| Chapter 1: | Italian Americana 1920s–1930s |
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Formation of ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn was part of a familiar pattern repeated extensively as Italian immigrants settled in numerous cities and towns in the northeast. Following a chain migration pattern, namely the well-worn tendency to move near friends and relatives who shared similar backgrounds, languages or dialects, and familiar mores, meant that people transplanted their regional characteristics to specific neighborhoods.
While there was some interaction with children of non-Italian background, the overwhelming number of relationships was those whose parents were of Italian birth; but the sense of ethnic heritage was more than that of being Italian—on my block, it meant to be of Sicilian ancestry. So conspicuous was the sense of being Sicilian that the first question asked by mothers upon learning about the prospective marriage of a neighbor’s daughter was whether the future groom was Sicilian. If the answer was affirmative, it almost automatically conferred approval. If not, then in descending order the next best preference was that he be Italian, Catholic, or finally an American. Sicilian was obviously the preferred socio-psychological lineage; it was almost as if connection with the Mediterranean Island of Sicily possessed those intrinsic, inherent choice qualities that alone could provide sheltered sustenance and true fulfillment of life.
Most of the Sicilian immigrants on the block called their Brooklyn neighborhood “Bruculinu”, as recalled by Vincent Schiavelli in his delightful book, Bruculinu, America, and it was on the block that they sought to maintain their Sicilian culture for the most part unconsciously and informally.