Italian California

Art & Entertainment/Arte e Divertimenti

2011-07-23T21:38:00.001-07:00

Back when Italians ruled the Airwaves and Michael Buble by David Domino

In the 40's and 50's, the era between the big bands and the Beatles, the Italians dominated the charts when Rock and Roll was just getting started. Crooners like Perry Como, Vic Damone, Dean Martin, Frankie Laine, Al Martino, Tony Bennett, Johnny Desmond, Julius LaRosa, Don Cornell, Lou Monte, Frank Sinatra, Frankie Avalon & Jerry Vale were sons of Italy, but so were early rockers Dion DiMucci, Fabian Forte, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Darin and Frankie Valli. We even had the great doo wop singers Johnny Maestro and Joey Dee. There was also the very talented female pop singer Connie Francis and the great jazz singer Louie Prima. Jimmy Roselli, Sonnie Bono & Nancy Sinatra were big in the 60's. Then the great folk singer Jim Croce in the 70's. Let's not forget the half Italians Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna in the 80's. Now we have Michael Buble, a great Italian pop singer from Canada. Buble sings just like Sinatra did and he's bringing that style of music back.

2011-07-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Politics/Politici

What Ever Happened to The California Italian American Task Force?

■The California Italian American Task Force is the policy advocate for Italo-Americans in Sacramento, but it is not easy to find.

Look up the California Italian American Task Force in your search engine and you may find third-party mentions of it, but an actual website or contact information is noticeably lacking. So what happened to it? And what was it in the first place?

I can't answer the first question. In 2003, I came across a member of the Task Force and was given little information about it except what was already public on its then web site, a web site I can not find today. True, the Task Force is simply a coalition of Italian-American and like-minded politicians in California State politics that bring issues, concerns, and policies to the attention of the legislature only as they present themselves, so perhaps they don't need an established long-term public marketing medium, but it would sure be nice and perhaps even beneficial to the average Californian and to journalists and news people like myself.

In any case, it may still exists so let me tell you what I know about it: The California Italian American Task Force was formed on August 5, 1996, when a Resolution calling for its formation, authored by Assemblyman Dominic Cortese of San Jose, and co-authored by 42 other Assembly members, passed the California State Assembly. Then Governor Pete Wilson appointed members of the Task Force, making sure as a whole it represented all geographical areas of the State, and gave his strong support to the Task Force's formation.

Because so many decisions that affect Italian-Americans are made at the State government policy level, like the history of Italians in the education curriculum, the Task Force gives Italo-Americans an historic opportunity to address our issues there. It acts as an advisory body to the State Assembly on Italian-American concerns and related legislation. In the Task Force's Internet newsletter that was circulated a few years ago, it stated, "The California Italian American Task Force shall document and increase awareness of the history, achievements and positive contributions of Italian-Americans in our State's history...It is the goal of the Task Force to provide Italian-American organizations and individuals in the State with a renewed sense of solidarity, a new voice and a higher public awareness of our many positive contributions that are the essence of the Italian-American spirit in California."

In the Task Force's first three years, it has sponsored and supported, "significant legislative measures which were consistent with the goals and objectives outlined in the mission and vision statements." This includes modifying the California Education Code to include the civil rights abuses Italian-Americans suffered during World war II, and in addition, getting the Legislature to designate the second week of October every year as Italian-American Wartime Internment Remembrance Week. The California Italian American Task Force has also developed a set of goals that reflect the statewide public policy aspirations of the Italian people of California, being primarily educational in nature. But there is much more work to be done, and many other legislative measures concerning Italian-Americans are in the process of being proposed.

California politics and policy-making, like the State Education Code, is shaped by ethnic and racial interests and many ethnic and racial groups already dominate when it comes to influencing such policies, while we Italian-Americans have largely been ignore. In creating the California Italian American Task Force, "the Assembly resolution recognized that Italian American immigrants were among the largest immigrant groups to settle in California as the entire United States and today is the fifth largest ancestry group in the country. It also recognized that Italians were among the earliest pioneers of California and has been instrumental in the economic and social development of the State." Now lets see if the California state government, so influenced by ethnic and racial interests, will take that recognition (which only took our community over 100 years to get), and turn it into action on behalf of Italian-Americans in the Golden State. The California Italian American Task Force was created for that specific mission and hopefully still exists in some form and in so doing continue to bring the issues and concerns of the Italian-American community to the attention of State politics.

October is National Italian-American Heritage Month

2010-10-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

October is National Italian-American Heritage Month

Every year, the U.S. Congress designates October National Italian-American Heritage Month. In the 1990 U.S. Census, 15 million Americans identified themselves as descendants of Italians. However, demographers estimate that the actual number, after taking into account the mixing of Italians with those of other ethnic and national groups, at over 26 million. Many communities across the nation, including six in California, will be in some way celebrating their Italian heritage.

Like many other ethnic groups, Italians were instrumental in the cultural development of America. Our art, food, fashion and other facets of our culture are greatly appreciated, and some are even now considered part and partial of the American experience as a whole. Where would American college students be today without pizza?

There where northern Italians in America long before the Revolutionary War, prominent among them being two of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Paca and Caesar Rodney, and Filippo Mazzei, a friend of Thomas Jefferson who inspired the phrase: "All men are created equal" when he wrote "All men are by nature equally free and independent." However, the majority were of southern Italian and Sicilian descent and came between the 1880s and 1920s. The experience of these “new immigrants” was very complex and varied, dependent on specific times and places. In some parts of the country and in some times, they were welcomed with open arms; in other parts of the country and in other times, they fought rampant and oppressive prejudice. Most of these newcomers to the American scene were also poor and many settled down in urban slums, while still others found the countryside and eventually started farms and vineyards, particularly here in California.

Over time, these immigrants, and particularly their America-born offspring, assimilated into the American mainstream, some at a high and unfair price of totally losing their rich cultural heritage, while others were able to hold onto the best parts of it while becoming loyal and patriotic Americans. From Rudolph Giuliani and Sam Alito, to Tommy LaSorda and Francis Ford Coppola; the Italian contribution to American politics and culture, including sports and entertainment, is way too vast to enumerate here. And while Italian-Americans are very loyal to this great nation and are very patriotic, with 1.5 million of them serving during WWII alone, a full 10 percent of the military at that time, many today who may have lost their roots are rediscovering their great heritage knowing that part of what makes America so great, along with her freedoms, are her cultural diversity, under the cloak and protection of her national unity.

Without the Italians, America would be a very different place today, indeed, because so many of her discoverers, explorers, and colonizers were of Italian descent, one might even conclude that without us Italians, America may not even exist.

So I hope that you who read this will in some way celebrate with me National Italian-American Heritage Month. Thank you.

Viva Italia e America!