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The Italian American Defense League, and a Wooster Square neighbor, have filed a lawsuit against the City of New Haven and Mayor Justin Elicker over the removal of a Christopher Columbus Statue. The lawsuit claims that the removal of the statue on Wooster Square was unlawful and the League, along with resident Ralph Macarelli, suffered damages t...

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It was always important for families to keep their personal issues in the family. When something went wrong, or a difficult time was encountered; the family came together to help each other. This attitude of self-reliance was instilled in the cultural practices that many of the immigrants understood from their own family experiences back in the vil...

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Hi, the Italian-American Defense League Monument Task Force and IADL members want unity and justice. We believe on June 24, 2020, the City of New Haven illegally removed Wooster Square's Columbus statue. That day the protests of 50 or more people of Italian descent were ignored when the city lifted the statue off its pedestal and placed it face-dow...

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Pizzagaina, also known as ham pie, is a delicacy Italian traditionalists will tell you is only to be made on Good Friday and eaten Easter weekend. Many will relay stories of doing this with their grandmothers growing up, and now doing it with their own children, nonna's recipe in tow. Some deem it acceptable to eat during Lent, and local Italian de...

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Two New Haven restaurateurs are partnering for a new concept on Wooster Street, featuring an Italian restaurant, market, gelataria and rooftop bar. Gioia, by Tim Cabral of Ordinary and Avi Szapiro of the former ROÌA, is a multi-use space featuring fine Italian food and beverages. The new venue formerly housed Tony and Lucille's, which closed in 201...

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The first thing you notice is the light. The pears are mere suggestions of themselves, with hints of blue and green that pool at the ends and edges. They fall into each other, luminous and impossibly airy. Shadows bloom beneath them in gray and blue. Even the paper seems to glow with a warm crispness. At the lower right, a signature from Constance...

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In the late 19th century, during the period of great political upheaval in Italy, people from all classes were affected, both financially and economically. The great migration to America was one that included Italians from all walks of life and from various social classes. The population that immigrated to New Haven seeking financial and social sec...

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Joining the Sons and Daughters of Italy Lodge 2805 began as a family affair for Mark DeFranco. Mark, the group’s treasurer, who joined in 2004 to be with his cousin and the group’s founder Neil Velleca, Sr., saw it as an opportunity to socialize and work with other Italian-Americans. “My cousin, Neil Sr., thought it would be a great idea to have a...

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St. Michael School was built in 1940 during the period when the immigrant children were being more fully exposed to the influences of the secular education opportunities that were part of the American system. The ethnic parishes were encouraged to create local schools that were more aligned to those in their countries of origin, where there was les...

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When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or — if you’re Pierluigi Mazzella — make sourdough bread, focaccia, panettone, biscotti and pastries. That’s the life he knows. Pierluigi began baking as a 12-year-old, on his native island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples. He apprenticed with a world competition winner, then came to the US. He worked hard...

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