Back in the day, Italian Americans were justifiably excited when one of their own achieved stardom. In the 1930s, the elections of Fiorello LaGuardia and Angelo Rossi as mayors of New York City and San Francisco announced our arrival in the dominant Anglo/Celtic cities – our glass ceiling cracked a bit.
Statewide, some of the pioneering governors were: Andrew Longino (MS) 1900, Charles Poletti (NY) 1942 – for only 29 days, John Pastore (RI) 1945, Albert Roselli (WA) 1957, and Michael DiSalle (OH) 1959.
These men didn’t get much national ethnic attention during their times, but Ella Grasso the first elected female governor in the country (CT) 1975 made the news and awakened us to Italian American potential. Mario Cuomo’s election in NY in 1983 whet our appetite for the U.S. presidency. But we soon learned that our aspirations had some baggage attached.
Geraldine Ferraro, a New Yorker serving in the House of Representatives, was our first shot at the White House in 1984. Walter Mondale was the Democratic hopeful for president that year and he chose Ferraro as his running mate, first because she was a woman, and second because of her ethnicity. Those were still the days of ethnic voting blocs. But they were also the days of Godfather movies and the very real Five Families organized crime syndicates. The media went after Ferraro with reckless abandon. ABC-TV journalist Sam Donaldson publicly asked Ferraro if she or any Italian American candidate, for that matter, had mob ties. Such were the brazen insinuations Ferraro suffered through, and later Mario Cuomo when considering a presidential run.
I bring up this history as a possible explanation for Ron DeSantis’s reluctance to identify with his Italian roots. His recent book The Courage to be Free makes no mention of his connections to Italy. In contrast, Wikipedia has this entry for him:
DeSantis was born on September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, the son of Karen DeSantis (née Rogers; her family name was originally Ruggiero before her father, Philip Ernest Rogers/Ruggiero, the son of Campanian parents who immigrated from Italy to the U.S., changed it and Ronald Daniel DeSantis…He is Italian American, a descendant of Italians who emigrated from Italy to the U.S. during the Italian diaspora. All of his great-grandparents were born in Italy, and they were originally from comuni in the provinces of L’Aquila (Bugnara, Cansano, Pacentro and Pratola Peligna). Caserta (Caserta), Avellino (Castelfranci) and Campobasso (Castelbottaccio).
Truthfully, DeSantis can derive little political benefit from his DNA. Our “community” is thoroughly fractured genetically and politically. Most Italos couldn’t care less about having an “Italian” president (ideology is more important). To others, who don’t recognize Italian names without an end vowel, DeSantis could be Spanish, Portuguese, or even Dutch (Dutch people of French Protestant origin whose ancestors never modified their “de” to “van”. Some examples: Gov. DeWitt Clinton of NY (ca. 1825) late actress Rosemary DeCamp, and Three’s Company actress Joyce DeWitt (actually changed from Italian).
On the negative side, an “Italian” DeSantis might invite the wrong media attention. Donald Trump has already released his trial balloon nickname for “Meatball Ron”. Considering The Donald is no Slim Jim himself, Meatball can only have an ethnic connotation. Then there is the “fascist” and “Mussolini” references being taken up lately by some TV pundits and journalists. Chicago Sun-Times dagger man Neil Steinberg wrote about DeSantis in February squeezing “fascist,” “cappo” (sic), and “Savonarola” (the fanatical Renaissance priest) into one op-ed. Understandably, DeSantis wouldn’t want to embrace his Italian roots only to invite more flak. Better the proverbial “ten-foot pole.”
Perhaps DeSantis likes to keep voters guessing. Does aloofness help to attract Hispanics – sort of a Latino connection? And how about the millions who happily consider such a non-Anglo/Celtic name effectively non-White? None other than Senator Ted Cruz, a fellow Republican, may fall into this category. In his recent book Justice Corrupted, Cruz writes of a country club in Rhode Island that tried to fend off charges of bigotry by admitting a “non-White” member. Cruz rhetorically asks what sort of “non-white” member, “Egyptian? Asian? Italian?” This coming from a man who is one-eighth Italian and whose father came from the Canary Islands via Cuba.
Dear Ron: Sorry it’s come to this. -JLM
Your statement “Our “community” is thoroughly fractured genetically and politically,” is not only true but the one of the main reasons we are in the shape we are in.
Yes, most Italos not only couldn’t care about having an Italian American president, most done care about keeping their Italian heritage. These facts make it painful and difficult for us who are trying to keep alive our Italian heritage.
I recently found your site and enjoy the published work. Bravo. In regard to DeSantis and his Italian lineage one thing I have noticed in my six decades as the grandson of Italian immigrants is once the immigrant class dies, much of the culture goes with it. Sadly, when Nonna passed on the unraveling of the family began in earnest and it has not ceased but increased. Some have even left the Church and if you have to ask what Church that is stop reading now…. Assimilation is a double-edged sword. Growing up in New York in a neighborhood of first- and second-generation Italians, I identified as Italian. My children living in PA with a mother who, in our parlance, would be known as a ‘medigan, view themselves as Americans. I believe this is how most whose name ends in a vowel and claims Italian ancestry does today.
You left out Vito Marcantonio, a very prominent House Representative from East Harlem in the 1930’s and 1940’s. I have a biography of him. When I was born in NYC in1951, the mayor was last name was Impelliterri. Also, Al Smith, the governor of NYS who ran for president in 1928, was of Italian extraction on his mother’s side.
I was only listing early mayors and governors. We had plenty of politicians over the years but never reached the 6% representation of our population. We did a whole study of our representation in the “power sectors” (pols, media, academia, corporate, military, etc) back in 2002 (Gianelli-Cardillo Report). We always fell short. Even when Samuel Alito was considered for the Supreme Court he was about the 6th choice because the power brokers considered one Italian (Scalia) enough on the court. Alito got in because no one else made the grade.
Thanks for the reply, although I note you did include Geraldine Ferraro, who was not a mayor or a governor, in your list. One governor that was not mentioned was Ella Grasso. I believe she was a former governor of Connecticut. I always thought he was Italian-American. I think she may have died in office.
Governor Ella Grasso died only six weeks after leaving office.
From a recent issue of the Washington Examiner: “The White House is proposing to add more racial categories to the Census. For example, white people are given one choice now but would have six subcategories to choose from in the future: white, plus German, Italian, French, Irish, Polish, or English.” This concept totally ignores the fact that a majority the above-identified Euro groups are already a mixture of most of the other groups. So, what group will they identify with? My grandchildren are a mixture of 5 of the above-named Euro groups. My grandson, who is 1/4 Italian, said to me once, when he was about 10 years old, that he wished he could be “more Italian”. I told him he could be 100% Italian in his heart if he wanted. So, moving forward to the time when virtually all of our descendants will be only a fraction Italian, we can only hope they will be Italophiles and, like my grandson, be 100% Italian in their hearts.
You are correct Mario, the Census is totally meaningless because of racial and ethnic mixing. France has eliminated breaking down its population – clearly it leads to problems and confusion. The whole nonsense about Black reparations is one such ball of confusion when 99% of “Blacks” are part WASP and other ethnic groups.