されていたアジアではなく、別の大陸であることを初めて証明した（アメリカは彼にちなんで名付けられた）。^[21]

スペインとフランスに雇われた多くのイタリア人航海士や探検家が、その領土の探検や地図作成、入植地の設立に携わったが、これによってイタリア人がアメリカに永住することはなかった。1539年、マルコ・ダ・ニッツァは後にアリゾナ州とニューメキシコ州となる地域を探検した。

現在のアメリカ合衆国に相当する地域に居住登録された最初のイタリア人はピエトロ・チェーザレ・アルベルティ^[25]で、一般に最初のイタリア系アメリカ人とみなされている。彼はヴェネツィア出身の船員で、1635年にオランダの植民地ニューアムステルダム（後にニューヨーク市となる）に定住した。

17世紀には、フランスと北イタリア（特にピエモンテ）の血を引くワルドー派として知られるプロテスタントの小規模な波が起こった。最初のワルドー派の移住は1640年頃で、大多数は1654年から1663年の間に到着した。 ^{[26]彼らは当時}ニューネーデルラントと呼ばれていた地域、そして後にニューヨーク、ニュージャージー、デラウェア川下流地域となった地域に広がった。ニューネーデルラントに移住したアメリカのワルドー派の総人口は現在不明であるが、1671年のオランダの記録によると、1656年だけでイタリアのトリノ近郊のサヴォイア公国がプロテスタントの信仰を理由に300人のワルドー派を追放した。

エンリコ・トンティ（アンリ・ド・トンティ）は、フランスの探検家ルネ・ロベール・カヴリエ・シュール・ド・ラ・サールとともに五大湖地域を探検した。トンティは1679年にイリノイ州に、1683年にアーカンソー州に最初のヨーロッパ人入植地を設立し、ポスト・ド・アーカンシーとして知られるようになったことから、「アーカンソー州の父」となった。^{[23] [24]}ラ・サールとともにニューオーリンズを共同設立し、その後20年間ルイジアナ準州の知事を務めた。弟のアルフォンス・ド・トンティ（アルフォンソ・ド・トンティ）は、フランスの探検家アントワーヌ・ド・ラ・モット・キャディヤックとともに1701年にデトロイトの共同設立者となり、12年間植民地総督を務めた。

スペインとフランスはカトリックの国であり、アメリカ先住民を改宗させるために多くの宣教師を派遣した。これらの宣教師の中には多数のイタリア人も含まれていた。1519年から1525年にかけて、アレッサンドロ・ジェラルディーニはサントドミンゴでアメリカ大陸初のカトリック司教となった。フランソワ・ジョセフ・ブレサーニ神父（フランチェスコ・ジュゼッペ・ブレサーニ）は17世紀初頭にアルゴンキン族とヒューロン族の間で活動した。南西部とカリフォルニアは17世紀後半から18世紀初頭にかけてイタリアのイエズス会司祭エウゼビオ・キノ（チノ）によって探検され、地図が作成された。アリゾナ州の委託により建てられた彼の像は、アメリカ合衆国議会議事堂ビジターセンターに展示されている。

タリアフェロ家（元はタリアフェロ）は、ベニスにルーツを持つと考えられており、バージニアに最初に定住した一族の一つである。1754年にバージニア州ウィリアムズバーグに建てられた歴史的なジョージ王朝様式のワイスハウスは、建築家リチャード・タリアフェロが、娘エリザベス・タリアフェロと結婚した義理の息子でアメリカ建国の父ジョージ・ワイスのために設計した。タリアフェロ父は、知事公邸、バージニア植民地の議事堂、ウィリアム・アンド・メアリー大学学長官邸など、コロニアル・ウィリアムズバーグの多くを設計した。^[27]

フランチェスコ・マリア・デ・レッジョは、エステ家のイタリア貴族で、フランソワ・マリー・レッジョ騎士としてフランス軍に仕え、 1747年にルイジアナにやって来て、ルイ15世から1763年までフランス領ルイジアナの総司令官に任命された。 ^[28]ルイジアナ州セント・バーナード教区のルイジアナ・クレオールの第一家系であるデ・レッジョ家の末裔であるフランチェスコ・マリアの孫娘エレーヌ・ジュディス・デ・レッジョは、有名な南軍の将軍P・GT・ボーリガードを産んだ。^[29]

植民地商人、ジェノヴァのフランシス・フェラーリは、1752年にロードアイランドの市民権を取得した。 ^[30]彼は1753年に亡くなり、遺言書にはジェノヴァ、3隻の船の所有権、ワインの積荷、そして妻のメアリーについて記されている。^[31]メアリーはその後、アメリカ最古のコーヒーハウスの一つ、ウォール街ウォーターストリートのマーチャント・コーヒーハウス・オブ・ニューヨークを所有した。彼女のマーチャント・コーヒーハウスは1772年にウォール街の反対側に移転したが、名前と顧客はそのまま維持された。^[32]

今日、アルベルティ・バーティス、タリアフェロ、フォンダ、レッジョなどの初期の家族の子孫はアメリカ全土に存在します。^[33]

この時期にはイタリアから新たな移民が少数流入した。農業やガラス、絹、ワイン製造の技術を持ち込んだ者もいれば、音楽家としての技術を持ち込んだ者もいた。^[34]

1773年から1785年にかけて、医師、哲学者、外交官、自由の推進者、作家であったフィリッポ・マッツェイは、トーマス・ジェファーソンの親友であり腹心であった。彼は「すべての人間は生まれながらにして平等に自由で独立している」というフレーズを含むパンフレットを出版した^{[35] 。ジェファーソンはこれを基本的にそのまま}独立宣言に取り入れた。

イタリア系アメリカ人はアメリカ独立戦争で兵士と将校の両方として従軍しました。フランチェスコ・ヴィーゴは、北西部の開拓地における独立戦争の主要な資金提供者の一人として、ジョージ・ロジャース・クラークの植民地軍を支援しました。後に、彼はインディアナ州のビンセンズ大学の共同創設者となりました。

アメリカ独立後、多くの政治亡命者が到着したが、最も有名なのはジュゼッペ・アヴェッツァーナ、アレッサンドロ・ガヴァッツィ、シルヴィオ・ペリコ、フェデリコ・コンファロニエリ、エレウテリオ・フェリーチェ・フォレスティである。ジュゼッペ・ガリバルディは1850年から1851年までアメリカに住んでいた。カルロ・ベリーニはトーマス・ジェファーソンの招きで、1779年から1803年までウィリアム・アンド・メアリー大学で初代現代語学教授となった。 ^{[36] [37]}

1801年、フィリップ・トラジェッタ（フィリッポ・トラエッタ）はボストンに国内初の音楽院を設立し、1900年代前半にはオルガン奏者のチャールズ・ノルチーニや指揮者のルイス・オスティネッリもそこで活躍した。^[38] 1805年、トーマス・ジェファーソンはシチリア島から音楽家のグループを募集し、後に米国海兵隊バンドの中核となる軍楽隊を結成した。その音楽家の中には若きヴェネランド・プリッツィも含まれており、彼はバンド初のイタリア人指揮者となり、1816年から1827年までその職を務めた。^{[39]イタリア生まれで帰化したアメリカ市民である} フランチェスコ・マリア・スカーラは、1855年から1871年まで米国海兵隊バンドの最も重要で影響力のある指揮者の一人であり、現在もバンドが維持している楽器編成の考案者とされている。アメリカ海兵隊バンドの3人目のイタリア人リーダーであるジョセフ・ルッケージは、1844年から1846年までその職を務めた。 ^[40]国内初のオペラハウスは、モーツァルトの元台本作家でアメリカに移住し、 1825年に コロンビア大学で初のイタリア語教授となったロレンツォ・ダ・ポンテの尽力により、1833年にニューヨークにオープンした。

この時期、イタリアの探検家たちは西部で活動を続けた。1789年から1791年にかけて、アレッサンドロ・マラスピナはホーン岬からアラスカ湾まで、アメリカ大陸の西海岸の大部分の地図を作成した。1822年から1823年にかけて、ジャコモ・ベルトラミは後にミネソタ州となる地域でミシシッピ川の源流地域を探検し、州は彼にちなんで郡名をつけた。

ジョセフ・ロザーティは1824年にセントルイスの最初のカトリック司教に任命されました。1830年から1864年にかけて、宣教師でインディアン言語の専門家であったサミュエル・マッツチェリは、ウィスコンシン州とアイオワ州のヨーロッパ人入植者とネイティブアメリカンを34年間牧師として導き、死後カトリック教会から尊者とされました。イエズス会士のチャールズ・コンスタンティン・ピセ神父は1832年から1833年まで上院の牧師を務め、 ^{[41] [42]}この役職に選ばれた唯一のカトリック司祭でした。

1833年、元モーツァルトの台本作家でアメリカに帰化したロレンツォ・ダ・ポンテが、アメリカ初のオペラハウスであるイタリア・オペラハウスをニューヨークに設立した。これがニューヨーク音楽アカデミーとニューヨーク・メトロポリタン歌劇場の前身である。イエズス会とフランシスコ会の宣教師はアメリカ各地で活動していた。イタリアのイエズス会は西部に数多くの伝道所、学校、2つの大学を設立した。ジョヴァンニ・ノビリは1851年にサンタクララ・カレッジ（現在のサンタクララ大学）を設立した。聖イグナチオ・アカデミー（現在のサンフランシスコ大学）は1855年にアンソニー・マラスキによって設立された。イタリアのイエズス会は、後にカリフォルニアで繁栄することになるワイン醸造産業の基礎も築いた。東部では、イタリアのフランシスコ会が病院、孤児院、学校を設立し、 1858年にパンフィロ・ダ・マリアーノによって聖ボナベンチャー大学（現在の聖ボナベンチャー大学）も設立しました。

1837年、ジョン・フィニジー（フィニッツィ）がジョージア州オーガスタの市長になった。サウスカロライナ州のサミュエル・ワイルド・トロッティは、アメリカ合衆国議会で務めた最初のイタリア系アメリカ人となった（任期は1842年12月17日から1843年3月3日まで）。^[43] 1849年、フランチェスコ・デ・カザーレはニューヨークでイタリア系アメリカ人の新聞「L'Eco d'Italia」の発行を開始し、これが後に続く多くの新聞の先駆けとなった。1848年、ピアノ弦の発明者で製造者のフランシス・ラマチョッティがトスカーナからアメリカに移住した。

1863年以降、イタリア移民はアイルランド人とともに、ネブラスカ州オマハから西へ大陸横断鉄道を建設した非熟練労働者の主要グループの一つであった。^[44] 1866年、コンスタンティノ・ブルミディはワシントンの米国議会議事堂のドームのフレスコ画を完成させ、その後の人生を議事堂を美しく飾るための他の芸術作品の制作に費やした。最初のコロンブスデーの祝典は、1866年10月12日にニューヨーク市でイタリア系アメリカ人によって開催された。^[45]

ジョヴァンニ・マルティーノ、またはジョヴァンニ・マルティーニは、ジョン・マーティンとしても知られ、イタリアでジュゼッペ・ガリバルディと共に従軍し、アメリカ陸軍でも従軍した軍人およびトランペット奏者であり、ジョージ・アームストロング・カスター指揮下の第7騎兵連隊に所属し、リトルビッグホーンの戦いでカスター中隊の唯一の生存者として知られるようになった。

移民のアントニオ・メウチは、電話の構想をアメリカに持ち込んだ。彼は、1871年に米国特許庁に提出した特許警告書で、電話の原理を初めて実証した人物として多くの研究者に認められている。しかし、発明の優先権についてはかなりの論争があり、アレクサンダー・グラハム・ベルもこの栄誉を与えられた。（2002年、米国下院はメウチに関する決議（HR 269）を可決し、「電話の発明における彼の業績は認められるべきである」と宣言した。）^[46]

この時期、イタリア系アメリカ人は数多くの高等教育機関を設立した。 ラスベガス・カレッジ（現レジス大学）は、1877年に亡命したイタリア系イエズス会のグループによってニューメキシコ州ラスベガスに設立された。イエズス会のジュゼッペ・カタルドは、1887年にワシントン州スポケーンにゴンザガ・カレッジ（現ゴンザガ大学）を設立した。1886年、ユダヤ系イタリア移民のラビ・サバト・モライスは、ニューヨークのアメリカ・ユダヤ神学校の創設者の一人であり、初代学長となった。またこの時期、高等教育におけるイタリア系アメリカ人の存在感が高まった。ヴィンチェンツォ・ボッタは1856年から1894年までニューヨーク大学のイタリア語の名教授であり、 ^[47]ガエターノ・ランツァは1871年から40年以上にわたりマサチューセッツ工科大学の機械工学教授であった。 ^[48]

アンソニー・ギオは、1880年にテキサス州テクサーカナの市長になりました。フランシス・B・スピノラは、アメリカ合衆国下院議員に選出された最初のイタリア系アメリカ人で、1887年から1891年ま​​でニューヨーク州の代表を務めました。彼はまた、南北戦争中は北軍の将軍として従軍しました。戦後、スピノラは銀行家および保険代理店となり、ニューヨーク市周辺で急速に成長していたイタリア系移民コミュニティの中で影響力のある人物になりました。彼は、 1877年、1881年、1883年に再び州議会議員（ニューヨーク郡、第16民主党）を務めました。

南北戦争では5,000人から10,000人のイタリア系アメリカ人が戦った。^[49]人口統計学的およびイデオロギー的な理由から、イタリア系アメリカ人の大多数は北軍に従軍した（エドワード・フェレーロ将軍やフランシス・B・スピノラ将軍を含む）。千人遠征後にジュゼッペ・ガリバルディに敗れ解散した両シチリア軍出身のイタリア系アメリカ人の中には、ウィリアム・B・タリアフェロ将軍（イギリス系アメリカ人およびアングロ・イタリア系アメリカ人の子孫）やPGTボーリガードなど、南軍で戦った者もいる。^[29]戦争中に6人のイタリア系アメリカ人が名誉勲章を受章したが、その中には後にニューヨークの メトロポリタン美術館の初代館長（1879-1904）となったルイジ・パルマ・ディ・チェスノラ大佐もいた。

ガリバルディ衛兵団は、イタリアやその他のヨーロッパ諸国から北軍の志願兵を募集し、第39ニューヨーク歩兵連隊を結成した。^[50]南北戦争勃発時、ジュゼッペ・ガリバルディは非常に人気のある人物であった。350人のイタリア人からなる第39ニューヨーク志願歩兵連隊は、彼に敬意を表してガリバルディ衛兵団というあだ名が付けられた。部隊は赤いシャツとベルサリエリの羽飾りを着用した。彼らはユニオン・フラッグと、神と民を意味する「ディオ・エ・ポポロ」という言葉が書かれたイタリア国旗の両方を掲げていた。 ^[51] 1861年、ガリバルディ自身がエイブラハム・リンカーン大統領に志願した。 1861年7月17日、ウィリアム・H・スワード国務長官からブリュッセル駐在の米国公使H・S・サンフォード宛ての手紙を通じて、ガリバルディは米国陸軍の少将に任命された。^[52]

1880年から1914年にかけて、1300万人のイタリア人がイタリアから移住し、^[53]イタリアは世界史上最大の自発的移住の舞台となった。^[54]この大量移住の時期に、400万人のイタリア人が米国に到着し、そのうち300万人は1900年から1914年の間に到着した。^[55]彼らのほとんどは南イタリア、すなわちアブルッツォ、カンパニア、プーリア、バジリカータ、カラブリアの各地方とシチリア島から来た。^[56] ほとんどの人は数年間滞在し、その後稼いだお金を持って帰国する計画を立てていた。歴史家トーマス・J・アーチディーコンによると、1899年から1924年の間に米国に入国したイタリア人の46%が永久に帰国した。^[57]

工業技術を持たない移民は低賃金の肉体労働の仕事に就いた。移民の多くは自分で仕事を探す代わりに、イタリア人の仲買人（パドローニ）が男性グループのために仕事を探し、手数料を支払って彼らの賃金、交通手段、生活条件を管理するパドローネ制度を利用した。 ^{[58] [59]}

歴史家アルフレッド・T・バンフィールドによれば：

多くの人から、困惑した貧しい農民を食い物にする奴隷商人として批判された「パドローニ」は、給料から手数料を払い戻される旅行代理店、小屋や貨車を貸し出す地主、イタリア人労働者の顧客に法外な融資を行う店主として働くことが多かった。このような虐待にもかかわらず、「パドローニ」全員が卑劣なわけではなく、ほとんどのイタリア人移民は経済的救済を求めて「パドローニ」に頼り、彼らを天の恵み、あるいは必要悪とみなした。「パドローニ」がメイン州に連れてきたイタリア人は、一般的にそこに定住するつもりはなく、ほとんどがイタリアに戻るか、どこか別の場所で別の仕事に就く滞在者だった。それにもかかわらず、何千人ものイタリア人がメイン州に定住し、ポートランド、ミリノケット、ラムフォードなどの町に「リトル・イタリア」を形成し、「パドローニ」は新しいコミュニティの強力な形成力として残りました。^[60]

