Lindsay Marie Morris

Beginning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian immigrants with farming backgrounds began arriving in Iowa. However, most came without the money to purchase the necessary land. Instead, they found work in the coal mines of southern and central Iowa, or settled in areas such as Oelwein, Council Bluffs, and Des Moines, where they laid track for the state's railroads or worked on streetcars. After the mines closed, many workers moved to Des Moines and formed their own Little Italy.

In 1981, a small group of proud Italian immigrants founded the Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa to build on the legacy of those original settlers. The 501(c) (3) organization aims to promote, preserve, and share Italian heritage and culture with the Des Moines metro area and the state of Iowa through a museum, events, and on-site amenities. Even this year, amid renovation and remodeling, the center remains a hub for everything from bocce and Italian language and genealogy classes to a St. Joseph's celebration and gala.

I spoke with Therese Riordan, the Italian-American Cultural Center of Iowa's Secretary of the Board of Governors and Chairperson of the Heritage Advisory Council, whose parents were among the founders. She's been with the organization for more than three decades, honoring her family's largely Calabrian heritage. Her mother, Patricia Civitate, the Center's former Director, remains an active member at 95.

 

Therese shared more about Des Moines' Italian ties and the organization's offerings, challenges, and goals.

Patricia Civitate speaks to a women's group about the significance of the St. Joseph's Altar and breads.

What most memorable events or initiatives has the Center hosted over the decades?

We hosted RAGBRAI from Veneto when they came over from Italy to ride on the Iowa bike tour. The Center also hosted receptions for visiting Italian sports teams and sometimes gave tours of the city. We also provided meals for people who toured our museum.

 

Our organization pursued a partnership between the Greater Des Moines Sister Cities and Provinci di Catanzaro in Southern Italy. We've hosted Italian chefs from various regions on three occasions. Folk dancers affiliated with us (although it's a separate organization) have hosted the Italian Folk Art Federation of America Conference in Des Moines twice. And we've sponsored numerous trips to tour Italy.

 

At our museum, we've had some nice, one-of-a-kind things come in. We have a large display of regional hats donated by a lady in New York. We also received puppets. Someone recently donated a hand-carved Italian Jesus made from Italian wood, and a story goes with that. Somebody even gave us a grand piano, and for me, that was exciting.

 

Day camp members learn about Venice.

Tell us about your children's day camp.

Children from ages six to 12 are invited to spend the week with us, and it's a themed week. This past year, we set an Italian table. They made a centerpiece and an appetizer, and they learned the Italian language around those things, watched videos, sang songs, and did some crafts.

 

Every day, they do a craft, learn the Italian language, cook, make music, and play a game. They have five days to put together an Italian meal, which they can take home.

We've done some fun stuff. I don't think we'll do volcanoes again. That year, we had 21 kids, which is an unusually large number. They made their own volcanoes after we studied the Italian volcanoes. We let them have them erupt, and it was very exciting, but it was very messy. That was a good time.

 

The children meet La Befana, Italy's beloved Epiphany witch.

Tell us about your other offerings.

The Iowa Genealogical Society of Iowa has generously allowed us space for our language classes. They have been approximately twice a year for the last three or four years. They have been fairly well attended, and people on their way to Italy are always anxious to take them. We're hoping to continue doing those.

 

We offer translation services for people who need them and have provided dual citizenship classes. We also have a lady who's extremely good with genealogy, so she's very welcoming and helpful whenever there's a question. 

We hosted our St. Joseph altar celebration and Italian Father's Day in March, an activity we haven't been able to do recently because of COVID. It involves putting together a large center altar and then six or more side altars, and they all have to be decorated and laid out with memorabilia from the organization that sponsors it, plus fruits and vegetables. It used to be with a dinner, but we couldn't do that this year. But they did a beautiful job of decorating.

 

Members prepared veggie frittatas to donate to the Catholic Worker House as part of their annual St. Joseph Altar celebration.

