I PAESANI DI NICOSIA

NICOSIANI IN CHICAGO: "HEART IN THE SUITCASE"

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ENGLISH TRANS. P. 107 -- 115
NICOSIANI IN CHICAGO (BOOK)
Translation p. 115 --119
NICOSIA BOOK P. 115-119
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Pages 107 - 119

English

English translation (NEEDS EDITING)

Ship passenger lists

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/EIDB/ellisgold.html

ENGLISH  107 -115
 
  NICOSIANS IN CHICAGO
 The SS. Crocifisso di Chicago.
 
 
 

                            b. La SS. Crocifisso Society in Chicago

 

 

Many Italians disembarked in New York and chose to travel to the state of Illinois where there were many Nicosians[13].  They were dedicated to small commerce and took advantage of the many possibilities that Illinois and its principle city, Chicago, offered[14].

      The newly arrived found lodging in the Italian neighborhoods of Armour Square and Bridgeport, in the southern part of the metropolis, built largely between 1830 and 1840 by the Irish.  The majority of the Italian community there was originally from Ricigliano and Nicosia.  In particular, the area between the 26th, 31st, Halsted Street and the viaduct, was built exclusively by Nicosians, who had recreated a complex social network similar to that found in the neighborhoods of their native city in Sicily.  First taken in by relatives or friends from Nicosia, the emigrants were able to begin to orient themselves in the world of work in Chicago, often by going to the public “free employment offices” which helped workers find jobs in factories and businesses, or in the Legal Bureau, which sought to give legal assistance to the workers in case of injury or because of problems at their former places of employment.

      The large Italian community in Chicago, had about 25,000 members in 1900, had the same characteristics as other areas of the United States.  In a dynamic work market, the Italian emigrant maintained the social and religious customs of his homeland, showing devotion not often found or accepted by the established religious hierarchy, which was almost entirely comprised of Irish Americans.  The community built its own churches and sought priests that were also Italian, and found help from the missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Mother Cabrini[15].

      The many associations present in the city were still not able to guarantee adequate support for the needs of a community often fighting for survival.  The societies of mutual benevolence in Chicago, were also characterized by the fragmentation found in the New York City associations, and often limited their charitable works.  It was not by chance that Luigi Provana lamented that, aside from the Società delle Donne Italiane and the Circolo Maria Adelaide, dedicated to the organization of feasts of charity, the Italian associations did not carry out needed works for those most needy: “apathy on one part, envy and personal as well regional jealousy on the other, are the cause of this hardly flattering state of things”[16].  

      With every probability, the first Italian association was the Società di Unione e Fratellanza Italiana, began in 1880.  This organization was of a charitable nature and its members met the first Monday of the month at 59 West Randolph Street.  In the following decade, many other groups were created by Italian Americans, such as the Bersaligeri di Savoia and the Società Cristoforo Colombo. 

      The Sicilians, met at the Trinacria Fratellanza Siciliana, which was founded in 1892 and, later, in the Unione Siciliana founded by Vincent E. Ferrara in 1914[17].

      Divided by regional rivalry, the associations became numerous. This was seen on the pages of Italian language periodicals, such as La Tribuna, during times of patriotic commemoration.

 

      In Chicago, the Nicosian community developed a sophisticated migratory chain which brought entire families to follow the men, who arrived first.  The chain helped to reconstruct the web of familial relations that they left in Sicily.   Sicilians from communities neighboring Nicosia, Capizzi, Agira, Nissoria, Assoro, Villarosa, were part of this migration.

      Already at the beginning of the twentieth Century, the Sicilian community was able to depend on its own bank, which was established by fellow Nicosian citizen Henry R. Contorno.  The “Herbitens Bank” – at 154 W. 22nd Street, near Wentworth Ave., offered banking services needed by his co nationals, especially those regarding the sending of funds and items to Italy and other places around the world.  Beyond creating an important financial instrument of intermediation between American and Italian banks (through depositing and reimbursing Le Casse Postali di Risparmio Italiano), the institution worked in all activities common to immigrants.

        The “Herbitens Bank” also served as a form of travel agency for rail and sea, publicizing itself as an ‘Italian agent of the Mediterranean and Continental conferences” and “Representative of Italian, French, Austrian, Greek, English, and Russian lines”.  Contorno also organized a legal office in the bank with and Italian and American lawyers, and even opened a shop that sold watches and jewelry, and another for wedding gifts. 

       Another financial institution founded by a Nicosian was the “Banca Dott. Cesare Conti”. This bank had financial connections to the Banco di Napoli and the Credito Italiano[18] in Italy.   

      It was through these banking institutions, that the Nicosian immigrant was able to send his savings home to Italy. Money sent by Sicilians from abroad accounted for .5% of all deposits on the entire Italian peninsula between 1891 and 1895.  This percentage grew and by 1910, over 20.09% of deposits came from those abroad and were the fruit of sacrifices and great difficulties[19]
         Francesco Di Bartolo a lawyer, Dr. Nicolò Campione and the pharmacist Francesco Cortiletti were part of the very large Nicosian community.
[20] They were some of the more prominent Nicosian citizens in America.  Apart from several representatives in the business and professional classes, the working class was most represented in the Nicosian community.  Rosario Messina (1882-1960) belonged to this working class. He was born in the San Salvatore neighborhood in Nicosia.  In 1905, he abandoned life as a farm worker in Sicily and embarked on the Napolitan Prince from the port of Palermo with eight other Nicosians, ranging in ages from thirteen to forty one[21].  In Chicago, Messina began work as a construction worker and, on June 4, 1909, he married Nicosian Santa Proietto (1888-1943), who had arrived in the United States three years previously[22].

      Antonio La Barbera also was part of the working class, and he left Naples on the steamship Alsazia and arrived in the U.S. in March 1896, at the age of 24.  In Chicago, La Babera became a tram operator and married by way of an arranged marriage fellow Nicosian Anna Santa Giunta, who joined him in America in 1899.