移民のプッシュ・プル・モデルに関して言えば、^[61]アメリカは、未熟練で教育を受けていないイタリアの農民でもできる仕事の見通しというプル要因を提供した。例えば、メッツォジョルノでの重労働に慣れた農民は鉄道建設や建物の建設の仕事に就き、他の農民は技能をほとんどまたはまったく必要としない工場の仕事に就いた。^[62]

移住を後押しした主な要因は、南イタリアの厳しい経済状況であった。大規模な移住につながった主な要因には、政治的・社会的不安、封建時代に遡る時代遅れのラティファンド制度をモデルにした南部の脆弱な農業経済、高い税負担、土壌の消耗と浸食、7年間に及ぶ徴兵制などがあった。^[14] 19世紀の貧しい経済状況は、多くの小作農、小作人、中小企業や土地所有者にとって耐え難いものとなった。多くの人々が、深刻化する貧困の見通しに直面するよりも、移住を選んだ。その多くが米国に惹かれたが、米国は当時、南北戦争後の数年間に存在した労働力不足を補うためにイタリアやその他の国から労働者を積極的に募集していた。多くの場合、父親と年長の息子が先に出発し、母親と残りの家族は、男性メンバーが渡航費を賄えるまで後に残った。

最も強力な「引き寄せ」要因はお金だった。^[63] 移民たちは数年間の労働で大金を稼ぎ、特に農場を購入することで帰国後にはるかに良い暮らしができると期待していた。現実の生活は決してそれほど素晴らしいものではなかった。イタリア人の収入は平均よりはるかに低かった。1909年の製造業と鉱業における週給は9.61ドルだったが、ドイツ人移民は13.63ドル、ポーランド人は11.06ドルだった。^[64]その結果、アメリカ文化のほとんどから疎外感を抱き、英語を学んだり同化したりすることに無関心になった。^[65] 女性の移民は多くなかったが、来た人たちは伝統的なイタリアの宗教的慣習に傾倒した。^[66] 1914年から1918年にかけて世界大戦が勃発すると、ヨーロッパからの移民は帰国できなくなった。賃金は急騰し、イタリア人は大きな利益を得た。大半の移民は永住することを決意し、1920年代には繁栄した。^[67]

多くは、北東部の大都市の古い地区、いわゆる「リトル イタリア」と呼ばれる地区に住居を求めました。その地区は、薄暗く、暖房や換気も不十分な、過密で低水準の集合住宅であることが多くありました。経済的な事情でこうした住居に住まざるを得なかった移民家族にとって、結核やその他の伝染病は絶え間ない健康上の脅威でした。他の移民家族は、北東部の大都市の飛び地以外の地域や国内の他の地域でより一般的であった一戸建て住宅に住んでいました。

1905年（帰国移民統計が始まった年）から1920年の間にアメリカ大陸に移住したイタリア人のうち、推定49パーセントはアメリカに留まらなかった。^[68]これらのいわゆる「渡り鳥」は、限られた期間だけアメリカに留まり、その後、十分な貯蓄を持ってイタリアに戻り、そこで再出発するつもりだった。多くがイタリアに戻ったが、留まることを選んだ者もいれば、1914年に第一次世界大戦が勃発したために帰国を阻まれた者もいた。^[69]

リトルイタリーのイタリア人男性移民は、ほとんどが肉体労働に従事し、道路、鉄道線路、下水道、地下鉄、橋、北東部の都市の最初の高層ビルの建設などの公共事業に深く関わっていた。1890年には、ニューヨーク市の公共事業従業員の約90％、シカゴの公共事業従業員の99％がイタリア人だったと推定されている。^[70]女性は、衣料品産業や自宅で裁縫師として働くことが最も多かった。多くがリトルイタリーで小規模なビジネスを立ち上げ、仲間の移民の日々のニーズを満たした。

1895 年のニューヨーク タイムズの記事は、世紀の変わり目のイタリア移民の状況を垣間見せてくれます。記事には次のように書かれています。

アメリカ国内にいる50万人のイタリア人のうち、約10万人が市内に住んでおり、ブルックリン、ジャージーシティ、その他の郊外に住む人々を含めると、近隣に住むイタリア人の総数は約16万人と推定されています。彼らは私たちのやり方を学んだ後、善良で勤勉な市民になります。^[71]

1896 年 5 月、ニューヨーク タイムズはリトル イタリー/マルベリー地区の特徴を記述するために記者を派遣しました

彼らは労働者であり、あらゆるレベルの肉体労働に従事する人々であり、職人であり、廃品回収業者であり、また、ぼろ拾いの人々もここに住んでいます。...ラテン系の商業または商店街とでも呼べるイタリア人の巨大なコロニーがあります。あらゆる種類の店、ペンション、食料品店、果物店、仕立て屋、靴屋、ワイン商、輸入業者、楽器製造業者がここにあります。...公証人、弁護士、医師、薬剤師、葬儀屋がいます。...イタリア人の間では、ドイツ人を除く他のどの外国人よりも銀行家が多いです。^[72]

1890年から1900年にかけてアメリカに流入した大量のイタリア移民は労働市場に変化をもたらし、マイケル・J・ヘンリー神父は1900年10月にアイルランドのスライゴのジョン・J・クレンシー司教に次のような警告の手紙を書いた。^[73]

[未熟なアイルランドの若者は]つるはしやシャベルでイタリア人やポーランド人など他の国籍の人たちと競争して、かろうじて生き延びなければならないだろう。イタリア人はより経済的で、質素な食事でも生活でき、その結果、普通のアイルランド人よりも低い賃金で働く余裕がある。

ブルックリン・イーグル紙は1900年の記事で同じ現実を取り上げている。^[73]

アイルランド人の荷運びの時代はとうに過ぎ去った...しかし、今やその仕事をしているのはイタリア人だ。その後イタリア人の大工がやって来て、最後に石工とレンガ職人が来た。

移民の経済的苦境にもかかわらず、北東部の大都市のイタリア系アメリカ人居住地区では、市民生活と社会生活が栄えていた。イタリアの劇場、バンドコンサート、合唱リサイタル、人形劇、相互扶助協会、社交クラブなどが移民のために開かれていた。^[74]重要な行事である「フェスタ」は、多くの人にとって、イタリアの先祖の村の伝統との重要なつながりとなった。フェスタは、守護聖人または聖母マリアに敬意を表して通りを練り歩くもので、大きな像を男たちが担ぎ、その後ろを音楽家が行進する。食事、花火、そして一般的なお祭りが続き、フェスタは移民に団結と共通のアイデンティティの感覚を与える重要な行事となった。

イタリア系移民の多くが向かった先は、東海岸の大都市だけではなく、フロリダやカリフォルニアなど、より辺鄙な地域もあった。彼らは、当時行われていた農業、漁業、鉱業、鉄道建設、製材業などの機会に惹かれてそこに移住した。移民たちは、渡航費の支払いと引き換えに、これらの地域で働く契約を結ぶことが多かった。特に南部では、移民たちが経済的搾取や敵意、時には暴力に遭うことも珍しくなかった。^[75]これらの地域に渡ったイタリア人労働者には、多くの場合、後に妻や子どもも加わり、その結果、国内のさまざまな場所にイタリア系アメリカ人の恒久的な居住地が築かれた。ペンシルベニア州ロゼート^[76] 、アーカンソー州トンティタウン^[77]、ノースカロライナ州バルデセ^[78]など、多くの町がこの時代にイタリア系移民によって設立された。

イタリア系アメリカ人は、数多くの大手ビジネスベンチャーを設立した。アマデオ・ジャンニーニは、サンフランシスコのイタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティにサービスを提供するために支店銀行の概念を考案した。彼は、後にバンク・オブ・アメリカとなるバンク・オブ・イタリーを設立した。彼の銀行はまた、当時西海岸で発展しつつあった映画産業に資金を提供し、その中には米国初の長編アニメ映画であるウォルト・ディズニーの白雪姫の映画も含まれていた。ギラデリ・チョコレート・カンパニー、プログレッソ、プランターズ・ピーナッツ、コンタディーナ、シェフ・ボヤルディ、イタリアン・スイス・コロニー・ワイン、ジャグジーなど、イタリア系アメリカ人が設立した他の企業は 、やがて全国的に知られるブランド名となった。イタリア移民のイタロ・マルキオーニは、1898年に最も初期のアイスクリームコーンを発明したとされている。別のイタリア移民、ジュゼッペ・ベランカは、1912年に先進的な航空機の設計図を持ち込み、生産を開始した。チェーザレ・サベッリとジョージ・ポンドが操縦したベランカの飛行機は、1934年に初の大西洋無着陸横断飛行の一つを成し遂げた。^[79]グルッチ、ザンベッリ、ヴィターレを含むいくつかの家族が花火大会の専門知識を持ち込み、この分野における彼らの卓越性は今日まで続いている。

コンスタンティーノ・ブルミディの足跡をたどり、他の人々もワシントンの印象的な記念碑の制作を手伝うよう依頼された。イタリア移民のアッティリオ・ピッキリリとその5人の兄弟はリンカーン記念館の彫刻を手掛け、1911年に着工し1922年に完成した。イタリアの建設労働者はワシントンのユニオン駅の建設にも協力した。ユニオン駅は国内で最も美しい駅の1つとされ、1905年に着工し1908年に完成した。駅の正面を飾る6体の彫像は、アンドリュー・ベルナスコーニが1909年から1911年にかけて彫刻した。2人のイタリア系アメリカ人の石彫の名手、ロジャー・モリギとヴィンセント・パルンボは、ワシントン国立大聖堂を飾る彫刻作品を数十年かけて制作した。^[80]

イタリア人指揮者たちは、ニューヨークのメトロポリタン歌劇場（1880年創設）の初期の成功に貢献したが、メトロポリタン歌劇場が国際的に知られるようになったのは、1908年に興行主ジュリオ・ガッティ＝カザッツァが指揮者アルトゥーロ・トスカニーニを連れて来たからである。多くのイタリア人オペラ歌手や指揮者がアメリカの観客の前で演奏するよう招かれ、最も有名なのはテノールのエンリコ・カルーソーである。1910年12月10日、指揮者のトスカニーニとテノールのカルーソー、作曲家のジャコモ・プッチーニが出席して行われたオペラ『西のファンチュラ』の初演は、国際的に大成功を収めただけでなく、イタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティ全体にとって歴史的な出来事でもあった。^[81]フランチェスコ・ファンチュリ（1853-1915）は、ジョン・フィリップ・スーザの後任としてアメリカ海兵隊バンドの指揮者に就任し、1892年から1897年までその職を務めた。^[82]

イタリア系アメリカ人は、エンターテイメントやスポーツに関わるようになりました。ルドルフ・ヴァレンチノは、最初の偉大な映画スターの 1 人です。ディキシーランドジャズ音楽には、イタリア系アメリカ人の重要な革新者が数多くいましたが、最も有名なのは、1917 年にクインテットで初のジャズ録音を行ったニューオーリンズのニック・ラロッカです。イタリア系アメリカ人初のプロ野球選手、ピン・ボディ(フランチェスコ・ピッツォーリ) は、1912 年にシカゴ ホワイトソックスでプレーを始めました。ラルフ・デパルマは、 1915 年にインディアナポリス 500で優勝しました。

イタリア系アメリカ人は政治、政府、労働運動にますます関与するようになった。アンドリュー・ロンジーノは1900年にミシシッピ州知事に選出された。チャールズ・ボナパルトはセオドア・ルーズベルト政権で海軍長官、後に司法長官を務め、連邦捜査局を設立した。^[83]

ジョー・ペトロジーノはニューヨーク市警察（NYPD）の警官で、組織犯罪との戦いの先駆者でした。ペトロジーノが開拓した犯罪撲滅の手法は、今でも法執行機関で実践されています。サルバトーレ・A・コティーヨは、ニューヨーク州議会の両院で議員を務めた最初のイタリア系アメリカ人であり、ニューヨーク州最高裁判所の判事を務めた最初の人物でもあります。

フィオレロ・ラガーディアは1916年にニューヨークから連邦議会議員に選出された。彼は共和党員として1934年から1946年までニューヨーク市長に選出された。1993年にイリノイ大学シカゴ校のメルビン・G・ホリが歴史家、政治学者、都市専門家を対象に実施した調査では、ラガーディアは1820年から1993年の間に務めたアメリカの大都市の市長の中で最も優れた人物と評価された。^[84]

多くのイタリア系アメリカ人が鉱業、繊維、衣料産業などの産業における労働者の権利のために闘う最前線にいたが、その中でも最も著名なのはアルトゥーロ・ジョヴァンニッティ、カルロ・トレスカ、ジョセフ・エトールである。^{[85] [86]}

イタリアで学んだアメリカ人教師サラ・ウール・ムーアは、詐欺師が移民を下宿屋や雇用契約に誘い込み、経営者が賄賂を受け取ることに非常に懸念を抱き、イタリア移民保護協会（イタリア移民協会とも呼ばれる）の設立を強く主張した。協会は認可された住居と雇用主のリストを発行した。後に、この組織は労働キャンプ内に学校を設立し、成人移民が英語を学ぶのを助け始めた。^{[87] [88]}ウールと協会は、ペンシルベニア州とニューヨーク州のさまざまなダムや採石場のプロジェクトでイタリア人労働者を雇用する労働キャンプ内に学校を設立し始めた。学校は労働者が日常業務で必要とするフレーズを教えることに重点を置いた。^[89]協会は移民の支援に成功したため、1907年にイタリア外務省移民局長から表彰を受けた。^[90]

アメリカは1917年に第一次世界大戦に参戦した。イタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティは戦争遂行を心から支持し、アメリカ生まれとイタリア生まれの若者の両方がアメリカ軍に多数入隊した。^[91]戦争の2年間（1917年から1918年）の間、イタリア系アメリカ人軍人はアメリカ軍全体の約12％を占めたと推定されており、これは全体に占める割合が不釣り合いに高かった。^[92]イタリア生まれのアメリカ人歩兵、マイケル・ヴァレンテはその功績により名誉勲章を授与された。他の103人のイタリア系アメリカ人（83人はイタリア生まれ）は、2番目に高い勲章である殊勲十字章を授与された。 ^[93]イタリア系アメリカ人はまた、米国人口の4％未満を占めるに過ぎないにもかかわらず、第一次世界大戦の戦争犠牲者の10％以上を占めた。^[94]

戦争は、1921年の緊急移民割当法および1924年の移民法とともに、イタリアからの移民を著しく制限した。1921年には年間移民総数は35万7000人に制限され、1924年には15万人に引き下げられ、割当は国籍の既存の人口割合に比例して国ごとに割り当てられた。米国の既存の人口構成を維持し、概して北西ヨーロッパからの移民を優先することを目指した国籍方式では、1920年の米国人口の5番目に大きな国籍がイタリア人であると計算され、年間移民割当枠の3.87%が割り当てられていた。^{[95] [96]}割当が実施されたにもかかわらず、イタリア移民の流入は全移民の6～7%の間で留まった。^{[97] [98] [99]そして、} 1965年の移民国籍法により制限的な割り当て制度が廃止されたとき、イタリア人はすでにアメリカで2番目に大きな移民グループに成長しており、1820年から1966年の間に5,067,717人のイタリアからの移民が認められ、米国の全移民の12％を占め、イギリス（4,711,711人）やアイルランド（4,706,854人）よりも多かった。 ^[11]

戦間期には、警察官、消防士、公務員などの職に就けるイタリア系アメリカ人が増え、配管工、電気技師、機械工、大工などの職に就く人もいた。女性は公務員、秘書、洋裁師、事務員などの職に就いた。より給料の良い仕事を求めて、彼女たちはイタリア人居住区外の裕福な地区に移った。大恐慌（1929～1939年）はイタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティに大きな影響を与え、一時的にそれまでの利益の一部を覆した。多くの失業者男性と一部の女性は、公共事業促進局や民間保全隊など、フランクリン・ルーズベルト大統領のニューディール政策の雇用プログラムで職を見つけた。

1920 年までに、多くのリトル イタリアは安定し、労働者が高給の仕事、特に熟練した職業に就くことができるようになったため、かなり繁栄しました。1920 年代と 1930 年代には、イタリア系アメリカ人はアメリカの生活や文化、政治、音楽、映画、芸術、スポーツ、労働運動、ビジネスに大きく貢献しました。

政界では、アル・スミス（イタリアの姓フェラーロの英語化形）がイタリア系として初のニューヨーク州知事となったが、メディアは彼をアイルランド人として報道した。彼は1928年に民主党の大統領候補として主要政党の大統領候補に指名された初のカトリック教徒であった。彼は南部のプロテスタントの拠点を失ったが、北部全体の移民の中心地で民主党の票を活性化させた。アンジェロ・ロッシは1931年から1944年までサンフランシスコ市長を務めた。1933年から1934年にかけて、フェルディナンド・ペコラは1929年のウォール街大暴落に関する上院の調査を主導し、大規模な金融不正を暴露し、議会に銀行業界を抑制するよう促した。^[100]自由党の指導者フィオレロ・ラガーディアは1934年から1945年まで共和党とフュージョンのニューヨーク市長を務めた。最左派のヴィト・マルカントニオは1934年にニューヨークから初めて連邦議会議員に選出された。^[101] ロバート・マエストリは1936年から1946年までニューオーリンズの市長を務めた。^[102]

