Observations on the Italian Diaspora

submitted by Silvio Laccetti

Americans, particularly Italian Americans, are barely aware of the dimensions of the Italian Diaspora - the settlement of Italians across the globe. People of Italian heritage have played major roles and have significant presence in a number of countries. A brief listing shows that:

1. For reference, Italy has 60 million people

2. Brazil has 32 million of Italian heritage, or 15% of its total population

3. Argentina has 25 million, a whopping 62.5% of its total population

4. The United States has an estimated 17 million , about 6%. But the National Italian American Foundation claims the number could be as high as 25 million, since the census department stopped asking about Italian ethnicity in this century.

5. Venezuela, 1.7 million or 6%

6. Canada, 1.5 million, or 4.5%

7 and 8. Australia, 1 million or 4.4% and Uruguay 1 million, BUT 40%

If you are wondering, US cities with the most Italian Americans are: New York City, 1 million, followed by Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston with about 1/2 million. The biggest concentration of Italian Americans is in the Northeast with New York and New Jersey leading the way.The municipality with the highest percentage of Italian Americans is Fairfield, NJ at 50%.

I was intrigued by these statistics, and so decided to ask two individuals associated with the work of my foundation, The Silvio Laccetti Foundation, about issues facing their Italian communities, one from Brazil, and the other from Australia. It would appear that the two uppermost issues for Italian Americans concern 1) the Columbus controversy and 2) Italian Studies in public schools.

First, I inquired of Bill Macina to give us the lay of the land in Brazil.The peak Italian migration to Brazil occurred at about the same time as that to the US, 1870-1920, with a smaller flow occurring after World War II. Atypically, Bill is a triple mover. His grandparents came to the US from Italy. As a student, Bill lived in Paramus, NJ, and afterwards in Washington Township, but in later adulthood, he moved to Brazil to establish his successful business, ITAMBRAS.

With regard to the two issues of importance to Italian Americans, Bill states that Columbus in a nonissue. There are very, very few monuments to him in Brazil, which, after all, was discovered by the Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral. October 12 is celebrated as a quasi-religious “Children’s Continued on page 6

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