Required Reading for Italian-Americans...

Sicilian Culture: News & Views

Houston's International Scene
By Mae Ghalwash, Houston Chronicle

December 16, 2002 - - Book tells history of local Italians. Hundreds of people queued up Sunday at the Italian Cultural and Community Center in the Museum District for a copy of the 432-page hardcover book, Houstonians of Italian Descent.

The book was authored by members of Houston's Italian community, and the event served as an opportunity for them to share stories and pictures of their families as well as celebrate their contributions to the city. It is a compilation of biographies about family members, describing events in their lives, how and why they came to Houston, their jobs or businesses, and scenes of a younger Houston.

Although the book is not an academic study of the community's history, the personal family stories do trace much of the Italian trek here - and consequently tell a part of Houston's history, said Lena Mandola, who spearheaded the effort under the auspices of the Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Greater Houston.

There are about 40,000 Italian-Americans in Houston. Italians began immigrating here before the turn of the 20th century, many becoming involved in the grocery business.

The book's main section includes more than 250 stories interspersed with some 500 family pictures, Mandola said. The family photos include portraits, wedding pictures and people posing in front of their homes or businesses.

Some were old-style, two-story buildings with a store on the ground level and living quarters above.

The book also includes sections on the community's clubs and societies, their traditions and their clergy and church history in Houston.

Gathering material for the book took three years of calling for contributions through the ICCC and the community newspaper, Mandola said.

Monthly workshops were held to encourage and help people to write their stories. The compilers went from 10 stories to 270, well over the target number of 150, Mandola said.

Mandola and her late sister Bernadine Aquilina contributed a story of their father, Sam Danna, a first-generation Italian- American who they wished to honor for his devotion to his family and his accomplishments despite his little education. The two wrote of how Danna supported his mother and five siblings when his father died. They wrote of his many businesses, including the Danna Lumber Co., and how he became a civic charity leader, joining or founding societies and charities.

In the same story, the two sisters also described their grandmother who seemed to understand English but spoke only Italian. They describe old Houston streets like East Montgomery Road, now Fulton. Mandola concedes that the write-up on her father was small in contrast to other lengthier and more detailed contributions. But she was eager to see the story in print nonetheless.

" . . . It was precious to me," she said.

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