Oct. 23 – New York and Washington are the two stops planned for “Finding America,” the book conceived and curated by Paolo Battaglia and Linda Barrett Osborne that includes over 500 images of Italian immigrants in times when “L’America” was written without apostrophe and the mirage of a decent life was only possible across the Atlantic. After the presentation in New York yesterday, tomorrow the book will be presented in Washington where at the NIAF Gala, and on October 30 at the Library of Congress. The two authors selected over 500 images from this important institution, official memory keeper of the United States: faces, poses, clothes, luggage, objects, stories, eyes of those who came to the U.S. with dreams and hopes… The book was produced in two versions: in Italian and English, the latter under the title “Explorers Emigrants Citizens.” The narrative is supported by unpublished images and offers a new and original perspective on the complex experience of the Italians in America from Columbus to the present. In addition to well-known people such as Antonio Meucci, Fiorello LaGuardia, and Joe DiMaggio, the book is devoted to stories of men like James Beltrami, the first explorer to reach the headwaters of the Mississippi in 1823, and Joe Petrosino, the precursor of the fight against organized crime. The book reconstructs with great vividness and accuracy the often-difficult life conditions faced by millions of Italians who chose emigration and the path that led them to be a great asset to the United States. In addition to the works of well-known authors such as Lewis Hine, the book rediscovers Italian artists such as Carlo Gentile, who photographed the Native Americans of the Southwest in the 19th century, and Athos Casarini, futurist painter and illustrator for New York magazines of the early 20th century. “Many works deal with the history of the ethnic groups that make up the U.S. – explain Barrett Osborne and Battaglia – focusing on their successes. In our case, we highlighted these successes with pride, but we could not ignore the most problematic and complex aspects, such as organized crime, and the negative stereotypes that they triggered; poverty and social exclusion, anarchist and labor struggles, the political and cultural differences among Italian Americans themselves, for example, during the Fascist era divided the Italian population in the USA.” Battaglia and Barrett Osborne remove, with their book, many clichés about the figure of the Italian-American immigrant, and they especially highlight the nuances, the deep differences that these immigrants brought with them. “From the pages of the book – explain the authors – it is clear that there is no Italian-American type. The images in the Library of Congress show rather a large variety in which the Italian-American experience in the United States manifests itself.” The three ” Explorers”, “Emigrants” and “Citizens” sections are introduced by essays written by two historians, the Italian Antonio Canovi and the Italian-American Mario B. Mignone, who reconstructed the evolution of the Italian presence in America, an evolution and transformation that even Martin Scorsese, who wrote the introduction to the book, confirms: “Little Italy – says the director – is a historic district today, a place visited by tourists. Of course, for those of us who grew up there, it’s sad to see the disappearance of that world. But it’s not a tragedy. It’s New York and America, both in constant transformation.”
