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14 unusual facts about Italian American


Albert Rosellini

Albert Dean Rosellini (January 21, 1910 – October 10, 2011) was the 15th governor of the state of Washington for two terms, from 1957 to 1965, and was the first Italian American, Roman Catholic governor elected west of the Mississippi River.

Andy Michael

Andrew Joseph Michael was born Anthony Joseph Minichiello on June 3, 1924, to Frank and Lena Minichiello, both Italian immigrants, in Concord, New Hampshire.

Art Rico

Arthur Ramon "Art" Rico (July 23, 1895 – January 3, 1919) was an Italian American professional baseball player whose career spanned two seasons (1916–17), including parts of those seasons in Major League Baseball with the Boston Braves.

Ben Pucci

Pucci grew up in The Hill, a historically Italian American neighborhood in St. Louis, and attended Southwest High School, where he played on the varsity football team for four years and was named an all-district and all-city player.

Gianna Talone

She was born in Phoenix, Arizona to Italian American parents and as a child had a brief show business career in the 1970s, appearing in an episode of The Flying Nun television series, before attending the Arizona State University.

Gianni Cilfone

Gianni Cilfone (1908–1990) was an Italian American artist who emigrated to Chicago at the age of 5 and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Giuseppe Rossi

Rossi is an Italian American, born to Italian immigrant parents in Teaneck, New Jersey; his father, Fernando Rossi, coached soccer and taught Italian and Spanish at Clifton High School.

Italian American One Voice Coalition

Its goal is to project a united front in dealing with defamation, discrimination and negative stereotyping of Italian American culture and heritage.

The Italian American One Voice Coalition has also created the first-ever nationwide “rapid response” network of defenders who respond quickly to instances of Italian American bias and stereotyping through emails, letters, phone calls and through social media.

The Italian American One Voice Coalition stands ready to combat negative Italian American stereotyping through informational meetings, functions and protests against media outlets that continue to portray Italian culture in a bad light.

It also actively recruits members who are ready and willing to raise awareness of instances of Italian American bias and discrimination.

Kasey Olemberger

Kasey Garret Olemberger (born March 18, 1978) is an Italian American professional baseball pitcher.

Lorraine Bracco

Her father was of Italian descent, while her mother was born in England, to French parents.

Rose Pizzo

Rose Pizzo (born Easter 1932) is an Italian American author.


Alfredo Codona

Alfredo Codona (7 October 1893 – 30 July 1937) was an Italian American trapeze artist related to the "Flying Codona's" and whose family led to the creation of Codonas Amusement Park in Aberdeen in 1969.

Armour Square, Chicago

Bounded by 18th Street to the north, Pershing Road to the south, the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the west and the Dan Ryan Expressway to the east, Armour Square has historically been the predominantly white, working-class neighborhood with a particularly significant population of both Italian-Americans and Croatian-Americans.

Demographics of Massachusetts

Massachusetts also has large communities of people of Finnish and Swedish descent; Armenian, Lebanese descent; and Italian descent.

Haya Doin'?

Joe Summa and Carmine Famiglietti were not songwriters, but actors, when they decided to write a song about the Christmas gifts that a stereotypical Italian American might receive.

Luigi Palma di Cesnola

Luigi Palma di Cesnola (July 29, 1832 – November 20, 1904), an Italian-American soldier, diplomat and amateur archaeologist, was born in Rivarolo Canavese, near Turin.

Nick Bruno

In a 2013 article Bruno commented on various attributes of his background including his upbringing as an Italian American, relatives, and positive associations with the Robinson Family and others in the Monroe area.

Peter Gordeno

Born to an Italian American father and Scottish/Burmese mother, Gordeno was known primarily for his work with composer and arranger John Barry, but also became a household name in the 1970s due to his appearances as a submarine captain and combat pilot Peter Carlin in the Gerry Anderson television programme UFO.

Rudaj Organization

Nardino Colotti (born 1963) of the Bronx, New York, is an Italian American protégé of the late Gambino soldier Phil (Skinny Phil) Loscalzo and co-leader of the Albanian Mafia Rudaj Organization.

Savio Preparatory High School

Savio built a positive reputation as it educated young men from predominantly Italian American and Irish American families in East Boston, Revere, Winthrop, and Chelsea.

Tess Gardella

Therese "Tess" Gardella (December 19, 1894 – January 3, 1950) was an Italian American performer on the stage and screen whose stage persona was "Aunt Jemima."

Viterbo, Texas

It was named after J. and L. Viterbo, who were Italian American rice farmers who left Lake Charles, Louisiana for Texas in 1895; the brothers wanted more inexpensive land prices.