Leonard Covello, the Covello papers, and the history of eating habits among Italian immigrants in New York

Journal of American History

Volumn 91, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 497-521

  Cinotto, Simone ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TURIN   (Italy)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 21344434142     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3660709     Document Type: Review

References (54)

1. The Leonard Covello collection was organized in 1982 at the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies. The Balch Institute has recently merged into the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and its archives, including the Covello Papers, have been moved to the new site. I used the collection extensively in researching my book, Simone Cinotto, Una famiglia che mangia insieme: Cibo ed etnicità nella comunità italoamericana di New York, 1920-1940
2. I used the collection extensively in researching my book, (A family that eats together: Food and ethnicity in the Italian American community of New York, 1920-1940) (Turin, 2001)
3. On Italian Harlem history, see Robert Anthony Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950 (New Haven, 1985);
4. and Gerald Meyer, "Italian Harlem: Portrait of a Community," in The Italians of New York: Five Centuries of Struggle and Achievement, ed. Philip V. Cannistraro (New York, 1999), 57-68.
5. Covello's dissertation was finally published, with some additions and revisions, 23 years after its defense: Leonard Covello, ed. Francesco Cordasco, The Social Background of the Itah-American School Child: A Study of the Southern Italian Family Mores and Their Effect on the School Situation in Italy and America (Leiden, 1967). Cordasco also collected and donated the Covello Papers to the Balch Institute.
6. For Covello's autobiography, see Leonard Covello with Guido D'Agostino, The Heart Is the Teacher (New York, 1958).
7. There are two biographies of Covello: Robert Whitney Peebles, Leonard Covello: A Study of an Immigrant's Contribution to New York City (1968; New York, 1978);
8. and Vito Perrone, Teacher with a Heart: Reflections on Leonard Covello and Community (New York, 1998).
9. Enrico Artifoni and Angelo Torre, "Premessa," Quaderni storici, 93 (Dec. 1996), 512; translation by Cinotto.
10. Donna R. Gabaccia, We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans (Cambridge, Mass., 1998), 54;
11. Hasia R. Diner, Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration (Cambridge, Mass., 2001).
12. Diner, Hungering for America, 81-82.
13. Covello with D'Agostino, Heart Is the Teacher, 23-24.
14. Covello with D'Agostino, Heart Is the Teacher, 7 Ibid., 24, 24-25.
15. Covello with D'Agostino, Heart Is the Teacher Ibid., 70.
16. Covello with D'Agostino, Heart Is the Teacher 9 Ibid., 173.
17. Edward C. Banfìeldwith Laura Fasano Banfìeld, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (New York, 1958). Although Covello had already described the amoral familism that the Banfìelds developed, there is no reference to him in their book, nor, to my knowledge, is there any proof that the Banfìelds had read his works.
18. Covello, ed. Cordasco, Social Background of the Italo-American School Child, 175. 280-281
19. Frederic Milton Thrasher, The Gang: A Study of 1, 313 Gangs in Chicago (Chicago, 1927).
20. William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in America: Monograph of an Immigrant Group (5 vols., Chicago, 1918-1920).
21. Horace M. Kallen, Culture and Democracy in the United States: Studies in the Group Psychology of the American Peoples (New York, 1924).
22. Covello, ed. Cordasco, Social Background of the Italo-American School Child, 423, 444.
23. John E. Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, 1991), 77.
24. The transcript of the speech, delivered in Italian on wov radio on Dec. 1, 1935, appeared in La Rivista Commerciale Italo-Americana, Dec. 16, 1935, pp. 13-15, as part of a section titled "II programma alla radio della Camera di Commercio Italiana in New York per la difesa, la diffusione, il consumo dei prodotti italiani negli Stati Uniti." Translation by Cinotto.
25. Covello's comments are in C. L. Tepedino, "Italo-American Family Problems," handwritten assignment, Jan. 1941, folder 18, box 93, Leonard Covello Papers (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia). The "titles" of interviews and school assignments are Covello's own categorization labels; they are replicated here as he wrote them, as are his identifications of the informants.
26. See also Victor J. Vicesvinci, "The Italian Pattern in a Family I Know Well," typewritten assignment, Jan. 1941, folder 23, box 67
