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Sicilian Americans ( Sicilian: ''Sìculu-miricani;
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
: Siculoamericani'') are
Americans Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents could also legally claim Ameri ...
of
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
Sicilian birth or ancestry. They are a large ethnic group in the United States. The first Sicilians who came to the territory that is now the United States were
explorers Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
and
missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
in the 17th century under the Spanish crown. Sicilian emigration to the United States then increased significantly in the starting from before 1880 to 1906, Direct connections by sea departed from the ports of
Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its h ...
and
Castellammare del Golfo Castellammare del Golfo (; scn, Casteddammari; la, Emporium Segestanorum or ) is a town and municipality in the Trapani Province of Sicily. The name can be translated as "Sea Fortress on the Gulf", stemming from the medieval fortress in the har ...
. Since emigration from Sicily began in the United States before the unity of Italy, and reached its peak at a time when regional differences were still very strong and marked, both linguistically and
ethnically An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, many of the Sicilian immigrants identified (and still identify) primarily on a regional rather than a national basis. Today, there are many studies also dedicated to the history of Sicilian Americans. The Sicilian-American community includes people born in
Sicily Sicily ( it, Sicilia , ) is the list of islands in the Mediterranean, largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. The Strait of Messina divides it from the region of Calabria in Southern Italy. I ...
who immigrated to the United States, or born in the United States to Sicilian parents, as well as their third, fourth, etc. generation descendants, who identify as belonging to such community.


History

Sicilian emigration to the United States grew substantially starting in the 1880s to 1914, when it was cut off by World War I. Many Sicilians planned to return home after a few years making money in the United States, but the wartime delay allowed many to assimilate into better jobs and wartime experience, so they did not return. By 1924, about 4,000,000 Sicilians emigrated to the US. The
Emergency Quota Act __NOTOC__ The Emergency Quota Act, also known as the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act (ch. 8, of May 19, 1921), was formulated mainly in response to the larg ...
, and the subsequent
Immigration Act of 1924 The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the Asian Exclusion Act and National Origins Act (), was a United States federal law that prevented immigration from Asia and set quotas on the number of immigrants from the Eastern ...
sharply reduced immigration from Southern Europe except for relatives of Sicilians already in the U.S. This period saw political and economic shifts in Sicily that made emigration desirable. There was also a large wave of immigration after World War II. A great portion of the Sicilian immigrants would settle in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
,
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
,
New Haven New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...
, Buffalo, Rochester,
Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
,
Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough Count ...
,
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylv ...
, Chicago,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
,
Pittston Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The city gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal ...
,
Johnston, Rhode Island Johnston is a town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 29,568 at the 2020 census. Johnston is the site of the Clemence Irons House (1691), a stone-ender museum, and the only landfill in Rhode Island. Incorpor ...
,
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
,
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
, and
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
. During the 1800s, Italian Americans, particularly Sicilians, were often not considered “
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
.” Upon immigration, many were required to list their race as “Southern Italian” or “Sicilian” rather than white. In certain parts of the South during the
Jim Crow The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
era, Sicilian even more so than Italians generally were affected by its discriminatory policies. Sicilians were sometimes more prone to discrimination than other Mediterranean groups (such as Northern Italians or
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
). This led to one of the most notable hate crimes against Sicilian Americans, which was the trial of nineteen Sicilian immigrants for the murder of New Orleans police chief
David Hennessy David C. Hennessy (1858 – October 16, 1890) was a police chief of New Orleans, Louisiana. As a young detective, he made headlines in 1881 when he captured a notorious Italian criminal, Giuseppe Esposito. In 1888, he was promoted to superinten ...
in 1890, which trial ended in the lynching of eleven of them by a white vigilante group.


