The Cumare Denied

Cumare Nicollett’ denied a cheese steak at Geno’s

At times like this it is perhaps for the better that old Nicollete on 13th street is safely in the bosom of heaven. Nicolette came from Ortona in the Abruzzo and lived in South Philly from the 1920’s until her death in 1994 at the advanced age of 104. Over 70 years in the hood! She was a whiff of Abruzzese mountain air, a living relic of Il Regno del due Sicilie (The Kingdoms of the two Sicilians) on Moore Street. She spoke the most archaic Italian, a mixture of classic grammar and Abruzzese dialect. This language was akin to Shakespeare’s English. She used the Italian equivalents of thee and thou as well as classic Abruzzese pronunciation, Rigollucc’ for Verdi’s opera Rigoletto, Dunedd for Antonetta. She cooked and drank her anisette while offering interesting comments on the world around her for those who could understand her, and few could by 1980. She dressed in floor length skirts , her white hair in a bun, the emblematic old Italian lady, the kind that populated South Philly in great numbers at one time. I am happy I knew Nicollett for she was history enlivened , it was like getting to meet my Mazzola and Paglia ancestors from this picture. She represented a generation that was already mostly dead when I was born in 1958.

But despite the fact that La Cumare Nicolett was a special person, a living relic of the Great Italo-America experience, she could not get a cheese steak at Geno’s at 9th and Passyunk.

Why? She never learned to speak English and I am also unsure if she ever actually became an American citizen. So in times like these perhaps it is better old Nicollete has shaken the mortal coil she wore so long, because she would NOT be able to get that cheese steak at Gino’s because they only except orders in ENGLISH- as there sign proclaims this is America order in English. It is academic because even if Nicky were not dead she had no taste for sliced meat fried in onions and vegetable oil with processed goo meant to be cheese, on what for her was soft bread. Perhaps this is why she lived to 104. But that is not the point, La Madonna Nicolette would be denied a right to the South Philly delight even if she wanted it, cause she would be deemed somehow un-American. I do wonder if the English only law would apply to them what stand behind the counter? I have brought friends to Geno’s from places as far away as Ohio and Britain and they thought the Geno employees were not speaking English.

Yo we tak inglish here wat u wan, wit or witaut ?

I had a British friend tell me that Geno’s should not hire people to work with the public if they cannot speak English!! Ma Figura vi..(imagine) try a stay in central London, does anyone speak English in the West End any longer??? The speaking of English is seems is growing everywhere in the world but is diminishing in English speaking nations.

Non English speaking Immigrants- just like Nicolette.

English and immigration elicits in South Philly a classic responses: Oh my granfather came here the right way and talked American.. des Mexicans… A few things are very wrong with this argument. First Immigration laws in 1900 were WAY more mild then they are now and most ( if not all) Illegal immigrants today would be legal in a moment were the pre WWI laws reinstated ,and second illegal entry into the US from Calabria in 1900 would require some very good swimming. I venture to say that were Calabria attached to Rhode Island then a good number of our ancestors would have spared themselves Ellis Island and jumped the fence.

For years I heard stories of my much admired paternal grand father Francesco (Frank) Braccia, a successful designer/tailor who immigrated in the 1890’s at the age of 12 and made a great name for himself in Philadelphia and loved America and made all his kids learn English as he did. A great American success story, and it was.

I am trained as an historian (I am , Temple University 1986) and through the years I have done some research including trips to our village in Italy , (Altino (Ch)) and reviews of census records. I discovered some fascinating things. My paternal great grand father Luigi , lived in South Philly from the 1890’s till 1930 and never spoke English or became a citizen. My grand father also never seemed to take the citizenship of the country he loved so much and was a registered alien in the 1920’s and into the 1940’s (he died in 47). Grand father also had Fascist tendencies, I have been told. Didn’t Mussolini declare WAR on the US??? I discovered a few other things but I am saving them for my ‘book’, which as my uncle Denny would say, will be a best seller or end up in the cellar.

I also know of many other families ( including my mother’s) in SP with similar stories, people staying in America for many years , never speaking English or speaking it very poorly and never bothering to become US citizens. My point is the argument My Grand Father came to this country, needs in my mind some justification with hard evidence. I would like to see the official records of the ancestors of many in South Philly who embrace such xenophobic views. If we could , I think we would see a lists of alien residents and an English spoken with less proficiency then most Vietnamese or Mexicans on 9 street do today.

I love the past- but see it for what it was. The main reason many Italians learned English and became US citizens by the 40’s was because the US government forced this course of action on the Immigrants.

Remember frattini how the Italo American suffered from xenophobia and discrimination- From Woodrow Wilson’s remarks about Southern European laziness to the KKK and lynching of Italians in New Orleans- largest lynching in US history!! Italians, in the popular 1900 view, were a superstitious and violent race bringing nothing but criminality and radical political philosophies while taking jobs away from real Americans. During WWII some Italian aliens were interned or treated suspiciously ( this even included the great singer Enzio Pinza!!!) . The one thing Hitler and Roosevelt agreed on is that Italy was a back stabbing nation . In my neighborhood lived old Philomena on 7th street who had 3 stars in her window during the 1940’s (the stars represent the fact she had three boys serving in the war) yet she had her radio confiscated by the FBI cause she was an alien- she told the FBI , through an interpreter , to take away the stars and give her back her boys.

I guess what upsets me is when Italo-Americas, themselves the descendents of immigrants who were victims of xenophobia and enforced assimilation, embrace anti immigrant stands and justify it with romantic views of the past.

We have many concerns with immigration today, but can not sort it by exhuming 1920’s xenophobia. America was founded by a bunch or WASPs looking down on Irish Catholics and holding the Black man below contempt not to mention the savage Indians. They felt America was threaten by the Irish Immigration in the 1830’s then black migration and freedom after the civil war, America to them was threatened even more as non English speaking immigrants poured into America in the late 1800’s, and it continues- now with Hispanics. America is changing- it has ALWAYS BEEN CHANGING- since 1781 it has been a nation in change. Were John Adams and Alexander Hamilton or Woodrow Wilson to have a look at America today they would be shocked- it has become a non American polyglot decadent land, fill of non Whites and Catholics and Jews, hardly anyone with the proper language or education ( read the Education of Henry Adams to get a view of the OLD WASP way of thinking) …. My point , immigration made America it did not destroy it dispite the dire predictions. America’s future is her future not the past- and anyway if we go back to the pasts , who’s pasts? The good old WASP past (sorry everybody else) ? The White Ethnic 1930’s pasts ( sorry WASPs and everybody else) ?

It is all nonsense, solve our problems the good old fashion American way, by changing adapting and respecting individual differences.

I believe Immigrants MUST learn English and be assimilated as a matter of course- not force. Our ancestors did assimilate and learn English ,but over a 40-60 year period!!! I am sure by 2050 all the Mexicans in South Philly will be speaking English and assimilated- it did not happen in 10-20 years when our people came so don’t expect the new immigrants to do it much faster. And damn you Geno’s but La Cumare Nicolette has a right to her cheese steak .. as she would say

Ma che fate voi (But what does thou) ?