OUR LITTLE ITALY: WE LOVE YOU, NORTH DENVER!

By Vinny Del Giudice
Editor, Daily Sketch

The tourism industry thrives on nostalgia trips to the old country for Italian-Americans eager to learn about their ancestors. Good. Your correspondent places an emphasis on the term "nostalgia" because the Italy his grandparents departed a century ago didn't look much like that depicted in today's tourism ads.

It was generally poor, somewhat malnourished in the poverty-stricken south and in disarray - and Mussolini was the on-deck batter.

Like millions others, my grandparents - Del Giudice, Strobino, Salerno and Fantone - wanted to get the heck out of Italy to gift future generations with American citizenship.

Destination Ellis Island and then Paterson, New Jersey - and beyond.

For others, Colorado. Places like North Denver, Pueblo, Weldona and Trinidad. 

And it was a generally challenging mission. (At least one relative, dear old Uncle Eligio Strobino, was an anarchist in the Sacco and Vanzetti era - and the Feds had their eye on him - but seeing the light he followed the greenback and became a successful real estate investor in California.)

Happily, most all of us - Italian-Americans nationwide - have fulfilled their grandparents (etc.) dreams of success in a variety of fields (LEGITMATE!) and we should really put the spotlight on that FIRST. The Ellis Island bunch.

La Via Vecchia is La Via Vecchia. The "Old Street."

Fellow Italian-Americans: We made it! Bravo "Little Italy - North Denver!"

[Photo: Wikipedia]