 

Are there any upcoming events you're particularly excited about?

We will have our October heritage month—whatever we can do without being in the building. We will have a large fundraising dinner in November, which should be extremely nice. We haven't done this for a few years, but there's a new committee working on it, and it should be beautiful. It will feature a chef from Italy.

 

What are your challenges and goals?

The challenge in the capital campaign is always money. And everybody wants the same pot of money, so that's one of the things we're working for. Our plan is not just to be a place for Italians. Our plan is to be a place where we can share what being Italian means with everybody else. It's not a clubhouse. It's a place to learn about our background, our customs, and how they fit into the fabric of the United States and Iowa.

 

The Italian American Cultural Center of Iowa's mitten tree, a collection of donated hats, scarves, and mittens, is distributed to neighborhood centers.

What do you hope to share?

We hope that we'll be a place where people can come and share their stories and learn about Italy, the background of some of the people who came here, and their contributions to the state of Iowa and the United States. Unfortunately, one of the things that, if you say Italian, is the first thing people think of is the mafia. There is so much more than that. There are so many contributions that Italians have made to the world and the state of Iowa that we would like to highlight, and we'd like to give this an opening for people to come in and talk about themselves and their backgrounds.

Boasting one of the most authentic Sicilian food festivals in the region of Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley and Western New Jersey, Holy Cross Society members are proud to pass on the traditions of their ancestors, who migrated from Santo Stefano di Camastra in the Province of Messina. The organization has evolved since its 1911 founding while staying true to its deep Sicilian roots. Each September, they host their annual Holy Cross Celebration & Sicilian Food Festival, which began as a reenactment of Santo Stefano di Camastra's own La Festa del Letto Santo in which classic Sicilian foods are served, a queen is crowned, and music and fellowship are shared.

I spoke with Jim Palmeri, a member of Holy Cross Society's Board of Trustees and webmaster of holycrosssociety.com, whose grandparents were founding members, about the organization's history, how it promotes Sicilian heritage, the challenges it faces, and its goals as members embrace the future.

 

What is the history of the Holy Cross Society?

It started with my grandparents and that generation, who came from the same town in Sicily, Santo Stefano di Camastra. Like many organizations at that time, it was what we call today a mutual aid society, providing assistance with reading and writing English, immigration law, financial assistance, and job placement.

 

We are into the third and fourth generations of people from that same town in Easton, Pennsylvania, with about 65 families still with connections to the homeland. 

 

2011 Queen Gina Palmeri holds court between former Auxiliary President Sandy Callery and former President Tony Tumminello.

How does the society continue to promote Sicilian heritage in the community?

We have a meeting once a month. There's a Men's Society and a Ladies Auxiliary. Every September, we hold a festival at the same time as one held in our town in Sicily at the church called Letto Santo. About 114 years ago, our grandparents reenacted the same celebration here as their relatives did in Sicily. We focus much of our work around that festival because it's a bit of a homecoming time. 

 

So families come back to town. Usually, there are two days of festival time, Friday and Saturday. Then, on Sunday, we have a Mass of the Holy Cross at our local Catholic church, where we all process in. The priest talks about the Holy Cross. (It's the Feast of the Holy Cross on the second Sunday of September.)

 

We also crown the queen. Usually, she's the granddaughter or daughter of one of our members. And she has a court. She has to write an essay about why she should be part of the celebration. We're promoting our Sicilian heritage to the next generation.

 

Much of the learning is stories we tell about our parents or grandparents; many of us travel back and forth to our Sicilian town and still have cousins there. So we talk with them about what they're doing and what's going on in that town, and share what's happening in this town.

Every year, one of our members, Sal Panto, who is also the mayor of Easton, does a trip there and invites people to go. He has opened it up to the public to get enough for a group, but there are always several members of our society. It's really kind of a cultural exchange and immersion.