Culture

Sicilian immigrants brought with them their own unique culture, including theatre and music. Giovanni De Rosalia was a noted Sicilian American playwright in the early period and
farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or ...
was popular in several Sicilian dominated theatres. In music Sicilian Americans would be linked, to some extent, to
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major f ...
. Three of the more popular cities for Sicilian immigrants were New York City (especially Brooklyn), New Orleans and Chicago. The latter two cities were pivotal in the history of jazz. In New York City, the predominantly Sicilian neighborhoods prior to World War II were
East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fif ...
and Elizabeth Street in Harlem and
Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are s ...
, respectively, in Manhattan, Bushwick, Carroll Gardens and East Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and the predominantly Sicilian neighborhoods after World War II were
Bensonhurst Bensonhurst is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bordered on the northwest by 14th Avenue, on the northeast by 60th Street, on the southeast by Avenue P and 22nd ...
,
Dyker Heights Dyker Heights is a predominantly residential neighborhood in the southwest corner of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. It is on a hill between Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, and Gravesend Bay. The neighborhood is bounded by 7th a ...
, and
Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Rochester, it is th ...
, all in Brooklyn; in Chicago, "Little Sicily" was predominantly Sicilian, and in New Orleans, "Little
Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its h ...
" was. One of the earliest, and among the most controversial, figures in jazz was
Nick LaRocca Dominic James "Nick" LaRocca (April 11, 1889 – February 22, 1961), was an American early jazz cornetist and trumpeter and the leader of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. He is the composer of one of the most recorded jazz classics of all-time ...
, who was of Sicilian heritage. Modern Sicilian-American jazz artists include Bobby Militello and
Chuck Mangione Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, voice actor, trumpeter and composer. He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother, ...
. In 1892 Mother Cabrini arrived in New Orleans and opened an orphanage which became Cabrini High School in 1959. The Sicilian-American respect for '' San Giuseppe'' (St. Joseph) is reflected in the celebration of the Feast of St. Joseph, primarily in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Buffalo, every March 19. Many families in those cities prepare a ''" St. Joseph's Day table"'', at which relatives or neighbors portray Jesus, Joseph and Mary and oversee the serving of meat-free
Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
en meals to the poor of the community. The tables are the vestiges of a Sicilian legend which states that farmers prayed to St. Joseph, promising that if he interceded in a drought, they would share their bounty with the poor. The foods served at such tables include: '' Pasta con le sarde'' (spaghetti with sardines); '' lenticchie'' (lentils); and various '' froscie'' (omelettes) made with '' cardoon'' (wild artichoke), '' cicoria'' (dandelion) and other homely vegetables. Desserts include sfingi, '' zeppoli'', a light puff pastry;
sfogliatelle A sfogliatella (, plural: sfogliatelle; nap, sfugliatella), sometimes called a lobster tail in the US, is a shell-shaped filled Italian pastry originating from Campania. ''Sfogliatella'' means "small, thin leaf/layer", as the pastry's texture res ...
, '' pignolati'', struffoli (honey balls); and ''
cannoli Cannoli (; scn, cannola ) are Italian pastries consisting of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling containing ricotta—a staple of Sicilian cuisine. They range in size from . In mainland Italy, they ar ...
'', a Sicilian creation. One tradition has each guest at a St. Joseph's Day table receiving a slice of orange, a bit of
fennel Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...
and a ''
fava ''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Varieti ...
'' bean, for good luck.Laura C. Rudolph, "Sicilian Americans."


Notable people


See also

* List of Italian Americans


References


Further reading

* Gabaccia, Donna. ''From Sicily to Elizabeth Street'' (State University of New York Press, 1984). * Gabaccia, Donna. ''Militants and Migrants: Rural Sicilians Become American Workers'' (Rutgers University Press, 1988). * Mazzucchelli, Chiara. ''“Heart of My Race”: Questions of Identity in Sicilian/American Writings'' (Florida Atlantic University Press, 2007). * Raab, Selwyn. ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires'' (St. Martin's Press, 2005_. * Rudolph, Laura C. "Sicilian Americans." in Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America,'' edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014, pp. 151-163)
Online
* Schiavelli, Vincent. ''Bruculinu, America: Remembrances of Sicilian-American Brooklyn'' (1998).


External links


Arba Sicula (A Sicilian American organization)

Magna GRECE Ethno-cultural journal for people of Southern-Italian descent
{{Italian diaspora * European-American society Sicilian American Sicily