      Francesco Scarlata, son of Sigismundo and Antonina Pantaleo, was born in 1925 in Nicosia, in the neighborhood of Sant’Agata.  His parents returned to Nicosia from America after a long period abroad and they had purchased land along in the “Rocasci”, which was only accessible by crossing the Salso River.

      Economic hardship pushed Francesco and his brother Antonino (who was sixteen years old) to Chicago,   They received help from the Falco family.  Francesco specialized in tailoring and he never forgot the help that he received from his paesani during the first months after his arrival[23].

      Another working class family was the Lizzio family.  Battista Lizzio and Carmela Vanaria married in Nicosia on May 13, 1911 and after having sold the little that they to purchase a ticket to America at the cost of $98, in February 1912, they left Italy aboard the steamships SS Italia.  The journey lasted seventeen days and concluded with its arrival to Ellis Island, where they were met by one of the Carmela’s brothers.  In Chicago the family took up residence in the old Italian quarter, around the church of Santa Maria Incoronata.  Carmela began to work as a seamstress of pants while her husband worked in construction.  To Battista and Carmela were born four children, all of which worked in commerce and industry[24].  Carmela never felt the need to learn English and spent whatever free time that she had with her children and paesani from Nicosia.

      The Nicosian community in Chicago met at the Società SS Crocifisso, founded on February 10, 1899 and was incorporated as a society on August 7 of that year.

      In the early years of the twentieth century, the community met in the Santa Maria Incoronata Church, which had a richly artistic altar that held a precious image of the Holy Crucifix (SS Croficisso).  The altar served as the gathering point for Nicosians for their sacred functions and gatherings. 

      The Società SS Crocifisso was not the only Nicosian group present in this Illinois metropolis.  In 1921 news had spread that there was the creation of another Nicosian organization. [25]

      Founded by 26 Nicosians, the Società Siciliana di Tutti I Paesani di Nicosia Sotto il Titolo Crocifisso was based mainly on the union of its members.  Their goal was social betterment, materially and intellectually, of its members and was also a form of mutual benevolence association.

      It was this reciprocal help that characterized this Nicosian association.  Article two of its constitution writes that it “considered as primary concern the families of the members” and that “financial support will be given in cases of illness, as well as accompaniment at the funeral in case of death and in any other way needed in case of other misfortune”.  The financial reports of the society in 1955 show that most of the financial resources of the society were used for funeral costs for its members (in that year Lorenzo Panetteri, Salvatore Divicino, Giuseppe Divicino, Sigismundo Naselli and Mariano Lizzo died, which cost the society $2,400) and for compensation of the doctor Alfredo Bellizzi.

      As the majority of Italian American societies had as their goal charitable ends, the Nicosian society was structured around a directed council made up of a president, vice president, secretary of minutes, secretary of finances, a supplies secretary and secretary of society families.  The organization also had a treasurer, three attorneys, a marshal, two sergeants of arms, a captain, caretaker, and, six councilmen.

      Strictly tied to the devotion of the Holy Crucifix, which was venerated in Nicosia, the society met in general assembly two times each month, beginning each meeting with the below prayer:

 

Sommo e misericordioso Iddio Creatore dell’Universo intero. Voi che vedete tutti i cuori umani e ne scrutate i pensieri più intimi, fate che i nostri pensieri, le nostre azioni e le nostre deliberazioni in questa seduta siano scebre di egoismo e degne della vostra misericordia, ed accettate innanzi la vostra maestosa presenza.  Fate che ci amassimo da veri fratelli e mantenessimo le nostre relazioni sempre più strette, così che avessimo un giorno la fortuna di godere la presenza del Vostro diletto Figlio Gesù Cristo Signor nostro.

      Each meeting would always close with another prayer.

      Only those born in Nicosia and their descendants were able to become a part of this society.  Admission to the society required proof of their origins and the approval of two of the members of the group that felt they were dedicated to morals and work.  Application for admission to the society, had to be accompanied by a certifying document of health that proved that they were absent of venereal diseases. 

      The society was composed of two categories of members: single and married.  The difference in category effected how they were to act in the association, just as was required in the Nicosian society in Sicily.  When a single member married, he would ask to become a part of the married category, within two months of the wedding, (after which time they could no longer seek admission into this new category).

      The member that was fully admitted into the married category was guaranteed reimbursement of funeral costs for his wife, and children (those under fifteen years old). The costs were divided by all the members that were a part of the married category.

      The society also had the task of putting on a feast in honor of the Holy Father of Providence, (Santo Padre della Provvidenza), the protector and patron of their society.  The society had to establish the date of the festival and the appropriate ways in which to solemnize the event.

      Representatives of the sister society participated in the feast with the professional and social groups. Members of the associations of Saint Alfio and Umberto Principe di Piemonte were present for the festivities of 1921.  They attended the religious celebrations and the procession of SS. Crocifisso through the streets adjacent to their social club with their own standards and flags[26].

       In these events, the associations demonstrated their presence to the other Italian communities and gave the Nicosian community in Chicago the level of visibility that the immigrants had in their own colony.  This was a testament of their social affirmation.  The religious event also was joined by another event that was profane in nature[27] and therefore the feast also assumed a common and non-religious character.  “Until now all had been established with zealous purpose so that the festivities were truly lavish and keeping the traditions of years gone by”, wrote an anonymous correspondent from Chicago in 1908[28].  In that year the members of the society were able to hold festivities on a Saturday, on the eve of the feast, with the sounding of the bells from the church of Maria Immaculata, where the liturgy was accompanied by music from the Banda Garibaldina, directed by Modestino Mastrogiovanni.  Sunday, “a parade perhaps never before seen on similar occasions” accompanied the procession, led by the tricolor flag, to make the procession stand out from the “many races of people that were found throughout these long and vast streets of America[29]”.  After the mass officiated by the Rev. Roccardo Lorenzone, the festivities continued until late in the evening, with drawings for a watch, and a painting of Saint Peter, and the evening ended with a display of fireworks.

