When the Colorado Historical Society threw a soiree for heavy-hitter contributors to its “Italians in Denver” exhibit, there were lots of familiar faces in the crowd of nearly 300, although many long ago had left the onetime “Little Italy” neighborhood in northwest Denver for the ‘burbs of Wheat Ridge, Arvada and Golden.
“It’s like a family reunion,” said Denver attorney
Joseph Fanganello, who was not referring to the “Five Families” stereotype that still lingers.
Arias were sung. Pasta was twirled. And speeches were made, making note of rekindled Italian-American pride and a renewed determination by the state historical society to present the human stories behind contributions made by diverse groups of people to Colorado.
Five years in the making, “Italians in Denver” is the first in a series of exhibits that will highlight other Colorado ethnic groups along with farmers, ranchers and miners. Their stories will be told, said curator Alisa Zahller, in terms of specific human stories, rather than a sensory-overload “big picture.”
“The society is trying to do a better job of representing all the communities that have contributed to Colorado, and it’s no secret we have not always done so in the past,” said Joseph Halpern, a Denver lawyer and vice chairman of the CHS board.
“The cooperation we got from the Italian community was marvelous. We’re all very excited about the result, and I’m not even Italian.”
About 50 volunteers working with the Colorado Italian Preservation Association spent 12,000 hours over five years in Denver, Pueblo, Trinidad, Georgetown, Silver Plume, Ouray and Louisville, gathering the 200 oral histories, 600 artifacts, 6,000 photographs and 4,000 research files from which material was culled for this exhibit.
“People were tremendously helpful,” said Zahller, a fifth-generation Coloradan whose family migrated here from Italy’s Abruzzo region in the 1890s, “and that may be related to a renewed sense of heritage pride. Twenty years ago, it may not have happened.”
Maria Scordo Allen, the Denver- based honorary vice consul of Italy, said the exhibit is “long overdue.”
“When people think of Italian- Americans, they think New York, Boston, Chicago or San Francisco. But since the 1850s, we’ve always had a very vibrant Italian community in Colorado,” she said.
Colorado Italians, she said, “worked hard and assimilated. But, while assimilating, it’s important not to lose your roots. This exhibit celebrates those roots.”
Organized into eight sections, the exhibit focuses on the Colorado Italian experience from 1859 Gold Rush days to the post-World War II exodus to the suburbs, to the present.
Photographs of Italian-owned saloons and stores; newspapers and Italian churches like Our Lady of Mount Carmel form the backdrop of a narrative that includes discrimination and 1920s targeting by the powerful Colorado Ku Klux Klan. Prohibition in the 1920s that triggered bootlegging and “crime families” is also addressed in an unvarnished manner.
Echoing today’s news, public officials believed Italians – 22 percent of Colorado’s population in 1922 – were not assimilating fast enough. That led to English-only programs at Denver Public Schools intended to “Americanize” the children of Italian immigrants.
Today, the 200,000 Coloradans who claim Italian ancestry represent 5 percent of the state’s population.
The exhibit is for anyone with an interest in how Colorado grew; its appeal is not limited to Italians like the woman who said, in tears, to CHS director Georgianna Contiguglia “this is our story, but it’s never been told before.”
