Friday,
September 29, 2006
"Italian Americans and Federal
Hill" Documentary Film set in
The ANNOTICO
Report
With the
documentary Italian Americans and Federal Hill, filmmaker Jonathan D. Raben has composed a Valentine to the immigrants who
created
Raben presents the rich and
fascinating history of the Italians who came, mostly from the impoverished
south of Italy, arriving in ships that sailed from Naples and Genoa and
Marseilles right into the Port of Providence, filled with dreams of finding a
better life in America.
There are
archival photos to re-create the past -- people riding donkeys in the Old
Country; new arrivals to
Best of all, Raben doesn't make it merely happy nostalgia-- all big
family Sunday dinners and pasta rolling off the stainless steel assembly line
at Venda Ravioli. He digs into the tough times, too. He examines the
discrimination that was faced by the new arrivals. Later, he tackles head on
the stories surrounding reputed Mob boss Raymond L.S. Patriarca
who, until he died in 1984, was perhaps the best known resident of "The
Hill.''....
[ I leave out
here what I consider to be a trivial and "counter productive" debate
about "pasta'' vs "macaroni'' and
"gravy'' vs "sauce.'', and how many fish
dishes to serve on La Vigilia, the Christmas Eve
family dinner. Seven? Twelve?
Thirteen?]
Providence City Council President John J. Lombardi
recalls how his mother turned stale bread into now-trendy bruschetta
by dampening it with a little water, putting it on the porcelain sink to dry
and then adding tomato sauce on top.
Former Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. says he could tell which street he was on just by the smells coming from its kitchens. Former Rhode Island Lieutenant Gov. Thomas R. DiLuglio says that you could always tell the Italian kids at school because they were the ones with grease on their paper lunch bags from the olive oil dressing their fat sandwiches.
There are tales
of discrimination, especially at the hands of the Irish who were being pushed
out of their neighborhood by the Italian immigrants.
Tales of Italian
rivalries surface, too, and in the most unlikely places. Holy Ghost Church was
built for the newly arrived, most coming from the poor sections of southern
Ralph T. Campagnone, past president of the Italo
American Club of Rhode Island, talks of the "padrone
system of money lenders who exploited their fellow immigrants by charging usury
rates.
Marie Costantino recalls being spat at by a well-off woman while
on her way to buy penny candy. Marie, and her late husband Dante, who were both
approaching 90 when Raben interviewed them, are two
of the film's most colorful figures. Her reactions to some of Dante's
observations about the old days are priceless.
Carol Scialo Gaeta and Lois Scialo
Ellis, who grew up over their father's Scialo Bros.
Bakery and now run the place, recall that their
parents were devastated when they couldn't move into a neighborhood along
Lois, a former
schoolteacher, says her late father, who struggled to send her and her sister
to college, "wouldn't be proud'' to see the sisters running the bakery
today, a role he equated with hard work and long hours.
"That's not what we went to school for.''
Raben interviews a variety of
figures on the most controversial aspect of Federal Hill. The Rev. Msgr.
Galliano J. Cavallaro, retired pastor of Mount Carmel
Church, remembers the kindnesses of Raymond Patriarca,
and adds, "I never had a bit of trouble with him.'' Cianci
states, "There's no organized crime in the City of
Carol Scialo Gaeta recalls being horrified when she and her
husband went to a lawyer and discovered that he assumed she was part of
organized crime because she was from Federal Hill.
But it's the
camaraderie and sense of family that one will take most strongly from Alan Costantino of Costantino's Venda
Ravioli recalls neighbors watching out for the children when they were on the
street, calling down to him and his friends when it was time for them to head
home. Joseph DeGiulio of the former Joe's Acorn
Market speaks of "one big neighborhood.''
It was a place
that even had a language all its own. Lois Scialo
Ellis calls it "Federal Hill Italian'' as opposed to what Marie Costantino calls "the good Italian'' as spoken in
****Italian
Americans and Federal Hill
Featuring Alan Costantino, marie Costantino, Dante Costiantino,
Carol Scialo Gaeta, Lois Scialo
Ellis, Thomas R. DiLuglio, Joseph Paolino, Bea Temkin, Galliano J. Cavallaro,
Ralph T. Campagnone, Josephh
De Gioulio,
Rated: Not rated,
contains nothing Offensive.
Columbus Theater, 270
Broadway,
mjanuson@projo.com / (401) 277-7276
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ANNOTICO Reports
Can
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