LosAngelesLittleItaly

Daily Breeze Looks at L.A.'s Italian Past

Daily Breeze reporter John Bogert notices a detail that would authenticate a simulated Italian-American living room. Then he takes a look at the exhibition and the book:

With the Italian-American and Italian immigrant population in L.A. County numbering 300,000, concerned Italian-Americans like Gatto and Buscaino decided that it was time to remind ourselves of a now nearly forgotten era that is best summed up by the exhibit's title, "Sunshine and Struggle: The Italian Experience In Los Angeles, 1827-1927."

Actually, that experience started with the first European exploration of Alta California when Father Marco da Nizza arrived in the company of Coronado. He would be followed by a cavalcade of Italian priests that played a key role in colonization.

<skip>

All this is wonderfully detailed for the first time in Gatto's recent book, "Los Angeles's Little Italy."  Unlike many Arcadia books, this one is full of heart and soul and research that she likens to "chasing a ghost."       

For more, read the Daily Breeze.

Los Angeles Little Italy Exhibit a 'Proud Surprise'

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, Mariela Salvatore from the Office of Italian Consul General Nicola Faganello, exhibition sponsor Eric Eisenberg, San Pedro luminaries Joe Buscaino, Anthony Pirozzi, Helene Pizzini, Carmela and Gianni Funicello pose with members of the Italian American Museum board Paul Pagnone, Doug Pozzo, John Rotondi, Roger Vitti with curator Marianna Gatto at the opening of "Sunshine and Struggle." (Photo courtesy of Joseph Gatto and Al Fasani.)

Darrell Fusaro of i-Italy surveyed "“Sunshine & Struggle, The Italian Experience In Los Angeles, 1827 – 1927" and read "Los Angeles's Little Italy." He writes: "So many may be very surprised, and if Italian very proud, to discover the origin of present day Los Angeles owes quite a bit to it’s Italian settlers. It may even be more surprising to learn that these settlers came to reside in this area nearly a century before those who came to America by way of Ellis Island."

The success of the Italians in Los Angeles early in Los Angeles’s history was mainly due to the fact that because of the cultural similarities between the Italians and the Mexicans they did not face the discrimination that characterized their experience elsewhere in the country. For example, an Italian settler, Frank Sabichi was President of the Los Angeles City Council in 1874. Much more of this “Largely Unknown History of Italians in Los Angeles” can be discovered at the current exhibition titled, “Sunshine & Struggle, The Italian Experience In Los Angeles, 1827 – 1927.” It is located at 437 West 6th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731. A storefront has been transformed to reflect the early Italian experience in the area. Discovering the little known facts that are jam packed throughout the exhibit is as fascinating as it is surprising. Mariann Gatto, curator of this exhibition and author of, “Los Angele’s Little Italy,” has put together the perfect amount of facts and trivia to satisfy and enlighten the curious.

“Sunshine & Struggle, The Italian Experience In Los Angeles, 1827 – 1927" runs until December 31st. For more information, call (323) 422-2668 to confirm hours.

Los Angeles Little Italy on NBC Los Angeles website

The witty and ever present Alysia Gray Painter, writer of all thing L.A. on nbclosangeles.com, peeks inside Los  Angeles's Little Italy. Addressing L.A's  "Food Lovers, History Aficionados, People Who Have to Know What Used to Be on Every Corner of Our Storied Megalopolis," Painter says:

Visitors see Little Tokyo and Little Ethiopia, and they often ask where LA's Little Italy is, or was. They want to know more of the story of our city's first Italian immigrants, their businesses, how they impacted what Los Angeles would become. Author Mariann Gatto looks back -- way back, to the 1800s -- and better illustrates the faces and names behind the events.

nbclosangeles

'Sunshine and Struggle' - Italians of Los Angeles exhibit - opens in San Pedro

Please join the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles, Hon. Nicola Faganello, Consul General of Italy, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, Eric Eisenberg, the Italian American Club of San Pedro and Ischia-San Pedro-Los Angeles Sister City Foundation on Sunday, December 6, 2009 from 5-7 PM for a historical presentation on the Italians of Los Angeles as part of the Sunshine and Struggle Exhibition. 

447 West 6th Street, San Pedro, 90731. 

For Information: msgatto@earthlink.net

or www.italianhall.org

Welcome

Los Angeles's Little Italy presents a history of the city's vibrant Italian enclave during the 100-year period following the arrival of the city's first Italian pioneer in 1827. 

While Los Angeles possesses the nation's fifth-largest Italian population today, little is known about its Italian history, which has been examined by only a handful of historians over the past 50 years.

Much of historic Little Italy has been erased from the map or is masked by subsequent ethnic settlements. However, the community's memory lives on. From pioneer agriculturalists and winemakers to philanthropists and eccentric personalities, Italian Americans left a lasting impression on the city's social, economic, and cultural fabric and contributed to Los Angeles's development as one of the world's greatest metropolises.   

Mariann Gatto is the curator of history and education for the City of Los Angeles,  and has chronicled Los Angeles's Italian community for more than a decade. She is also the author of My City, My History: A Guide to Discovering Your History and the History of El Pueblo de Los Angeles. This new volume contains hundreds of never before published photographs from the archive of the Historic Italian Hall Foundation as well as rare photographs from local historical repositories.