IAP 74: POWER HOUR: A Power Hour History of the Italian American Experience Part 1 of 4: Before We Were Italians: 1492 – 1890

Put on your history hats paisani, and gear up for the Power Hour’s version of Italian American history!  This week, in part one of a four-part series, John, Pat, and Dolores hunker down to disseminate their take on the major moments and movements on the Italian American story.

In what is sure to be some of the most scholarly episodes the Power Hour will ever produce, we seek to dig out some lesser known episodes in the history of our community and have a few good laughs along the way.

Tweetables:

• “I think that in just the cultural contributions that we’ve made there is no recognition in greater American society for what we’ve accomplished and to what we’ve added to the American experience.” – Pat O’Boyle
• “The point [of these episodes] is to cover the story that brought us here.” – John Viola
• “This program should be a vehicle that encourages people to do independent reading, to buy the books that were written by Italian American academics that tell the history of Italian America and those people who deserve a place in the Hall of Fame.”
• “Know your history…” – Dolores Alfieri
• “There is actual research that children who know their family stories and children who know their personal history are more confident, they have more control of their emotions, and they are better developed.” – Dolores Alfieri
• “We are the next phase of their [our parents] story” -Dolores Alfieri
• “Even the Italian peasant brought something that was contributed to America.” – Patrick O’Boyle
• “One of the reasons why sometimes we don’t look back at our past and the difficulties of our experience is because we don’t know it, not because we’re ignorant or not interested, but we are a kind of community that puts its head down and works through struggle.” – John Viola
• “At one point in this country we were so not accepted, we were such outsiders, that we had to make heroes that were palatable.” – Dolores Alfieri on Christopher Columbus and why we hold on to certain explorers
• “I think what we often overlook is that even though we might not have been here in significant numbers, Italians from all different parts of the Peninsula had a great effect on the psychology and the identity of the founding of this country.” – John Viola
• “[My family] had all of the checks on the list of Americanism. I knew I was an American, but I would hear this early history and I just felt like it wasn’t mine.” – John Viola
• “Nobody talks about this first major international victory for the U.S. military, at the heart of which is this really humble Sicilian navigator.  And the ties there, the alliance there, what it meant to the early country is often lost.” – John Viola on Salvatore Catalano & the U.S.S. Philadelphia

Books/Resources:

• The Normans in Sicily: The Normans in the South 1016-1130 and the Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194 by John Julius Norwich
• IAP 72: Where Can I Get Brioschi? An Exploration of our Favorite “Italian American” Products
• IAP 45: The hidden history of Southern Italy’s glory – Part One
• IAP 46: The hidden history of Southern Italy’s glory – Part Two
• IAP 48: The hidden history of Southern Italy’s glory – Part Three
• The Italians in American Before the Civil War by Giovanni Schiavo
• Italy in the White House: A Conversation on Historical Perspectives

Song:

What Did Washington Say by Lou Monte