NORWICH – Norwich’s Italian heritage is a bridge to the past that’s important for many reasons, say organizers of an exhibit on Sicilian immigration that opened Monday in Norwich.
“Sicilian Crossings and the Derived Communities,” created through the Sicilian government and the University of Messina, will be on display from 1 to 8 p.m. starting today until May 22 in the Monsignor Guy Festa Parish Center, located next to St. Bartholomew’s Church on East Main Street in Norwich.
Many of Norwich’s Italian immigrants came from Lipari, one of seven islands in what’s known as the Aeolian Island chain, located off the coast of Sicily. “Crossings” tells their story, and the stories of thousands of Sicilian immigrants who left in a mass migration to the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.
“The exhibit is meant to reinforce the relationship between the Sicilian communities there and in the United States,” said Marcello Saija, a professor at the University of Messina (Sicily) who helped create the exhibit, funded by the Sicilian government. “The best way to reinforce this relationship is to discover the roots of emigration of the Sicilian communities.”
Many Sicilian and Aeolian immigrants relocated to New York state, forming communities in New York City, Norwich, Oswego and Rochester. Locally, many worked in the stone quarry on West Hill or in the Ontario and Western Railroad yards where Norwich High School sits today.
They also landed in cities like Newark, New Orleans and San Francisco.
The exhibit consists of 120 two-by-five-foot panels depicting the struggles that led Sicilian and Aeolian immigrants to leave home, the challenges they faced in making the voyage, and the lives they created once in America.
“The people that came in the 1920s – they were looking for a better life,” said Frank Speziale, who came to Norwich later in the 1950s from Lipari. “They brought their love and their lives to this community.”
Norwich is the exhibit’s last stop in the United States. From here, it will travel to Milan, Rome and Palermo. It has already been displayed at Ellis Island, the Boston Public Library, Stonybrook College in Long Island, St. Thomas University in Miami and in Newark, New Jersey.
“Crossings” also highlights the importance of what Saija calls “mutual aid” societies, groups or brotherhoods that helped immigrants retain their culture and look out for one and other as they adjusted to life in a far off place.
“The people who immigrated from Sicily kept their identity by forming local societies of Sicilian Americans in their respective towns,” explained Dr. Dave Drucker, director of the Chenango County Historical Society Museum, which secured the exhibit for display at the Monsignor Festa Parish Center. “In Norwich, that was the Sons of Italy. The Knights of Columbus was also comprised of many Sicilian-American immigrants.”
Sharp downturns in commercial fishing, mining, wine-making and citrus fruit exports – all major industries in Sicily and the Aeolian Islands – in the second half of the 19th century, due to both natural and economic factors, led many to begin their journey to America, according to the exhibit.
“What I didn’t know was the motivation for our ancestors coming here,” said Nan Magistro, whose grandfather came to Norwich in the early part of the 20th century, following two sisters who were already here. “Some came because they had family here. There were also economic difficulties. This shows all the reasons.”
Playing on the economic hardships, shipping companies and their agents spurred Sicilian immigration through propaganda campaigns that made what are today considered false promises of guaranteed wealth and prosperity in America.
“Who created the American Dream? The shipping companies,” said Saija.
In many cases, those interested in leaving the Islands had to sell their possessions or become indebted to loan agents who often wound-up taking ownership of their property. As Sicilian communities became established in the U.S., Italian-American banks and mutual aid societies set up “complicated” loan programs that would pay for ship tickets.
Sicilian immigrants were the first victims of extortion by the Sicilian Mafia, known as “La Mano Nera,” or “The Black Hand,” in America, said Saija.
At certain points between the 1880s and 1920s, Italian immigrants also took measures to hide their origins to avoid discrimination, Drucker added.
For many Italian immigrants and their descendants in Norwich, St. Bartholomew’s Church, built by Liparian immigrants in 1926-27, remains a major source of their cultural history and pride.
“I know the men who built St. Bart’s did it with blood, sweat and tears. The story of that community is something that has to be told and talked about. It has to survive,” said Rose Scozzafava, who grew up in Norwich, the granddaughter of Liparian natives, and now lives in Washington, D.C. “I’ve been a lot of places, my church, my community and my family still mean everything to me, and the Italian heritage. Music, art, beauty and love are all part of that Italian heritage. I hope it will forever be preserved in the form of our church.”
Saija said the history of Sicilian emigration is not only important to descendants in the U.S. and other parts of the world, but to native Sicilians as well.
“Sicily is now large if you consider all the Sicilian communities in the world, and these communities are a resource for Sicily – culturally and economically,” said Saija. “It is important for you here because you want to discover your origins ... It is important to discover the roots in order to catch back up with your identity.”