Italian Immigration in the 20th Century and the Mafia by Tiffany Edouard

Abstract:

            Italians started a mass immigration to this country around 1880 and continued though the 1920’s. During this time over 4 million Italians immigrated to this country. When the Italians settled in America they were looked down upon because they had dark hair, dark eyes, and tan skin. Because of the unfriendly and hostile environment surrounding Italian immigration loyalty to the family became a priority. This is why most Mafia affiliation was family associated. The Mafia started in Italy as a way to enforce justice where the police fell short. Once the Mafia came to America it was handled by criminals and took on another light. The Mafia became a stigma for blackmail, violence, loan sharking, and criminal behavior. Even though not all Italian Americans were involved in the Mafia, it was large enough to cast a negative shadow over Italian culture in America. Granted, the Italian culture is marked by negative actions of the Mafia, but Italian Americans have contributed so much to American culture. They have contributed their skills, hard work, family value and foods, which have become a staple in American culture.

Italian Immigration in the 20th Century and the Mafia

            Italian Americans have helped shape American life. They have contributed numerous cultural aspects to America’s melting pot. As a people, Italians have a strong sense of family and an impeccable work ethic. Many Italians came to this country to work hard and create a good life style for there families. New Italian immigrants worked in horrible conditions, live in tenement housing, and experienced a great deal of discrimination. Italians have contributed heavily in American food, arts, sports, public services, government, and military history. Italian immigrants have left a mark on American history that cannot be replaced. Although Italians have contributed so much to American culture their legacy in this country has been defamed by the criminal actions of the Mafia.

The Mafia made its appearance in America during the area of prohibition and has continued to rule the underground world of illegal dealings in America. The Mafia controlled the drug industry of America and took part in loan sharking and embezzlement. Many members of the Mafia during Prohibition sold alcohol illegally and covered it up by owning restaurants across American cities. The Mafia also used their money to work their way around the legal system. The Mafia has destroyed families and participated in America’s criminal life for years. Federal Agents cracked down on these Mobsters, bringing its top rulers to justice but the Mafia still runs today. Italians have overcome discrimination, poverty, and left there foot print in American history, but their legacy will always have the blemish that the criminal actions of the Mafia left.

            The journey to America was not an easy one for most Italian immigrants. To many Italian immigrants coming to America, Ellis Island was called the trail of tears. For many Italian immigrants, making the journey to America was less of a risk than staying in Italy. Italy was stricken with poverty, overpopulation, and natural disasters. Italy had rising birthrates year, after year and the death rates continued to decrease. Also in Italy, the illiteracy rate began to increase. S. Mintz stated in the article Italian Immigration that there “was 70 percent illiteracy, ten times the rate in England, France, or Germany.” Italians also had to overcome the difficulties of scarce cultivatable land, deforestation, soil erosion, and the lack of iron ore and coal needed for industry. Although the journey to America was not an easy one, many Italians felt it was a better choice and made the voyage year after year. Italy’s population was only about 14 million but during the years of 1876 to 1924, over four and a half million Italians came to Ellis Island.

During this period many Italian immigrants were men coming to America for work so that they could save their money and return back to Italy with their families. The American Immigration Law Foundation states in their article The Story of Italian Immigration that “20 to 30 percent of those Italian immigrants returned to Italy permanently.” This is because many of the immigrants that came to America during this time found there place in America and eventually brought there families over.

Once in America, Italian immigrants settled in large groups. Many of these groups where based off of kinship, and birth place of the Italians. As the number of Italians settling in America grew, Italians began to establish areas where they would feel safe from prejudice and discrimination, especially from the large population of Irish and German around them. In these towns Italians established their own businesses, bakeries, and fruit markets. They created a great environment for themselves to flourish in their culture and not forget were they came from (Parker 13). The Italian towns, also known as Little Italy’s, played a large part in helping new Italians transition to their new life in America.

 Family was at the core of Italian life style. Many Italian immigrants treated family as the root of survival in America. To maintain a stable household, many women Italian immigrants did piece work in their homes so that they could stay in the home and work. On the other hand the men of the households were the primary bread winners. Many Italian men worked in cities as unskilled labor. They took jobs such as heavy construction jobs, digging tunnels, laying railroad tracks, constructing bridges, roads, and working on the first skyscrapers. Italians worked for long hours and low wages, they began to rival the Irish workers in these areas for the unskilled labor jobs. Although they were underpaid for their work, Italian workers worked hard and earned their way into the American dream.