      News of the event on May 29 1908 shows that like the Società SS Crocifisso in Chicago, aside from their religious nature, were not very different from mutual benevolence societies, which were most common in New York City.  The religious event gave the possibility to “be seen”, and to show their own importance in the Italian American community and by the publication of these events in the local and Italian American newspapers.  Homage to the Holy Father of Providence was born from the devotion of individual Nicosians and came to affirm the presence of the entire Nicosian community in a foreign land.  “A new affirmation of the moral and intellectual strength of which the esteemed members of the society of the SS Crocifisso are able, even in distant lands, to carry out their zealous and loving actions for their homeland[30]” wrote L’Eco dei Monti,

      The society sent thirty lire to Nicosia every year in commemoration of Holy Week.   The funds were equally donated by all the members of the society, explicitly for the Holy Father of Providence solemn celebration. 

      After the society achieved membership of 250, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the society experienced an inevitable decline with the progressive loss of first generation Nicosians.  Future generations born in the United States became ever more a part of the larger American society, and progressively lost interest in the traditions of their ancestors.  Only in recent years – thanks to the recent wave of interest in one’s ethnic roots in the United States –the society has taken new life, and returned the veneration of the Holy Crucifix, (SS. Crocifisso).

 
 
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After arriving in New York City many Italians decided to continue to the state of the Illinois, where many Nicosiani had settled.   They were dedicated to the
commerce and the terziario, taking advantage of the great possibilities offered by  the State,  and its main city, Chicago.
The immigrants  arrived  and found lodging in the Italian quarter of Bridgeport, ( Armour Square )
a near  Southside neighborhood  and built  between 1830 and 1840 by the Irish. The majority of the Italian community was originally from Ricigliano and later from Nicosia.  In particular, the area between the 26th, the 31st, Halsted and the Viadcut channel were inhabited exclusively by Nicosiani, where they had recreated a complex social network similar to that of the quarters of their original city. Arranged in lodgings near relatives or friends, emigres could  begin to orient  in the work force. They would utilize  the public placement offices (the “free employment offices”)
 
The services were  carried out free of charge, to the laborers, in disputes with companies,  and the Legal Bureau, destined to give legal assistance to the workers in case of accident and, in general terms, controversies with the employer.
 
Folta the Italian community - counted, at the beginning of 1900 almost 25 thousand component - it introduced the same characters of the others scattered in the various states of the Union. Against a wide dynamics of the job, Italian immigrants  maintained the social and religious customs of their birthplace, manifesting a not comprised and accepted religiosity often from local the religious hierarchies,
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in majority of Irish origins. The community constructed their own churches and  turned to Italian religious origins, as well as to the assistance of the missionaries of Sacred Heart of Mother  Cabrini.
The numerous associations  present in the city were not often able  to guarantee an adequate support to the needs of a community in fight for survival. The  societies of mutual aid of Chicago, characterized also they give that fragmentation and from that protagonismo of the majority found
in the New York associations, they were often limited to carry out a function
of meeting for the associates and their families. To case Luigi Provana it did not complain
that, besides the Society of Beneficence of the Italian Women and the Maria Circle Adelaide, devoted to the organization of the charitable festivities, but  the Italian organizations
 did not carry out a true charitable activity to the needy ones: “lack of appetite from one
personal and regional part, envies and jealousies from the other, are the cause of this
little lusinghiero state of affairs”.
In all probability the first Italian association was the Society of Union and
Italian Fratellanza, organized in 1880. It dictates organization of mutualistic stamp
West Randolph Street where members gathered  first Monday of every month .
Unione and Fratellanza were continuation, in the successive decade from many other agencies
created from Italian-Americans, like the Bersaglieres of Savoia and the Cristoforo Columbus  Society .
The Sicilian, without some distinction, met instead near the Trinacria
Sicilian Fratellanza, started  in 1892 and, successively, the Sicilian Union
founded from Vincent E. Ferrara in 1914.
Uniforms from rivalry of parochial stamp, the associations to regional character
they were found again numerous to the patriotic commemorations, above all in
those which advertised from the columns of the city papers in Italian language, like  The Tribune.
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In  Chicago the Nicosiana community developed itself  from the dawn of the Italian emigration in the U.S.A., facilitated from numerous opportunities of job and consolidating of the mechanism of the migratory chain, that it carried entire families to follow the men who arrived  first and reconstituting to the net of the relationships ancestral celebrations left in Sicily. They anticipated, Sicilian communities pertaining to surrounding area,including Capizzi, Agira, Nissoria, Assoro, and Villarosa.
The early 1900's, the Sicilian community could count on a  bank thanks to a fellow citizen, Henry R. Contorno. The “Herbitens Bank”
- offices at 154 W. 22d St, in press of  Wentworth Ave.- offered  the necessary banking facilities to the compatriots;  management of the money order
postal and telegraphic for Italy and the others parts of the world. Besides to construct to a  important  financial instrument of mediation in the management of the warehouses
and of the reimbursements of the sums deposited with Italian the Postal Cases of Saving and that of exchange, the institute took care of common activities to the banks tied to emigration.
The “Herbitens Bank” carried out in fact also the functions of agency of railway navigation and, advertising itself as the only “Italian agent member of the conferences Mediterranean and Continental” and “representative of Italian, French lines,
Austrians, Greeks, English and Russians”. Contorno organized also a legal office with Italian and American lawyers and, a resale shops with clocks and jewelry, and one for wedding  gifts .
Another credit institution of Nicosiana origin was the “Bank Dr. Cesar Conti”, correspondent of the Bank of Naples and the Italian Credit Bank.
Also through these financial institutions, to spiccatamente city character, the Nicosiano immigrant contributed to increase the flow of the savings towards Italy.
The remittances of the Sicilian, amounted between 1891 and 1895 to the 0,5 percent of the warehouses near the postal institutes of the peninsula, very passed in 1910 the 20,09 percent of the total to demonstration of the parsimony in the conduction of
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        ******* (Informative Card transmitted to me from Linda Holda Messina.)
life abroad that demanded great sacrifices and deprivations.
The most numerous community, had like pre-eminent the personalities of lawyer Francesco Di Bartolo, doctor the Nicolò Champion and druggist Francesco Cortiletti.  Besides sparuti exponents of the small entrepreneurial and professional world, the class of workers more represented was that of laborer.
Rosario Messina  belonged to that class, for example, he was born in the 1882 in the San Salvatore quarter.
In 1905, he abandoned the laborer job, embarked on the Napolitan Prince from the port of Palermo with  eight other Nicosiani, age comprised between the thirteen and forty-one years.    In  Chicago he began to work as laborer in the 
 constructions   field .  Rosario married fellow citizen Santa Proietto (1888 - 1943)  July 4 1909.  She  arrived in the States three years earlier.
 
