Specials

Italians arrived in the United States at the end of the 1800s during the first major wave of immigration and found themselves in the midst of a dramatic and life-altering experience. Mostly illiterate and coming from the small towns in Southern Italy, they did not understand the language and customs of America and were compelled to live in Little Italies.

This led to their marginalization which was aggravated by the fact that the majority of Italian immigrants were unskilled laborers and were forced to accept menial jobs. Italian immigrants’ close proximity to each other allowed them to strengthen connections to other communities and form local parochial associations and mutual aid societies. At the same time, being so far from their homeland heightened their nostalgia and increased their need for news from relatives and friends who remained in Italy.
This hunger for information, at a time when it took over a month for mail to cross the Atlantic, was the core reason why the first newspapers were founded in New York and in other cities with established Italian communities such as Philadelphia and Boston. Il Progresso Italoamericano, founded in 1880 by Carlo Barsotti, began as posted billboard announcements. Later the newspaper played a major role in keeping alive immigrants’ interest in Italy and it became a central connection point between the various community associations in America.
Throughout its highs and lows, Italian immigration was always supported and championed by Il Progresso and Il Corriere d’America, run by Luigi Barzini Sr. After the Second World War, a new wave of immigrants arrived in the United States, better prepared and more open to the challenges of the new world. This ensured, along with advances in technology and communication, a continuous flow of news between the two shores. It also increased the hunger for information in the hearts of the Italians in America that Il Progresso, radio, and TV did not succeed in satisfying. In 1988, with the culmination of a dramatic crisis faced by Il Progresso Italoamericano, we decided to publish America Oggi. We were driven by the necessity to continue the work – that of journalists, publishers, and administrators – that we had done for decades, but with the awareness that the Italians in America needed a newspaper written in their language that would inform them on a daily basis and in an impartial manner.
Twenty years later we can declare with pride that we won our bet. America Oggi has continued in the steps of Il Progresso Italoamericano and the other publications that have preceded it, becoming an irreplaceable companion for those who are deeply interested in everything having to do with Italy. To succeed in publishing a successful newspaper is undoubtedly a great satisfaction. But the greatest satisfaction comes from the realization that the daily work of so many contributes in fundamental manner to the promotion of the Italian language and culture.
Mass media in a foreign language, whether it is print, radio, TV, or websites, is essential in America to maintain an ethnic group’s interest in its own language, culture, and traditions, and to prevent it from becoming blended into the “melting pot,” which up until a few decades ago, one would look to as an example of an ideal American society. Fortunately this is no longer the case, but for the Italian community which for decades has seen the diminished flow of immigration, a daily Italian newspaper plays a double role. On the one hand, it serves to inform its readers about everything that happens in Italy and Europe that they otherwise could not learn from the American mass media. On the other, it allows them to keep alive their language, culture, and traditions. This is America Oggi’s mission, and together with its website and Radio ICN, we intend to continue and develop it further in the future.

* Editor of America Oggi, the only Italian language daily published in the U.S. every day of the week