メトロポリタン歌劇場は、 1935年まで在任したジュリオ・ガッティ＝カザッツァの指揮の下で繁栄を続けた。イタリア移民の娘であるローザ・ポンセレとドゥソリーナ・ジャンニーニは、メトロポリタン歌劇場で定期的に演奏し、国際的に知られるようになった。アルトゥーロ・トスカニーニは、ニューヨーク・フィルハーモニック管弦楽団（1926年 - 1936年）の首席指揮者として米国に戻り、 NBC交響楽団のラジオ放送（1937年 - 1954年）を通じて多くの米国人にクラシック音楽を紹介した。イタリア移民の両親のもとに生まれた神童ルッジェーロ・リッチは、1928年に10歳で初めて公の場で演奏し、コンサート・ヴァイオリニストとして長く国際的なキャリアを築いた。

当時の人気歌手には、フランク・シナトラやその後の歌手に影響を与えた新しい歌唱スタイルを確立したラス・コロンボなどがいた。ブロードウェイでは、ハリー・ウォーレン（サルヴァトーレ・グァラーニャ）が『42丁目の歌』の音楽を書き、その作曲で3つのアカデミー賞を受賞した。後に映画やテレビで名声を博したジミー・デュランテなど、他のイタリア系アメリカ人ミュージシャンやパフォーマーは、ヴォードヴィルで活躍していた。ガイ・ロンバードは人気のダンスバンドを結成し、毎年大晦日にニューヨーク市のタイムズスクエアで演奏していた。

この時代の映画界には、アカデミー監督賞を3回受賞したフランク・キャプラや、アカデミー監督賞を2回受賞したフランク・ボーゼイジがいた。イタリア系アメリカ人の漫画家は、最も人気のあるアニメキャラクターのいくつかを担当した。ドナルドダックはアル・タリアフェロ、ウッディー・ウッドペッカーはウォルター・ランツ（ランザ）、キャスパーはジョセフ・オリオーロ、トムとジェリーはジョセフ・バルベーラの共同制作者である。白雪姫の声は、21歳のソプラノ歌手、 アドリアナ・カセロッティが担当した。

パブリックアートでは、ルイージ・デル・ビアンコが1933年から1940年までラシュモア山の主任石彫刻家を務めた。^[103] 移民の建設労働者であったサイモン・ロディアは、1921年から1954年までの33年をかけて ワッツタワーを建設した。

スポーツでは、ジーン・サラゼン（エウジェニオ・サラチェーニ）が1922 年にプロゴルフ協会と全米オープンの両方で優勝しました。ピート・デパオロは1925 年にインディアナポリス 500 で優勝しました。トニー・ラゼリとフランク・クロセッティは1926 年にニューヨーク ヤンキースでプレーを始めました。トニー・カンゾネリは1930 年にライト級ボクシング チャンピオンシップで優勝し、ロッキー・マルチャーノは歴史上唯一の無敗のヘビー級チャンピオンです。ルー・リトル（ルイジ・ピッコロ）は、 1930年にコロンビア大学のフットボールチームのコーチを始めました。野球史上最も有名な選手の一人となる運命にあったジョー・ディマジオは、1936年にニューヨーク・ヤンキースでプレーを始めました。ハンク・ルイセッティは、 1936年から1940年までスタンフォード大学で3度オールアメリカンバスケットボール選手でした。アメリカの長距離ランナーであるルイス・ザンペリーニは、 1936年のオリンピックに出場し、後にローラ・ヒレンブランドによって2010年に出版されたベストセラー本「Unbroken」と、2014年に同名の映画の題材になりました。

イタリア系アメリカ人のビジネスマンは、多くの都市の郊外の小さな土地で栽培された新鮮な果物や野菜の栽培と販売を専門としていました。^{[104] [105]}彼らは土地を耕して農産物を育て、それをトラックで近くの都市に運び、ファーマーズマーケットで消費者に直接販売することが多かった。カリフォルニアでは、ディジョルジオコーポレーションが設立され、米国で新鮮な農産物の全国的な供給業者に成長しました。カリフォルニアのイタリア系アメリカ人は、ブドウの栽培とワインの生産で主導的役割を果たしました。モンダヴィ、カルロ・ロッシ、ペトリ、セバスティアーニ、ガロなど、多くの有名なワインブランドがこれらの初期の企業から生まれました。イタリア系アメリカ人の企業は、イタリアのワイン、加工食品、繊維、大理石、製造品の主要輸入業者でした。[ 106 ]イタリア系アメリカ人は^この 時期、労働運動に大きく関わり続けました。^[107]

イタリアの組織犯罪は、19世紀後半にニューヨークでシチリアマフィアの分派として出現した。シチリアの元のマフィアから部分的に独立した別組織に進化し、最終的にはシチリア起源ではないアメリカやカナダで活動する他のイタリアのギャングや犯罪グループ（アメリカのカモッラなど）を包含または吸収した。^{[108] [109]}

アル・カポネは1920年代にアメリカで最も悪名高い組織犯罪のボスだった。彼は禁酒法時代にシカゴ・アウトフィットの共同創設者兼ボスとして悪名を馳せた。最も有名な単独の犯罪は1929年のバレンタインデーの虐殺で、警官に扮したカポネの部下がライバルのギャングのメンバー7人を虐殺した。犯罪ボスとしての彼の7年間の支配は、彼が33歳で連邦刑務所に収監されたことで終わった。一部のアメリカ民族は彼を英雄とみなし、自力で成功した人の典型、アメリカの理想の擁護者、家族思いの人、慈善家とみなした。彼の名声は、彼ら自身の禁酒法違反を正当化するのに役立った。^[110]

ベニート・ムッソリーニのイタリアのファシスト政権は、イタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティを中心にアメリカ国内で大衆の支持基盤を築こうとした。彼の支持者は、イタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティ内、カトリック教徒全体、そしてアメリカの指導者全体において、反対者をはるかに上回っていた。^{[111] [112]} )

ステファノ・ルコーニによれば、1920年代から1930年代にかけて「多数のイタリア系アメリカ人が米国市民となり、投票登録を行い、ファシズムを支持して議会や大統領にロビー活動を行い、ムッソリーニの外交政策の目標を支持するために投票した」という。^[113]

フレイザー・オッタネッリによれば、ローマは一連の非常に目立つ行動を通じてイタリアの評判を高めることにも努めた。その中には、シカゴで開催された世紀の進歩（1933-1934）万国博覧会への参加、イタロ・バルボの劇的な大西洋横断飛行、シカゴへの銅像の寄贈などが含まれていた。イタリア系アメリカ人の少数派は、熱烈にファシズムに反対していたため、これらの行動に強く反対した。彼らは、イタリアの米国内政への干渉を非難し、ムッソリーニに忠誠を誓った人々の米国市民権剥奪を求めるという、議会で失敗に終わった法案を推進した。第二次世界大戦後のイタリアの最初の駐米大使アルベルト・タルキアーニは、ファシスト政権を称える展示の撤去を要請したが、ほとんど効果はなかった。21世紀になっても、多くの記念碑が残っている。^[114]

枢軸国の一員として、ファシスト政権下のイタリアは、 日本が真珠湾を攻撃した4日後の1941年12月11日に米国に宣戦布告した。その結果、大統領令9066号が発令され、1万人以上のイタリア系アメリカ人の強制移住が命じられ、全米で60万人以上のイタリア系アメリカ人の移動が制限された。^[118]イタリア人が米国内でスパイ活動や破壊活動を行っているという証拠がないにもかかわらず、彼らは標的にされた。^{[119] [120] [121] [122]}

1930年代にはイタリア系アメリカ人の大多数がムッソリーニを賞賛していたが、ファシズムの思想をアメリカに持ち込もうとする意欲を示した者はほとんどいなかった。^[94] 1940年にイタリアがナチスドイツ側で参戦すると、「ほとんどのイタリア系アメリカ人はファシズムから距離を置いた」^{[123] 。}

1939年9月、アメリカに居住する反ファシスト派のイタリア人亡命者は、イタリアにおけるファシスト政権の終焉を目指して、マサチューセッツ州ノーサンプトンでマッツィーニ協会を設立した。ムッソリーニ政権から逃れた政治亡命者たちは、共産主義者や無政府主義者と同盟を結ぶか、あるいは彼らを排除するかで意見が分かれた。マッツィーニ協会は、1942年にウルグアイのモンテビデオで開かれた会議で、アメリカ大陸に居住する他の反ファシスト派のイタリア人亡命者らと合流した。同協会は、会員の一人であるカルロ・スフォルツァをポスト・ファシスト共和制イタリアの指導者に推したが、失敗に終わった。ムッソリーニ政権崩壊後、会員の大半がイタリアに帰国したため、マッツィーニ協会は解散した。 ^{[124] [125]}

戦争中、米軍に従軍したイタリア系の人は75万人から150万人と推定されており、これは全体の約10%に相当し、14人のイタリア系アメリカ人がその従軍で名誉勲章を受章した。^{[126] [127]} これらの中には、第二次世界大戦で最も多くの勲章を受けた有名な軍人の一人であるジョン・バジロン軍曹がおり、後にHBOのドラマシリーズ「ザ・パシフィック」で取り上げられた。陸軍レンジャーのヘンリー・ムッチ大佐は、1945年にフィリピンの日本軍捕虜収容所からバターン死の行進の生存者511人を救出するという、米国史上最も成功した救出作戦の一つを指揮した。空中では、ドン・ジェンティーレ大尉が25機のドイツ軍機を撃墜し、戦争を代表するエースの一人となった。映画監督、プロデューサー、脚本家のフランク・キャプラは、「Why We Fight」として知られる一連の戦時ドキュメンタリーを制作し、1945年に米国殊勲章、1962年に大英帝国勲章を受賞した。

ビアジオ（マックス）コルボは、米国戦略諜報局（OSS）のエージェントであり、第二次世界大戦中にシチリア島侵攻の計画を立て、地中海地域で敵陣の背後で作戦を組織した。彼はOSSのイタリア秘密情報部を率い、何百人ものエージェントを敵陣の背後に密輸し、イタリアのパルチザン戦士に物資を供給し、連合軍の野戦司令部とイタリアのファシスト政権崩壊後初の政府との連絡を維持することができた。コルボは戦時中の功績によりレジオンド・メリット勲章を授与された。 ^[128]エドワード・E・ボッチャ≤https://ghostarmy.org/roster/Edward-Eugene-Boccia/≥などの他のイタリア系アメリカ人もゴースト・アーミー≤https://ghostarmy.org/≥に所属した。本部特別部隊と第3133通信中隊特別部隊は、視覚芸術を学ぶ学生、建築家、デザイナー、その他のクリエイターで構成され、フランス、ルクセンブルク、ベルギー、ドイツ、イタリアで25回の戦場欺瞞作戦を実行し、議会名誉勲章を授与されました。

エンリコ・フェルミの研究は、原子爆弾の開発に極めて重要でした。1938年にイタリアから米国に移住したノーベル賞受賞者の原子物理学者であるフェルミは、シカゴ大学の研究チームを率いて世界初の持続的な核連鎖反応を達成し、原子爆弾の実現可能性を明確に実証しました。フェルミは後に、ロスアラモス研究所で最初の原子爆弾を開発したチームの主要メンバーになりました。その後、ロスアラモスでは、イタリア出身の同僚で、後にノーベル物理学賞を受賞することになるエミリオ・セグレがフェルミに加わりました。

第二次世界大戦中のアメリカの駆逐艦3隻はイタリア系アメリカ人にちなんで命名された。USS バジローネ  （DD-824  ）はジョン・バジローネ軍曹にちなんで命名された。USS ダマート（DD-871）は第二次世界大戦中の勇敢な行動により死後に名誉勲章を授与されたアンソニー・P・ダマート伍長にちなん で命名された。USSゲラルディ （DD-637）は米墨戦争と南北戦争に従軍したバンクロフト・ゲラルディ少将にちなんで命名された。

第二次世界大戦により、 1930年代を特徴づけた大量失業と救済プログラムが終結し、多数のイタリア系アメリカ人に新たな雇用機会が開かれ、彼らは国の戦争努力に大きく貢献した。イタリア系アメリカ人の人口の多くは、新しい軍需品工場がある都市部に集中していた。多くのイタリア系アメリカ人女性が戦争関連の職に就いた。その1人であるローズ・ボナヴィータは、航空機リベッターとしての功績を称える手紙をルーズベルト大統領から受け取った。彼女は他の多くの女性労働者とともに、「リベッターのロージー」という名前のもととなり、それが軍需産業で働く何百万人ものアメリカ人女性労働者の象徴となった。^[129] エットーレ・ボイアルディが設立したシェフ・ボヤルディー社は、第二次世界大戦中、米国および同盟軍に食糧を供給した最大の企業の1つだった。戦争努力への貢献により、ボイアルディは米国陸軍省から優秀金星勲章を授与された。

第二次世界大戦の勃発以来、特に真珠湾攻撃の後、イタリア系アメリカ人はますます疑惑の目を向けられるようになった。ロサンゼルス・カリフォルニア女性クラブ協議会などの団体は、デウィット将軍に敵性外国人を全員直ちに強制収容所に収容するよう請願し、ロサンゼルスの青年民主クラブはさらに一歩進んで、アメリカ生まれのイタリア人とドイツ人（米国市民）を太平洋岸から排除するよう要求した。^[130]これらの要求と議会からの相当な政治的圧力の結果、フランクリン・D・ルーズベルト大統領は大統領令第9066号を発令し、司法省は帰化していないイタリア系アメリカ人を外国人治安法に基づき「敵性外国人」に分類した。数千人のイタリア人が逮捕され、数百人のイタリア人が軍の収容所に収容され、中には最長2年間収容された者もいた。^[131]その他60万人もの人々が「居住外国人」であることを示す身分証明書の携帯を義務付けられた。西海岸ではさらに数千人が内陸部への移住を余儀なくされ、その過程で家や仕事を失う人も多かった。イタリア語の新聞社も数多く廃刊に追い込まれた。^{[132] ローレンス・ディ・}シュタージの『Una Storia Segreta』とスティーブン・フォックスの『Uncivil Liberties』という2冊の本、そして『Prisoners Among Us』という映画が、第二次世界大戦でのこうした展開を記録している。

2000年11月7日、ビル・クリントンは戦時中のイタリア系アメリカ人の市民的自由の侵害に関する法律に署名した。^{[130] [133]この法律は、第二次世界大戦中のイタリア系アメリカ人の扱いについて、米国}司法長官による包括的な調査を命じた。調査結果は次のように結論づけられた。

1. 第二次世界大戦中、米国に移住した60万人以上のイタリア生まれの移民とその家族の自由は、彼らを「敵性外国人」とみなし、身分証明書の携帯、渡航制限、個人財産の押収などを含む政府の措置によって制限された。
2. 第二次世界大戦中、西海岸に住む1万人以上のイタリア系アメリカ人が自宅から強制的に追い出され、沿岸地域への立ち入りを禁止された。5万人以上が夜間外出禁止令の対象となった。
3. 第二次世界大戦中、何千人ものイタリア系アメリカ人移民が逮捕され、何百人もが軍事キャンプに収容されました。
4. 数十万人のイタリア系アメリカ人が模範的な奉仕を行い、数千人が米国を守るために命を犠牲にしました。
5. 当時、イタリア人は米国で最大の外国生まれのグループであり、現在では約 1,500 万人に上る米国で 5 番目に大きな移民グループとなっています。
6. 戦時中の経験は米国のイタリア系アメリカ人コミュニティに壊滅的な打撃を与え、その影響は今も感じられています。
7. 戦争中、意図的な政策により、これらの措置は一般公開されませんでした。50年経った今でも、多くの情報は機密扱いであり、全容は一般には知られておらず、米国政府も公式に認めたことがありません。

2010年、カリフォルニア州は公民権を侵害されたイタリア系アメリカ人に対して公式に謝罪した。^[134]

イタリア人はアメリカへの移民を続け、戦後数十年で推定60万人が到着した。新たに到着した人々の多くは専門的な訓練を受けていたか、さまざまな職業に熟練していた。第二次世界大戦の終結後、少数のイストリア系イタリア人とダルマチア系イタリア人もイストリア・ダルマチア人脱出の際にアメリカに移住した。彼らは1947年のイタリアとの平和条約後にイタリアに奪われユーゴスラビアに併合された祖国を後にした。^[136]アメリカに移住した著名なイストリア・ダルマチア人亡命者にはマリオ・アンドレッティとリディア・バスティアニッチがいる。^{[137] [138]}

戦後はイタリア系アメリカ人にとって大きな社会的変化の時代だった。多くの人が大学教育を志したが、復員軍人は復員兵援護法によってそれが可能になった。60年代以降、多くの人々がイタリアを離れ、主に北米、南米、ヨーロッパへと移った。ヨーロッパからの移住は季節的なものと恒久的なものだった。^[139]仕事の機会が増え、教育水準も向上したため、イタリア系アメリカ人は大量にアメリカの主流社会に参入した。イタリア人居住区を放棄した多くの人は、他の都市部や郊外に住むことを選んだ。多くの人が自分の民族グループ以外の人と結婚し、最も多かったのは他の民族のカトリック教徒だったが、多様な宗教的、民族的背景を持つ人とも結婚するケースが増えた。^{[140] [141]}ニューヨーク州立大学アルバニー校社会人口統計分析センター所長のリチャード・D・アルバ博士によると、1920年以前に生まれたイタリア系アメリカ人の8%は混血だったが、1970年以降に生まれた70%は異人種間の結婚による子どもだった。 1985年、30歳未満のイタリア系アメリカ人のうち、男性の72%と女性の64%がイタリア系ではない人と結婚した。^[142]イタリア系アメリカ人の多くは有色人種の混血であり、最も有名なのはピッツバーグ・スティーラーズのランニングバック、フランコ・ハリスである。^[143]

