Introduction to the Italian 'Model Colony' in San Francisco 

Since 1890, the general consensus on the enclaves of Italians known as “Little Italies” or “Italian Colonies” was generally negative. This can be attributed to the common conception at the time that originated through scientific inquiries that addressed the Italians as not only an inferior race, but also hot headed, unpredictable, and violent. One of the most popular theories was “William Ripley’s (1899) and Madison Grant’s (1916) tripartition of the European races into Nordics, Alpines, and Mediterraneans—Northern Italians fell into the second group, southerners into the third” (Caiazza 1). This popular way of thinking only exacerbated the discrimination that Italians immigrants faced while trying to assimilate into American culture. In New York City, as the number of Italian immigrants increased, so did the population of the Italian colonies located there. The New Yorkers viewed these colonies as dangerous and backwards, and quickly wove a narrative that blamed the mostly Southern Italian enclaves for the majority of crimes in the city. This narrative was rampant in popular culture at the time, and a popular cartoon blaming Italian immigrants for the problems present in America at the time can be seen in the image below (“Where The Blame Lies”) . Drawing on Iorizzo and Mondello, Caiazza recalls that “The characterization of Southern Italian immigrants as ‘brigands,” “savage,” and “uncivilized” was frequent in the American press when reporting crimes.” (2). Why, however, was the image of Italian immigrants in the Bay Area so different?

The Italian colony in San Francisco was an exception to the popular consensus of Italian immigrants at the time, and was widely regarded as a “model colony”. There are a number of possible explanations as to why this reputation came to be. It may be partially explained by the large number of immigrants of diverse backgrounds already present in San Francisco. At the time of the influx of Italians to the Bay Area around the 1860s to 1890s, there already was a predominant population of immigrants, in particular Chinese immigrants. These Chinese immigrants faced the brunt of discrimination through social prejudices and documented legal restrictions such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was a federal law that restricted the immigration of Chinese laborers. This focus on the Chinese immigrants may have lessened the prejudices against Italian immigrants as the San Franciscans had already chosen a different group of immigrants to scapegoat. Furthermore, as   Tommaso Caiazza argued in ‘No Mafia Here’ and further clarified during a class meeting with us at SCU in January 2024, the predominantly Northern Italian population in San Francisco endorsed the narrative of a model colony. They strove to distance themselves from the narrative of the Italian colony in New York City which had become regarded as dangerous and corrupt due to it’s perceived mafia connections. In New York, the hatred of Italians was directed mostly towards Southern Italians due to the popularity of discourses that tied racial inferiority to proximity to Africa, and their darker skin color, in many cases. Caiazza illustrates this notion, writing: “The model was constructed to prevent their own predominantly Northern Italian group from being tarred by the social stigma, such as that of the Mafia, that hung over Southern Italian enclaves in other major U.S. cities” (3). These Northern Italians were predominantly businessmen, and saw their migration to America as an opportunity to tap into a lively economy and build a positive reputation for Italians. Their intention was to demonstrate to the people of San Francisco that Italians possessed the capacity to become positive and valuable contributors to society. Italian immigrants and their children, such as Amadeo Peter Giannini and Domenico Ghiradhelli, helped aid and enforce this narrative through their upstanding business and work ethics, along with their contributions to their own immigrant communities.  

Credit: Francesca Penati