LITTLE ITALY IN MANHATTAN NEW YORK ..
( Photos Avtar Mota )
Little Italy is an area of downtown
Manhattan that falls in Soho district. It lies close to China Town and
precisely on Mulberry Street . You can also say that it lies between Canal
Street and Grand Street. Approachable from all sides by metro, taxi or buses ,
this place has become a new tourist destination in Manhattan, New York for its
old buildings , Italian grills , open air restaurants , bars and antique shops
. You find the pathways with bricks / tiles without black topping . No high rise
buildings or towers . Walk through this heritage locality to get a feel of
Europe of early twentieth century . While on a visit to this place , I spoke to
an elderly resident of the area who said this:-
“ Italians came as immigrants
to this place sometime in second half of
nineteenth century . They were
mostly poor artisans and unskilled labourers. Some of them also
worked in cotton factories . See all these buildings , they were factories and
most of these structures are made of cast iron. See the ceiling height, It
can’t be less than 20 feet in most of the cases . After the closure
of factories , it became a residential area . The Chinese came after the Italians
. The Chinese immigrants came as labourers .Subsequently they bought shops , properties and established China Town. They
too worked hard for survival. At a point in time about 30000 Italians lived in
this area . We had shops , restaurants and well established business over here
. People educated their children and started moving out mostly to Queens and
Brooklyn. Now you see these shops , or some restaurants and a handful of
Italians living over here . This is a unique area in Manhattan. Many artists and
creative people started coming to Soho for its noise free old style ambiance
and absence of high rise buildings. They were followed by many Hollywood actors
and a few celebrities . That gave a sudden spurt to real estate activity over
here and sent real estate price to instant spiraling heights . By rough estimate China Town over here has a Chinese
population of at least 90000 to 100000. ”
As we walk close to Saint Patrick’s old
Cathedral , we are informed that some Hollywood movies ( AMERICAN CRIME
THRILLER GODFATHER In Particular ) were shot over here. People have seen Marlon
Brando and other actors shooting some sequences near the church and some restaurants on Mott Street . Little Italy has been the backdrop of films like
Mean Streets ( Robert De Niro ) , Big Daddy( Adam Sandler comedy) and Donnie
Brasco (American crime thriller ) . I am informed that many TV serials are
shot in this area .
I was also informed that a few powerful mafia dons also operated from Little Italy
when crime was at its peak in New York . A story of past now , but possibly ,
that also could be a reason of migration of some residents from the area . China Town nearby also had a long history of gambling dens , mafia dons and criminal
gangs ( Tong wars ) operating in the area , but with the spread of education
and prosperity , all that is a story of past now. As China Town expands ,
Little Italy is getting smaller and smaller every year. A time may come when it
shall be a nostalgic memory in minds . Whatever be the case ,tourists continue
flocking to this heritage area even if the residents are moving out .
And the American society has wonderfully
emerged from the melting pot of many cultures that the immigrants to this
New Nation brought with them . People from Spain, Netherlands , England ,
Africa , Italy , China , Indian subcontinent , Turkey , Middle east and many
more places together with Natives have toiled to make what is known as Americs today .
I quote a paragraph ( page 178 ) from senator Bernie
Sanders Book' " Bernie Sanders Guide to Political Revolution":
" I am proud to be the son of an
immigrant. My father came to this country from Poland at the age of seventeen
without a nickel in his pocket. A young man who had no money, little education
, and not one word of English , travelled across the ocean in 1921 in search of
a better life. His story , My story , our story is the story of
America:Hardworking people and families coming to the United States to create a
brighter future for themselves and their children . .......Since the Nation's
founding, untold numbers of people have come to our shores to improve their
lives, escape oppression or violence, or flee desperate poverty. More than any
other country in the history of the modern world, the united states has been
shaped in its identity and character by the process of immigration and the
contributions of these immigrants. "
Well knwn Urdu Poet Firaq Gorakhpuri also
said something similar about immigrants to India . I quote his couplet:
Sar Zameen-e-hind par aqwaam-e-Aalam ke
firaq
Kaafile Bastay gaye Hindustaan bantaa gaya
..
(“In the land of India , caravans from Nations of the world kept
Pouring in and India kept getting formed ”).
So long so much.....
( Avtar Mota)
CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.