Italians faced numerous hardships coming to this country, finding work, the language barrier, and their lack of education. Given all these barriers, none were more daunting then the discrimination that Italian Americans faced. Italians were the single largest group of immigrants to this country during the beginning of the twentieth century. They faced discrimination because of their dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin (Demetri 7). As nationalism in this country became more prevalent, Italians immigrants were shunned for there migration of such large numbers. Nativist ridiculed Italians about there “in-between” color, they were not black and they were not fair skinned white. Justin Demrtri tells in his article The Early Struggles of Italians in America that “here in the United States, newly-arrived Italians were treated worse than animals.” Italians had to prove themselves worthy every day to fight the stipulatin that they were just another poor Italian coming to live on the streets of America.

Eventually many Italians begain to over come the disrimination and poverty they found in this country to make a better life for themselves and there family. Men like Generoso Pope, who started with nothing and worked his way to have every thing he ever dreamed of. Pope was the first Italian millionaire in America. He came to America from Benevento, Italy in 1904. Pope started in this country as a rail road laborer and later worked for a small construction company. Later he bought that construction company in 1925 and made it the largest supplier of building materials in the country. He also purchased the Il Progresso Italo Americano, the first daily Italian language newspaper (Mintz 16). Pope started with nothing and worked endlessly until he had everything he ever dreamed of when coming to this country.

            Although many Italian immigrants came to this country ready to work hard and make their living the legal way, some Italians did not. During the area of prohibition in America many Italian immigrants found work becoming bootleggers and illegally distributing alcohol. From this the organized crimes of the Mafia began. The Mafia has its roots in Italy. The Mafia started as a way of life not a violent gang. It was a way to protect your family and loved ones from the injustice of the government. When the Mafia came to America it was a way to protect your family from starving to death. Men would smuggle illegal alcohol into cities and sell them. This was their way of providing for their families. Soon the industry started to organize and became the Mafia we know today.

In the late 1920s, a struggle broke out between the two biggest Italian-American criminal gangs. In 1931, Salvatore Maranzano came out on top and named himself “boss of all bosses”. A rising mobster Lucky Luciano had him murdered to take the power. Luciano then decided to create the arrangement of a central organization called the Commission to supply a central national board of directors for the Mafia (www.history.com).

The American Mafia organized itself around the organization of the old Sicilian Mafia.

The Sicilian Mafia does not have its roots in crime and violence like the Italian American mafia. Sicily was being ruled by Arabic military. In Arabic, the "mafia" means, "refuge." Sicily was attacked and the citizens were forced into labor (Bush 9). Every invasion of Sicily after that made the citizens seek refuge in the hills. The refugees eventually made a secret social order to create a sense of family. The structure was organized on the idea of family and had a strong hierarchical make up. The "dons" were the family heads, in charge of the mafia in every village. They had to report to the "don of dons". This is seen heavily in the order of the mafia in America. There is a “boss” and “under bosses” and the under bosses report to the “boss” (Bush 14). The boss gets a cut of every money making operation handled by any mafia member. Outside of the top leaders of the mafia there is also the capos (captains), who each controlled a crew with 10 soldiers and at the bottom were the associates. This formed a “family” and each family ruled a certain area. Each member took an oath and pledge complete loyalty to the mafia. These Italian immigrants were not just loyal to the mafia they were loyal to there families to make sure that they were safe and protected.

            By the mid 1900’s every large city in America had its own mafia gang. As the end of prohibition came the mafia took on the smuggling of other drugs into America. The mafia had large dealing in crack cocaine and loan sharking. This is the more modern mafia view that the world has. Federal agents took down the top Mafia bosses during the late 1900’s (www.history.com). Although the leaders of the mafia were taken down the mafia still strives today and continues to fuel America’s drug industries.

             In conclusion, Italians have come to this country expecting to make a better life for themselves and their families. Early Italians had to deal with living in poverty and handling discrimination. Italians held there families and culture close and worked though any hardships they had. Many of them succeeded like Generoso Pope and made an amazing life for themselves here in America. Others did not an engaged in the illegal dealings of the mafia. So many Italians came to this country and worked hard to make there way. Even thought there is a large blemish on the Italian image because of the Mafia, there is no denying the amazing benefits the Italian culture has had on American life.

Works Cited

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