Also part of labor class  Antonio La Barbera, left from Naples aboard the  steamboat the Alsace and arrived in the U.S.A in March 1896, at the age of 24.
In Chicago LaBarbera divenne the operator of tram and married by proxy the concittadina Santa Anna Giunta, who joined him in 1899.
Francesco Scarlata, son of Sigismundo and Antonina Pantaleo,was born in 1925 to Nicosia, the Sant'Agata quarter. The parents returned from the America after along period, and had acquired a land in contrada “Rocasci”, to which
it was possible to arrive single crossing the Salso river.
The economic difficulties forced Francesco and his brother Antonino,  sixteen-year-old, to cross the ocean, finding in Chicago support from the Falco family Falco. Francesco specialized himself as a tailor and he will not never forget the aid received from the fellow citizens in the first months of emigration.
Another laborer  family  was that of the Lizzio. Batiste Lizzio and Carmela Vanaria married to 13 Nicosia May 1911 and sold the little assets in order to acquire two tickets to the cost of 98 dollars in February 1912. They left aboard the  steamboat SS. Italy, and arrived 17 days later at Ellis Island, where
 
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they were met by one of the siblings of the spouse.  In Chicago the family residence in the old Italian quarter that grew around the Church of Saint Maria Incoronata.
Carmela began to work like seamstress of pants, while the husband carried out the activity of manual labor in the construction field. The  Lizzio  family had
four sons, all asserted in the field of the terziario  tertiary   and industry. Carmela never felt the rerequirement to learn English, with
little free time available from the job
and  family and with the compatriots.
The community met near the Society SS. Crucifix, founded 10  February 1899 and incorporated 7 August of the same year.
 
In the first years of the 1900's the society built a rich and artistic altar
 Santa Maria  Incoronata  church ,
 near which a precious image of the SS . Crucifix.
 The altar constituted, inside of the catholic church, the point of meeting of the Nicosiani for the sacred functions and the moments of gathering.
The Society SS. Crucifix was not the single Nicosiana association present in the metropolis of the Illinois: it is had, in fact, news of the constitution, in the September of  1921, of an other society to mutualistic character.
Founded from 26 Nicosian, the Sicilian Society of All the Countrymen of Nicosia Under Titolo of the Crucifix was based on the principles of union and    brotherhood among  the associates and had like scope the moral, material and intellectual improvement between the
members that composed it and the mutual aid between the same ones.
 
********************************
333 Vincent been born in 1912, succeeded in to cover important assignments near the Continental Bank, the Association
citizen of the commerce and the industry and the Foundation Brothers Alexian. Samuel, been born in
1914, divenne vice-president of the Northern Trust Co., while Phil, of two years young, worked
in the field of the transports. Frank, at last, been born in 1919, covered managing assignments near the Zenith, and
one enlisted in American aviation participating to the war of the Pacific during according to conflict
world-wide.
334 Of Carmela Lizzio I have been able, for merit of Linda Holda Messina, to reconstruct the human event,
made of sacrifices and deprivations and finalized giving to own sons the professional possibilities that
they had been available in Italy.
335 In it assigns of ulterior documentation, considers that the Society S. of Nicosia to which ago signal H.S. Nelli
(The italians in Chicago 1880-1930, cit., pag. 172) or to identify own in the SS. Crucifix).
336 N.A., “emigrating ours”, in the Bundle Nicosiano, year I, n. 16. The association, with center in 2841
Wallace Street, was presided by Felice Callozzo, collaborated from the vice president Giuseppe Mirabella
and from the cashier Antonio Scornavacche. News of a successive development of the same one is not had.
The 337 founding associates were: Rosary Di Grazia was Salvatore, Antonino Scarlata was Michele, Angelo
Cortiletti was Peter, Giuseppe Rizzo was Lorenzo, Bartolomeo Scornavacche was Francesco, Saint Of
Grace was Salvatore, Michele Messina was Francesco, Antonino the Guzzo was Luigi, Francesco D' Amico
she was Salvatore, Michele Invergo was Cataldo, Antonino Gagione was Vincenzo, Michele Pidone was
Filippo, Antonino Braciavento was Vincenzo, Graziano Scarlata was Michele, Carmelo D' Amico was Francesco,
Stefano D' Amico was Salvatore, Antonio Chiavetta was Michele, Antonino Rizzo was Filippo,
Antonino Bonomo was Mariano, Giuseppe the Barb one was Happy, Antonino the Barb one was Happy, Nicolò
Villa, Mariano Cardella, Salvatore Di Grazia di Santo, Carmelo Hen
***********************************
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And the mutual aid between the members the society characterized the nicosiano organism:
the mutual aid, recited art. the 2 of the charter, “it was considered like raw materials in the family of the associate” and “it is carried out with the pecuniario subsidy in case of disease, with the funeral accompanyment in case of died and with every
other means of aid, in case of dead women and with every other means of aid, in case of accident independently from the defect”. The report financial of the society for year 1955, evidences that the majority of the resources financial institutions
they were employed in order to tackle to expenses for the funerals of the associates (in the year were died Lorenzo Panetteri, Salvatore Divicino, Giuseppe Divicino, Sigismundo Naselli and Mariano Lizzo, for a honorarium of 2.400 dollars) and for the compensation of
social doctor Alfredo Bellizzi.
Like the majority of the Italian-American societies to mutualistic character, the nicosiana society era structured on a directive council composed by a president,
a vice president, a secretary of memories, a secretary of finance, a secretary substitute and an apt secretary to the familiar class. The organization
at last it was completed by the treasurer, three curatori, the marshal, two petty officers first class of weapons, a chaplain, a door-keeper and, at last, six councilmen.
Closely tied to the devozione in the comparisons of the SS. Crucifix which venerated in the native city, the society met in ordinary shareholders' meeting two times to
month, beginning the activities with the following prayer:
**********
I add and merciful Creator Iddio of the entire Universe,
You that you see all the human hearts and of which investigated the more intimate thoughts,
fairies that our thoughts, our actions and our deliberations
in this sitting they are scevre of egoismo and worthy of yours misericordia,
and accepted innanzi your majestic presence.
Fairies that we loved ourselves from true siblings and we maintained our relations
More and more grips, so that we had a day the fortune to enjoy the presence
of Your delight Son Jesus Christ Mr. ours.
*****************
Every meeting  was closed with the recitazione of an other prayer.
Only those born  in  the municipality could take part of the society in quality of associates of
 
