Italian American

Although I am Italian American I do not know much about my heritage. This had been a delightful learning experience finding out where I am from, how my ancestor got here and why they came. I have always had interest in my heritage and finding out more about Italian American culture but have not had the time. I have been forced to find information and research about who I am and I could not be more delighted.

Christopher Columbus and Giovanni da Verrazzano were the first Italians to come to the New World and make discoveries. Columbus did the majority of his discoveries in what is now known as South America in the 1490's, while Verrazzano sailed to North America in the early 1500's. He landed in present day North Carolina and ventured up the coast to New York, Cape Cod, Maine and Nova Scotia. Both of these men are recognized for their accomplishments through National Holidays, statues, landmarks, and artifacts displayed in museums. They both were trying to find a passage to the east to make it easier to get needed spices and supplies for their country, but found that there voyages were unsuccessful. They returned to their countries and told of their discoveries. They did not stay in the Americas and colonize because they were in look for something that they did not find, the east passage, and there intent was to return to their home land. (Meehan, T. 1912).

Italians stayed in their country for quite some time after Columbus and Verrazzano's discoveries. Over the decades Italy was stricken by poverty, disease, violence, and natural disasters making it very hard for anyone to get ahead and make their lives better. Feudalism was a part of the poverty too. Not being able to obtain land made it hard to provide for themselves and use the land like others to sustain life. (Colella, n.d.). In the 1880's hundreds of thousands of Italian came to the United States to make money and send it back to their families. Most men left there wife's and children behind because they were only coming over to work, make money and send it back to their country. According to The Library of Congress (2004), "Italian immigrants sent or took home between $4 million and $30 million each year, and that "the marked increase in the wealth of certain sections of Italy can be traced directly to the money earned in the United States."(T he Great Arrival, para. 4).

There were so many immigrants coming to the united states that there needed to set up a processing station. One of the first processing stations was in New York but it quickly became