The word of the day is “crypto currency,” that new-fangled monetary coinage taking the world by storm. The word “crypto” is derived from the Greek word kruptos, meaning “hidden” or “secret.” 

What about crypto-Italians; that is, Americans whose Italian heritage is unknown to the general public, for a variety of reasons? (Note: Most of the time it was good old-fashioned assimilation, or emigrant ancestors being “re-named” at Ellis Island or other incoming ports). One can literally find hundreds of examples in a variety of categories, past and present.

POLITICS: Two current examples are Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, and Joe Manchin, current Democratic senator from West Virginia.

Common response to DeSantis: “What? He’s Italian? I thought he was Greek or Spanish or English!” Nope. And not only is he of Italian heritage, but all four of his grandparents were Italian, from the Abruzzo region. Even his mother’s maiden name was Anglicized from Ruggiero to Rogers.

And Manchin is the son of Italian immigrants from Calabria, the name was likewise Anglicized from Mancini (no relation to the Italic Institute founder, John Mancini – it’s a popular surname in Italy). People are stunned by this revelation, too, though anyone who knows the history of Italian coal-miners in West Virginia – as well as in other states like Colorado, Illinois, and even Wyoming and Idaho – isn’t surprised at all.

The reason most people are stunned by both DeSantis and Manchin is that they have visions of “media Italians” dancing in their heads: To quote actor Stanley Tucci, “The media’s idea of an Italian is some guy from Brooklyn named Vinny who wears gold chains.”

ENTERTAINMENT: In the current Oscar nominated film Licorice Pizza, there is a scene where the two main characters meet with a famous Hollywood agent specializing in child entertainment. The character, who chain-smokes and is passionate about her profession, is based on an actual woman who recently just passed away at 96 years old, the legendary Mary Grady. Her real-name? Mary Castellino.

And her two raised-in-California children also became well-known Hollywood actors: Don Grady, who played the eldest son Robbie on My Three Sons (1960s) and Lani O’Grady, who played one of the young daughters on Eight is Enough (1970s). (And their father was also Italian: Agrati.)

Incidentally, can you get any more “all-American” than those two TV shows, or those two actors? Again, Tucci: “people from Brooklyn wearing gold” (!).

And one more degree of separation: In Licorice Pizza, Bradley Cooper has a cameo as Jon Peters, who was Barbara Streisand’s onetime hairdresser and boyfriend back in the 1970s. Cooper’s mother is Italian American (Campano). And so was Jon Peters’s! (Pagano).

LITERATURE: The popular American writer, essayist and translator Frances Winwar was actually the Sicilian-born Francesca Vinciguerra. And writer Ed McBain was told by a publisher to change his birth name, Salvatore Lombino, because, allegedly, “Italians don’t read.” Again: “Vinny wearing chains!”

SPORTS: Early baseball pioneer Ping Bodie’s real name was Francesco Pezzola. And Lou Little, coach of the Georgetown football team in the 1920s and Columbia in the 1930s, was born, “Luigi Piccolo.” His Italian name was simply roughly translated, a frequent practice back in the day.

POPULAR SINGERS: One could literally make a list as long as the Italian peninsula; however, for the sake of brevity, here are four: the late jazz singer Morgana King, born Maria Grazia Morgana Messina (she played Mamma Corleone in The Godfather); Connie Francis (Concetta Franconero), Frankie Laine, (Francesco Paolo LoVecchio) who sang the theme song from TV’s Raw Hide, and the recently retired (after an amazing 80 years in show biz!), Tony Bennett, born Anthony Benedetto.

CARTOONISTS: There is Walter Lantz (real name: Lanza), creator of Woody Woodpecker. And there’s also Millicent Patrick (born Mildred Di Rossi), an early female Disney animator who went on to create the Gill-Man, aka the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  (Note: Ms. Patrick’s father worked under architect Julia Morgan during the building of William Hearst’s fairy-tale castle in San Simeon, California.)

MEDIA: Luis Marden, the writer and photographer who put National Geographic on the map (no pun intended), was born Annabile Luigi Paragallo. And the businessman who transformed Spanish-language station Univision into a powerhouse was the late Jerrold Perenchio, a surname often taken as Hispanic.

Two points in all of this, the most important one first:  1) Italian Americans are an amazingly diverse bunch who have contributed amazing things to American culture; and yet  2) Due to entrenched prejudice, very few of these achievements are ever celebrated, or even noted, in our culture.

Or, to be less cynical on point #2: Perhaps the proliferation of “crypto Italians” has blinded people to our true history? Never judge an Italian surname by any other surname, even if it’s Shakespeare: It is “Romeo and Giulietta,” please! -BDC