essay

The hill upon a city: the evolution of an Italian-American community in St. Louis, 1882-1950

Little Italies in North AmericaTorontoPublished In 1981 • Pages: 141-164

By: Mormino, Gary.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is an article on the Italian-American community, the Hill, in St. Louis, Missouri. Lombards and Sicilians came to work in the city's clay mines and brick yards; a chain migration followed. Mormino discusses the development of the parish and mutual-aid associations. The article is outstanding in how it shows the impact of ward politics on the maintenance of the Italian-American community and identity over time. The ethnic enclave was organized by political leaders for the Democratic party. This solid ethnic and democratic voting block made the difference in some close local and national elections. This political power reinforced ethnic identity and way of life. Mormino also discusses the role of a local priest in organizing youth sports as an alternative to youth gang behavior. A famous product of this sports program is Yogi Berra.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Settlement patterns
Labor supply and employment
Athletic sports
Sodalities
Political parties
Adolescent activities
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Italian Americans
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2000
RegionThe area the document pertains to
North America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Historian
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ;1999
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1973-1976
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
1882-1950
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
St. Louis, Mo., United States
NotesAdditional notes
Gary Mormino
Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-164)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
82175514
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Italian Americans