イタリア系アメリカ人は、戦後数十年間に一般にすべての人に利用可能となった新しい機会を活用し、アメリカの生活と文化に多大な貢献を果たしました。

戦後数十年間に、数多くのイタリア系アメリカ人が地方、州、国家レベルで政治に関わるようになった。米国の上院議員になった人物としては、1950年にイタリア系アメリカ人として初めて上院議員に選出されたロードアイランド州のジョン・パストーレ、 1972年にニューメキシコ州から米国上院議員に選出され、6期務めたピート​​・ドメニチ、1974年にバーモント州から米国上院議員に選出され、それ以来継続的に務めているパトリック・リーヒ、1981年から1999年までニューヨーク州から米国上院議員を務めたアルフォンス・ダマートなどがいる。アンソニー・セレブレッゼは、1953年から1962年までクリーブランド市長を2年の任期で5期務め、1962年にジョン・F・ケネディ大統領から米国保健教育福祉長官（現在の保健福祉省）に任命された。ベンジャミン・シビレッティは、 1979年から1981年までのカーター政権の最後の1年半に米国司法長官を務めた。フランク・カールッチは、1987年から1989年までロナルド・レーガン大統領政権下で米国国防長官を務めた。

戦後、フランク・シナトラ、マリオ・ランツァ、ペリー・コモ、ディーン・マーティン、トニー・ベネット、フランキー・レイン、ボビー・ダーリン、ジュリアス・ラ・ローザ、コニー・フランシス、マドンナなど、多数のイタリア系アメリカ人が有名な歌手になった。戦後数十年間に人気のミュージカル/バラエティ番組の司会を務めたイタリア系アメリカ人には、ペリー・コモ (1949年 - 1967年)、ピアノの名手リベラーチェ( 1952年 - 1956年)、ジミー・デュランテ (1954年 - 1956年)、フランク・シナトラ (1957年 - 1958年)、ディーン・マーティン (1965年 - 1974年) がいる。ブロードウェイのミュージカルスターには、ローズ・マリー、キャロル・ローレンス、アンナ・マリア・アルベルゲッティ、セルジオ・フランキ、パティ・ルポーン、エツィオ・ピンツァ、ライザ・ミネリがいる。

作曲家としては、ヘンリー・マンシーニとビル・コンティが、その楽曲と映画音楽で数々のアカデミー賞を受賞しました。クラシック音楽とオペラの作曲家であるジョン・コリリアーノ、ノーマン・デッロ・ジョイオ、ダヴィッド・デル・トレディチ、ポール・クレストン、ドミニク・アルジェント、ジャン・カルロ・メノッティ、ドナルド・マルティーノは、ピューリッツァー賞とグラミー賞を受賞しました。

多くのイタリア系アメリカ人が俳優としても監督としても映画界で有名になり、アカデミー賞を受賞した人も数多くいます。映画監督には、フランク・キャプラ、フランシス・フォード・コッポラ、マイケル・チミノ、ヴィンセント・ミネリ、マーティン・スコセッシ、ブライアン・デ・パルマなどがいます。

イタリア系アメリカ人は、選手、コーチ、コミッショナーとしてプロスポーツで活躍しました。戦後数十年間の有名なプロ野球コーチには、ヨギ・ベラ、ビリー・マーティン、トニー・ラルーサ、トミー・ラソーダ、ジョー・トーリなどがいます。プロフットボールでは、ビンス・ロンバルディがすべてのコーチが従うべき卓越性の基準を設定しました。A・バートレット・ジアマッティは1986年にナショナル・ベースボール・リーグの会長に就任し、1989年には野球コミッショナーになりました。ポール・タグリアブーは1989年から2006年までナショナル・フットボール・リーグのコミッショナーでした。

大学フットボールでは、ジョー・パターノが史上最も成功したコーチの一人となった。ハイズマン賞を受賞したイタリア系アメリカ人選手は7人いる：ノートルダム大学のアンジェロ・ベルテッリ、ウィスコンシン大学のアラン・アメチー、カリフォルニア大学ロサンゼルス校のゲイリー・ベバン、海軍大学のジョー・ベリーノ、ペンシルベニア州立大学のジョン・カペレッティ、ジーノ・トレッタ、マイアミ大学のヴィニー・テスタバーデ。

大学バスケットボールでは、ジョン・カリパリ、ルー・カルネセッカ、ローリー・マッシミノ、リック・ピティーノ、ジム・ヴァルヴァーノ、ディック・ヴィターレ、トム・イッツォ、マイク・フラテロ、ベン・カルネヴァーレ、ジェノ・アウリエマなど、多くのイタリア系アメリカ人が戦後の数十年間に有名なコーチになりました。

イタリア系アメリカ人は、他の多様なスポーツでも全国的に知られるようになりました。ロッキー・マルチャーノは、 1952年から1956年まで無敗のヘビー級ボクシングチャンピオンでした。ケン・ベンチュリは、1956年に全英オープンと全米オープンの両ゴルフ選手権で優勝しました。ドナ・カポーニは、1969年と1970年に全米女子オープンゴルフ選手権で優勝しました。リンダ・フラッティアンネは、1975年から1978年まで4年連続で全米フィギュアスケート女子チャンピオンとなり、1976年と1978年には世界チャンピオンになりました。ウィリー・モスコニは、15回の世界ビリヤードチャンピオンでした。エディ・アルカロは、5回ケンタッキーダービーで優勝しました。マリオ・アンドレッティは、3回全米レーシングカーチャンピオンになりました。メアリー・ルー・レットンは、オリンピック女子体操で総合金メダルブライアン・ボイタノはオリンピックのフィギュアスケート男子シングルで金メダルを獲得しました。

イタリア系アメリカ人は、戦後の数十年間に、大小さまざまな多くの成功した企業を設立しました。その中には、バーンズ・アンド・ノーブル、トロピカーナ・プロダクツ、ザンボニ、トランスアメリカ、サブウェイ、ミスターコーヒー、コンエアー・コーポレーションなどがあります。イタリア系アメリカ人が設立したその他の企業には、フェアリー・ディキンソン大学、エターナル・ワード・テレビジョン・ネットワーク、バスケットボールのシラキュース・ナショナルズ（後にフィラデルフィア・セブンティシクサーズとなる）などがあります。 ロバート・パナラは、国立聴覚障害者技術研究所の共同設立者であり、国立聴覚障害者劇場の創設者です。米国における聴覚障害者文化研究の先駆者として認められ、2017年には記念米国切手で表彰されました。

戦後数十年間に8人のイタリア系アメリカ人がノーベル賞受賞者となった：マリオ・カペッキ、レナート・ダルベッコ、リッカルド・ジャッコーニ、サルヴァトーレ・ルリア、フランコ・モディリアーニ、リタ・レヴィ・モンタルチーニ、エミリオ・G・セグレ、キャロリン・ベルトッツィ。

Italian Americans continued to serve with distinction in the military, with four Medal of Honor recipients in the Korean War and eleven in the Vietnam War,^[144] including Vincent Capodanno, a Catholic chaplain.

At the close of the 20th century, 31 men and women of Italian descent were serving in the U.S. House and Senate and 82 of the 1,000 largest U.S. cities had mayors of Italian descent, and 166 college and university presidents were of Italian descent.^[145] Two Italian Americans, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito, were serving as U.S. Supreme Court justices. Over two dozen Italian Americans were serving in the Catholic Church as bishops. Four—Joseph Bernardin, Justin Rigali, Anthony Bevilacqua, and Daniel DiNardo—had been elevated to Cardinals. Italian Americans had served with distinction in all of America's wars, and over thirty had been awarded the Medal of Honor. A number of Italian Americans were serving as top-ranking generals in the military, including Anthony Zinni, Raymond Odierno, Carl Vuono, and Peter Pace, the latter three having also been appointed Chief of Staff of their respective services. Over two dozen of Italian descent had been elected as state governors including, most recently, Paul Cellucci of Massachusetts, John Baldacci of Maine, Janet Napolitano of Arizona, and Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island.

Italian Americans have influenced the American culture and society in a variety of ways, such as: foods,^[146][147] coffees and desserts; wine production (in California and elsewhere in the U.S.); popular music, starting in the 1940s and 1950s, and continuing into the present;^[148] operatic, classical and instrumental music;^[149] jazz;^[150] fashion and design;^[151] cinema, literature, Italianate architecture, in homes, churches, and public buildings; Montessori schools; Christmas crèches; fireworks displays;^[152] sports (e.g. bocce and beach tennis).

The historical figure of Christopher Columbus is commemorated on Columbus Day and is reflected in numerous monuments, city names, names of institutions, and the poetic name, "Columbia", for the United States itself. Italian American identification with the Genoese explorer whose fame lay in his grand voyages departing Europe across the Atlantic Ocean to make discoveries in the New World—playing an important role in American history and identity, but of negligible significance to the history of Italy—typifies Italian Americans' limited sense of nationalism and generally loose attachment to Italy itself as a foreign country, in contrast to e.g. the preoccupations of Irish Americans with the political situation in Ireland throughout the 20th century, or American Jews' deep personal investment in the fate of Israel.^[94]

In the 1930s, Italian Americans voted heavily Democratic.^[153] Carmine DeSapio in the late 1940s became the first to break the Irish Catholic hold on Tammany Hall since the 1870s. By 1951 more than twice as many Italian American legislators as in 1936 served in the six states with the most Italian Americans.^[154] Since 1968, voters have split about evenly between the Democratic (37%) and the Republican (36%) parties.^[155] The U.S. Congress includes Italian Americans who are leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties. In 2007, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) became the first woman and Italian American Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Former Republican New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was a candidate for the U.S. presidency in the 2008 election, as was Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo. Rick Santorum won many primaries in his candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. In the 2016 election, Santorum and New Jersey governor Chris Christie ran for the Republican nomination, as did Ted Cruz and George Pataki, who both have a smaller amount of Italian ancestry. Mike Pompeo, American politician, diplomat, businessman, and attorney, served as the 70th United States secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. Ron DeSantis, Governor of Florida since 2019, is of Italian ancestry.

Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman on a major party ticket, running for Vice President as a Democrat in 1984. Two justices of the Supreme Court have been Italian Americans, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito. Both were appointed by Republican presidents, Scalia by Ronald Reagan and Alito by George W. Bush.

The Italian American Congressional Delegation currently includes 30 members of Congress who are of Italian descent. They are joined by more than 150 associate members, who are not Italian American but have large Italian American constituencies. Since its founding in 1975, the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) has worked closely with the bicameral and bipartisan Italian American Congressional Delegation, which is led by co-chairs Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey and Rep. Pat Tiberi of Ohio.

The NIAF hosts a variety of public policy programs, contributing to public discourse on timely policy issues facing the nation and the world. These events are held on Capitol Hill and other locations under the auspices of NIAF's Frank J. Guarini Public Policy Forum and its sister program, the NIAF Public Policy Lecture Series. NIAF's 2009 public policy programs on Capitol Hill featured prominent Italians and Italian Americans as keynote speakers, including Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA, and Franco Frattini, Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Italy.

By the 1890s Italian Americans in New York City were mobilizing as a political force. They helped elect Fiorello La Guardia (a Republican) as mayor in 1933, and helped reelect him in 1937 and 1941. They rallied for Vincent R. Impellitteri (a Democrat) in 1950, and Rudolph W. Giuliani (a Republican) in 1989 (when he lost), and in 1993 and 1997 (when he won). All three Italian Americans aggressively fought to reduce crime in the city; each was known for his good relations with the city's powerful labor unions.^[156] La Guardia and Giuliani have had the reputation among specialists on urban politics as two of the best mayors in American history.^[157][158] Democrat Bill de Blasio, the third mayor of Italian ancestry, served as the 109th mayor of New York City for two terms, from 2014 to 2021. Mario Cuomo (Democratic) served as the 52nd Governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1995. His son Andrew Cuomo was the 56th Governor of New York and previously served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1997 to 2001 and as the Attorney General of New York from 2007 to 2010.

However, in contrast to other ethnic groups, Italian Americans demonstrate a marked lack of ethnocentrism and long history of political individualism, eschewing ethnic bloc voting, preferring to vote based on individual candidates and issues, embracing maverick political candidates over ethnic loyalties. Popular New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia in fact underperformed among his own demographic; in 1941, La Guardia even lost the Italian vote to his Irish opponent William O'Dwyer. In 1965, when New York Democrats backed Mario Procaccino, an Italian-born candidate for city comptroller, Procaccino lost the Italian vote and only won his election due to support in Jewish voter precincts. In the 1973 New York City mayoral election, the son of Italian immigrants Mario Biaggi failed to unite Italian voters as an ethnic bloc the way his Jewish opponent Abraham Beame could do to win the Democratic primary.^[94]

In the 1962 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, incumbent Italian American Governor John Volpe lost his re-election campaign by a razor-thin 0.2%—a final margin that could be more than sufficiently explained by Volpe polling only 51% among the state's significant population of Italian Americans, roughly half of whom voted for old-line Anglo-Saxon Protestant Endicott Peabody over a fellow ethnic.^[94]

The pragmatic maverick streak of Italian American voters, reacting to individual candidates and circumstances, emerged clearly amid the urban race riots of the 1960s. Black Republican Edward Brooke won more than 40% of the Italian vote running for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. And a majority of Italian voters living in mostly white rural Upstate New York backed black Democratic nominee Basil A. Paterson for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1970—but not Italian voters who lived in racially diverse metro New York City. In urban environments, race relations deteriorated severely over Italian American support for law and order policies against urban riots and crime. In the 1968 presidential election, independent George Wallace won 21% of the Italian vote in Newark, New Jersey, 29% of the Italian vote in Cleveland, Ohio, and more than 10% of the Italian American vote nationwide—compared to 8% among non-Southern Whites as a whole—presaging the rightward shift of Italian Americans away from the Democratic Party, first as Reagan Democrats, then ultimately realigning with the Republican Party.^[94]

Italian Americans have played a prominent role in the economy of the United States, and have founded companies of great national importance, such as Bank of America (by Amadeo Giannini in 1904), Qualcomm, Subway, Home Depot and Airbnb among many others. Italian Americans have also made important contributions to the growth of the U.S. economy through their business expertise. Italian Americans have served as CEO's of numerous major corporations, such as the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation by Lee Iacocca, IBM Corporation by Samuel Palmisano, Lucent Technologies by Patricia Russo, The New York Stock Exchange by Richard Grasso, Honeywell Incorporated by Michael Bonsignore and Intel by Paul Otellini. Economist Franco Modigliani was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics "for his pioneering analyses of saving and of financial markets."^[159] Economist Eugene Fama was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2013 for his contribution to the empirical analysis of portfolio theory, asset pricing, and the efficient-market hypothesis.

About two thirds of America's Italian immigrants arrived during 1900–1914. Many were of agrarian backgrounds, with little formal education and industrial skills, who became manual laborers heavily concentrated in the cities. Others came with traditional Italian skills as: tailors; barbers; bricklayers; stonemasons; stone cutters; marble, tile and terrazzo workers; fishermen; musicians; singers; shoe makers; shoe repairers; cooks; bakers; carpenters; grape growers; wine makers; silk makers; dressmakers; and seamstresses. Others came to provide for the needs of the immigrant communities, notably doctors, dentists, midwives, lawyers, teachers, morticians, priests, nuns, and brothers. Many of the skilled workers found work in their speciality, first in the Italian enclaves and eventually in the broader society. Traditional skills were often passed down from father to son, and from mother to daughter.

By the second-generation approximately 70% of the men had blue collar jobs, and the proportion was down to approximately 50% in the third generation, according to surveys in 1963.^[160] By 1987, the level of Italian-American income exceeded the national average, and since the 1950s it grew faster than any other ethnic group except the Jews.^[161] By 1990, according to the U.S. census, more than 65% of Italian Americans were employed as managerial, professional, or white-collar workers. In 1999, the median annual income of Italian-American families was $61,300, while the median annual income of all American families was $50,000.^[162]

A University of Chicago study^[163] of fifteen ethnic groups showed that Italian Americans were among those groups having the lowest percentages of divorce, unemployment, people on welfare and those incarcerated. On the other hand, they were among those groups with the highest percentages of two-parent families, elderly family members still living at home, and families who eat together on a regular basis.

