L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano H ave you ever won- dered what came before L'Italo- Americano? Where did San Francisco's early Italian immigrants find the news? By all accounts, the newly arrived longed for reports from neighboring communities and from paesani halfway around the world. Nowadays, breaking news, and not so breaking news, comes to us in uber-modern online plat- forms, but what came before? The answer can be found 150 years ago in giornali con notizie (newspapers) with names like La Scintilla Italiana, La Voce Del Popolo, and L'Italia. Although these were the big three, San Francisco's Italian journalism began as early as the mid-1850s with the first influx of immi- grants to the City. Some historians suggest these earliest examples were actually only inserts in the Spanish news- paper, La Cronica, and French, La Phare. The first distinct Ital- ian language newspaper was the 1859 L'Eco della Patria, pub- lished and edited by Federico Biesta. In 1860, the rival La Cronaca Italiana was founded by A ngelo M angini. 1868 brought one of the longest sur- viving of San Francisco's Italian new s papers , L a Voce del Popolo. La Voce Del Popolo was in print from 1868 to 1943, published by the Associazione Nazionale Italiana di San Fran- cisco and Partito Nazionale Ital- iano di California. Times were tumultuous, com- petitive rivalries were raging, and in 1872 L'Eco della Patria finally succumbed when it was purchased by La Voce del Popo- lo. But the battle of the newspa- pers w as not over yet. 1880 brought Giovanni Fugazi's La Scintilla Italiana. It was not long, however, before it too sur- rendered, eventually merging with La Voce del Popolo. In 1886, a group calling them- selves, Lega di Mille (league of thousands) founded L'Italia, which became the arch-rival of La Voce del Popolo. This daily, which ran from 1886 to 1943, w as the larges t Italian daily newspaper west of Chicago at that time. And so it went for decades, a time period when San Francisco's Italian community enjoyed tw o new s papers . A ltho ugh ow ners hip of both perio dicals changed s everal times over the years , they endured, reporting on the many important news events of several turbulent decades, including two world wars. They were published side by side until 1943 when La Voce del Popolo was absorbed by L'Italia. CATHERINE ACCARDI Read All About It! 150 Years of San Francisco's Italian Newspapers opportunity. Today's Fugazi Building in N orth Beach is home to Italian Community Ser- vices and has on display original copies of the big three, La Scin- tilla Italiana, La Voce Del Popo- lo and L'Italia. North Beach Italians read L'Italia Newspaper article About Italy's WWII surrender, September 8, 1943. Images courtesy of the Library of Congress SAN FRANCISCO ITALIAN COMMUNITY L'Italia, the last daily Italian language new s paper on the Pacific Coast, was liquidated in 1965. One year later, Pierino Mori, of Vancouver, founded L'Eco d'Italia in San Francisco. The publication continued until 1980 when Mori sold it to L'Ita- lo-Americano of Los Angeles. The L'Italo-Americano we know today was founded in the Los A ngeles area in 1908 by Gabriello Spini, and with this 1980 merger it became, and still is, the only Italian-Ameri- can newspaper in the western United States. As of July 1, 2004, L 'Ita lo-Am er icano became the property of L'Italo American Foundation. In his blog, former San Fran- cisco Italian Consul General, Mauro Battocchi, wrote: "Did you know there used to be three Italian language daily newspa- pers in San Francisco? That's right! The bustling immigrant com- munity here was large enough to support these three foreign lan- guage publications. Take La Scintilla Italiana, for example, which was founded by Giovanni Fugazi, a powerful Italian-born businessman, banker and com- munity leader w ho made an indelible impact on San Francis- co." An ad for La Voce del Popolo in the 1873 Rowell American Newspaper Directory states: "It is the only influential Italian new s paper publis hed on the Pacific Coast, and has a large circulation throughout the Unit- ed States, Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland. It is the best medi- um for advertisers to bring their business before the Italian and Swiss population." Now that you have "read all about it," it is particularly grati- fying to know you can still view these historic reflections of the culture and times of San Fran- cis co's Italian community. Especially entertaining are the cartoons – written with Italian captions – and the business ads which produce waves of nostal- gia. Viewing is possible by visit- ing the Internet A rchive at https://archive.org and entering "La Voce Del Popolo" into the search box. The newspapers are also available at the Library of Congress, Chronicling America, online archives at https://chroni- clingamerica.loc.gov. One of the images viewable online is that of the cover of an illustrated almanac of La Voce del Popolo for the year 1901. A nother is of the 1910 24 th anniversary supplement cele- brating the anniversary of the founding of Italy. This issue has a publication location of 118 Montgomery Avenue, San Fran- cisco. Also online is the Saturday, January 24, 1898, issue of L'I- talia published daily by the Ital- ian Publishing Company, which states, "The only Italian daily that owns a Linotype machine and is entirely set with it." The offices are shown as 629 Wash- ington Street, San Francisco. We can thank G iovanni Fugazi for an additional viewing La Voce del Popolo almanac cover page, 1901. Images courtesy of the Library of Congress

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