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Nicosia, the sons whose  parents were born and the descendants of them of any degree there. The registration question had to be accompanied from the test of own origins, and  a favorable recommendation of
at least two effective members of the society, attesting that the aspirant was integral person morally and devoted to the job. The question
it had to be accompanied with a
document of the perfect health of the aspirant who, in particular, had absolutely to be free from venereal diseases.
The society was composed from two categories of associates:
single and the married men.
various belongings influenced essentially on the tipologia of treatment and demonstrate, in fact, as in present the nicosiana society graves a strong element of sedentarietà.
When a single associate took a wife he
 could join the category of the married men not more  than two months from the date of its wedding, term beyond which could not more exercise the option.
Associate in the category of the married men were guaranteed the funerarie recovery of expenses for the wife and the sons under
 15 years of age, expenses that were supported do not only give all to the associates but from those members the class of the partially equal married men .
The society had the task of annually giving to a festivitival in honor of the Saint Padre of the Providence, protecting and landladies of the society: to such scope the assembly
met in order to establish the date of the celebrations and the modalities in order better to solennizzare the event.
To the festivity participated to those and societies representations of consorelle with which more straits were had ties, all the associates and the personalities of the community
that more they had been distinguished in professional and social field. In the celebrations of the 1921 they were for example you anticipate the associations S. Alfio and Umberto Prince of
Piemonte that followed the religious ceremony and the march of the associates of the SS. Crucifix for the adjacent ways the social center with own banners and own flags.
It was be a matter of manifestations in which the association it demonstrated to the other Italian communities and to the fellow citizens of Nicosia the visibility reached inside of
Cologne, to testimony of the social affirmation reached from own members.
The religious data got confused so with that more properly profane one in
 
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a ceremony that ended in order to acquire character of festivity of the same country. “Of facts since now all it is established with firmness of purpose and zeal so that
festivity was indeed sontuosa and succeeded better also of the passed years”, the corresponding anonymous person from Chicago wrote, in occasion of the recurrence of 1908.  In that year the members of the society established to open the celebrations
the saturday, eve of festivity, with the sound of the bells of the church of Maria SS. Immaculate, where the liturgy was accompanied by musics of the Band
Garibaldina directed from Modestino Mastrogiovanni. Sunday, to the hours 9 approximately, “a perhaps never seen parade in similar occasions” accompanied the procession with overhead
the vessillo tricolor, to differentiate the participants “from many races of it polulates that they are found scattered in these far and immense ones contrade of America”.   After the putting
officiata from the rev. Riccardo Lorenzone, the celebrations continued until late night, with sorteggio of a clock and a representing picture the SS. Father, and
huge fires pyrotechnicians.
The report of the manifestation of 29 May 1908 and the others, testifies like the Society of the SS. Crucifix of Chicago, to beyond its connotation
religious, one was not detached substantially from those mutualistic ones that found greater space to New York. The religious occasion gave the possibility “to appear”,
to demonstrate own importance is within the Italian-American community,
or in that of origin, that it came to acquaintance of the gesta social through the correspondences published in local newspapers. The homage to the Saint Padre of the Providence exited therefore from the devozione of the single nicosiano in order to become
the occasion to assert the community in foreign earth, between the compatriots emigrated there and the fellow citizens remained in native land. “A new affirmation of the moral and intellectual force of which the dear associates of the aforesaid society of the Crucifix
they are able, also in far countries, when they must carry out their forces in
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it sets in action floods of amor patrio and of zeal” it wrote the Echo of Mounts, to testimony that also through the city associations was possible to conquer a uolo in the social scale that emigrating had not had the possibility of
to acquire in the origin native land.
The society was engaged to send to Nicosia thirty Liras every year in occasion of the Saint Week, in order to acquire a gift of devozione to the Saint Padre of the Providence. The burden had to be supported in equal parts
from all the enrolled one to the society.
After to be succeeded in at the beginning to count of the century  associates, the society endured an unavoidable decline with the progressive one to diradare of the immigrants' first generation.
The generations  born in the U.S.A., more and more amalgamated in the American society, began to lose interest  in the traditions of their ancestors. Only during the last few years - for merit of the last migratory big wave and the rediscovered one of own roots - the society has resumed life, returning to being aggregativo element in the traditional honor of the SS. Crucifix.
c. The other associations
To New York, beside already cited Nicosiana Youth, Siblings Head and Count of Turin was born for merit of Francesco Spampinato the Society Union and
Fratellanza sons of the Job, destined not only to the e'migre' nicosiani but to all the corregionali presents in the metropolis, without no distinction and with the pure scope to constitute a useful instrument to the workers immigrati.344 the initiative
it did not have but the hoped happened one from its promoter. In the American metropolis it had moreover life, to half of 1920, an organism that collected the erbitensi
devout people to the cult of the Father of the Providence. The blessing of the social banner happened near the church of Saint Lucia, to the presence of the canonical fellow citizen
Michele Cammisa D' Alexander and of the directed nicosiana musical band from Francesco Defini.
 
