re: Italian Immigration to Louisiana

A lot of the Sicilians moved into northla and got into farming as well. Shreveport and Monroe have several old Italian restaurants opened by these folks. Still several families involved in farming also.

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Tod

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That's Italian for "extra special".

There is something important about all of the people that came here late 1800's, early 1900's. As mentioned here, Italian, Irish, & German, and all of the others. Take this however you want or don't, take it at all.

The people from all of those other nationalities assimilated. They became American.

Sicilians were brought to Louisiana for low wage labor just like the Irish.

The Sicilians started organizing and created syndicates which started buying real estate and opening business. They also formed “security” businesses which was essentially a shakedown operation that meant - pay me or we burn down your building, kill your family etc… that was the origin of the Italian mob.

A big rift grew between the police and the Italians. The police chief was Irish decent. He got killed and then they hung a bunch of Italians who were suspected to be behind his killing


Italian heritage in New Orleans is very strong but very poorly viewed as a result of the way that that they handled themselves to get a foothold.

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My great grandparents immigrated from Corleone, Sicily in the early 1900s and settled in the Irish Channel in New Orleans.

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My Italian grandmother had a store on 3rd and Laurel, and my Parran had a store on 4th and Constance

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Makes sense as a lot of them were involved in produce. That's actually how the Saias got their start as well, hauling produce.

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Interesting, thanks for mentioning that. I've always seen Saia trucks all over Houston, but never looked up their history.

Totally unrelated but you ever notice the shock on people from out of state when you tell them you are from Louisiana but you aren't 100% French. I have Cajun ancestry but most of family came from Germany and Croatia and whenever I tell people that they say "I thought everyone there was Cajun." Like it's an American state, did you think they quit letting immigrants in after the Cajuns came?

Yeah we didn’t get the Italians. We got a bunch of eggplants.

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my maternal great grandparents emigrated from Sicily at the turn of the century. They came in at Ellis Island and settled in and around White Castle and Baton Rouge.

their parents were from martirano in Calabria. Upon entering the United States they anglicized their surname to “martrain”. My grandfather was born here and he and his brothers ran several businesses in Baton Rouge including service grocery on east blvd, martrain marine on airline and a construction company in denham

Both my mother and her sister married anglos which was not exactly common procedure in the early 60s, but all turned out well

Growing up we had dinner together every Sunday at my grandparents house…fried chicken, Sunday gravy, olive salad and spinach

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Your mom and her sister gave my daughter a lesson on making red gravy some years back. Your mom's was the BEST. I married Nancy, daughter of Aunt Mary & Uncle Ray. When our second daughter was born, Nancy was staying with Aunt Pauline & Aunt Camilla (we were temporarily without a place). Such wonderful people...took me, a yankee anglo, as one of their own. I love your family so much.

Nancy passed away in '18. A sweetheart and an extraordinary person.

The Italian sausage from Sal's grocery was *hot*!

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She said when she was a young adult that would have been in the early 50's, Italians were not allowed in the Baton Rouge Country Club.

I know Country Clubs were and still to some extent are exclusive by nature, but this surprised me. I guess it should not have.

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That shite lasted well beyond the early 50s.