Italian Americans have been responsible for major breakthroughs in virtually all fields of science, including engineering, medicine and physics. Physicist and Nobel-prize laureate Enrico Fermi was the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and among the leading scientist involved in the Manhattan Project during WW2. One of the main Fermi's collaborators, Franco Rasetti, was awarded the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal by the National Academy of Sciences for his contributions to Cambrian paleontology. Federico Faggin developed the first micro-chip and micro-processor. Robert Gallo led research that identified a cancer-causing virus. Anthony Fauci in 2008 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work on the AIDS relief program PEPFAR.^[164] Astrophysicist Riccardo Giacconi was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources. Virologist Renato Dulbecco won the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on oncoviruses. Pharmacologist Louis Ignarro was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide. Microbiologist Salvador Luria won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969 for his contribution to major discoveries on the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses. Physicist William Daniel Phillips in 1997 won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to laser cooling. Physicist Emilio Segrè discovered the elements technetium and astatine, and the antiproton, a subatomic antiparticle, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1959. Nine Italian Americans, including a woman, have gone into space as astronauts: Wally Schirra, Dominic Antonelli, Charles Camarda, Mike Massimino, Richard Mastracchio, Ronald Parise, Mario Runco, Albert Sacco and Nicole Marie Passonno Stott. Rocco Petrone was the third director of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, from 1973 to 1974.

Italian women who arrived during the period of mass immigration had to adapt to new and unfamiliar social and economic conditions. Mothers, who had the task of raising the children and providing for the welfare of the family, commonly demonstrated great courage and resourcefulness in meeting these obligations, often under adverse living conditions. Their cultural traditions, which placed the highest priority on the family, remained strong as Italian immigrant women adapted to these new circumstances.

To assist the immigrants in the Little Italies, who were overwhelmingly Catholic, Pope Leo XIII dispatched a contingent of priests, nuns and brothers of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo and other orders. Among these was Sister Francesca Cabrini, who founded dozens of schools, hospitals and orphanages. She was canonized as the first American saint in 1946.

Married women typically avoided factory work and chose home-based economic activities such as dressmaking, taking in boarders, and operating small shops in their homes or neighborhoods. Italian neighborhoods also proved attractive to midwives, women who trained in Italy before coming to America.^[165] Many single women were employed in the garment industry as seamstresses, often in unsafe working environments. Many of the 146 who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911 were Italian-American women. Angela Bambace was an 18-year-old Italian American organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in New York who worked to secure better working conditions and shorter hours for women workers in the garment industry.

The American scene in the 1920s featured a widespread expansion of women's roles, starting with the vote in 1920, and including new standards of education, employment and control of their own sexuality. "Flappers" raised the hemline and lowered the old restrictions in women's fashion. The Italian-American media disapproved. It demanded the holding of the line regarding traditional gender roles in which men controlled their families. Many traditional patriarchal values prevailed among Southern European male immigrants, although some practices like dowry were left behind in Europe. The community spokesmen were shocked at the notion of a woman marking her secret ballot. They ridiculed flappers and proclaimed that feminism was immoral. They idealized an old male model of Italian womanhood. Mussolini was popular with readers and subsidized some papers, so when he expanded the electorate to include some women voting at the local level, the Italian American editorialists applauded him, arguing that the true Italian woman was, above all, a mother and a wife and, therefore, would be reliable as a voter on local matters but only in Italy. Feminist organizations in Italy were ignored, as the editors purposely associated emancipation with Americanism and transformed the debate over women's rights into a defense of the Italian-American community to set its own boundaries and rules.^[166] The ethnic papers featured a woman's page that updated readers on the latest fabrics, color combinations, and accessories including hats, shoes, handbags, and jewelry. Food was a major concern, and recipes were presented which adjusted to the availability of ingredients in the American market. Food supplies were limited in Italy by poverty and strict import controls, but abundant in America, so new recipes were needed to take advantage.^[167]

In the second and third generations, opportunities expanded as women were gradually accepted in the workplace and as entrepreneurs. Women also had much better job opportunities because they had a high school or sometimes college education, and were willing to leave the Little Italies and commute to work.^[168] During World War II large numbers of Italian American women entered the workforce in factories providing war materiel, while others served as auxiliaries or nurses in the military services.

After World War II, Italian American women acquired an increasing degree of freedom in choosing a career, and seeking higher levels of education. Consequently, the second half of the 20th century was a period in which Italian American women excelled in virtually all fields of endeavor. In politics, Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman vice-presidential candidate, Ella Grasso was the first woman elected as a state governor and Nancy Pelosi was the first woman Speaker of the House. Mother Angelica (Rita Rizzo), a Franciscan nun, in 1980 founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), a network viewed regularly by millions of Catholics. JoAnn Falletta was the first woman to become a permanent conductor of a major symphony orchestra (with both the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra). Penny Marshall (Masciarelli) was one of the first women directors in Hollywood. Catherine DeAngelis, M.D. was the first woman editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Patricia Fili-Krushel was the first woman president of ABC Television. Bonnie Tiburzi was the first woman pilot in commercial aviation history. Patricia Russo was the first woman to become CEO of Lucent Technologies. Karen Ignagni has, since 1993, been the CEO of American Health Insurance Plans, an umbrella organization representing all major HMO's in the country. Nicole Marie Passonno Stott was one of the first women to go into space as an astronaut. Carolyn Porco, a world recognized expert in planetary probes, is the leader of the imaging science team for the Cassini probe, presently in orbit around Saturn.

The National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW), founded in 1980, is an organization for women of Italian heritage committed to preserving Italian heritage, language and culture by promoting and supporting the advancement of women of Italian ancestry.

The works of a number of early Italian American authors and poets, born of immigrant parents, were published in the first half of the 20th century. Pietro Di Donato, born in 1911, was a writer best known for his novel, Christ in Concrete, which was hailed by critics in the United States and abroad as a metaphor for the immigrant experience in America. Frances Winwar, born Francesca Vinciguerra in 1907 in Sicily, came to the United States at age ten. She is best known for her series of biographies of 19th-century English writers. She was also a frequent translator of classic Italian works into English, and published several romantic novels set during historical events. John Ciardi, born in 1916, was primarily a poet. Among his works is a highly respected English-language rendition of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. John Fante, born in 1909, was a novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.

Later in the century, a growing number of books by recognized Italian-American authors, such as Don DeLillo,^[169] Paul Gallico (Poseidon Adventure), Gilbert Sorrentino, Gay Talese, Camille Paglia and Mario Puzo (The Fortunate Pilgrim) found a place in mainstream American literature. Other notable 20th-century authors included: Dana Gioia, executive director of the National Endowment for the Arts; John Fusco, author of Paradise Salvage; Tina DeRosa; and Daniela Gioseffi, winner of the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry, and The American Book Award; and Josephine Gattuso Hendin (The Right Thing to Do). Poets Sandra (Mortola) Gilbert and Kim Addonizio were also winners of the John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry from Italian Americana, as was writer Helen Barolini and poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan.^[170] These women have authored many books depicting Italian American women in a new light. Helen Barolini's The Dream Book: An Anthology of Writings by Italian American Women (1985) was the first anthology that pulled together the historic range of writing from the late 19th century to the 1980s. It exhibited the wealth of fiction, poetry, essays, and letters, and paid special attention to the interaction of Italian American women with American social activism.^[171] Italian American poets Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso played a prominent role in the Beat Generation. Ferlinghetti was also the co-founder of City Lights Bookstore, a San Francisco bookstore and publishing company that published much of the work of other Beat Generation writers.^[172] Many of these authors' books and writings are easily found on the internet, as for example on an archive of Contemporary Italian American authors, as well as in bibliographies online at Stonybrook University's Italian American Studies Department in New York,^[173] or at the Italian American Writers Association website.^[174]

A scholarly literature has also emerged that critiques the literary output. Common themes include conflicts between marginal Italian American and mainstream culture, and tradition-bound immigrant parents opposed by their more assimilated children.^[175] Mary Jo Bona provided the first full-length scholarly analysis of the literary tradition. She is especially interested in showing how authors portrayed the many configurations of family relationships, from the early immigrant narratives of journeying to a new world, through novels that stress intergenerational conflicts, to contemporary works about the struggle of modern women to form nontraditional gender roles.^[176]

Among the scholars who have led the renaissance in Italian-American literature are professors Richard Gambino, Anthony Julian Tamburri, Paolo Giordano, and Fred Gardaphé. The latter three founded Bordighera Press and edited From the Margin, An Anthology of Italian American Writing, Purdue University Press. At Brooklyn College, Dr. Robert Viscusi founded the Italian American Writers Association, and is an author and American Book Award winner himself. As a result of the efforts of magazines like Voices in Italian Americana, Ambassador, a publication of the National Italian American Foundation and Italian Americana, edited by Carla Simonini, Italian Americans have been reading more works of their own writers. A supplemental website at www.italianamericana.com to the journal Italian Americana, edited by novelist Christine Palamidessi Moore, also offers historical articles, stories, memoirs, poetry, and book reviews. Dana Gioia, was Poetry Editor of Italian Americana from 1993 to 2003, followed by poet Michael Palma, who also selects poems for Italian Americana's webpage supplement.^[177] Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Daniela Gioseffi and Paul Mariani, are among the internationally known authors who have been awarded The John Ciardi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry during Michael Palma's tenure as Poetry Editor. Daniela Gioseffi, with Alfredo De Palchi, founded The Annual $2000 Bordighera Poetry Prize^[178] to further the names of Italian American poets in American literature. As of 1997, twelve books have been published in the bilingual series from Bordighera Press.^[179]

In the field of academic cinema studies, Peter Bondanella, Peter Brunette and Frank P. Tomasulo have made significant contributions to film scholarship as authors, editors, and educators.

Italian Americans have written not only about the Italian American experience but, indeed, the human experience. Some of the most popular inspirational books have been authored by Italian Americans – notably, those of Og Mandino, Leo Buscaglia and Antoinette Bosco.^[180] A series of inspirational books for children has been written by Tomie dePaola. Contemporary best-selling fiction writers include David Baldacci, Kate DiCamillo, Richard Russo, Adriana Trigiani, and Lisa Scottoline.

The majority of Italian Americans are Catholics, although Catholic affiliation among Italian American adults has fallen from 89% in 1972 to 56% in 2010 (-33 percentage points).^[181] By 1910, Italian-Americans had founded 219 Catholic churches and 41 parochial schools, served by 315 priests and 254 nuns, 2 Catholic seminaries and 3 orphanages.^[182] Four hundred Italian Jesuit priests left Italy for the American West between 1848 and 1919. Most of these Jesuits left their homeland involuntarily, expelled by Italian nationalists in the successive waves of Italian unification that dominated Italy. When they came to the West, they ministered to Indians in the Northwest, Irish-Americans in San Francisco and Mexican Americans in the South West; they also ran the nation's most influential Catholic seminary, in Woodstock, Md. In addition to their pastoral work, they founded numerous high schools and colleges, including Regis University, Santa Clara University, the University of San Francisco and Gonzaga University.^[183]

In some Sicilian American communities, primarily Buffalo and New Orleans, Saint Joseph's Day (March 19) is marked by parades and celebrations, including traditional "St. Joseph's tables", where meatless dishes are served for the benefit of the communities' poor. Columbus Day is also widely celebrated, as are the feasts of some regional Italian patron saints. In Boston's North End, the Italian immigrants celebrate the "Feast of all Feasts" Saint Anthony's Feast. Started by Italian immigrants from Montefalcione, a small town near Naples, Italy in 1919, the feast is widely considered the largest and most authentic Italian Religious festival in the United States. Over 100 vendors and 300,000 people attend the feast over a 3-day period in August. San Gennaro (September 19) is another popular saint, especially among Neapolitans. Santa Rosalia (September 4), is celebrated by immigrants from Sicily. Immigrants from Potenza celebrate the San Rocco's Day (August 16) feast at the Potenza Lodge in Denver the third weekend of August. San Rocco is the patron saint of Potenza, as is San Gerardo. Many still celebrate the Christmas season with a Feast of the Seven Fishes. The Feast of the Assumption is celebrated in Cleveland's Little Italy on August 15. On this feast day, people will pin money on a Blessed Virgin Mary statue as a symbol of prosperity. The statue is then paraded through Little Italy to Holy Rosary Church. For almost 25 years, Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla participated in the parade and Mass to celebrate his Italian heritage. Bishop Pilla retired in April 2006, but continues to participate.

While most Italian-American families have a Catholic background, about 19% self-identified as Protestant in 2010.^[181] In the early 20th century, about 300 Protestant missionaries worked in urban Italian American neighborhoods. Some have joined the Episcopal Church, which still retains much of the Catholic liturgical form. Some have converted to evangelical churches. Fiorello La Guardia was raised Episcopalian; his father was Catholic, and his mother was from the small but significant community of Italian Jews. There is a small charismatic denomination, known as the Christian Church of North America, which is rooted in the Italian Pentecostal Movement that originated in Chicago in the early 20th century. A group of Italian immigrants in Trenton, New Jersey and Wakefield, Mass. built their own small Baptist Chapel and converted to the Baptist denomination. The Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite), a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement, which is headquartered in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, counts significant numbers of Italian Americans in its leadership and membership.^[184] The town of Valdese, North Carolina was founded in 1893 by a group of Italians of Waldensian religion, originally from the Cottian Alps in Italy.

The Jewish emigration from Italy was never of a magnitude that resulted in the formation of Italian-Jewish communities in the United States. Religious Italian Jews integrated into existing Jewish communities without difficulty, especially in Sephardic communities; and those who were secular found Jewish secular institutions in the United States ready to welcome them. Despite their small numbers, Italian American Jews have had a great impact on American life,^[185] starting with Lorenzo Da Ponte (born Emanuele Conegliano), Mozart's former librettist, opera impresario and the first Professor of Italian at Columbia College in New York where he lived from 1805 to his death in 1838.

From a religious point of view the figure of greatest influence is that of Rabbi Sabato Morais who, at the end of the nineteenth century, was the leader of the large Sephardic community of Philadelphia and, in 1886, he became one of the founders of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York, where he became its first dean. Two other Italian Jews achieved prominence in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century: Giorgio Polacco was the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera House (1915–1917), and the Chicago Civic Opera (1921–30); and Fiorello La Guardia was a member of the U.S. Congress (1917–1919 and 1923–1933), and a popular Mayor of New York (1934–1945). A descendant on his mother's side of the great Italian rabbi Samuel David Luzzatto, La Guardia could address his constituency in both Italian and Yiddish.

Under Mussolini's Racial Laws of 1938, Italian Jews, who had lived in Italy for over two millennia, were stripped of most of their civil liberties. Finding refuge in the U.S. as a result of the Fascist persecutions during the 1930s and 1940s, roughly two thousand Italian Jews landed in America and continued their work in a wide range of fields.^[186] Many achieved international importance, including: Giorgio Levi Della Vida, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Vittorio Rieti, Bruno Rossi, Emilio Segre, Giorgio Cavaglieri, Ugo Fano, Robert Fano, Guido Fubini, Eugene Fubini, and Silvano Arieti. Of particular importance also are the contributions of the Italian Jewish women Maria Bianca Finzi-Contini, Bianca Ara Artom, and Giuliana Tesoro, who opened the fields of university and scientific research to Italian American women. After the war, four Italian-American Jews received the Nobel prize: Franco Modigliani, Emilio Segre, Salvador Luria, and Rita Levi Montalcini. Also of significance are the contributions of communication specialist Andrew Viterbi, journalist/writer Ken Auletta and economist Guido Calabresi. The international recognition of the work of Primo Levi and other Italian-Jewish authors, such as Giorgio Bassani and Carlo Levi, has increased the interest in the United States in Italian Judaism, as demonstrated by the opening in 1998 of the Primo Levi Center of New York.^[187]

During the era of mass immigration, rural families in Italy did not place a high value on formal education since they needed their children to help with chores as soon as they were old enough. For many, this attitude did not change upon arriving in America, where children were expected to help support the family as soon as possible.^[188] This view toward education steadily changed with each successive generation. The 1970 census revealed that those under age 45 had achieved a level of education comparable to the national average,^[189] and within six decades of their peak immigration year, Italian Americans as a whole had equaled the national average in educational attainment.^[190] Presently, according to Census Bureau data, Italian Americans have an average high school graduation rate, and a higher rate of advanced degrees compared to the national average.^[191] Italian Americans throughout the United States are well represented in a wide variety of occupations and professions, from skilled trades, to the arts, to engineering, science, mathematics, law, and medicine, and include a number of Nobel prize winners.^[192]

There are two Italian international schools in the United States, La Scuola International^[193] in San Francisco, and La Scuola d'Italia Guglielmo Marconi in New York City.^[194]

According to the Sons of Italy News Bureau, from 1998 to 2002 the enrollment in college Italian language courses grew by 30%, faster than the enrollment rates for French and German.^[200] Italian is the fourth most commonly taught foreign language in U.S. colleges and universities behind Spanish, French, and German. According to the U.S. 2000 Census, Italian (including Sicilian) is the sixth most spoken language in the United States (tied with Vietnamese) after English with over 1 million speakers.^[201]

As a result of the large wave of Italian immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian and Sicilian were once widely spoken in much of the U.S., especially in northeastern and Great Lakes area cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee, as well as San Francisco, St. Louis and New Orleans. Italian-language newspapers exist in many American cities, especially New York City, and Italian-language movie theatres existed in the U.S. as late as the 1950s. L'Idea is a bilingual quarterly published in Brooklyn since 1974. Arba Sicula (Sicilian Dawn) is a semiannual publication of the society of the same name, dedicated to preserving the Sicilian language. The magazine and a periodic newsletter offer prose, poetry and comment in Sicilian, with adjacent English translations.

