Dominic Candeloro - Italians in Chicago: 1945-2005

Brothers Carlo and Giuseppe Piombino from Palermo had immigrated to the United States before World War I, then answered the call of their birth nation to return to Italy to defend their homeland in 1916. Their early venture to the United States and Carlos many return trips produced four children born in the United States and two in Italy, the last of whom was Maria Piombino Nuccio. (Nuccio.)

Antonio Petrongelli poses with his cousin Yolanda Giannetti in the mid-1920s in Chicago Heights. Petrongelli gained citizenship and returned to Amaseno in the 1930s, giving his first son, Americo, the right to immigrate to the United States in 1950. (Author.)

Among the souvenirs of the postwar Italian immigrants to Chicago were report cards. This one from the early 1940s reflects Italys nationalist education policies and fascist propaganda cheering the tanks, ships, and warplanes of the armed forces to a victory that never came. On the other hand, the fascist government vastly expanded public education, and these report cards also symbolize the increased educational qualification of the new immigrants over the preWorld War I group, a sizeable portion of whom were illiterate. (Rubino.)

The fascist government put a lot of resources into the development and training of youth, with the object of creating a nation of disciplined and healthy citizens and soldiers. In the years under Mussolini, the Balilla movement, roughly comparable to Boy or Girl Scout programs, functioned during the school week and on Saturdays throughout Italy and even in many of the Italian Catholic parishes in Chicago. (Vaniglia.)

Antonino Ciminello went from Sicily to Africa to work as a civilian colonist. He opened up a barbershop and had a partnership in a stone quarry. He intended to bring all of his family to Africa, but the war came and he was taken prisoner. At the end of the war, he returned to Sicily in a red suit, destitute. Postwar conditions nudged him to accept an invitation in 1954 to join his brother Sam in Chicago. Thus, in a 20-year period, he went from being a colonist in Africa to an immigrant in Chicago. (Nuccio.)

Mario (left) and Manfreddo Ciccotelli were part of the Balilla and the Figli di Lupo, respectively, in Caramanico (Pescara). The large colorized version of this photograph is inscribed Caramanico 5-5-1939 XVII. The Roman numerals represent the literary convention of the time to indicate the age of Mussolinis fascist regime. It never got beyond XXII. These boys came with their father, Eugenio, to Chicago Heights in 1947. (Ciccotelli.)

Vincenzo Tribo was only a year and a half old when his folks dressed him up in this Balilla outfit in Fiume in December 1934. The Balilla gets its name from the nickname of a legendary Genovese boy, Giambattista Perasso, who precipitated the ouster of Austrian occupation troops from Genoa in the 1740s. (Tribo.)

Antonio DAmbrosio spent the early part of World War II as a truck driver in Trieste and ended it being captured and held as a prisoner of war in Africa. He spent more than five years in the Italian Army. (DAmbrosio.)