 

Those trips started on the hundredth anniversary of the Holy Cross Society when we did a bit of a pilgrimage. Maybe 30 of us went to Santo Stefano and spent almost a week connecting with our relatives. It was a really good way to reinvigorate the relationships. Then, a group from Santo Stefano came to Easton to celebrate our hundredth. We went over in the summer, and they came over in September.

 

Tell us about your members.

Right now, we'll get 35 to 40 members to attend a monthly meeting of the 80 members, which is pretty good. Our charter is closed. You must be a relative of someone from Santo Stefano or married to someone from Santo Stefano.

 

Holy Cross Society members march together in procession.

What are the highlights of your annual celebration?

Years and years ago, the organization used to actually march through the streets of Easton, and people would come out and donate money, and they would go from house to house when many of the Italian people lived in the inner city. Now, with suburbia, that doesn't happen so much anymore. So we still do a procession, but we do it around our chapel grounds just outside of the city instead of through the city streets. It's kind of a neat thing. 

 

The Lehigh Valley Italian American Band comes back every year on Saturday night, and they play. There was a song called "#9" that was composed by the leader of what was the predecessor of the Italian American band led by a guy named Charlie Perello. That song has persevered so much that we still play it today at our festival. When it goes on, people start to clap and sort of sway along with the song, and they know it. It's almost like the Notre Dame fight song; it's recognizable. But that's part of the tradition of the festival. It's part of connecting our roots. 

 

Lehigh Valley Italian American Band performs for Holy Cross Celebration attendees.

 

How are you reaching the next generation?

Every organization—whether it be our organization, Rotary, or Kiwanis clubs—is wondering what will happen with the next generation. And we have been extremely fortunate. Our children, who are now in their thirties, forties, and fifties, are getting involved. Their kids are now in the queen's court and learning about their heritage.

 

We give out higher educational grants to children who are from our lineage. And if we have money left over from that fund, we then extend it to students who are attending Catholic schools. 

One of our members, our former president, Nick Alfero, is very big on making certain that it's fun for the kids to be there, so they understand that it is not just a carnival. That's part of their heritage. And we serve all kinds of Sicilian food. We still have the tripe; we still serve the octopus salad.  

In addition, we have Christmas parties for the kids now. We'll do an Easter egg hunt, and for the first time, we're going to have a picnic just for the families. During the celebration, we're all working. So it's part of a homecoming, and we interact with people from the public, but now we're going to have a picnic just for us.

 

What do you hope to share with your members and community?

I think we share with the members that people came here as immigrants for a better life, hoping that most of them are living a better life (which I believe those who belong really kind of do), and reminding them of the hardships that their grandparents experienced to come to America and why they came to America.

 

My grandparents came over pre-World War I. And Sicily wasn't a great place to live then. My cousin, Pippo Torcivia, lives in Santo Stefano. He's a very successful ceramic artist. The town is known for its ceramics. So if you go there, there's a bunch of ceramic factories. 

Pippo and I are second cousins because his mother, my grandmother, and their brother, Uncle Santo, were siblings. Our great uncle and my grandmother came to America. Pippo's grandmother was left in Sicily because she was married. The other two were still single when they came here.

 

One night, when we were talking, Pippo told me that my Uncle Santo would come back to Sicily. He was a bachelor. He worked on the railroads. So, he did well for himself. And he didn't have a family. He would go back and forth and buy people shoes. He would give his sister money to live on.

 

As Pippo is telling me this story, he's crying. He pulled me aside and very seriously said, "Can I ask you where Uncle Santo was buried?" I said, "Yeah, I know what the cemetery is."

 

He says, "Would you take me there?" And I said, "Sure." And on the way, he turned to me and said, "Can we buy flowers somewhere?" So, I took him to a greenhouse that was not far from the cemetery. 

I took him to the cemetery and showed him the grave. He went with these flowers, sat there, and sobbed like a baby.

 

To me, that brought it all together, how we're two cultures that are really bound. So you have to tell those stories to the kids about where they came from. And we have some pretty darn good young adults who are coming in and joining the organization.  

 

 

 

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