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In Cleveland, Ohio, prior to the formation of the city’s present day Little Italy, Italian immigrants settled in an area called Big Italy, located to the south and west of Public Square, in what was known as the Haymarket District. Prior to 1880, the neighborhood was primarily Jewish, but as the Jewish population moved on to better neighborhoods, t...

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Mary Elizabeth Bianchi Ferrante was born on Cleveland’s West Side to Francesco and Angelina Pasqualoni Bianchi, immigrants from Abruzzo, Italy. She is very passionate about and proud of her Italian heritage and is staunchly dedicated to its preservation and perpetuation. Mary has selflessly given years of service to the Italian American community i...

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Every so often, a piece of literature is so thought-provoking, we can’t help but carry it with us. One story that haunts me — and I don’t even remember its name anymore, to my chagrin — was a required reading piece in a school textbook, perhaps in middle school. It chronicled the experience of an early Italian immigrant in America who was sad becau...

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Hon. Basil Russo was formally inducted as a “Knight of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy” on Sunday, Oct. 8. The Order, established in 1951, is the highest-ranking honor of the Italian Republic. The official ceremony took place in Little Italy at Angelo’s Nido Italia, where Russo earned the Cavaliere dell’ Ordine al Merito della’ Repubbli...

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Tomorrow, thousands of Greater Clevelanders will gather in Little Italy to attend our annual Columbus Day parade. The story of how the first Columbus Day celebration began in 1892 is a tragic example of the mistreatment of immigrants that needs to be told. Between 1880 and 1920, some 4 million Italian immigrants left impoverished towns throughout s...

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The Columbus Day Parade is marching back to Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood on Monday, Oct. 9, along Mayfield Road. Elaborate floats, marching bands, local artifacts, and city leaders will make up the parade, which steps off at noon to celebrate Northeast Ohio’s deeply rooted Italian American culture. As usual, Columbus Day Mass will be held...

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Angelo Petitti immigrated to the United States in 1963 at age 16 from Faeto, a small mountain village with a population of 600 in southeast Italy. For 3 years, he worked at Pick-n-Pay Supermarket and as a busboy to support himself while attending Kent State University night classes to study political science. Angelo also leveraged his innate sense...

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Even though no "official" announcement has been made, all signs continue to indicate this will be Terry Francona's final season as Guardians manager. If you needed any more of an indication, the promotions for this week's homestand (the last of the 2023 campaign) offer plenty of clues. For one, this marks Tito's 11th season as Cleveland's skipper,...

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Saturday, October 21, 2023; 10:00a-12:30p. Italian American Museum of Cleveland, 12111 Mayfield Road Cleveland, OH. Register here. Create a story of your family history by learning to write about your ancestors with author, blogger, speaker, and teacher Annette Januzzi Wick. Writing about ancestors we never knew or family that were strangers to us...

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Visit a major city in the United States, and there is a good chance you could stumble across a “Little Italy,” some variation of the one found along Mayfield Road in Cleveland featuring fine dining, bakeries and the yearly Feast of the Assumption. What you won’t find most places elsewhere is something like the Italian Cultural Garden a couple of mi...

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