Little Italy is an area in the eastern part of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

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, Canada. It is in the

Grandview–Woodland Grandview–Woodland, also commonly known as Grandview–Woodlands, is a neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to the east of the downtown area, stretching south from the shores of Burrard Inlet and encompassing portions of the popu ...

neighbourhood, and is often synonymous with the Commercial Drive area. Historically this area was an enclave of ethnic

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

and Italian businesses. Today, after a period of steady decline, it is again a multi-cultural, vibrant commercial centre.

History

Prior to the 1930s, most Italian immigrants settled in what is today the Strathcona district; however, by the 1940s and 1950s most Italian immigrants to Vancouver settled in the northern Commercial Drive area, and were widely credited with revitalizing the neighbourhood. Most Italian Canadian businesses and cultural facilities are located along Commercial Drive and, since Italians were in the majority in the adjacent residential areas, Little Italy became a true ethnic Italian enclave. By the 1960s, many Italian businesses also sprang up in the Hastings and Nanaimo areas, but the cultural core remained on Commercial Drive. Ethnic Italians were very influential in this area from the 1940s until the mid-1970s. By the mid-1970s, a combination of

cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's Dominant culture, majority group or fully adopts the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group. The melting pot model is based on this ...

, non-Italian immigration, movement to the

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

s, and a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

within the Italian community led to the decline of Italian influence and concentration in Little Italy. Today, the area is again a vibrant cultural and business centre in eastern Vancouver, but after a succession of other immigrant and cultural groups, the Italian influence has greatly diminished. On April 6, 2016, the Vancouver City Councillors voted unanimously to declare the area Little Italy. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on June 12 to officially recognize an eight-block stretch of Commercial Drive as Little Italy.

Italians in Metro Vancouver today

Today, there are still many Italian businesses and cultural organizations in Vancouver, and people of Italian ancestry living in the

Greater Vancouver Greater Vancouver, also known as Metro Vancouver, is the metropolitan area with its major urban centre being the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The term ''Greater Vancouver'' describes an area that is roughly coterminous with the r ...

area number about 75,000. However, no particular single area is predominantly Italian in concentration. Burnaby Heights is not predominantly Italian, but Italian-Canadians have a distinct presence in the neighbourhood. East Hastings Street, between Boundary and Duthie, is another commercial hub for the Italian community. There are many Italian cafes, delis, and restaurants along the street, including stores which import goods from Italy. Two

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churches offering masses in Italian, St. Helen's and Holy Cross, are located nearby. Older, first-generation Italians often congregate in nearby Confederation Park to play

Bocce (, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci, or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to English bowls and French , with a common ancestry from anc ...

References

External links

Little Italy on Commercial Drive
* http://www.virtualvancouver.com/italytown.html {{Little Italy European-Canadian culture in British Columbia

Neighbourhoods in Vancouver Restaurant districts and streets in Canada