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Also between the Italians who, disembarked to New York, decided to push themselves in the state of the Illinois there were many nicosiani.  They above all dedicated to the tiny commerce and the terziario, taking advantage of the great possibilities that the State of
north and its main city, Chicago, offered.
The new ones arrived found lodging in the Italian quarter of Bridgeport, place in the part southern of the metropoli and built up between 1830 and 1840 from the Irishes. The majority of the Italian community original era of Ricigliano and
of Nicosia. In particular, the area between the 26th, the 31st, Halsted and the Viadcut channel were inhabited exclusively from nicosiani, than you they had recreated a complex
social net similar to that of the quarters of the origin city. Arranged in lodgings near relatives or friends, emigrating could therefore begin to orient itself in
world of the job, addressing often to the offices placement publics (the “free employment offices”) that they carried out their activity free of charge is in favor of the laborers who of the companies that demanded labor,or
to the Legal Bureau, destined to give legal attendance to the workers in case of accident and, in general terms, controversies with the employer.
Folta the Italian community - that it counted, to the beginnings of 1900 nearly 25 thousand componenti319 - it introduced the same characters of the others scattered in the various states of the Union. To forehead of a wide dinamicità in the job, Italian emigrating
it maintained the social and religious customs of the earth natia, manifesting a not comprised and accepted religiosità often from local the religious hierarchies,
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in mag gioranza of Irish origins. The community constructed therefore own churches and
it turned to religious of Italian origin, beyond that to the attendance of the missionaries of
Sacred Heart of Cabrini Mother.
The numerous present associations in the city were not in degree, moreover, of
to often guarantee an adequate support to the needs of a community in fight for
survival. The present societies of mutual aid to Chicago, characterized
anch'esse from that fragmentation and that protagonismo of the maggiorenti found
in the newyorkesi associations, they were often limited to carry out a function
of meeting for the associates and their families. To case Luigi Provana it did not complain
that, to part the Society of Beneficence of the Italian Women and the Circle Maria
Adelaide, given over to the organization of the festivities of charity, the Italian organizations
they did not carry out a true charitable activity to the needy ones: “lack of appetite from one
personal and regional part, envies and jealousies from the other, are the cause of this little lusinghiero state of things”.
In all probability the first Italian association was the Society of Union and
Italian Fratellanza, been born in 1880. It dictates organization of mutualistic stamp
West Randolph Street re-united own associates every first monday of the month to the 59.
Unione and Fratellanza were continuation, in the successive decade from many other agencies
created from Italian-Americans, like the Bersaglieres of Savoia and the Cristoforo Society
Columbus.
The sicialian, without some distinction, gathered instead near the Trinacria
Sicialian Fratellanza, been born in 1892 and, successively, the Sicialian Union
founded from Vincent and. Ferrara in 1914.
Uniforms from rivalry of parochial stamp, the associations to regional character
they were found again numerous to the patriotic commemorations, above all in
those advertised from the columns of the city sheets in Italian language, like  The Tribune.
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To Chicago the nicosiana community developed itself sin from the dawn of the Italian emigration in the U.S.A., facilitated from numerous opportunities of job and consolidating of the mechanism of the migratory chain, that it carried entire familiar nuclei to
to follow the men arrived for first and reconstituting to the net of the relationships ancestral celebrations left in Sicily. They were present, moreover, communities of sicialian pertaining to
circondario erbitense, in particular original of Capizzi, Agira, Nissoria, Assoro, Villarosa.
Already to the beginnings of the 1900's, the sicialian community could count on a born bank for will of a concittadino, Henry R. Contour. The “Herbitens Bank”
- that it had center to 154 W. 22d St, in the pressi of the Wentworth Hail - offered necessary the bancari services to the compatriots, in details those of management of the money orders
it mails them and telegraphic for Italy and the others you leave of the world. Besides to construct to a financial important instrument of intermediation in the management of the warehouses
and of the reimbursements of the sums deposited near the Italian Cases Mails them of Saving and that of change, the institute was taken care of enough common activities to the banks tied to the emigration.
The “Herbitens Bank” carried out in fact also the functions of agency of railway navigation and, advertising itself which only “Italian agent member of the conferences Mediterranean and Continental” and “representative of Italian, French lines,
Austrians, Greeks, English and Russians”. Contour organized also a legal office with Italian lawyers and Americans and, at last, an activity of resale of clocks and jewels, and one of gifts for wedding.
Other credit institution of nicosiana origin was the “Bank Dr. Cesar Accounts”, correspondent of the Bank of Naples and the Italian Credit Bank.
Also through these bancari institutes, to spiccatamente city character, the nicosiano immigrant contributed to increase the flow of the savings towards Italy.
The remittances of the sicialian, piling between 1891 and 1895 to the 0,5 for hundreds of the warehouses near the institutes mail them of the peninsula, very passed in 1910 the 20,09
for hundreds of the total to demonstration of the parsimony in the conduction of one
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        ******* (Informative Card transmitted to me from Linda Holda Messina.)
life abroad that it demanded great sacrifices and deprivations.
The most numerous community, had like pre-eminent the personalities of the lawyer Francisco Di Bartolo, dottor the Nicolò Champion and the druggist Francisco
Cortiletti.  To part sparuti exponents of the small entrepreneurial and professional world, the class of workers more represented era that laborer. To it
Messina Rosary belonged, as an example, been born in 1882 in the Saint quarter Salvatore.
In 1905, abandoned the labourer job, s'imbarcò on the Napolitan Prince from the port of Palermo with others eight nicosiani, age comprised between the thirteen and forty-one years.  To Chicago it began to work as laborer in the field of
constructions the 4 buildings and the Saint concittadina Proietto (1888 - 1943 married june 1909), arrived in the States three years prima.331
To the class laborer the Barb one made part also Antonio, left from Naples with Alsace the steamboat and arrived in the U.S.A in March 1896, to the age of 24 years.
To Barb Chicago divenne the operating one of tram and married by proxy the concittadina Saint Anna Giunta, that it was reached there in 1899.
Francisco Scarlata, son of Sigismundo and Antonina Pantaleo, were born in 1925 to Nicosia, the Sant'Agata quarter. The parents re-entries from the America after along period, and had acquired a land in contrada “Rocasci”, to which
it was possible to arrive single crossing the Salso river.
The economic difficulties pushed Francisco and the Antonino brother, hardly sedicenne, to riattraversare the ocean, finding to Chicago support near the family
Hawk. Francisco specialized itself in the field of the sartoria and he will not never forget the aid received from the concittadini in the first months of emigration.
Other family laborer was that of the Lizzio. Batiste Lizzio and Carmela Vanaria married to 13 Nicosia May 1911 and after to have sold the little assets in order to acquire two tickets to the cost of 98 dollars in February 1912 they left with
steamboat SS. Italy, the travel, along 17 days, concluded to Ellis Island, where
 
