L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, more Italian Connections: Our 22nd State Alabama, I was sur- prised to learn, also had many early Italians, however, unlike the Italians that settled in Arkansas, in Tontitown circa 1896, who emigrated from the Northern Alpine region of Italy, at least nine- ty percent of Birmingham's Italians came from Sicily, mostly from a handful of villages including Bisac- quino, Cefalù and Campofranco.  Before 1898 most Italians land- ed at New Orleans where they worked on sugar and cotton planta- tions, but low wages, poor working conditions and promise of better opportunities led several hundred Italians to make another immigra- tion to Alabama in the late 1890s. The greatest influx of Italians came between 1900 and 1910, when Birmingham's industries suf- fered chronic labor shortages as demand for coal, iron and steel increased. For the new Italian immigrant, an industrial job meant hard work and low pay - yearly earnings averaged $286, or about a dollar a day, as compared with $665 for Scottish immigrants, $534 for native whites. The proprietorship of a "Mom and Pop" store soon became a lead- ing occupation and symbol of progress among Italian immigrants. Located in predominantly black neighborhoods which lacked stores, the business attracted many Italians because it required relative- ly little money to get started and stores could be operated by the wife and children while the father could continue to work in the mine or mill. By the 1930s Italians owned more than 300 grocery stores in Birmingham. The first formal social organiza- tions among Italians were mutual aid societies - groups that collected dues to be used in case of sickness or death of a member, providing proper religious burials. The groups also regularly sponsored dances that were hit points of the Italian community's social life. One such group, the Società Italiana Umberto Di Savoia Principe di Piemonte (commonly known as USPP) was a benevolent society which also promoted awareness of the Italian heritage; it was instru- mental in getting Columbus Day declared a legal holiday in Alaba- ma in 1911. The Italian immigrants brought with them a staunch Catholic faith. At the time of the Italians' arrival, Birmingham had only one Catholic church. The local Catholic bishop recognized the Italians' problem, and asked the Pope to send an Ital- ian priest to Birmingham. In 1904 Father John Canepa of Genoa arrived, Republic Steel donated land, Italian families raised money and on March 19, 1905 the first Mass was said in the new church called St. Mark's. The Italian Catholic churches celebrated many Sicilian feast days, including the feast of Madon- na Del Balzo, the feast of San Calogero, the building of St. Joseph's altar on March 19, each year. Weddings were big celebrations that always included dancing and food. Other kinds of entertainment included baseball, bocce, "lotto," the Italian bingo, and storytelling. Italians had to band together to combat the prejudice of many native whites. A belief in Anglo-Saxon superi- ority led to discrimination against southern European immigrants. One proponent of this discriminato- ry attitude was Oscar W. Under- wood, a United States Congress- man from the Birmingham district. In 1902 he advocated literacy test for immigrants to keep out Italians and Greeks and the Ku Klux Klan sometimes threatened and harassed Italians. In the 1930s the Italian commu- nity began to grow rapidly as the second generation married and had children. As it grew, it lost some of its distinctively Italian flavor, in part due to the fact that English had become the primary language and to a tendency among second gener- ation Italians to marry non-Italians. Alabama, once known as the "cotton state" is now known for its Alabama Space and Rocket Center. *** A Roman police inspector Brigadier Giovanni Maimone retired from the police department an received a pension immediately. However, when his partner Dox Von Coburger Land retired from the Rome police force at age of 15, the authorities decided that he was not entitled to a pension. Why? Because he was a dog, and not a person. They ignored the fact that Dox had solved more cases than any other detective on the force (con- tributing to the arrest of 560 sus- pects in 171 assignments), received 38 decorations for his accomplish- ments, and was wounded seven times in the line of duty. Since he held the rank of corporal, lower- ranking human policemen had to salut him when he approached. There was, nonetheless, no denying he was a dog. Although the uneven-eared German Shep- herd (half of his left ear had been shot off by a fleeing gunman) man- aged a few stunts that normal dogs could barely imagine - emptying a loaded pistol or untying a man roped to a chair, for instance - Dox was most famous for a truly canine feature - his nose. He could follow trails far older and farther than other dogs and even recognize the scent of criminals he had pursued years before. In one famous case, Dox led police to the hideout of a suspected jewel thief. When the man protest- ed his innocence and no evidence could be found, the police went back to headquarters. But Dox insisted on returning to the scene of the crime, found a loose button, and then led police back to the suspect. Finding a suspicious closet, he opened the door with his mouth, pulled a coat off a hanger, and point his nose at the spot where the but- ton had been torn off. The loose button he had found earlier clearly belonged there, the suspect con- fessed. Although he was a police offi- cer, Dox really belonged to one man, Brigadier Giovanni Maimone, who was so strong to be sometimes called "The Hercules Cop." The team performed many special assignments, but could most often be seen patrolling Rome on a motor scooter. Dox could open the scooter trunk with his mouth. When Dox retired, Maimone did the same and opened a dog- training center called "Casa Dox", where the 19 year old dog died in 1965. Feeling that Dox had never received his proper recognition as civil servant, Maimone continued to sue for a pension, In 1974, thir- teen years old late, the courts agreed and gave Dox a posthumous award.

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