Today, prizes like the Bordighera Annual Poetry Prize,^[202] founded by Daniela Gioseffi, Pietro Mastrandrea and Alfredo di Palchi, with support from the Sonia Rraiziss-Giop Foundation and Bordighera Press, which publishes the winners in bilingual editions, have helped to encourage writers of the diaspora to write in Italian. Chelsea Books in New York City and Gradiva Press on Long Island have published many bilingual books due to the efforts of bilingual writers of the diaspora like Paolo Valesio,^[203] Alfredo de Palchi,^[204] and Luigi Fontanella. Dr. Luigi Bonaffini^[205] of the City University of New York, publisher of The Journal of Italian Translation at Brooklyn College, has fostered Italian dialectic poetry throughout Italy and the U.S. Joseph Tusiani of New York and New York University,^[206] a distinguished linguist and prize-winning poet born in Italy, paved the way for Italian works of literature in English and has published many bilingual books and Italian classics for the American audience, among them the first complete works of Michelangelo's poems in English to be published in the United States. All of this literary endeavor has helped to foster the Italian language, along with Italian opera, of course, in the United States. Many of these authors and their bilingual books are located throughout the internet.

Author Lawrence Distasi argues that the loss of spoken Italian among the Italian American population can be tied to U.S. government pressures during World War II. During World War II, in various parts of the country, the U.S. government displayed signs that read, "Don't Speak the Enemy's Language". Such signs designated the languages of the Axis powers, German, Japanese and Italian, as "enemy languages". Shortly after the Axis powers declared war on the U.S., many Italian, Japanese and German citizens were interned. Among the Italian Americans, those who spoke Italian, who had never become citizens and who belonged to groups that praised Benito Mussolini, were most likely to become candidates for internment. Distasi claims that many Italian language schools closed down in the San Francisco Bay Area within a week of the U.S. declaration of war on the Axis powers. Such closures were inevitable since most of the teachers in Italian languages were interned.

Despite previous decline, Italian and Sicilian are still spoken and studied by those of Italian American descent and it can be heard in various American communities, especially among older Italian Americans. The official Italian taught in schools is Standard Italian, which is based on 14th century literary Florentine.^[207] However, the "Italian" with which Italian Americans are generally acquainted is often rooted in the Regional Italian and Italo-Dalmatian languages their immigrant ancestors brought from Italy to American, primarily southern Italian and Sicilian dialects of pre-unification Italy.^[208]

Despite it being the fifth most studied language in higher education (college and graduate) settings throughout America,^[209] the Italian language has struggled to maintain being an AP course of study in high schools nationwide. It was only in 2006 that AP Italian classes were first introduced, and they were soon dropped from the national curricula after the spring of 2009.^[210] The organization which manages such curricula, the College Board, ended the AP Italian program because it was "losing money" and had failed to add 5,000 new students each year. Since the program's termination in the spring of 2009, various Italian organizations and activists have attempted to revive the course of study. Most notable in the effort is Margaret Cuomo, sister of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. She provided the impetus for the program's birth in 2006 and is currently attempting to secure funding and teachers to reinstate the program. It is also worth noting that Italian organizations have begun fundraisers to revive AP Italian. Organizations such as the NIAF and Order Sons of Italy in America have made strides in collecting money, and are prepared to aid in the monetary responsibility any new AP Italian program would bring with it.

Web-based Italian organizations, such as ItalianAware,^[211] have begun book donation campaigns to improve the status and representation of Italian and Italian American literature in the New York public libraries. According to ItalianAware, the Brooklyn Public Library is the worst offender in New York City.^[212] It has 11 books pertaining to the Italian immigrant experience available for checkout, spread across 60 branches. That amounts to one book for every six branches in Brooklyn, which (according to ItalianAware) cannot supply the large Italian/Italian American community in the borough. ItalianAware aimed to donate 100 books to the Brooklyn Public Library by the end of 2010.

Italian American pidgin or Italian American slang is a pidgin language thought to have developed in the early 1900s in American cities with a large Italian population, primarily New York and New Jersey. It soon spread to many Italian communities across cities and metropolitan areas in both the U.S. and Canada. It is not a language in its own right but is a mix of the various Italian dialects and American English.^[213][214]

Italian Americans have profoundly influenced the eating habits of America. An increasing number of Italian dishes are well known and enjoyed. Italian American TV personalities, such as Mario Batali, Giada DeLaurentiis, Rachael Ray, Lidia Bastianich, and Guy Fieri have hosted popular cooking shows featuring Italian cuisine.

While heavily influenced by and sharing common dishes with Italian cuisine, especially the Neapolitan and Sicilian traditions of typical Italian immigrants to the United States, Italian American cuisine differs in several respects. The greater availability of meat in quantity led to new staples such as spaghetti and meatballs, while pizza evolved regionally into styles as diverse as Chicago-style deep dish and New York thin crust.

One of the most characteristic and popular of Italian American cultural contributions has been their feasts. Throughout the United States, wherever one may find an "Italian neighborhood" (often referred to as "Little Italy"), one can find festive celebrations such as the well-known Feast of San Gennaro in New York City, the unique Our Lady of Mount Carmel "Giglio" Feast in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, Italian feasts involve elaborate displays of devotion to Jesus Christ and patron saints. On the weekend of the last Sunday in August, the residents of Boston's North End celebrate the "Feast of all Feasts" in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, which was started over 300 years ago in Montefalcione, Italy. Perhaps the most widely known is St. Joseph's feast day on March 19. These feasts are much more than simply isolated events within the year. Feast (Festa in Italian) is an umbrella term for the various secular and religious, indoor and outdoor activities surrounding a religious holiday. Typically, Italian feasts consist of festive communal meals, religious services, games of chance and skill and elaborate outdoor processions consisting of statues resplendent in jewels and donations. The celebration usually takes place over the course of several days, and is communally prepared by a church community or a religious organization over the course of several months.

Currently, there are more than 300 Italian feasts celebrated throughout the United States. Notable is Festa Italiana, held in Milwaukee every summer. These feasts are visited each year by millions of Americans from various backgrounds who come together to enjoy Italian music and food delicacies. In the past, as to this day, an important part of Italian American culture centers around music and cuisine.

Numerous American television personalities are of Italian descent. Talk-show hosts include Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Kelly Ripa, Maria Bartiromo, Adam Carolla, Neil Cavuto, Kelly Monaco, Jai Rodriguez, Annette Funicello, Victoria Gotti, Tony Danza, Giuliana DePandi, Giuliana Rancic, Bruno Cipriani.^[215]

Generoso Pope (1891–1950), the owner of a chain of Italian language newspapers in major cities, stands out as the epitome of the Italian American ethnic political broker. He bought Il Progresso Italo-Americano in 1928 for $2 million; he doubled its circulation to 200,000 in New York City, making it the largest Italian-language paper in the country. He purchased additional papers in New York and Philadelphia, which became the chief source of political, social, and cultural information for the community. Pope encouraged his readers to learn English, become citizens, and vote; his goal was to instill pride and ambition to succeed in modern America. A conservative Democrat who ran the Columbus Day parade and admired Mussolini, Pope was the most powerful enemy of anti-Fascism among Italian Americans. Closely associated with Tammany Hall politics in New York, Pope and his newspapers played a vital role in securing the Italian vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt's Democratic tickets. He served as chairman of the Italian Division of the Democratic National Committee in 1936, and helped persuade the president to take a neutral attitude over Italy's invasion of Ethiopia. He broke with Mussolini in 1941 and enthusiastically supported the American war effort. In the late 1940s Pope supported the election of William O'Dwyer as mayor in 1945 and Harry S. Truman as president. His business concerns continued to prosper under New York's Democratic administrations, and in 1946 he added the Italian-language radio station WHOM to his media holdings. In the early years of the Cold War, Pope was a leading anti-Communist and orchestrated a letter-writing campaign by his subscribers to stop the Communists from winning the Italian elections in 1948.^[216]

Voters did not always vote the way editorials dictated, but they depended on the news coverage. At many smaller papers, support for Mussolini, short-sighted opportunism, deference to political patrons who were not members of the Italian-American communities, and the necessity of making a living through periodicals with a small circulation, generally weakened the owners of Italian-language newspapers when they tried to become political brokers of the Italian American vote.^[217]

James V. Donnaruma purchased Boston's La Gazzetta del Massachusetts in 1905. La Gazzetta enjoyed a wide readership in Boston's Italian community because it emphasized detailed coverage of local ethnic events and explained how events in Europe affected the community. Donnaruma's editorial positions, however, were frequently at odds with the sentiments of his readership. Donnaruma's conservative views and desire for greater advertising revenue prompted him to court the favor of Boston's Republican elite, to whom he pledged editorial support in return for the purchase of advertising space for political campaigns. La Gazzetta consistently supported Republican candidates and policy positions, even when the party was proposing and passing laws to restrict Italian immigration. Nevertheless, voting records from the 1920s–1930s show that Boston's Italian Americans voted heavily for Democratic candidates.^[218][219]

Carmelo Zito took over the San Francisco newspaper Il Corriere del Popolo in 1935. Under Zito, it became one of the fiercest foes of Mussolini's fascism on the West Coast. It vigorously attacked Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethiopia and its intervention in the Spanish Civil War. Zito helped form the Italian-American Anti-Fascist League and often attacked certain Italian prominenti like Ettore Patrizi, publisher of L'Italia and La Voce del Popolo. Zito's paper campaigned against alleged Italian pro-Fascist language schools of San Francisco.^[220]

In 1909, Vincenzo Giuliano, an immigrant from Calabria, Italy and his wife Maria Oliva founded La Tribune Italiana d'America, known today as The Italian Tribune, which circulates throughout southeastern Michigan. A second newspaper founded by a Catholic order of priests, La Voce del Popolo also served the Metro Detroit community until the 1920s, when that newspaper merged with La Tribuna Italiana d'America. Upon Giuliano's death in the 1960s, his family continued the paper.

Italian-American organizations include:

• Alpha Phi Delta
• American Italian Anti-Defamation League
• Columbus Citizens Foundation
• Italian American Congressional Delegation
• Italian American One Voice Coalition
• Italian-American Civil Rights League
• Italian-American National Union
• Italy–USA Foundation
• National Organization of Italian American Women
• Order Sons of Italy in America
• Unico National
• The Columbian Foundation
• American Relief for Italy, Inc (ARI)

In 1944, the creation of the American Relief for Italy, Inc (ARI) functioned as an umbrella organization until 1946. The ARI collected, shipped, and distributed over $10 million of relief materials donated by other Italian organizations and individuals from all over Italy. Catholic charities, labor unions, cultural clubs, and fraternal organizations all responded in helping to raise money for the ARI. These relief materials were donated to Italians in need and helped to provide humanitarian assistance. All remaining donations were distributed to Italian soldiers at war. This organization was one of the first steps in the lengthy process of political and economic stabilizations in postwar Italy.^[222]

• American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM)

Throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, the American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM) was one of the largest, most active Italian American organizations in the United States. They gave assistance to Italian immigrants living in the United States threatened by political instability and provided recovery for those in need. Frequently, money and supplies were sent back home to those who were unable to migrate or were in the process of migrating to the United States. Most of these people were the women and children Italian men left behind in hopes of starting a new life in America. The ACIM grew rapidly with hundreds of thousands of members being both donors and beneficiaries.^[222]

• National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC)

The National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) worked with ACIM on legislative campaigns and immigration projects. In 1951, members from NCWC, ACIM, as well as other Italian Americans joined in efforts to create an organization that specifically benefited and focused on assisting Italian immigrants. After a vast effort in 1953, the Refugee Relief Act (RRA) was passed allowing the entrance of over two hundred thousand Italian immigrants into the United States. The RRA provided these Italian immigrants with many opportunities to start their new life in America. Job opportunities, a place to live, and proper education for immigrants children were provided.^[222]

The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) ^[223] – a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. – works to represent Italian Americans, spread knowledge of the Italian language, foster U.S./Italy relations and connect the greater Italian American community. Additionally, two major Italian American fraternal and service organizations, Order Sons of Italy in America and Unico National, actively promote knowledge of Italian American history and culture.

The Italian Heritage and Culture Committee – NY, Inc. was founded in 1976, and has organized special events, concerts, exhibits and lectures celebrating Italian culture in New York City. Each year it focuses on a theme representative of the history and culture of Italy and Italian Americans.

The Italic Institute of America^[224] is dedicated to fostering and preserving knowledge of the classical Italian heritage of American society, through the Latin language and Greco-Roman-Etruscan civilization, as well as five centuries of contributions to American society by Italians and their descendants.

There are several museums in the United States, dedicated to Italian American culture:

• San Francisco, California: Museo ItaloAmericano
• Los Angeles, California: Italian American Museum of Los Angeles
• Chicago, Illinois: Casa Italia Chicago^[225]
• New Orleans, Louisiana: American Italian Cultural Center^[226]
• Albany, New York: American Italian Heritage Association and Museum^[227]
• New York, New York: Italian American Museum^[228]
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: History of Italian Immigration Museum (Filitalia Foundation)^[229]

During the period of mass immigration to the United States, they were often victims of prejudice, economic exploitation, and sometimes even violence, particularly in the South. In the 1890s, more than 20 Italians were lynched.^[230] The hostility was often directed toward the Southern Italians and Sicilians who began immigrating to the United States in large numbers after 1880.^[231]

A journalist asked a West Coast construction boss if the Italian was a white man, to which the boss replied: "No sir, an Italian is a Dago".^[232] This response reflected the xenophobic attitude of the time defining the idea of Whiteness in the United States. There was a social hierarchy within the various white American communities in which a different degrees of "whiteness" was associated with each group. Some European immigrants, such as Italians, were considered less white than the early European settlers and, therefore, were less accepted in American society.

Italian stereotypes abounded as a means of justifying the maltreatment of the immigrants. The print media greatly contributed to the stereotyping of Italians with lurid accounts of secret societies and criminality. Between 1890 and 1920, Italian neighborhoods were often depicted as violent and controlled by criminal networks. Two highly publicized cases illustrate the impact of these negative stereotypes:

In 1891, eleven Italian immigrants in New Orleans were lynched due to their alleged role in the murder of the police chief David Hennessy. This was one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history. The lynching took place after nine of the immigrants were tried for the murder and acquitted. Subsequently, a mob broke into the jail where they were being held and dragged them out to be lynched, together with two other Italians who were being held in the jail at the time, but had not been accused in the killing.

In 1920, two Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were accused of robbery and murder in Braintree, Massachusetts. Many historians agree that they were given a very unfair and biased trial because of their anarchistic political beliefs and their Italian immigrant status. During the next few years, sporadic protests were held in major cities all around the world calling for their release, especially after Portuguese migrant Celestino Madeiros confessed to committing the crime absolving them of participation. The Supreme Court refused to upset the verdict, and Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller denied the men clemency. In spite of worldwide protests, Sacco and Vanzetti were eventually executed in 1927.

While the vast majority of Italian immigrants brought with them a tradition of hard work and were law-abiding citizens, as documented by police statistics of the early 20th century in Boston and New York City which show that Italian immigrants had an arrest rate no greater than that of other major immigrant groups,^[233] a very small minority brought a very different custom. This criminal element preyed on the immigrants of the Little Italies, using intimidation and threats to extract protection money from the wealthier immigrants and shop owners, and were also involved in a multitude of other illegal activities. When the Fascists came to power in Italy, they made the destruction of the Mafia in Sicily a high priority. Hundreds fled to America in the 1920s and 1930s to avoid prosecution.

Prohibition, which went into effect in 1920, proved to be an economic windfall for those in the Italian American community already involved in illegal activities, and those who had fled from Sicily. This entailed smuggling liquor into the country, wholesaling it, and then selling it through a network of outlets. While other ethnic groups were also deeply involved in these illegal ventures, and the associated violence, Chicago mobster Al Capone became the most notorious figure of the Prohibition era. Though eventually repealed, Prohibition had a long-term effect as the spawning ground for later criminal activities.

In the 1950s, the scope of Italian American organized crime became well known though a number of highly publicized congressional hearings that followed a police raid on a top-level meeting of racketeers in Apalachin, New York. With advanced surveillance techniques, the Witness Protection Program, the Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act, and vigorous and sustained prosecution the power and influence of organized crime were greatly diminished in the decades that followed. Two Italian American prosecutors, Rudy Giuliani and Louis Freeh, were instrumental in bringing this about. Freeh was later appointed director of the FBI, while Giuliani would serve two terms as Mayor of New York City.

From the earliest days of the movie industry, Italians have been portrayed as violent criminals and sociopaths.^[235] This trend has continued to the present day. The stereotype of Italian Americans is the standardized mental image which has been fostered by the entertainment industry, especially through commercially successful movies like The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Casino; and TV programs such as The Sopranos.^[236] This follows a known pattern in which it is possible for the mass media to effectively create universally recognized, and sometimes accepted, stereotypes.^[237]

A highly publicized protest from the Italian-American community came in 2001 when the Chicago-based organization AIDA (American Italian Defamation Association) unsuccessfully sued Time Warner for distribution of HBO's series The Sopranos.^[238]

The DreamWorks animated film, Shark Tale, was widely protested by virtually all major Italian-American organizations as introducing the mob genre and negative stereotyping into a children's movie.^[239] In spite of the protests, which started during its early production, the movie was produced and released in 2004.

