Italian Coal Miners' Influence on Crawford County, KS
I stumbled across this article from the Morning Sun while trying to do research on Italian newspaper in Pittsburg called "Il Lavoratore Italiano". I'm hoping to try and see microfilm of this newspaper in order to mine some additional Mingori facts. In the meantime, this video actually sounds intriguing for Mingori researchers.
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From Pittsburg (KS) Morning Sun on Wednesday, April 5, 2000:
Coal mines become gold mine for local history
By NIKKI PATRICK
Morning Sun Family Living Editor
Many of the Italians coming to southeast Kansas ended up working in the coal mines, but Sandra Rainero said that, for her, the Little Balkans are a gold mine.
A gold mine, that is, of "history, culture and diversity." The native of Italy has produced a video documenting the Italian-American portion of this treasure. Titled "Il Lavoratore Italiano: Mirror of Society, Agent of Change," the video had its premiere showing Tuesday night at the Pittsburg Public Library.
Il Lavoratore Italiano, which means "The Italian Worker," was a weekly Italian-language newspaper which was published between 1905 and 1928 in Pittsburg. It boasted a circulation of 10,000 in Crawford and Cherokee counties in Kansas and Barton County, Mo.
Born near Venice, Italy, Rainero came to the University of Kansas in 1994. She earned a master of arts in American studies in 1997, and in 1999 received a master of science in journalism.
She was interested in doing studies in ethnic journalism, and in Topeka was surprised to find a collection of Il Lavoratore Italiano. "I had not expected to find Italians in Kansas," Rainero said. "This newspaper was published for 23 years, which is a very long period for this type of publication. I wanted to learn about the community it served."
She read through the old issues of Il Lavoratore Italiano and said that, when she finally came to southeast Kansas, "it was like a homecoming for me."
She decided to compile the results of her research into a documentary. "This was my third graduate degree, and I didn't want to sit down and write another thesis," Rainero said. "I wanted it to be in a form more accessible to people."
Her KU advisers approved the idea, but told her that she would need to come up with the funding for it. She eventually obtained two grants, one from the Kansas Humanities Council and the other from the National Italian American Foundation.
Rainero wrote and produced the documentary, and Provideo of Kansas City oversaw production and post-production. Production started in June 1999 and post-production in 1999.
The video includes an introduction and history of the area, an examination of Italian immigration and life in Crawford and Cherokee Counties, the mining industry of southeast Kansas, changes in the Italian community and Il Lavoratore Italiano over time, Italian women in southeast Kansa and the Italian community through the two world wars, the Depression and the current day.
Rainero interviewed numerous local residents, including August Rua, Ozzie Bartelli, Linda Knoll, Charles Cicero, Dick Pallucca and Martha Gustin. William Powell, Pittsburg State University professor emeritus, assisted Rainero and also comments throughout the video.
"Il Lavoratore Italiano gave a voice to a part of the population that was discriminated against," Rainero said.
It was not uncommon for the newspaper to be read aloud in bars or taverns, for the benefit of those who were illiterate.
Publisher was Edoardo Caffaro, who was born 1878 near Turin, Italy. He came to Pittsburg in 1905 from Trinidad, Colo., which was also a coal mining area. An educated engineer, he was a socialist -- socialism was very strong in southeast Kansas at the time -- and a strong supporter of the union and Alexander Howat, the Scottish immigrant who headed the coal miners' union.
Caffaro's newspaper reported the achievements, crises and changes in the Italian community, as well as accounts of miners' issues, both locally and across the nation.
The publisher was also a pacifist, but during World War I was forced to tone down his activism by what amounted to government censorship.
"Newspapers that were in languages other than English had to submit an English translation of their contents to the post office," Rainero explained. "If the contents were incorrect, the newspaper could lose its second-class mailing permit."
However, after the war, Caffaro became more outspoken again. In December of 1921, when the "Amazon Army" of miners' wives, sisters and sweethearts marched through Crawford County in support of their strking menfolk, the publisher defended them in print.
He ridiculed the governor of Kansas, who sent out the state militia "to protect men against Howat's women."
Caffaro also endorsed women's right to vote, though the Italian culture of the time was still strongly patriarchal.
Through the years, Il Lavoratore Italiano, which had originally been oriented to a male readership, began to have items geared to women and younger readers. Because the children of the immigrants grew up speaking English, the newspaper also began to have some stories and advertisements in English rather than Italian.
Because of declining readership and his own health problems, Caffaro sold the newspaper in 1928 to an American publisher.
Rainero also has a short segment on the Frontenac Press, published by Charles Cicero, which started in 1934 and ended with the start of World War II.
She also briefly touches on Little Balkans bootlegging, since many of the bootleggers were Italian.
"Italian culture does not stigmatize social drinking," she noted. "Many of those making booze were women, since doing this was part of their domestic duties anyway. The bootleggers were not like the gangsters you see in movies, but ordinary people. The overwhelming majority of them had no skeletons in their closets, only stills."
Rainero closes the video by noting that ethnic diversity is now celebrated. "Italians have become Americanized, but America has also become Italianized as well," she said.
"Before all this happened, I was hoping that someone would come here and do a story on at least one of the cultures of this area," Bill Powell said after the showing. "We're very grateful to you, Sandra, for doing this."
"I didn't do it," she responded. "Everybody here did this story."
"Il Lavoratore Italiano: Mirror of Society, Agent of Change" is available at a cost of $14.95 plus shipping and handling. It may be ordered from Provideo, 913-262-8979, or by e-mail, [email protected].
http://www.morningsun.net/stories/040500/sun_0405000004.shtmlhttp://www.morningsun.net/stories/040500/sun_0405000004.shtml