Sunday,
May 13, 2007
"Wopburger"
in
The
ANNOTICO Report
Plaudits
to James Gambino, a now resident of
Louisville Colorado, transplanted East Coast Italian-American who
upon seeing a "Wopburger" on the Menu of an
Italian restaurant , complained to the restaurant owners, then NIAF, then the
Boulder Valley School District that bought sauce from the restaurant,..... and the combination convinced the change to
"Italian burger". Why not the Paisano or Amici ?
Is
their Italian limited to only Wop, and Dago?
It
appears that here is another group of Italians that are so unaware of their
Italian American History, that they thought that "Wop" was a term of
Pride rather than a Pejorative term that insults the Italian American
community.
Even
more grating, Chuck Scarpella, former head of the
Louisville Society of Italian Americans, says we never thought of it being offensive."
What
does the Society spend it's time doing, arguing over "sauce vs gravy"? Are they not at all aware of the derogatory
terms heaped on Italian Americans during the Columbus Day Parades in nearby
It
gets worse, In a side story Denver Congressman Tom Tancredo lamented that the Blue Parrot has given in to complaints,
including one from the (NAIF). Tancredo is a
former History teacher. You would think that at least he would know better.
State
Rep.
Perhaps
he would also like to discuss how long "Nigger" and "Kike"
has been around, and the "wonderful" tradition associated with them.
If
the Colaccis are so proud of being of Italian
Ancestry why name an Italian Restaurant "Blue Parrot"
???? One hardly thinks of
Burger's Name Stirs a Beef
Wopburger tasty but not tasteful, critics complain
Rocky
Mountain News
By
James B. Meadow,
May
12, 2007
As
controversies go, this one isn't exactly a whopper. It's more of a - well,
let's just say it's about a wopburger and what happens when the menu at an iconic
And, essentially,
what happens is the icon blinks first. Which is why the menu
at the Blue Parrot restaurant will soon offer an "Italian burger"
instead of a you-know-what burger.
How, you ask,
could something as benign - to say nothing of tasty - as a "sausage patty
with melted cheese served with sauce" ignite an ethnic flap? Well . . .
It all began
about 1919, when Michael and Emira Colacci, fresh from
The
you-know-what
burger's name wasn't an ethnic slur. It was, Michael and Emira's
granddaughter would insist 88 years later, "A nickname. It just meant they
were Italian, proud to be Italian."
At least that's
what Michael and Emira thought. At least that's what
their son Joe and their grandchildren Joan and Richard thought. And,
apparently, it's what generations of locals like Chuck Scarpella
thought.
Scarpella, former head of the
Louisville Society of Italian Americans, says the you-know-
what burger had "been there all my life. My grandma worked in the Blue
Parrot. My mom worked there, I worked there, my kids worked there. It's never
been offensive."
OK, so maybe over
the years, a few eyebrows had been
raised, concedes State Rep.
Until
about a month ago.
A transplanted
East Coast Italian-American named James Gambino came
in, saw the item on the menu and, says Joan Riggins (nee Colacci),
"really raised a stink. He said he was offended and demanded we take it
off the menu."
Gambino admits he was
"shocked," but remembers "politely" speaking to the Blue
Parrot. "They basically laughed at us."
Then the April 13
letter from the Washington, D.C.-based National Italian American Foundation
arrived. The one in which NIAF Chairman Dr. A. Kenneth Ciongoli
wrote he was "alarmed to learn" of the you-know-what
burger being on the menu. "Perhaps you are not aware that this is a
pejorative term that insults the Italian American community," he added.
No way, thought
Riggins, to Ciongoli's renaming suggestion.
"This is our business."
Apparently, the
Gambino, who complained to the
NIAF, also took his case to the school district, which, it seems, had been
happily buying Blue Parrot sauce for 10 years and using it in its lunch
program.
"We love
using the product," says Linda Stoll, director of food services for the
school district. "It's 100 percent natural, exactly the kind of product we
want."
When Stoll
learned the Blue Parrot had a you-know-what burger on
its menu, she called Richard Colacci, a restaurant
owner and boss of the sauce operation.
"I explained
that the district is very proud of our stance on ethnic equity issues,"
recalls Stoll, adding that the you-know-what burger
"didn't conform to the way we felt about those issues."
Then, "I
asked if they would consider renaming the item."
Although Colacci admits, "I was kinda
shocked" that "someone was so upset," he adds, "I
understood her point of view 100 percent if they were getting that much
heat."
Stoll says she
never threatened to terminate the contract, which accounts for about 4 percent
of the Blue Parrot sauce operations. Any sauce cessation "would have been
a decision requiring more people than me."
Although he takes
pains to praise Stoll's cordial tone, Colacci said,
"She presented it to me in a very straightforward manner. We had to make
the move on the menu or possibly lose their business."
Colacci spoke with his sister and
nephew. The next day he called Stoll back. The Blue
Parrot would have new menus as soon as they could be printed. Commerce had
trumped a menu tradition.
And about time,
says Gambino.
And yet, for some
there is sadness. " . . . It's hard to take," says Colacci. "But it'll still be part of our
history."
Try telling that
to his sister.
"I'm so
angry," says Riggins. "I feel like there's been a death in the
family."
And so, perhaps
the best way to end this tale is with a bowing of heads, a moment of silence, a
gentle sigh and a slow exit, leaving behind just this menu epitaph:
The Wopburger ,
1919-2007 , R.I.P.
? Blue Parrot
restaurant Grade: C+
On the menu at
the Colacci family's Blue Parrot in
A Tancredoburger
with all the fixins
Rocky
Mountain News
M.E.
Sprengelmeyer
Saturday,
May 12, 2007
.
These two things are clear.
Rep. Tom
Tancredo
hates political correctness.
He also is of
Italian ancestry. (Even though he
built his first political campaign on handing out copies of his mother's
Italian spaghetti sauce recipe, we won't call him Italian-American because he
so often rails against "hyphenated Americans.")
So it was only
right that on Saturday morning in
With just a few
seconds of reflection, Tancredo lamented that the landmark Blue Parrot
restaurant in Louisville, Colo., has given in to complaints, including one from
the National Italian American Foundation (NAIF),
and re-named its famous wopburger.
Says Tancredo:
"I think they should have hung in there. It's just giving in to the politically-correct crowd, that's all it is.".....
[RAA
NOTE: I don't understand why Tancredo who built his first political
campaign on handing out copies of his mother's Italian spaghetti sauce recipe, now rails against "hyphenated Americans.". Not only "Spaghetti" sauce, but "Italian"
spaghetti. Why not recipes of "American food"?
Thomas
Gerard ("Tom") Tancredo (born December 20, 1945) Republican. Tancredo has been a
member of the United States House of Representatives since 1999, representing
the 6th Congressional District of Colorado, that
includes most of
Tancredo was born
in
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