Little Italies

In the twenty-first century, few Americans of Italian descent live in a “Little Italy,” that is, in an enclave of Italian immigrants and Italian Americans. Yet these insular, densely settled, homogeneous, working-class urban neighborhoods remain an icon of Italian American life. Italian urban villages provided mutual assistance and support among immigrants. A few survive despite upward social mobility, suburban migration, urban renewal, and influxes of subsequent immigrant groups. Most are located in large cities, but remnants of others can be found virtually everywhere that immigrant labor was needed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historically, they have varied in size, concentration, and immigrant generation—from tiny California fishing villages to the huge concentration of Italians in New York's East Harlem.

The term Little Italy is generally applied only to urban neighborhoods whose physical structure and observable social life are easily recognized by outsiders. Little Italies are frequently described as having an Old World Italian ambiance. Behaviorally, Italian neighborhoods demonstrate [Page 863]the supremacy of private (family) over public (nonfamily) values and interests. They tend to be small in scale, facilitating intrafamily and interpersonal relations, with a tolerance for high human density. Individuality and competitiveness are emphasized over conformity and cooperation in spatial interactions. Where feasible, traditional Italian architecture and other aesthetics have been introduced, and mixing of commercial and industrial activities with residence is common (a characteristic of older urban Italian neighborhoods is that the residence is near or even within the same structure as the family business). The physical and symbolic defense of the individual, family, and neighborhood is an important feature of the community.

Between 1880 and 1930, more than 4 million Italian immigrants flooded the United States. They gravitated to eastern industrial and manufacturing cities. Initially, most were males who formed enclaves near work in multiethnic neighborhoods. As married immigrants became settled, they sent back for their wives and children to join them. Informal networks attracted fellow workers, relatives, and family members from hometowns or regions. This “chain migration” created Little Calabrias and Little Sicilies (most immigrants were from Italy's rural southern regions), which critics saw as colonies serving the interests of Italy. Despite hostility, the enclaves grew and multiplied. The growth of mutual-aid societies, fraternal organizations, churches, and political clubs created a fuller community life. Businesses, ethnic newspapers, and restaurants produced both ethnic density and material culture. Some theorists held that Little Italies were places of assimilation. However, as immigration slowed, conditions in the Little Italies improved, and they were not abandoned.

World War I cut off large-scale immigration even before the radical 1920 immigration laws. By 1930, most Italian residents were committed to stay, whereas the pattern for early Italian immigrants had been to return to Italy, and, in many cases, to make more than one trip back and forth in order to work and earn money for the family back home. As the Little Italies came to be dominated by U.S.-born residents, the traditional family system began to change, especially the roles of women and children. Americanization for women meant greater independence, expressed in more formal education and work outside the household. Americanized children began to challenge the absolute control of parents over their lives. Compulsory education and public schools also fostered Americanization. When the second generation reached majority age, participation in politics increased, and Italian neighborhoods became part of the urban political machine system.

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