L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE D ear Readers, more Italian Heritage Month thoughts to share with you: A s e l e c t i o n d a y s n e a r , I bemoan the fact we voters seem to have more quantity than qual- ity to select from, at least when c o m p a r e d t o F i o r e l l o L a Guardia, who became mayor of New York in 1934, when the city was still reeling from the devastating financial an emo- t i o n a l b l o w s o f t h e G r e a t Depression. Unemployment was rampant. New York, then the most populous city in the world, h a d l o s t i t s s p i r i t . N o o n e seemed to know what to do, and what was worse, no one seemed to care. A pudgy, unimpressive-look- ing man who didn't like to give up without a fight, Fiorello La Guardia, with an impish grin and indomitable spirit, pulled a dying city up by its outstrips. His legacy were bridges, road- ways, housing and parks and his beneficiaries were the citizens of New York. Before the record books were closed on La Guardia's 12 years term on office, the city gained a municipal airport, 14 public housing developments, the High School of Music and Art, the T r i b o r o u g h B r i d g e , M a r i n e P a r k w a y , t h e b r i d g e t o R i i s Park, 33 miles of new roadway linked to the existing system, 165 newly renovated parks and an additional 5.000 acres of parkland, 343 playgrounds, 368 tennis courts and 10 golf cours- es. T h e p e o p l e o f t h e c i t y embraced their mayor with an enthusiasm not seen before or since. He spoke their languages, c o n v e r s i n g c o m f o r t a b l y i n English, Italian and Yiddish. L e s s k n o w n w a s L a Guardia's popularity among the Italian anti-Fascist population and partisans who listened to him on Radio London. H i s h e a v i l y a c c e n t e d " A m e r i c a n - I t a l i a n " w a s s o delightful that made all Italians laugh, especially knowing that Fascists in Italy ridiculed him, b u t c o u l d n ' t s t o p h i m f r o m addressing the Italian people through Radio London. A popu- lar Fascist motto at that time was "Colombo, Colombo, chi te lo ha fatto fare?" (Why did you do i t ? W h y d i d y o u d i s c o v e r America?). *** October ends with a gather- ing of candy and chocolate in the Halloween ritual of "trick or treat," so I thought I would share a f e w I t a l i a n C o n n e c t i o n s about Milton S.Hershey, the chocolate company he founded a n d t h e t o w n o f H e r s h e y , Pennsylvania. Many people readily associ- ate the town of Hershey with its chocolate or its tourist attrac- tions. Few, however, are aware of the considerable number of Italian immigrants who chose to settle in the area during the early part of the century. These people came hoping to build a new life for themselves i n a n e w l a n d — a n d i n t h e process, they helped to build the town. Those first Italian immi- grants and their descendants are as responsible for helping con- struct the town's architectural landmarks as they are for exem- plifying Hershey's long-standing reputation as a family oriented community. T h e H o t e l H e r s h e y , t h e chocolate factory, the Hershey Community Center, and several churches were constructed with the assistance of the masonry skills those early immigrants brought with them across the ocean, often as their only pos- sessions. Milton Hershey broke ground f o r h i s c h o c o l a t e f a c t o r y i n 1 9 0 3 , a n d o v e r t h e n e x t f e w years, a well planned community began to emerge. Because most of the area's residents were of Pennsylvanian Dutch ancestry, some remember their parents picking up more of the natives l a n g u a g e t h a n E n g l i s h : " T o father, my mother wa his 'frau' — never 'this is my wife' it was 'this is my frau'." Most of the Italian families who settled in Hershey emigrat- e d f r o m t h e i r n a t i v e l a n d b e t w e e n 1 8 9 0 a n d 1 9 2 0 i n search of a better life. Nearly all of those early immigrants came from Central Italy - from the regions of Abruzzi, Marche and Tuscany. The remaining immi- grants came from the regions of V e n e t o , L a t i u m , C a m p a n i a , Apulia, Calabria or Sicily. D u r i n g t h e s e y e a r s , I t a l y experienced a boom in industrial development. Most adversely affected were the "contadini" — t e n a n t f a r m e r s w i t h s o m e money, but not enough to own their own land — and the arti- sans and skilled tradesmen of central Italy. The farmers from this area were hampered by their primi- tive equipment and techniques, and the skilled laborers were being replaced by machines as industry increasingly relied on mass production. H o m e s w e r e a n e n o r m o u s source of pride to these people, whose former peasant status had left them unable to own the land on which they toiled. In fact, the primary goal of most Italian immigrants settling in Hershey was to own their own home, which nearly always had a base- ment wine cellar, a grape arbor, garden, and chicken coop behind the house. Their wine was made in the traditional Italian manner. The grapes were crushed by use of h a n d - o p e r a t e d c r u s h i n g machines, and the juice was then fermented in upright barrels and aged for several months. The wine was made from the pure juice of the grape itself: it had no added water, yeast or sugar. In addition to using home- grown grapes for their wine pro- duction, the Italians had boxcars o f g r a p e s s h i p p e d f r o m California. *** When World War II broke out, founder Milton Hershey fol- lowed the news eagerly, wishing that he might help. The opportu- nity came when representatives of the Army came to Hershey s e e k i n g a c h o c o l a t e b a r t h a t would not melt in a soldier's pocket and that would sustain him when he had no other food. Field Ration D, made with a c o m b i n a t i o n o f i n g r e d i e n t s including chocolate, was devel- oped. Each 4-ounce bar provided 600 calories. The Hershey facto- ry was soon turning out 500.000 bars every 24 hours. Everyone in Hershey was pleased when the Quartermaster General presented Mr. Hershey with an award for his achievement. He lived to see the end of the war. He also lived to celebrate his 88th birthday, but died exact- ly one month later on October 13, 1945. *** During World War I, when t h e I t a l i a n s w e r e A m e r i c a ' s Allies, among the several hun- d r e d A m e r i c a n p i l o t s w h o l e a r n e d t o f l y t h e b i g t h r e e - engined Caproni Bombers used by the Americans circa 1917 w a s C a p t a i n F i o r e l l o L a Guardia who later was Mayor of New York City from 1932 to 1 9 4 5 . T h e C a p r o n i B o m b e r s were flown by US crews on the Italian and French fronts during WWI. In later years the New Jersey based Standard Aircraft Company acquired the manufac- turing license for a variant of the Caproni Bomber powered by a Liberty engine. ***

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