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they were to attend them one of the siblings of the spouse. To Chicago the family residence in the ancient Italian quarter taken, risen around the Church of Saint Maria Incoronata.
Carmela began to work like cucitrice of pants, while the husband carried out the activity of manovale in the field of the constructions. From the Lizzio they were born
four sons, all asserted in the field of the terziario and the industry. Carmela never did not feel the requirement to learn English, being limited itself to pass little
time available from the job in family and with the compatriots.
The community gathered near Society SS. Crocifisso, founded 10 7 February 1899 and incorporated August of the same year there.
 
In the first years of the 1900's the society realized, near the church of the Incoronata,
a rich and artistic altar, near which a precious image of the SS was conserved. Crocifisso. The altar constituted, inside of the catholic church, the point of meeting of the nicosiani for the sacred functions and the moments of gathering.
Society SS. Crocifisso was not the single present nicosiana association in the metropoli of the Illinois: it is had, in fact, news of the constitution, in the september of
1921, of an other society to mutualistic character.
Founded from 26 nicosiani337, the Sicialian Society of All the Countrymen of Nicosia Under the Title of the Crocifisso was based on the principles of union and fratellanza between the associates and had like scope the moral, material and intellectual improvement between i
members composed that it and the mutual aid between the same ones.
 
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333 Vincent been born in 1912, succeeded in to cover important assignments near the Continental Bank, the Association
citizen of the commerce and the industry and the Foundation Brothers Alexian. Samuel, been born in
1914, divenne vice-president of the Northern Trust Co., while Phil, of two years young, worked
in the field of the transports. Frank, at last, been born in 1919, covered managing assignments near the Zenith, and
he enlisted himself in American aviation participating to the war of the Pacific during according to conflict
world-wide.
334 Of Carmela Lizzio I have been able, for merit of Linda Holda Messina, to reconstruct the human vicissitude,
made of sacrifices and deprivations and finalized giving to own sons the professional possibilities that
they had been precluse in Italy.
335 In it assigns of ulterior documentation, thinks that the Society S. of Nicosia to which ago signal H.S. Nelli
(The italians in Chicago 1880-1930, cit., pag. 172) or to identify own in the SS. Crocifisso).
336 N.A., “emigrating ours”, in the Bundle Nicosiano, year I, n. 16. The association, with center in 2841
Wallace Street, was presided from Happy Callozzo, collaborated from the vice president Giuseppe Mirabella
and from the cashier Antonio Scornavacche. News of a successive development of the same one is not had.
The 337 founding associates were: Rosary Di Grazia was Salvatore, Antonino Scarlata was Michele, Angel
Cortiletti was Peter, Giuseppe Rizzo was Lorenzo, Bartolomeo Scornavacche was Francisco, Saint Of
Grace was Salvatore, Michele Messina was Francisco, Antonino the Guzzo was Luigi, Francisco D' Amico
it was Salvatore, Michele Invergo was Cataldo, Antonino Gagione was Vincenzo, Michele Pidone was
Filippo, Antonino Braciavento was Vincenzo, Graziano Scarlata was Michele, Carmelo D' Amico was Francisco,
Stefano D' Amico was Salvatore, Antonio Chiavetta was Michele, Antonino Rizzo was Filippo,
Antonino Bonomo was Mariano, Giuseppe the Barb one was Happy, Antonino the Barb one was Happy, Nicolò
Villa, Mariano Cardella, Salvatore Di Grazia di Santo, Carmelo Hen
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And the mutual aid between the members the society characterized the nicosiano organism:
the mutual aid, recited art. the 2 of the charter, “was considered like raw materials in the family of the associate” and “it is carried out with the pecuniario subsidy in disease case, with the funeral accompanyment in case of died and with every
other means of aid, in case of dead women and with every other means of aid, in case of accident independently from the defect”. The report financial of the society for year 1955, evidences that the majority of the resources financial institutions
they were employed in order to make forehead to expenses for the funerals of the associates (in the year were died Lorenzo Panetteri, Salvatore Divicino, Giuseppe Divicino, Sigismundo Naselli and Mariano Lizzo, for a honorarium of 2.400 dollars) and for the compensation of
social doctor Alfredo Bellizzi.
Like the majority of the Italian-American societies to mutualistic character, the nicosiana society era structured on a directive council composed from a president,
a vice president, a secretary of memories, a secretary of finance, a secretary substitute and an apt secretary to the familiar class. The organization
at last it was completed from the treasurer, three curatori, the marshal, two petty officers first class of crews, a chaplain, a door-keeper and, at last, six councilmen.
Closely tied to the devozione in the comparisons of the SS. Crocifisso venerato in the city born them, the society gathered in ordinary shareholders' meeting two times a
month, beginning the activities with the following prayer:
**********
I add and merciful Creator Iddio of the entire Universe,
You that you see all human the hearts and of scrutinized the more intimate thoughts,
fairies that our thoughts, our actions and our deliberations
in this sitting they are scevre of egoismo and worthy of yours misericordia,
and accepted innanzi your majestic presence.
Fairies that we loved ourselves from true siblings and we maintained our relations
More and more grips, thus that we had a day the fortune to enjoy the presence
of Your delight Son Jesus Christ Mr. ours.
*****************
Every sitting was moreover always sluice with the recitazione of an other prayer.
They could make part of the society in quality of associates only the borns in the municipality of
 
