THE STORY OF AN AMAZING HERITAGE
Explorers, Immigrants, Citizens is the title of an important new book co-authored by an Italian-American in Washington, Linda Barrett Osborne, and an Italian in Italy, Paolo Battaglia, under the auspices of the Library of Congress. Ms. Osborne came to Casa Italiana on Sunday, February 2, 2014, for a book signing and a brief lecture about how the book came to be. She explained that she is a 4th generation Italian-American whose family name was originally Boccuzzi (later changed to Barrett apparently because it also started with a B).
As the book notes, this name-changing was common years ago. The book took 2 years to finish. Ms. Osborne explained that she was about to retire from the Library of Congress when Mr. Battaglia presented his idea to the Library of Congress, so she decided to “un-retire” to work on this project, which she saw as a labor of love. She said Mr. Battaglia was motivated to do the book, which was published in Italy by a publishing house in Modena, because he thought that if Italians today could understand how Italians came to America and began to succeed and prosper in just a few generations (in spite of or perhaps because of hardship and discrimination), then they would have a better perspective on the current immigration situation in Italy.
Ms. Osborne noted that the book was published in midOctober 2013 around the time of the Lampedusa tragedy in which hundreds drowned at sea when their boat capsized trying to reach the island off the coast of Sicily. The book illustrates the gamut of the Italian-American experience with over 500 images ranging from the first map using the name “America” to stories and pictures of Fiorello LaGuardia, Vince Lombardi, Martin Scorsese, Joseph Petrosino, Mario Cuomo, Charles Bonaparte, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Sinatra, and many, many others. And the book recounts the fascinating stories of people such as Amadeo Pietro Giannini, founder of the Bank of America.
The authors describe how after the terrible earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, Giannini sifted through the ruins of his bank, then called the Bank of Italy, discreetly loaded $2 million in gold, coins and securities into a wagon bed, covered them with a layer of vegetables and headed home. Within a few days, he had set up shop on the docks and with a wooden plank straddling two barrels for a desk, he began to extend credit “on a face and a signature” to small business and individuals in need of money to rebuild their lives. No doubt AMHS members will be familiar with some of these stories or may have even seen some of the people mentioned in the book. Angelo Puglisi, for one, recalls seeing Tony 8 Bennett perform and remembers watching Rocky Marciano win the heavyweight championship in 1952.
However, Angelo told Ms. Osborne he wished she would have included more New York Yankee ballplayers and not just Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto. Like Ms. Osborne told him, there were just too many people to include them all. And when you think about it, that’s a good thing!! (At least 454 Italian-Americans have played baseball in the Major Leagues since 1897). Anyone who would like to order a copy of the book, which would make a great gift, can order it online at www.accdistribution.com/us, by e-mailing sales@antiquecc.com or by calling 1-800-252-5231. (You will recall that AMHS member Lucio D’Andrea submitted an item on this book in the January issue of the Notiziario. The Society purchased a copy of the book and anyone with interest in borrowing it for review, please contact Lucio at (703) 490- 3067 or via email, ldandrea1933@yahoo.com)