CELEBRATING: “…a date which will live in infamy.”
Italian Cultural Center, Stone Park, Illinois
December 7, 2007 anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Alistaire Cooke's nationally Televised TV Series, America the Immigrant: “Representative of the Italian American immigrant's contribution to America is Alphonse Capone.”
JOHN BASILONE
John Basilone was the only enlisted man in WWII to win both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross--the two highest awards given by this country for valor under fire. His extraordinary exploits throughout the South Pacific campaign are documented in the chronicles of America’s war heroes. The son of immigrant parents, who found their way here from the shores of southern Italy, Sgt. Basi-lone was killed during the invasion of Iwo Jima. He was only one of the thousands upon thousands of first generation Italian American warriors who sacrificed life, limbs, and beyond for their country.
VITO FAVIA
Closer to home, Sgt. Vito Favia, U.S. Marine Corps, another son if Italian immigrants who found their way to Taylor Street’s Little Italy from the shores of Southern Italy, also made the supreme sacrifice during the battle for Iwo Jima. Vito lived just 3 doors from me. The piercing wail of Mrs. Favia, when they brought her the news, remains embedded in my memory. No letter of condolence: from President Roosevelt, Vito’s Company Captain, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks (directors of the Jane Addams’ Hull House Summer Camp), et. al could soothe her anguish.
ALISTAIRE COOK
Fast forward to Alistaire Cooke’s nationally televised TV Series: America: The Immigrant, less than 3 decades later. Alistaire Cooke is depicted drawing names from the files of various ethnic groups at the Department of Immigration in Washington D.C. From each file he randomly draws the names of renowned individuals as being representative of the contributions made by their specific ethnic groups. For various ethnic groups, Russian Jew, German Jew, Greek, etc., he chooses a Supreme Court Justice, a musical composer, a Vice President, etc. When he arrived at the file listing the Italian immigrants, the card he pulled out, as being representative of the contributions made by Italian Americans, was none other than Alfonse Capone. Not one voice cried, Shame!
“It is not the words of our enemies that will be remembered… it’s the silence of our friends.”
OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THAT GREATEST GENERATION
The half-million Italian Americans who served in WWII, from the beaches of the South Pacific to the skies and hedgerows of Europe, earned their share of the nation’s highest awards. The Congressional Medal of Honor was awarded to no less than two dozen Italian Americans. How ironic that it was their valor, their sacrifices, which preserved the freedom that Alistaire Cooke and NBC-TV enjoyed that evening.
THEY HAVE NO PROSTHETIC FOR THAT, YOU KNOW.
Thousands upon thousands of gold stars hung from the windows in all of the Little Italie’s scattered throughout America. One must wonder what thoughts ran through the minds of those Italian American mothers who had lost their sons in the struggle to defeat America’s enemies or had their sons returned to them with their arms torn out and their legs blown off when Alistaire Cooke announced to the world that Alphonse Capone was representative of the contributions made to America by Italian-Americans. They have no prosthetic for that, you know!
THE MEDIA
No other immigrant group, no other ethnic group had been so maligned, so vilified, by the media as the Italian Americans. The power of the media rivals that of any force created by man. It played the dominant role in putting to death two men (Sacco and Vanzetti), executed even after others had con-fessed to the crime of which they had been accused. The media also played a dominant role in the New Orleans lynching of Italian-Americans who were dragged from their jail cells. The lynchings took place despite their having been found innocent in a court of law. Accounts of that event depict Black people, only two decades removed from the emancipation proclamation, participating in the dreaded lynching. The power of the media!
"It's not the words of our enemies that will be remembered, it's the silence of our friends."
QUESTA COSA NOSTRA
Our writers have documented the journey of the Italian American immigrant, memorializing the demographics of our people in various chronicles. Evidence of our “family values” and “work ethics” has been well documented. The demographics of who, where, when, why, and how are well known. What is now of relevance is the media-induced psychological genocide. A holocaust which, in part, was responsible for a 1970s federal study identifying that Italian Americans, as measured by enrollment in college, were at the lowest rung of the educational ladder of all European ethnic groups.
"You were supposed to watch out for us...those of us who were too weak, too poor, and too unconnected to watch out for ourselves."
A people who spring from the loins of the Caesar’s, Michelangelo’s, da Vinci’s, etc. at the bottom rung of anything would raise some eyebrows. And on this memorable day, what is of greater relevance is what part did that same media-induced holocaust play in ignoring the likes of a John Basilone or an Enrico Fermi when Alistaire Cooke decided who to depict as being representative of the contributions made by Italian Americans?
Questa e cosa nostra!
OUR DOCUMENTARY...OUR STORY
There is a bigger story with more historical value that must be told. If Italian Americans were at the bottom of the educational ladder, then surely there are greater issues to uncover which have a higher priority than stories reminiscing about how we were taught to “save for college.”
We should be intent upon producing a TV documentary that transcends the demographics of who, when, where, and the how of the Italian immigrant. A documentary that goes beyond the oft espoused Italian American boasts of family values and family traditions. The “why” of the psychological genocide of a people, that media-induced plague, is the unexplored and untold story of the Italian American immigrant.
Per our shared vision, the documentary would merge the following scenes into an opening statement--an opening salvo, if you will, with back-to-back-to-back/side-by-side-by-side archive footage to depict:
1. Sgt John Basilone, the only enlisted man to have won both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross, our nation’s two highest awards given for valor under fire, placed in a body bag lying on the beaches of Iwo Jima--just months before the end of a war which produced our greatest generation.
2. Alistaire Cooke’s denigrating comment from America: The Immigrant; and
3. An Italian American neighborhood with its share of gold stars hanging in windows of the homes of those Italian American immigrants that he, Alistaire Cooke, maligned when he deduced, in a nation-ally televised program, that Alphonse Capone was representative of our contributions to America.
A people who spring from the loins of the Caesar’s, Michelangelo’s, da Vinci’s, etc. at the bottom rung of anything would raise some eyebrows. And on this memorable day, what is of greater relevance is, what part did that same media-induced holocaust play in ignoring the likes of a John Basilone or an Enrico Fermi when Alistaire Cooke decided who to depict as being representative of the contributions made by Italian Americans?
Questa e cosa nostra!
Vince & Tommie Romano
www.TaylorStreetArchives.com
Italian Cultural Center, Stone Park, Illinois
December 7, 2007 anniversary of Pearl Harbor