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L'Italo-Americano
Italian-American weekly newspaper
L'Italo-Americano was
founded in 1908 by Gabriello Spini, a learned Florentine, who wanted to
"Inform, Unite and Assist" the rising Italian American community of Los
Angeles.
In 1980 L’Italo-Americano
acquires L'Eco d'Italia of San Francisco becoming the only Italian
newspaper on the West Coast. A weekly publication with a circulation of
approx. 30,000 readers.
Pelanconi
House
The oldest brick
house in Los Angeles County now a sidewalk restaurant, La Golondrina.
Built about 1855-57 by Guiseppi Covaccichi (Jose Covaccichi) as a
residence, the Pelanconi House is a two-story firebrick building is the
oldest still standing in the city. Jose Covaccichi was born in 1824 in
the state of Dalmacia in Italy and was married to Joaquina Elbarria (Echevarria)
of Sonora. Covacich bought the property in 1855 from Loretta Valencia.
Since the 1930s the building has been rented by the Bonzo family for use
as a restaurant, La Golondrina. The restaurant is housed at street level
in the exposed basement, while offices are upstairs. Senora Consuelo de
Bonzo, first tenant in the building after Mrs. Sterling opened Olvera
Street as a Mexican marketplace, was the first restaurateur to serve
food described as "Mexican" rather than "Spanish."
WATTS TOWERS
OF SIMON RODIA
California Historical Site NO. 993
1921-1954
One of the great folk-art masterpieces of Los Angeles, perhaps the
nation's best-known work of folk art sculpture, is located in the city
of Watts. The structure was built single-handedly by Italian immigrant
Sabbatino "Simon" Rodia on his private property as a tribute to his
adopted country. Rodia purposed to "make something big." Rodia spent 30
years building the towers. He worked entirely without drawn designs. The
tallest of the steel towers rises 99 feet in height and all are
decorated with colored glass, shells, pottery, tile, and other salvaged
items imbedded into mortar. Although city engineers condemned the towers
during the 1960s and attempted demolition, preservationists prevailed
and saw the towers designated as a city cultural monument. Simon Rodia
himself retired from Los Angeles to Martinez in Northern California
after completing the towers. He lived the remainder of his life in
self-imposed reclusiveness until his death in 1965. Although the Watts
Riots erupted a few blocks from the towers only weeks after Rodia's
death, the towers were unharmed.
Los
Angeles County Census 1836
The
Mexican government takes the first official census of Los Angeles. The
population is fixed at 2,228. This includes 603 men, 421 women, 651
children and 553 "domesticated Indians." Among Los Angeles residents are
29 Americans, 4 Britons, 3 Portuguese, 2 Africans, and a Canadian,
Irishman, Italian, German, Scot, Norwegian, and Curacao.
Italian renaissance sculpture "Saint John Capistran"
"Saint John Capistran,"
a 450-year-old 5-feet-3, approximately 300 pounds work in glazed terra
cotta by the Italian artist Santi Buglioni
(1494-1576) purchased by the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art, was installed January 4, 2007. The
15th-century saint
whose name is carried by the Mission San Juan Capistrano. A lawyer, born
in the Italian town of Capistrano, who became a governor, and then a
prisoner of war, and then a Franciscan friar. Famed as a preacher who
could hold vast crowds spellbound, John of Capistrano was commissioned
at age 70 by Pope Callistus III to help lead 70,000 Christian crusaders
against Turkish Muslims at Belgrade. The Christians prevailed, but John
died later that year, perhaps of bubonic plague. He was canonized in
1724. The sculpture came to the New York gallery about four
years ago through a purchase from dealer Luigi Bellini in Monte Carlo
The Garibaldina Society
is the oldest Italian Association in Los
Angeles.
The Garibaldina Society is the oldest Italian
association in Southern California. Formed in 1888 (merging in 1916 with
the Italian Mutual Benevolence Society, founded in1877). It held regular meetings in
the Italian Hall (Pueblo of Los Angeles), build in 1907, as a social
center for the Italian community.
Read more about the Garibaldina and the history of the early Italian
settlement: Gloria Ricci Lothrop, Italians of Los Angeles,
Historical Society of Southern California, 2003.
DB Club (Dago
Bastards Club), San Pedro.
An informal group, as rumor has it, of old-time Italians, largely
fisherman, from San Pedro, banded together and called themselves the
"Dago Bastards." A derogatory term used for Italians in the
early days of immigration. See John Fante's collection
of short stories: Dago Red, 1940;). Read more about John Royal
(Giovanni Reale) and the DB Club in: Old Ties, New Attachments:
Italian-American Folk life in the West, edited by David A. Taylor,
John Alexander Williams, Library of Congress, 1992.
St.
Peter’s Italian Catholic Church
Located in downtown
Los Angeles, is a primary site for religiously-related events. Casa Italiana also hosts Opera productions, meetings, dinner dances
of the various organizations, from the Sons of Italy and the Italian
Lawyers Association, to the Federated Italo-Americans of Southern
California.
Italian Hall
Historically, the social center of the early Italian community. The
Historic Italian Hall is located at the northeast corner of Main Street
and Caesar Chavez just off Olvera Street. Built in 1907, it stands as a
proud reminder of a strong Italian presence in early Los Angeles. It is
the first Italian American Museum in Los Angeles introducing the varied
experiences of Italian Americans as they settled by the thousands in
Southern California. The Hall served as a meeting place for many of
these new immigrants. It was a place of comfort and companionship. The Historic Italian Hall Foundation (El Pueblo de Los
Angeles Historical Monument), has recently restored the
Italian Hall.
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