Friday, September 29, 2006

"Italian Americans and Federal Hill" Documentary Film set in Providence, Rhode Island

The ANNOTICO Report

How The Italians Found a Home in R.I.'s capital

The Providence Journal

By Michael Janusonis

 Journal Arts Writer

Friday, September 29, 2006

With the documentary Italian Americans and Federal Hill, filmmaker Jonathan D. Raben has composed a Valentine to the immigrants who created Providence's own Little Italy early in the last century in what had been an Irish enclave.

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 Providence with their pushcarts; factory workers at their benches; religious processions down Atwells Avenue -- to show us the way it was, contrasted to the vibrant scenes of Federal Hill today with its crowded restaurants and shops filled with fancy foods. But it is the interviews, with the children of those who came from Italy long ago, that bring to vibrant life in anecdotes that recreate the colorful past. Sometimes philosophical, but more often amusing, their stories give a tremendous feel for the richness of Federal Hill and the people who lived there.

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 Italy. But the church was staffed by the Scalabrini Fathers, who were from better-off northern Italy and had little in common with their parishioners, something that resulted in a rift.

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 Rhode Island's shore because they were Italians.

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 Providence.'' But Bill Malinowski, Providence Journal investigative reporter, says not so fast. While Judge Frank Caprio of the Providence Municipal Court says some people may have felt safer walking Federal Hill when the Mob was allegedly in control, Malinowski explains the cost of Mob activity on an average person's life and the stigma of Mob activity on its neighbors.

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 Italy. Ellis describes the Italian that was spoken all over Federal Hill as "a butchered dialect with a little English thrown in.'' It may have baffled visitors from Italy, but on Federal Hill it spoke of home.

****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, Bill Malinowski.

Rated: Not rated, contains nothing Offensive.

Columbus Theater, 270 Broadway, Providence, Friday, Sept. 29 and Saturday, Sept. 30, 8 p.m. Oct. 1, 2 p.m.

mjanuson@projo.com / (401) 277-7276

 

The ANNOTICO Reports

Can be Viewed, and are Archived at:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com (Formerly Italy at St Louis)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net