In 2009, MTV launched a reality show, Jersey Shore,^[240] which prompted severe criticism from Italian American organizations such as the National Italian American Foundation, Order Sons of Italy in America, and Unico National for its stereotypical portrayal of Italian Americans.

In 2019, Made in Staten Island lasted just three episodes, also on MTV, before a public outcry from residents of the borough in general, and Italian-American residents therein in particular, forced the show's cancellation.

The effective stereotyping of Italian Americans as being associated with organized crime was shown by a comprehensive study of Italian American culture on film, conducted from 1996 to 2001 by the Italic Institute of America.^[224] The findings showed that over two-thirds of the more than 2,000 films studied portray Italian Americans in a negative light. Further, close to 300 movies featuring Italian Americans as criminals have been produced since The Godfather, an average of nine per year.^[241] According to the Italic Institute of America:

The mass media has consistently ignored five centuries of Italian American history, and has elevated what was never more than a minute subculture to the dominant Italian American culture.^[242]

In actuality, according to recent FBI statistics,^[243] Italian American organized crime members and associates number approximately 3,000; and, given an Italian American population estimated to be approximately 18 million, the study concludes that only one in 6,000 is active in organized crime (0.007% of Italian-Americans).^[234]

Little Italies were, to a considerable extent, the result of Italophobia. The ethnocentrism and anti-Catholicism exhibited by the earlier Anglo-Saxon and northern European settlers helped to create an ideological foundation for fixing foreignness on urban spaces occupied by immigrants.^[244] Communities of Italian Americans were established in most major industrial cities of the early 20th century, such as Baltimore, Maryland; New York City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Hartford, Connecticut; Waterbury, Connecticut; New Haven, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and Kansas City, Missouri. New Orleans, Louisiana was the first site of immigration of Italians into America in the 19th century, before Italy was a unified nation-state. This was before New York Harbor and Baltimore became the preferred destinations for Italian immigrants. In sharp contrast to the Northeast, most of the Southern states (with the exception of Central and South Florida and the New Orleans area) have relatively few Italian-American residents. During the labor shortage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, planters in the Deep South did attract some Italian immigrants to work as sharecroppers, but they soon left the extreme anti-Italian discrimination and strict regimen of the rural areas for the cities or other states. The state of California has had Italian-American residents since the 1850s. By the 1970s, gentrification of inner city neighborhoods and the arrival of new immigrant groups caused a sharp decline in the old Italian-American and other ethnic enclaves.^[245] Many Italian Americans moved to the rapidly growing Western states, including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and California. Today, New York and New Jersey have the largest numbers of Italian Americans in the U.S. while smaller Northeastern cities such as Pittsburgh, Providence and Hartford have the highest percentage of Italian Americans in their metropolitan areas.

The New York-based daily newspaper Il Progresso Italo-Americano had a national audience and reflected the views of the leadership of the community. It was published 1880–1988.^[246]

New York City is home to the largest Italian-American population in the country and the second-largest Italian population outside of Italy. Several Little Italy enclaves exist in New York City, including Little Italy, Manhattan; the Lower East Side in general; Italian Harlem, Morris Park, Belmont, Bensonhurst, Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Carroll Gardens, Greenwich Village, Middle Village, Italian Williamsburg, Bay Ridge, and the South Shore of Staten Island. Historically, Little Italy on Mulberry Street in Manhattan extends as far south as Canal Street, as far north as Bleecker, as far west as Lafayette and as far east as the Bowery.^[247] The neighborhood was once known for its large population of Italians.^[247] Today, it consists of Italian stores and restaurants.^[248] The Italian immigrants congregated along Mulberry Street in Manhattan's Little Italy to celebrate San Gennaro as the Patron Saint of Naples. The Feast of San Gennaro is a large street fair, lasting 11 days, that takes place every September along Mulberry Street between Houston and Canal Streets.^[249] The festival is as an annual celebration of Italian culture and the Italian-American community. Today, much of the neighborhood has been absorbed and engulfed by Chinatown, as immigrants from China moved to the area. Arthur Avenue in the Belmont section of New York City's northernmost borough, The Bronx, is one of the many neighborhoods considered the Bronx's "Little Italy", with Morris Park, Pelham Bay, Throggs Neck, and other Bronx neighborhoods also serving as centers of Italian-American culture. Robert De Niro's directing debut, A Bronx Tale, takes place within Little Italy, however, it was largely filmed in Astoria, Queens.^[250] The series Third Watch was initially based on Arthur Avenue, with the first episode referring to the firehouse as "Camelot", based on its location at the intersection of King Street and Arthur Avenue. The 1973 film The Seven-Ups, starring Roy Scheider, was filmed on Arthur Avenue and Hoffman Street. In 2003, a scene from the HBO series The Sopranos was shot in Mario's Restaurant. Leonard, of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces, grew up in this area. Much of the novel Underworld takes place near Arthur Avenue.^[251] The author, Don DeLillo, himself grew up in that neighborhood.

Bensonhurst used to be heavily Italian-American, and it used to be considered the main "Little Italy" of Brooklyn. Since the late 1990s, most Italians have moved to Staten Island. The Italian-speaking community remains over 20,000 strong, according to the census of 2000. However, the Italian-speaking community is becoming "increasingly elderly and isolated, with the small, tight-knit enclaves they built around the city slowly disappearing as they give way to demographic changes".^[252] Its main thoroughfare, 18th Avenue (also known as Cristoforo Colombo Boulevard) between roughly 60th Street and Shore Parkway, is lined with predominantly small, Italian family-owned businesses—many of which have remained in the same family for several generations. 86th Street is another popular local thoroughfare, lined by the arches of the elevated BMT West End Subway Line. The 18th Avenue Station was popularized in opening credits of Welcome Back, Kotter. Rosebank in Staten Island was another one of NYC's main areas of Italian immigrants since the 1880s, and their descendants have continued as its predominant ethnic group, exemplified by the location of the Garibaldi Memorial in the community. In recent years, the town has experienced an influx of other ethnic groups, including Eastern Europeans, various Latin nationalities as well as Asians, particularly from the Philippines. Today, the South Shore of Staten Island is the most heavily populated Italian area in the City of New York. Over 95% of the South Shore is Italian. The neighborhoods of the South Shore with large percentages of Italians are Huguenot, Annadale, Eltingville, and Tottenville. Howard Beach in the Queens is also home to a large Italian population.^[253]

During the beginning of the Cold War, immigration into the United States from Italy was almost impossible. The American government did not want foreigners entering during an intense period of history, especially those immigrating to New York City. Americas were frightened that these immigrants could be terrorists, thus preventing Italians from gaining citizenship. As the Cold War continued, organization groups such as the Italian American Organization and the American Committee on Italian Migration (ACIM) started to form. They created vast efforts to provide assistance and aid to Italian immigrants coming into the United States. Throughout the Cold War, these organizations increased rapidly with many American Italian members as well as many new coming Italians. ACIM also took a leading role in directing the efforts of other Italian American and Catholic organizations that helped contribute to Italian immigration. These organizations provided new migrants with housing, clothing, access to job interviews, and education for children. Italians already living in America volunteered by making house visits to those immigrants who have just settled down in their new homes. These house visits made the intense and rigorous migration journey easier while allowing the Italian American community within New York City to grow. Immediately after the Cold War period, Italian Americans further consolidated and solidified their status as members of the American mainstream.^[254]

Philadelphia's Italian American community is the second-largest in the United States. Italian Americans compose 21% of South Philadelphia's 163,000 people, and the area has numerous Italian stores and restaurants. Philadelphia is well known for its Italian Market in South Philadelphia. The Italian Market is the popular name for the South 9th Street Curb Market, an area of Philadelphia featuring many grocery shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, and butcher shops, many with an Italian influence. The "outdoor" market features bright, colorful metal awnings that cover the sidewalks where vendors of fruit, vegetables, fish, and housewares conduct business year round. Ground floor shops in traditional Philadelphia rowhouses line the street. Owners originally lived above their shops, and many still do.

South Philadelphia has produced many well-known Italian American popular singers and musicians, including: Tony Mottola (famous for the "Tony Mottola" or "Danger" Chord), Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Mario Lanza, Al Martino, Jim Croce, Fabian Forte, Joey DeFrancesco, Buddy DeFranco, Fred Diodati (lead singer of The Four Aces), Buddy Greco, Charlie Ventura, Eddie Lang, Joe Venuti, Mark Valentino and Vinnie Paz, Vincent "Jimmy Saunders" LaSpada.

The North End in Boston since the early 20th century became the center of the Italian community of Boston. It is still largely residential and well known for its small, authentic Italian restaurants and for the first Italian cafe, Caffe Vittoria. The influx of Italian inhabitants has left a lasting mark on the area; many seminal Italian American.^[255] Prince Pasta was begun by three Sicilian immigrants Gaetano LaMarco, Giuseppe Seminara, and Michele Cantella. Pastene was formed by Sicilian immigrant Luigi Pastene. Both companies have grown into million-dollar-a-year businesses, and continue to be successful to the present day. To fully understand the sheer size of the Italian immigrant population, one must look back at the groups that preceded them. The Irish, at their peak, numbered roughly 14,000 and the Jews numbered 17,000. The Italians, however, peaked at over 44,000.^[255]

In its heyday, Seventh Avenue in Newark was one of the largest Little Italy neighborhoods in the U.S., with a population of 30,000, in an area of less than a square mile. The center of life in the neighborhood was St. Lucy's Church, founded by Italian immigrants in 1891. Throughout the year, St. Lucy's and other churches sponsored processions in honor of saints that became community events. The most famous procession was the Feast of St. Gerard, but there were also great feasts for Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Our Lady of Snow, the Assumption, and St. Rocco. Joe DiMaggio loved the restaurants of Seventh Avenue so much that he would take the New York Yankees to Newark to show them "real Italian food". Frank Sinatra had bread from Giordano's Bakery sent to him every week until his death, no matter where in the world he was. New York Yankees catcher Rick Cerone also grew up in the First Ward. One of the nation's largest Italian newspapers, The Italian Tribune, was founded on Seventh Avenue. Seventh Avenue produced stars such as Joe Pesci and Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons. Congressman Peter Rodino, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee during its impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon was a native of the First Ward as well. Seventh Avenue was notoriously devastated by urban renewal efforts during the 1950s. Eighth Avenue was obliterated by the city council, scattering the Italian American residents. Most of its businesses never recovered. The construction of Interstate 280 also served to cut the neighborhood off from the rest of the city. After the devastating urban renewal, some of the First Ward's Italians stayed in the neighborhood, while others migrated to other Newark neighborhoods like Broadway, Roseville and the Ironbound. ^[256]

The neighborhood around Chicago's Taylor Street has been called the port of call for Chicago's Italian American immigrants.^[257] Taylor Street's Little Italy was home to Hull House, an early settlement house, founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Starr in 1889. Chicago's Italian American experience begins with the mass migration from the shores of southern Italy, the Hull House experiment, the Great Depression, World War II, and the machinations behind the physical demise of a neighborhood by the University of Illinois in 1963.

Italian Americans dominated the inner core of the Hull House neighborhood, 1890s–1930s.^[258] One of the first newspaper articles about Hull House (Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1890) is an invitation, written in Italian, to the residents of the Hull House neighborhood signed, "Le Signorine, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr".

The 1924 historic picture, Meet the "Hull House Kids", was taken by Wallace K. Kirkland Sr., one of the Hull House directors. It served as a poster for Jane Addams and the Hull House Settlement House. All twenty kids were first generation Italian Americans...all with vowels at the end of their names.

As suburbs grew in the post-World War II era, Chicago's Italian American population spread from the central city, such as to Elmwood Park. Harlem Avenue, "La Corsa Italia", is lined with Italian stores, bakeries, clubs and organizations. The Feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel, in nearby Melrose Park, has been a regular event in the area for more than one hundred years. The near-west suburbs of Melrose Park, Schiller Park, Franklin Park, River Grove, Norridge, Chicago Heights, and Harwood Heights are also home to many Italian Americans. West suburban Stone Park is home of Casa Italia, an Italian American cultural center.

Northwest of Chicago, the city of Rockford has a large population of Italian Americans. Other historical Italian American communities in Illinois include Peoria, Ottawa, Herrin, Quad Cities and the Metro East suburbs of Saint Louis, Missouri.

Italians first came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the late 19th century. Then in the 19th and 20th centuries large numbers of Italian immigrants began to come in mainly from Sicily and southern Italy. Brady Street, the historic Third Ward and the east side of Milwaukee is considered the heart of Italian immigration to the city, where as many as 20 Italian grocery stores once existed on Brady Street alone. Every year the largest Italian American festival in the United States, Festa Italiana, takes place in Milwaukee. Italian Americans number at around 16,992 in the city, but in Milwaukee County they number at 38,286.^[259] There is also an Italian newspaper called The Italian Times printed by the Italian Community Center (ICC).

Italian immigrants from the northern Italian region of Lombardy came to St. Louis in the late 19th century and settled in the region called The Hill. As the city grew, immigrants from Southern Italy settled in a different neighborhood north of Downtown St Louis. Professional baseball players Joe Garagiola and his boyhood friend, Yogi Berra, grew up on The Hill. Americans of Italian descent in St. Louis have contributed to local cuisine, i.e. Imo's Pizza and toasted ravioli. As of 2021 there are approximately 2,000 native born Italians living in St. Louis, few of whom live in The Hill neighborhood. Italians today live mostly throughout the St. Louis metropolitan region. The Italian Community of St. Louis (Comunita' Italiana di St. Louis), an organization which promotes the Italian language and culture, has several popular events which include Carnevale^[260] which occurs every February and Ferragosto which occurs each August. The St. Louis Italian Language Program also exists on the Hill at Gateway Science Academy on Fyler Avenue.^[261]

Los Angeles is home to the largest Italian American community in California (and on the West Coast), with 95,300 people identifying as Italian American.^[262] San Pedro is Los Angeles's Little Italy, which is estimated to contain some 45,000 Italian-Americans. Most worked as fisherman during the first half of the 20th century. The traditional center of Los Angeles' Italian American community was the area north of the historic Los Angeles Plaza. It survived somewhat intact until the construction of Los Angeles Union Station, in 1939. The station was built in the center of Los Angeles' Old Chinatown, displacing half of the total Chinese community. The Chinese were allowed to relocate to Little Italy, where they quickly outnumbered the Italian community. Only a few relic-businesses survive, such as San Antonio Winery (the only winery, out of 92, to survive prohibition).^[263] The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles opened in 2016 in the historic Italian Hall.^[264] Lincoln Heights, northeast of Little Italy, also was a center of the Italian-American population in Los Angeles.

According to the 1940 census, 18.5% of all European immigrants were Italian, the largest in the city. North Beach is San Francisco's Little Italy, and has historically been home to a large Italian American population. The American Planning Association (APA) has named North Beach as one of ten 'Great Neighborhoods in America'.^[265]

The first ethnic Italian in Detroit was Alphonse Tonty (Italian name: Alfonso Tonti), a Frenchman with an Italian immigrant father. He was the second-in-command of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who established Detroit in 1701. Tonti's child, born in 1703, was the first ethnic European child born in Detroit. Tonti became the commander of the Detroit fort after Cadillac left to return to France.

In order to preserve the fur trade, the French administrators and the British administrators discouraged immigration, so the Italian population had slow growth. Growth in immigration increased after Detroit became a part of the United States and the Erie Canal had been constructed. Armando Delicato, author of Italians in Detroit, wrote that Italian immigration to Detroit "lagged behind other cities in the East".

In 1904 the City of Detroit had 900 Italians. In Metro Detroit there were several thousand ethnic Italians by 1900. The concentrations of the population lived in Eastern Market and east of the area presently known as Greektown. Of those Italians in 1900 most originated from Genoa, Lombardy, and Sicily. Some Italians stayed in Detroit temporarily before traveling onwards to mines in northern Michigan.

The increase in the automobile industry resulted in the increase of the Italian population in the 20th century. By 1925, the number of Italians in the City of Detroit increased to 42,000. The historical center of Detroit's Italian-American community was in an area along Gratiot Avenue, east of Downtown Detroit. During that period, Italian immigrants and their children lived throughout the City of Detroit, and several neighborhoods had concentrations of Italian immigrants. There were larger numbers of southern Italians than those from the north. Armando Delicato, author of Italians in Detroit, wrote that "Unlike many other American cities, no region of Italy was totally dominant in this area". Steve Babson, author of Working Detroit: The Making of a Union Town, wrote that "Many northern Italians, coming from an urban and industrialized society, had little in common with local Sicilians, who came from the rural and clannish south." In Detroit's history, within the crafts Italians concentrated on tileworking.

During World War II, Fort Wayne (Detroit) served as home to Italian prisoners of war (POWs) captured during the North African campaign. After Italy's surrender in September 1943, the POWs were given the opportunity to work as servants, cooks, and janitors. At the end of the war many chose to remain and settle in Detroit.

As of 1951, Detroit had about 150,000 Italians.

