Published: August 30, 2007 08:31 pm         

Clinton residents in new book about Italian immigrants in the Midwest

Clinton residents are featured in a just-released book about Italian immigrants in the Midwest.

“Searching for Italy in America’s Rural Heartland” tells the stories of Italian immigrants who, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, came to this country to find work in the nation’s coal mines and on railroads and farms.

Author Celeste Calvitto will be in Clinton this weekend for the Little Italy Festival for book-signing events.

Focusing on the rural rather than the urban immigrant experience, “Searching for Italy” is a journey to small communities in six states – Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma – and, through dozens of interviews with immigrants and their descendants, provides a glimpse into the past.

Local residents Maria Costella, Jerry Zanandrea, Garry Dal Sasso, Ferruccio and Mary Fornero, and Archie and Flavia Poletto are profiled in the book. It contains color photographs of people and events from Clinton’s 2006 Little Italy Festival, and the cover of the book features a photograph of Clinton’s Four Seasons Fountain.

“The people and the vintage photographs in ‘Searching for Italy’ tell stories of freedom and family, inspiration and intimidation, humor and humility,” Calvitto said. “It is truly a step back in time.”

The author, a former newspaper editor and reporter throughout the country for more than 30 years, is now a freelance writer based in South Dakota. Her Italian-immigrant grandparents settled in Rhode Island in the early 1900s.

“I had a great time at last year’s Little Italy Festival and am looking forward to seeing everyone again this Labor Day weekend,” Calvitto said. “Clinton is one of my favorite places because of the wonderful people I met there.”

Detailed information about the book can be found at www.searchingforitaly.com. Published by Vantage Press in New York, “Searching for Italy in America’s Rural Heartland” is available for $14.95 by calling toll-free, 1-800-822-3273.