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Nicosia, the sons of parents been born and the descendants of they of any degree there. The registration question had to be accompanied from the test of own origins
and the opinion favorable at least two effective members of the society, attesting that the aspirant was integral person morally and given over to the job. The question
it had to be accompanied from a certificativo document of the perfect health of the aspirant who, in particular, had absolutely to be free from veneree diseases.
The society was composed from two categories of associates: celibi and the married men.
various belongings influenced essentially on the tipologia of treatment and demonstrate, of fact, as in the nicosiana society a strong element of sedentarietà was present. The associate celibe that he took wife could ask to make part
of the category of the married men not more late than two months from the date of its wedding, term beyond which could not more exercise the option.
Al regularly admitted associate in the category of the married men was guaranteed the funerarie recovery of expenses for the wife and the sons whom they did not have
completed the 15 years of age, expenses that came supported do not only give to all the associates but from those members the class of the partially equal married men and.
The society had the task of annually giving to a festivity in honor of the Saint Padre of the Providence, protecting and landladies of the society: to such scope the assembly
one gathered in order to establish the date of the festeggiamenti and the modalities in order better to solennizzare the event.
To the festivity to the representations of the societies consorelle and those participated with which more straits were had ties, all the associates and the personalities of the community
that more they had been distinguished in professional and social field. In the festeggiamenti of the 1921 the associations S. Alfio and Umberto were as an example present Prince of
Piemonte that followed the religious ceremony and the march of the associates of the SS. Crocifisso for the adjacent ways the social center with own banners and own flags.
It was be a matter of manifestations in which the association it demonstrated to the other Italian communities and concittadini of Nicosia the visibilities caught up inside of
Cologne, to testimony of the social affirmation caught up from own members.
The religious data got confused thus with that more properly profane one in
 
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a ceremony that ended in order to acquire character of festivity of the same country. “Of facts since now all it has been established with firmness of purpose and zeal so that
festivity was indeed sontuosa and succeeded better also of the passed years”, wrote the corresponding anonymous person from Chicago, in occasion of the recurrence of 1908.  In that year the members of the society established to open the festeggiamenti
the saturday, eve of festivity, with the sound of lives some of the church of Maria SS. Immaculate, where the liturgy was accompanied from musics of the Band
Garibaldina directed from Modestino Mastrogiovanni. Sunday, to the hours 9 approximately, “a perhaps never seen parade in similar occasions” accompanied the corteo with overhead
the vessillo tricolour, to differentiate the participants “from many razze of it polulates that they are found scattered in these far and immense ones contrade of America”.   After the putting
officiata from the rev. Riccardo Lorenzone, the festeggiamenti continued till late night, with sorteggio of a clock and a representing picture the SS. Father, and
huge fires pyrotechnicians.
The report of the manifestation of 29 May 1908 and the others, testifies like the Society of the SS. Crocifisso di Chicago, to beyond its connotation
religious, one did not come off substantially from those mutualistic ones that found greater space to New York. The religious occasion gave the possibility “to appear”,
to demonstrate own importance is within the Italian-American community,
or in that of origin, that it came to acquaintance of the gesta social through the correspondences published in local newspapers. The homage to the Saint Padre of the Providence exited therefore from the devozione of the single nicosiano in order to become
the occasion to assert the community in foreign earth, between the remained compatriots emigrated there and the concittadini in native land. “A new affirmation of the moral and intellectual force of which the dear associates of the aforesaid society of the Crocifisso
they are able, also in far countries, when they must carry out their forces in
114
it sets in action floods of amor patrio and of zeal” it wrote the Echo of Mounts, to testimony that also through the city associations was possible to conquer a uolo in the social scale that emigrating had not had the possibility of
to acquire in the origin native land.
The society was moreover engaged to send to Nicosia thirty Liras every year in occasion of the Saint Week, in order to acquire a gift of devozione to the Saint Padre of the Providence. The burden had to be supported in equal parts
from all the enrolled one to the society.
After to be succeeded in to count to the beginnings of the century 250 associates, the society endured an unavoidable decline with the progressive one to diradarsi of the e'migre's first generation.
The generations been born in the U.S.A., more and more amalgamated in the American society, began to lose interest themselves in the traditions of own ancestors. Only during the last few years - for merit of the last migratory big wave and the riscoperta one of own roots - the society has resumed life, returning to being aggregativo element in the traditional cult for the SS. Crocifisso.
c. The other associations
To New York, beside already cited Nicosiana Youth, Siblings Testa and Conte of Turin was born for merit of Francisco Spampinato the Society Union and
Fratellanza sons of the Job, destined not only to the e'migre' nicosiani but to all the corregionali presents in the metropoli, without no distinction and with the pure scope to constitute a useful instrument to the workers immigrati.344 the initiative
it did not have but the hoped happened one from its promotore. In the metropoli American it had moreover life, to half of 1920, an organism that collected the erbitensi
devout people to the cult of the Father of the Providence. The blessing of the social banner happened near the church of Lucia Saint, to the presence of the concittadino canonical
Michele Cammisa D' Alexander and of the directed nicosiana musical band from Francisco Defini.
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