Italians from different regions in the USA

[qualdom]

A question for the forum:

What were the relations like between Italians from different regions during the early years of immigration to the USA (1880 to 1920)? My family was Calabrese and only seemed to associate with other Calabrese. I know that regional differences were much more stark than they are today, but was intermarriage common in the USA during that time?

[darkerhorse]

In my Sicilian family, the immigrants to the U.S. during that golden period not only married within the same province, most of the marriages were between spouses from the same town in Sicily, sometimes they were even related by blood. My extended family has examples of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd cousins marrying each other in America. Marriage to the widow or widower of a sibling also occurred.

Regarding Calabresi, since Calabria is adjacent to Sicily there is some commonality. You may recall in Godfather Part II, the greedy landlord is Calabrese and young Vito Correlone, a Sicilian, says "we're practically paesani", although he was pandering to him as a ruse.

I've also heard some anti-Napoli sentiment among Sicilians. You know the expression, "Go to Naples".

[darkerhorse]

In my family there were rare cases where an immigrant from Italy didn't marry another Italian, but non-Italian marriage started becoming more common among their children - including even some WASP spouses! As we know, second-generation Americans are notorious for wanting to assimilate. And then, interest in ethnic origins sometimes revives in the third generation.

[qualdom]

I actually didn't remember that the Godfather part II featured a Calabrese. I remember that Vito didn't trust Carlo Rizzi because he was not Sicilian.

That is an interesting observation you have about 2nd vs 3rd generation. My grandfather was born to Calabrese immigrants. However, he never seemed to acknowledged his identity other than being the source of his hair and skin color. My mother was always much more interested in our heritage. So what you say aligns with my family situation.

[darkerhorse]

The Godfather movie might have made the greedy landlord from Calabria because of their reputation for being stubborn - "testa tosta" - or hard-headed.

The landlord was stubborn and really had to be forced to comply with the godfather.

I believe the Calabrese dialect is similar to Sicilian.

[njb]

This is anecdotal; on my father's side my 2nd great-grandfather from Naples married a Sicilian woman. On my mother's side, my great-grandfather from Bari married a woman from Naples. Both marriages occurred in the US, so I wouldn't say it's rare.