Volunteers getting ready for Italian Festival
Live music, vender booths and lots of Italian food are being readied as volunteers worked to finalize preparations for the 51st McAlester Italian Festival. It's set for Friday, May 12, and Saturday, May 13, at the Southeast Expo Center, with free admission to the festival and vender booth sites. Once again this year, there will be no festival on Su...
First Annual Festa Italiana in Historic Downtown Bryan, Texas!
As Mayor Bobby Gutierrez likes to say, “Leave Bryan better than you found it,” and the local Italian community in Bryan, Texas, is doing just that! Owner of Zeitman’s Grocery, Blake Zeitman, is helping plan the first annual Festa Italiana, a food and heritage festival celebrating Bryan’s rich Italian culture. In the late 1880s, Italian-owned busi...
April 1862, when the Italian Brigade saved New Orleans
During April 25th to May 1st of 1862, the Italian Brigade of New Orleans which consisted of former Italian Soldiers was chosen to police the city of New Orleans during the transition to the Union occupation. During that week, Algiers was looted and burned. The Italian Brigade kept order in the French Quarter. The Italian Brigade of New Orleans in 1...
IAP 276: confederates in the famiglia? An Italian Aamerican family mystery
An Italian American with Confederates in the famiglia? The branches of our family trees often contain mysteries and secrets that are lost until future generations decide to investigate them. This is precisely the case with this week’s episode as we talk with Joe Elia, one of the delegates to the inaugural Italian American Future Leaders Conference....
Kenner Festa Italiana 2023 - Italian heritage festival
April 21 - April 22, 2023. Most visitors only know Kenner, Louisiana from the street signs near the Louis Armstrong International Airport, on their way in to New Orleans. Little do they know that it is one of the state’s richest areas of Italian heritage! “The city of Kenner at one time was the center of the community for many Italian families,” sa...
Sam Greco's mom prayed to St. Francis for a son. He's now giving the saint's statue to San Antonio.
Sam Greco’s mother was blessed with two daughters and desired a son. After five miscarriages, she prayed to San Francesco di Paola, the patron saint of Italians and Italian-Americans. She said if she could carry a child to full term, she would dress her son as a monk each Sunday for five years. And she did. “She made the promise — like an Italian...
IAP 272: we stand on the shoulders. A monument to the Sicilian sugar cane harvesters of Louisiana
Louisiana native Charles Marsala has done a lot to promote the history of Italian life in the Bayou State. From creating hours of documentary videos to a mobile app that provides a free walking tour of over sixty Italian American points of interest in and around the Crescent City, the President of the American Italian Federation of the Southeast n...
Bryan Museum honors Johnny Carrabba with Buck N' Ball award
Dignitaries, elected officials, bankers and other luminaries from Galveston County and Houston gathered Friday and Saturday to honor restaurateur Johnny Carrabba III as this year’s “Buck N’ Ball” award winner in an event at The Bryan Museum celebrating the Italian-American contribution to Texas history. Teamwork, staying hungry, perseverance and...
Emilia Romagna in Texas to open a new bridge to the U.S.
Emilia-Romagna is in Houston, Texas, to open a new bridge to the United States, where the region's exports have registered +74.6 percent in the last three years and a positive trade balance between exports and imports of more than 9 billion euros.In the great city of Texas - a state that if it were a nation would represent the ninth largest economy...
St. Joseph's Day Weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana
For over 50 years the proud members of the Italian American St. Joseph Society have been marching through the streets of New Orleans in celebration of St. Joseph’s Day… and this incredible event might just be the BEST Italian American weekend in the nation (think Mardi Gras… but for Italian Americans). So grab your fanciest red clothes, because the...
Celebrate the feast day of St. Joseph at churches or at home with your own altar
Soon enough, if not already, fig cookies, lemons and fava beans will adorn pied St. Joseph Altars at local Catholic churches to celebrate the feast day of the saint. The tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, when the people of Sicily commemorated the end of a drought-caused famine. The islanders attributed the abundant rain and crops to prayers...
IAP 270: celebrating St. Joseph altars: the history, recipes, and symbols of a New Orleans tradition, with special guest Sandra Scalise Juneau
Buona festa di San Giuseppe, everyone! This week’s episode takes us to New Orleans, where our guest, Sandra Scalise Juneau, introduces us to Louisiana’s very special commemoration of one of Italian America’s most beloved holidays… St. Joseph’s Day! Sandra is the author of “Celebrating with St. Joseph Altars: The History, Recipes, and Symbols of a N...