Italian American press

DEFINITION: American news publications targeted at Italian American and immigrant Italian communities

SIGNIFICANCE: Newspapers, magazines, and journals designed to appeal to the Italian community in America, often published in Italian, provided new immigrants and succeeding generations important information about both the United States and Italy, helping immigrants acclimate to their new homeland while remaining in touch with their roots.

News vehicles for Italian immigrants in America were available as early as 1836, when El Correro Atlantico appeared in New Orleans. New York City had its first Italian-language paper, L’Eco d’Italia, in 1850, and even before the great influx of Italians into the United States between 1880 and 1920 several other major cities could boast of having one or more publications that catered to this ethnic group.

Because Italian immigrants generally clustered together in neighborhoods that were dubbed “Little Italies,” it was easy for publishers to distribute their newspapers to waiting audiences, most of whom were poor and ignorant of American customs. Many publications contained stories about events in Italy as well as news about America, enabling immigrants to stay in touch with the old country while adjusting to their new home. Such publications were also convenient media in which employers could advertise job openings. Newspapers also served as forums for individuals to vent their frustrations about life in what they called La Merica that to many was proving less rosy than they had anticipated.

Characteristics of the Italian American Press

The explosion of Italian immigration to America after 1880 saw a concurrent rise in Italian American news publications. New York City alone had dozens of small Italian papers, and cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco also had multiple news organizations. Many of these publications competed with one another for the same readers, however, and fierce competition ensured that many would be short-lived. Most readers were working-class men and women to whom the papers delivered a great deal of news and opinions on labor issues. The better-financed papers tended to promote conservative interests. For example, Carlo Barsotti’s Il Progresso Italo-Americano in New York, Charles Baldi’s L’Opinione in Philadelphia, and Mariano Cancelliere’s La Trinacria in Pittsburgh were decidedly promanagement. These conservative papers even went so far as to carry management advertisements for strikebreakers when unions conducted work stoppages.

At the same time, quite a number of papers were controlled by various unions and workers’ rights groups; for example, the International Workers of the World used La Questione Sociale and later L’Era Nuova as propaganda tools to influence Italian workers. Publications such as Il Proletario in Philadelphia and La Plebe in Pittsburgh advocated for workers’ rights and promoted civil disobedience, a stance that got them in trouble with authorities on occasion. A typical government tactic used to stymie these radical organs was to have the US Post Office declare them seditious and refuse to grant their publishers mailing privileges, thereby curtailing circulation. Nevertheless, between 1880 and 1940, more than a hundred radical papers appeared. Their impact on the working classes was significant.

Rise of Fascism

The passionate interest of Italians in their homeland was at the root of the greatest controversy involving the Italian American press. Beginning during the 1920s, Italian American papers ran articles and editorials praising the Fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, whose efforts they thought would unite Italy and bring justice and prosperity to the peasantry. Chief among Mussolini’s Italian American supporters was Generoso Pope, a businessman who bought several newspapers, including the New York papers Il Progresso Italo-Americano and Corriere d’America, both of which enjoyed wide circulation. Pope had personal access to both Mussolini and US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and used his newspapers to promote the Fascist agenda. He was not alone, however. Most mainstream publications, including many supported by the Roman Catholic Church, were ardent Fascist supporters—until Mussolini’s bellicose imperialist ventures in Africa and Spain during the mid-1930s turned American opinion against him. Even then, some Italian papers ran articles critical of Mussolini in their English-language sections while continuing to print favorable pieces about him in Italian.

Support for Mussolini was not universal, however. In Detroit, La Voce de Popolo editor Monsignor Joseph Ciarrocchi ran articles exposing the Italian dictator’s propaganda campaign being waged in America. Many left-leaning publications were highly critical. One of the most vocal anti-Fascist publications was Il Martello, owned and edited by Carlo Tresca, a lifelong activist who had fought for workers’ rights since arriving in the United States in 1904. Frequently, those publishing unfavorable material on Mussolini before the outbreak of World War II were intimidated or even assaulted by pro-Fascist elements in the United States. After the United States entered World War II against Japan, Germany, and Italy at the end of 1941, open support for Fascism in the Italian American press was replaced by calls for the overthrow of Mussolini’s regime.

Postwar Press

By the end of World War II in 1945, many Italian Americans had begun to assimilate into the mainstream culture. Dwindling populations in Little Italies and waning interest among second- and third-generation Italian Americans in their ancestral home and language led to a decline in publications targeted specifically at their ethnic interests. Nevertheless, a number of magazines and journals published by various civic groups such as the Italy-America Society and the National Italian-American Foundation enjoyed wide readership into the twenty-first century. Most of these publications promoted pride in the Italian American heritage and celebrated customs from the old country that had become part of the larger melting-pot culture of the United States. The quarterly English magazine Italian America, published by the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, had a wide readership base as of 2019. By that year, America Oggi, which launched in 1988, claimed to be the only newspaper published in Italian in the United States. Other newspapers, such as L'Italo Americano have continued through the 21st century to publish to an Italian-American audience.

Bibliography

"About Us." L'Italo Americano, 2024, italoamericano.org/about-us/. Accessed 22 Sep. 2024.

Diggins, John N. Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America. Princeton UP, 1972.

Hooper, John. "New Wave of Migrants Swells Diverse Italian American Communities." The Guardian, 24 Feb. 2015, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/new-wave-migrants-diverse-italian-american-communities. Accessed 22 Sep. 2024.

Mangione, Jerre, and Ben Morreale. La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian-American Experience. HarperCollins, 1992.

Moreno, Barry. Italian Americans. Barron’s Educational Series, 2003.

Park, Robert E. The Immigrant Press and Its Control. Harper, Collins, 1922.

Pericone, Nunzio. Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.