27. Victor J. Vicesvinci, "The Italian Pattern in a Family I Know Well," typewritten assignment, ibid.
28. "New York University Motion Picture Study-Seminar," interview by Covello, March 14, 1934, typewritten transcription, pp. 25-26, folder 3, box 65
29. "New York University Motion Picture Study-Seminar," 1934, pp. 25-26, ibid.
30. Donna R. Gabaccia, From Sicily to Elizabeth Street: Housing and Social Change among Italian Immigrants, 1880-1930 (Albany, 1984).
31. In a study of the late 1930s, two sample groups of Italian Harlem immigrants were asked to say what they thought best expressed family unity; 96% of the interviewees answered "having dinner together": Marie J. Concis-trè, "Adult Education in a Local Area: A Study of a Decade in the Life and Education of the Adult Italian Immigrant in East Harlem, New York City" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1943), 341.
32. C. P. quoted in Covello, ed. Cordasco, Social Background of the Italo-American School Child, 295.
33. Covello with D'Agostino, Heart Is the Teacher, 36.
34. C. L. Tepedino, "Italo-American Family Problems."
35. "Friends etc. in America," Louis Pesce interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, folder 2, box 68, Covello Papers; see also "Family concept of friends (America)," C. V. (2nd gen. female, college grad.) interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, folder 4, ibid.
36. D. di B. quoted in Covello, ed. Cordasco, Social Background of the Italo-American School Child, 341.
37. "Attitude Toward 'American' Pattern of Family Life," interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, folder 10, box 68, Covello Papers.
38. "Life History, Retention of family tradition in the 3rd generation," T. B. interview by Covello, 1938, typewritten transcription, folder 9, ibid. "Family Cohesion," M. S. (2nd Gen. H.S. Student-16+ Years Old-Parents from Sicily-20 Years in America) interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, folder 5, ibid.
39. The ideological content of the memory of Italian immigrants in East Harlem was first explored by Robert Anthony Orsi, "The Fault of Memory: 'Southern Italy' in the Imagination of Immigrants and the Lives of Their Children in Italian Harlem, 1920-1945," Journal of Family History, 15 (no.2, 1990), 133-147
40. "Nausea of Immigrant," Ferri interview by Covello, 1937, typewritten transcription, folder 1, box 68, Co-vello Papers.
41. Steven Mintz and Susan Kellogg, Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life (New York, 1988), 113-119
42. The social and cultural dynamics of interracial encounters in Italian Harlem are brilliantly portrayed in Robert Anthony Orsi, "The Religious Boundaries of an Inbetween People: Street Feste and the Problem of the Dark-Skinned Other in Italian Harlem, 1920-1990," American Quarterly, 44 (Sept. 1992), 313-347
43. "Case study-Persistence of Italian American Family Tradition," R. M. interview by Covellσ, 1943, typewritten transcription, folder 1, box 68, Covello Papers.
44. "Cultural changes-from Life history," Vito Maglio (H. S. grad male) interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, ibid.
45. "Marriage Concepts of Italian Girls," Italo-American 42 Years Old, Came to US as a boy of 3, father of 5 Girls, 1 Boy, interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, ibid.
46. C. G. interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, folder 6, ibid.; see also "Endogamy among Italo-Americans," Old man, born near Bari, Apulia, interview by Covello, n.d., typewritten transcription, folder 1, ibid.
47. "From autobiography-ItaJo-Americans-Cohesion of," (AJB-SB-1939), one typed page, folder 5, ibid.
48. Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 206-207
49. Covello with D'Agostino, Heart Is the Teacher, 223.
50. See, in particular, Jonathan Rieder, Canarsie: The Jews and Italians of Brooklyn against Liberalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1985);
51. Richard Gambino, Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans (Garden City, 1974);
52. and Jerry Delia Feminaand and Charles Sopkin, An Italian Grows in Brooklyn (Boston, 1978).
53. On the complicated history of the relations between Italian Americans and people of color and the construction of Italian American "whiteness" see Jennifer Guglielmo and Salvatore Salerno, eds., Are Italians White? How Race Is Made in America (New York, 2003).
54. Filippo Ceccarelli, Lo stomaco della repubblica: Cibo e potere in Italia dal 1945 al 2000 (The stomach of the republic: Food and power in Italy from 1945 to 2000) (Milan, 2000), 193-205. Covello died in Messina on August 19, 1982.