The National Italian American Foundation estimated that in 1990, Metro Detroit had 280,000 ethnic Italians. As of 2005 the closest remaining large Little Italy near Detroit was Via Italia in Windsor, Ontario and there was a group of remaining Italian shops and restaurants along Garfield Road in Clinton Township. In 2005 Delicato wrote that "Unlike some other national groups, like the Poles, who still look to Hamtramck, or the Mexicans, who have Mexicantown, Italian Detroiters no longer have a geographical center".

Cleveland's Little Italy, also known as Murray Hill, is the epicenter of Italian culture in Northeast Ohio, a combined statistical area reporting 285,000 (9.9%)^[266] Italian Americans.^[267] Little Italy took root when Joseph Carabelli, immigrating in 1880, saw the opportunity for monument work in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery and established what soon became the city's leading marble and granite works. Most fresco and mosaic work in Cleveland was accomplished by Italian artist immigrants.^[268] Local Cleveland industrial billionaire John D. Rockefeller took a special liking to the Italian immigrants of the neighborhood and commissioned the building of the community center Alta House, named after his daughter Alta Rockefeller Prentice, in 1900. In 1906, Italian immigrant Angelo Vitantonio invented the first hand-crank pasta machine, which made pasta much easier to produce by eliminating the need to flatten and cut it by hand.^[269] Some other famous Italian Americans from Northeast Ohio included Anthony J. Celebrezze (49th Mayor of Cleveland), Ettore "Hector" Boiardi (Chef Boyardee), Frank Battisti (Federal Judge), and Dean Martin, born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio.

Ohio's largest outdoor Italian American street festival, the Feast of the Assumption (Festa dell'assunzione), takes place the weekend of August 15 every year and draws over 100,000 people to the Little Italy neighborhood.^[270] The festival is sponsored by the congregation of Holy Rosary Church, which was founded in 1892 with the current church built in 1905.

Attracted by employment in its growing railroad and meat packing industries, Italians primarily from Calabria and Sicily immigrated to Kansas City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Kansas City's Calabrese mainly passed through the port of New York, sometimes stopping in industrial cities like Pittsburgh along the way, en route to their final destination in the Midwest. Meanwhile, Kansas City's Sicilian community generally came through the port of New Orleans, staying there for a decade or more before bringing their families north. In Kansas City, these communities settled close to one another, often overlapping: the Sicilians taking root in what is now known as the River Market and Columbus Park neighborhoods, and the Calabrese mainly settling in the adjacent "Old Northeast" area.

Economics in Louisiana and Sicily combined to bring about what became known as the Great Migration of thousands of Sicilians. The end of the Civil War allowed the freed men the choice to stay or to go, many chose to leave for higher paying jobs, which in turn led to a perceived scarcity of labor resources for the planters. Northern Italy enjoyed the fruits of modern industrialization, while southern Italy and Sicily suffered destitute conditions under the system of absentee landowners. The peasant was still essentially the serf in the system. Emigration not only offered peasants a chance to move beyond subsistence living, it also offered them a chance to pursue their own dreams of proprietorship as farmers or other business owners. On March 17, 1866, the Louisiana Bureau of Immigration was formed and planters began to look to Sicily as a possible solution to their labor needs. Steamship companies advertisements were very effective in recruiting potential workers. Three steamships per month were running between New Orleans and Sicily by September 1881 at a cost of only forty dollars per person.

In 1890 the ethnic Irish chief of police, David Hennessy was assassinated. Suspicion fell on Italians, whose growing numbers in the city made other whites nervous. The March 14, 1891 New Orleans lynchings were the largest ever mass lynchings in Louisiana history. The use of the term "mafia" by local media in relation to the murder is the first-known usage of the word in print.

Italian immigrants first came to the area around Syracuse, New York (a city named for Siracusa, Sicily) in 1883 after providing labor for the construction of the West Shore Railroad. At first, they were quite transient and came and went, but eventually settled down on the Northside.^[271] By 1899, the Italian immigrants were living on the Northside of the city in the area centered around Pearl Street.^[272] The Italians all but supplanted the Germans in that area of the city and had their own business district along North State and North Salina Streets.^[273] By September 2009, Syracuse's Little Italy district received millions of dollars of public and private investment for new sidewalks, streetscapes, landscaping, lighting and to set up a "Green Train" program, which trains men to work in green construction and renovation industries.^[274] In recent years, the neighborhood is a mix of Italian shops, restaurants and businesses that cater to the area's South Asian and African population. Although the neighborhood is far less Italian than in past years, banners throughout the district still read Little Italy.^[275] By 2010, demographics showed that 14.1% of the population in Syracuse was Italian descent.^[276]

Federal Hill in Providence, Rhode Island, is best known for its Italian American community and abundance of restaurants. The first two decades of the 20th century witnessed heavy Italian American immigration into Federal Hill. Though the area today is more diverse, Federal Hill still retains its status as the traditional center for the city's Italian American community. The neighborhood features a huge square dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi, a monumental gateway arch decorated with La Pigna sculpture (a traditional Italian symbol of welcome, abundance, and quality) and a DePasquale Plaza used for outdoor dining. Providence's annual Columbus Day parade marches down Atwells Avenue.

The community of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida is a cigar-centric company town founded in 1885 and originally populated by a unique mix of Spanish, Cuban, Jewish, and Italian immigrants, with most of the Italians coming from a small group of villages in southwestern Sicily. At first, Italians found it difficult to find employment in the insular and guild-like cigar industry, which had moved to Tampa from Cuba and Key West and was dominated by Hispanic workers. Many founded businesses to serve cigar workers, most notably small grocery stores in the neighborhood's commercial district supplied by Italian-owned vegetable and dairy farms located on open land east of Tampa's city limits.^[277] The immigrant cultures in town became better integrated as time went by; eventually, approximately 20% of the workers in the cigar industry were Italian Americans. The tradition of local Italian-owned groceries continued, however, and a handful of such businesses founded in the late 1800s were still operating into the 21st century.^[278] Many descendants of Sicilian immigrants eventually became prominent local citizens, such as mayors Nick Nuccio and Dick Greco.

Birmingham, Alabama, was representative of smaller industrial centers. Most Italians in the early 20th century came to work in the burgeoning iron and coal industries. Dorothy L. Crim founded the Ensley Community House in the Italian district in 1912 at the behest of the Birmingham City Mission Board. From 1912 to 1969, Ensley House eased the often difficult transition to American life by providing direct assistance such as youth programs and day care services, social clubs, and 'Americanization' programs.^[279]

Historically, Little Italy in San Diego was the home to Italian fishermen and their families. Many Italians moved to San Diego from San Francisco after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in search of tuna and other deep-sea sport and commercial fish.^[280] When Interstate 5 was constructed through Little Italy in the early 1970s, 35% of the neighborhood was destroyed and during the same time the California tuna industry was declining, which caused the neighborhood to suffer nearly 30 years of decline.^[281] With the creation of the Little Italy Association in 1996, the neighborhood has gone through gentrification and has seen a renaissance as Community Benefit District specializing in Italian food, boutique shopping and maintenance that makes this shopping district the place to live in Downtown San Diego. Prior to gentrification, the neighborhood was mainly composed of low-density commercial businesses and single-family detached homes. Currently, the neighborhood is mainly composed of residential units, mostly mid-rises, high-rises, and lofts, with ground floor retail stores and a few commercial buildings.

Tens of thousands of Italians came to West Virginia during the late 1800s and early 1900s to work in the coal camps. As pick-and-shovel miners, Italians hold most of the state's coal production records. One Carmine Pellegrino mined 66 tons of coal by hand in a 24-hour period.^[282] Italian miners created the pepperoni roll, a popular snack throughout the region. Many of these immigrants left for larger cities once they earned enough money, but some of their descendants remain, particularly in the north central counties. The communities of Clarksburg, Wheeling, and Bluefield each hold their own annual Italian Heritage Festival. Fairmont puts on a street festival every December that pays homage to the Feast of the Seven Fishes, an Italian tradition of eating seafood dishes on Christmas Eve instead of meat. The senior U.S. senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, is of Italian descent.

There was a historical trend of immigration of Italians into the U.S. state of Arkansas in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Austin Corbin, the owner of the Sunnyside Plantation in Chicot County, within the Arkansas Delta region, decided to employ Italians there during the post-Reconstruction period. The Mayor of Rome, Don Emanuele Ruspoli, connected to Corbin, found potential employees who originated in Emilia-Romagna, Marche, and Veneto, convincing them to go to Sunnyside. 98 families boarded the Chateau Yquem in Genoa with New Orleans as the destination. In November 1895, the ship docked in the United States, and the surviving passengers traveled onward to Sunnyside. The climate and drinking water conditions were difficult. A descendant of these Italians, Libby Borgognoni, stated that 125 of them died during the first year of operations. Corbin had misrepresented the nature of the plantation to the potential employees. Italians came to Sunnyside even after Corbin's death in 1896.

Italians later moved from the Arkansas Delta to the Ozarks, establishing Tontitown.^[283]

Italians began to settle in Baltimore during the late 1800s. Some Italian immigrants came to the Port of Baltimore by boat. The earliest Italian settlers in Baltimore were sailors from Genoa, the capital city of the Italian region of Liguria, who arrived during the 1840s and 1850s. Later immigrants came from Naples, Abruzzo, Cefalù, and Palermo. These immigrants created the monument to Christopher Columbus in Druid Hill Park.^[284] Many other Italians came by train after entering the country through New York City's Ellis Island. Italian immigrants who arrived by train would enter the city through the President Street Station. Because of this, Italians largely settled in a nearby neighborhood that is now known as Little Italy.

Little Italy comprises six blocks bounded by Pratt Street to the North, the Inner Harbor to the South, Eden Street to the East, and President Street to the West. Other neighborhoods where large numbers of Italians settled include Lexington, Belair-Edison, and Cross Street. Many settled along Lombard Street, which was named after the Italian town of Guardia Lombardi. The Italian community, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, established a number of Italian American parishes such as St. Leo's Church and Our Lady of Pompeii Church. The Our Lady of Pompeii Church holds the annual Highlandtown Wine Festival, which celebrates Italian-American culture and benefits the Highlandtown community association.^[285]

The August 2016 Central Italy earthquake affected Baltimore's Italian community, as many Baltimore Italian-Americans have friends or relatives living in Italy. Most Italians in Baltimore are of Southern or Central Italian descent, especially from Abruzzo, a region of Southern Italy close to the epicenter of the earthquake. St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Little Italy held a vigil and sent prayers to the victims and survivors of the earthquake.^[286]

Italians have settled in the state of Mississippi since colonial times, although numbers have increased over the years. Since the 18th and mainly the 19th century, Italian settlers have been located in cities and towns across Mississippi. In 1554, Mississippi began to have a real Italian presence, because of the Hernando de Soto expedition. The first Italians who visited Mississippi came in explorations conducted by the French and Spanish governments.

In the 19th century, many Italians entered the United States in New Orleans and traveled onwards to Mississippi.^[287] Over 100 immigrants lived in Mississippi as the American Civil War started. In the late 19th century, Italian immigration increased in the United States, which made a tremendous impact on the area.^[288] Some of them went to work in the so-called "Mississippi Delta" in the cotton plantations, and even helped the development of the blues music with their mandolins.

The late 19th century saw the arrival of larger numbers of Italian immigrants who left Italy seeking economic opportunities. Some Italians from Sicily settled as families along the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and Gulfport, preserving close ties with those in their homeland. They worked in the fishing and canning industries. Others were merchants, operating grocery stores, liquor stores, and tobacco shops. Biloxi's prosperous tourist industry in the early 20th century created opportunities for ambitious young (Italian) men ... Italians also settled in the Mississippi Delta. The first immigrants came there in the 1880s, working to repair levees and staying as hired farm laborers on plantations. Some of these families became peddlers selling goods to farmers. In 1895, the first Italians came to the Sunnyside Plantation, across the Mississippi River in the Arkansas Delta. That plantation would become the stopping off place for many Italian settlers along both sides of the river. They were mostly from central Italy and experienced in farm work. — Charles Reagan Wilson (University of Mississippi)^{[This quote needs a citation]}

Large numbers of Italians first came to Colorado in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some settled in industrial Pueblo or in Welby, which was then a farming community, but the largest Italian community in twentieth century Colorado was in Northwest Denver, or as it was known at the time, "the North Side" or "North Denver."^[289]

Italians first put down roots there because St. Patrick's Catholic Church, a largely Irish-descended congregation, already existed in the neighborhood. In 1894, the Italian community on the North Side formed its own Catholic church called Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.^[289] The community remained strong through the early twentieth century, but in the decades after World War II, many Italian-Americans left Denver proper. Today, descendants of the old North Side Italian-American community are spread across metro Denver, particularly in its inner northwestern suburbs like Wheat Ridge, Westminster and Arvada.^[290] The Sons of Italy's Denver-area lodge is on 32nd Avenue in Wheat Ridge.^[291] Many Italian Americans without deep roots in Colorado have also settled in the Denver area and other parts of the state throughout the last decades of the twentieth century and in the new millennium.

Reminders of the old Italian community in Northwest Denver are few and far between today. Many of the remaining landmarks are on 38th Avenue. One is Gaetano's, a storied Italian American eatery on 38th Avenue and Tejon Street once owned by the Smaldone family, which was involved in bootlegging in Denver.^[292] Many members of the Italian-American community in Northwest Denver could trace their roots to Potenza, a comune in Basilicata. A fraternal organization called the Potenza Lodge was founded in 1899 and still exists today on the corner of Shoshone Street and 38th Avenue.^[293] Leprino Foods, a company founded by a Denver Italian-American which makes mozzarella cheese and other dairy products, has its global headquarters on 38th Avenue across Shoshone Street from the Potenza Lodge.^[294]

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is still important to some Italian-American families with roots in Northwest Denver, but there are Catholic churches with sizable Italian-American populations spread throughout the Denver area today.

There is a significant Italian American community in Las Vegas.^[295]

In the 2000 U.S. census, Italian Americans constituted the fifth largest ancestry group in America with about 15.6 million people, 5.6% of the total U.S. population.^[10] As of 2006, the U.S. census estimated the Italian American population at 17.8 million persons, or 6% of the population,^[296][297] constituting a 14% increase over the six-year period.

In 2010, the American Community Survey enumerated Americans reporting Italian ancestry at nearly 17.6 million, 5.8% of the U.S. population; in 2015, 17.3 million, 5.5% of the population. A decade thereafter, in 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau recorded slightly more than 16.5 million Americans reporting full or partial Italian ancestry, about 5.1% of the U.S. population.^[298][2][3] As ancestry is self-reported, the decline in Italian identification in the 21st century may merely reflect growing Americanization and cultural assimilation of Italian Americans into the broader identity of White Americans, with younger generations increasingly intermixed with other European Americans: the number of Americans who reported being solely of Italian ancestry alone fell by 928,044—from 7,183,882 in 2010 to 6,652,806 in 2015 to 5,724,762 in 2020.^{[299][300][301]} However, by contrast, the number of Americans who reported being of Italian ancestry mixed with another ancestry grew by 436,334—from 10,387,926 in 2010 to 10,632,691 in 2015 to 10,824,260 in 2020.^{[302][303][304]}

U.S. states number and percentage Italian American in 2020^{[305][298][306][307]}

1. Rhode Island 18.9%^[308]
2. Connecticut 18.7%^[309]
3. New Jersey 16.8%^[310]
4. New York 15.93%^[311]
5. Massachusetts 13.9%^[312]
6. Pennsylvania 12.2%^[313]
7. New Hampshire 10.7%^[314]
8. Delaware 10.1%^[314]

The top 20 U.S. communities with the highest percentage of people claiming Italian ancestry are:^[315]

1. Fairfield, New Jersey 50.3%
2. Johnston, Rhode Island 49.5%
3. North Branford, Connecticut 43.9%
4. East Haven, Connecticut 43.6%
5. Hammonton, New Jersey 43.2%
6. Ocean Gate, New Jersey 42.6%
7. East Hanover, New Jersey 41.3%
8. North Haven, Connecticut 41.2%
9. Cedar Grove, New Jersey 40.8%
10. Wood-Ridge, New Jersey 40.6%
11. North Providence, Rhode Island 38.9%
12. Dunmore, Pennsylvania 38.9%
13. Newfield, New Jersey 38.8%
14. Saugus, Massachusetts 38.5%
15. Jenkins, Pennsylvania 38.4%
16. West Pittston, Pennsylvania 37.9%
17. Old Forge, Pennsylvania 37.8%
18. Lowellville, Ohio 37.5%
19. Hughestown, Pennsylvania 37.5%
20. Prospect, Connecticut 37.5%

• Busti, New York (Town and village name)

• Sicilian Americans
• List of Italian-American neighborhoods
  • Little Italys in the United States
  • History of Italians in Baltimore
  • History of Italian Americans in Boston
  • History of Italian Americans in Metro Detroit
  • History of Italians in Mississippi
  • Italians in New Orleans
  • Italians in New York City
  • History of Italian Americans in Philadelphia
  • Utah Italians
  • Tontitown, Arkansas
  • Valdese, North Carolina
• List of Italian-American actors
• List of Italian Americans in sports
• Order Sons of Italy in America
• Italian-American cuisine
• American Mafia
  • Italian-American Civil Rights League
• Italy–USA Foundation, based in Rome
• Italy–United States relations,
• Italian diaspora, worldwide
  • Anti-Italianism, worldwide
  • Italophilia

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