Late But Not Least

Very little is written about the history of Italian immigrants in Cambridge. Page after page chronicles the arrival and subsequent slow climb of the Irish, the Black and the Portuguese immigrants, with only occasional reference to Italians. And yet, their influence in the city is clear--large parts are predominantly Italian, the sounds and smells unmistakably reminiscent of the Mediterranean.

The paradox is explained by simple chronology--Cambridge history, for the most part, had been written by 1900. And that's when the Italians began to arrive. Of the 5 million Italians who immigrated to America, 4, million arrived between 1880 and 1920, with the vast majority just before 1910.

The experience of Italian immigrants across the country was similar--97 per cent of them got off the boat in New York. Many had been sent for by the Padrone,or labor boss. And the majority were laborers, not skilled professionals.

As they arrived in Cambridge, they found a town already settled by many other ethnic minorities. The Irish had begun to arrive as early as 1830, in what one historian called the "first wave of immigration.." Blacks and Germans also preceded the main body of Italians. As one chronicler put it, "Just as the rear detachments of Americans 50 years ago were forced ahead by the pressure of the Irish, or worsted forever, so the Italians and the Portuguese and the Jew are helping the Irish" by lifting him off the bottom of the social and economic ladder.

At first, the Portuguese and Italian populations found politics "uncongenial;" local government was dominated in the first part of the century by the Irish, anyway. But as some Irish became more lace-curtain, othe ethnic groups began to become more involved. The success of latter day politicians like Joseph DeGuglielmo and Alfred E. Vellucci (the dean of Cambridge officialdom) prove that their aversion to government was only temporary.

Most of the Italian population settled in East Cambridge, where it found a well-organized social system. At young men's clubs--there were about 20 at the turn of the century, according to one writer--members would "hire a room that they fit up with card tables and a few posters." Major activities there centered on dances and on elections; large blocks of votes could be bargained for various favors.

Cambridge's Italian community has grown and changed; while it has fit in well with the city, it has not assimilated to the point of losing all traces of its culture