L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017 L'Italo-Americano KENNETH SCAMBRAY Charcoal and Blood: Italian Immigrants in Eureka, Nevada and the Fish Creek Massacre by Silvio Manno. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2016 S ilvio M anno w as born in Calabria, grew up in Milano, and immigrated to F res no, w here he earned an MA in Linguistics from Fresno State. Fluent in Spanish and Italian, he taught for years as a bilingual elementary school teacher, until his retire- ment. For years Manno has been a tireless researcher into the histo- ry of Italian immigrants in Cali- fornia. He has done extensive research on Italian immigrants in the California gold country. He is the author of one previous work, The Forestiere Under- ground Gardens: A Pictorial Journey. In his latest work he has expanded his research on Italian immigration to a tragic event, the Fish Creek Massacre, which occurred in 1879 Eureka, Nevada. Scholars have written about this event, but usually in articles with limited circulation. With his book, published by a reputable univers ity pres s , Manno has brought this other- wise obscure event to a broader audience. The Fish Creek Massacre is an important chapter in the histo- ry of Italian immigration history in the West. Little known even among scholars, Italian immi- grants brought the artisan skill of charcoal burning to America in the nineteenth century. In their home regions, both in the north and south of Italy, under danger- ous conditions peasants felled trees in the regions' forests and created charcoal used for both domestic and industrial purpos- es. In his novel, Empty Hands (1960), Calabrese novelist Save- rio Strati wrote about the impov- erished and exploited charcoal burners of Calabria. In Eureka, at the end of the nineteenth centu- ry, Italian charcoal burners were similarly exploited, earning low wages and working long hours under equally dangerous condi- tions. As said, Italian immigrants brought the technique for mak- ing charcoal to America. It was one among many industries at the time in which they could transfer their old world artisan skills, find a job quickly, and earn a living, marginal as it was. In the West, charcoal was an essential product used in the smelting industry for the pro- d u c t i o n o f c o a l . A s M a n n o explains, in the 1870s and 1880s Italians faced a wide-spread prejudice against them, just as it happened to all other immi- grants. Italians in particular had n o t y e t e s t a b l i s h e d a s e c u r e foothold in any industry. Manno explains that by 1877 there was a resurgence in the need for c h a r c o a l i n N e v a d a , w h i c h a t t r a c t e d a l a r g e i m m i g r a n t workforce. The underpaid immi- grants numbered at the time about three thousand men. They were paid the meager wage of less than one dollar a day, a low pay for a skilled job even in the 1870s. Working on slopes while f e l l i n g l a r g e t r e e s , w o r k e r s r i s k e d d e b i l i t a t i o n i n j u r y o r death every moment of their working lives. In 1879 the charcoal burners did something unexpected: they formed the Eureka Charcoal Burners Protective Association. T h e s i x s m e l t e r o p e r a t i o n s , including the two largest, the Eureka and Richmond smelters, opposed the union. Ironically, several Italian immigrants, prob- ably of Swiss-Italian origin, were among the workers' chief adversaries. They had all settled in Eureka earlier, accumulated c a p i t a l , a n d i n v e s t e d i n t h e lucrative smelting industry. In h i s e x t r e m e l y w e l l - r e s e a r c h work, Manno explains in detail the union process that lead ulti- m a t e l y t o t h e i r d e m a n d s f o r higher wages and better working conditions. As it turned out, the workers' low daily rate was often the result of companies' fraudulent bookkeeping, which allocated payment to workers based on the number of sacks of charcoal they produced. Adding to their problem, because of t h e i r i l l i t e r a c y , i n i t i a l l y t h e immigrants were unable to read companies' account books accu- rately. But they soon discovered the fraud perpetrated by man- agement. As a result, the burners began a number of work stoppages under the general leadership of I t a l i a n i m m i g r a n t S e v e r i n o Strozzi, who had become an influential officer in the burners' new association. By the summer of 1879, tensions began to rise as workers advocated destruc- tion of property. Owners and local officials called for the state m i l i t i a . A s M a n n o r e v e a l s through his research into the local newspapers at the time, editors inflamed the sentiment against the workers and support- e d m a n a g e m e n t . O n e p a p e r , however, did publish an anony- mous editorial in favor of the workers. Some among the local population, because of the work- ers' impoverished living condi- tions and low pay, actually sym- pathized with the immigrants. This was a surprising develop- ment, given the general anti- immigrant sentiment at the time. T h e w o r k e r s s t r u c k w h e n management failed to come to terms with their demands. More- over, in addition to Strozzi's leadership in the ranks of the union, Italian workers became active in the strike. In one inci- dent, seventy-five Italians went to a ranch owed by one of the Italian owners and confiscated 2000 bushels of charcoal and d e s t r o y e d t h e m . G r o u p s o f workers organized and attempt- ed to disrupt the distribution sys- tem of charcoal. It was reported that police began to make arrests until the jail was filled with Ital- ians. The workers' resistance came to a head on August 18, 1879 when about one-hundred workers confronted officers. No one really knows what happened or exactly who initiated the vio- lence. In the aftermath, five Ital- ian burners were killed and six wounded. The newspapers, law- men, and workers all had differ- ing accounts of the incident. T h o u g h t h e l a w m e n w e r e charged, they were never tried. The story that Manno tells of this infamous incident is one among many that Italians were involved in before World War II. Perhaps the most famous and tragic was the Ludlow Massacre. O n A p r i l 2 0 , 1 9 1 4 , i n t h e i r efforts to suppress a miners' strike, the Colorado National Guard opened fire on the Lud- low tent mining camp and set it on fire. In the aftermath it was d i s c o v e r e d t h a t t w o I t a l i a n women and thirteen Italian chil- dren burned to death. The Fish Camp and Ludlow Massacres demonstrate that the success for early immigrants, like today's immigrants, did not come easily. Outside the scope of Manno's well-written and informative work are the innu- merable mining disasters in the East and West and other indus- trial accidents that took the lives of thousands of immigrants. Regulations were few, and gov- ernment oversight was non-exis- tent. Manno's work is a useful contribution to the field of Ital- ian immigration history in the West. LIFE PEOPLE MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS

• Cover