Speech #830158889

Vastola had 30 years ago in Waterbury. Conn. Many years ago. the good doctor saw the Italian immigrant trudge home. weary and spent. after a long day tilling the farm under a hot sun. He saw the Italian immigrant gasping for fresh air after long hours in the damp bowels of the earth. digging coal for the insatiable needs of a growing metropolis. He saw the gnarled hands of the Italian immigrant lay down ties for the vast network of railroads sprawling across the country. He saw the Italian immigrant build schools. churches. factories. and skyscrapers--his painracked body bent under the weight of mortar and bricks. He saw the blood and sweat and tears of the Italian immigrant pour into the melting pot of America to make her the mightiest nation in the world. He also saw the reward the Italian immi. grant received for his labors. His reward was isolation from the rest of the city in the little Italys of America. It is true these ghettos were partly selfimposed as a sanc. tuary from the ridicule and painful embar. rassment inevitably found in a land of strange customs. But they were also enforced by the misunderstanding. prejudice. and lack of sympathy on the part of selfstyled superior Americans. and in these ghettos the Italian immigrant became the victim of economic and political exploitation. He concerned himself only with the economic needs of his family. It is not suprisIng. therefore. to find that he did not feel a personal responsibility toward a society which denied him any status other than that of an economic commodity. Dr. Vastola did not see these things with a desire to awaken any resentments that go with the ghetto. He saw more than was seen by the eminent sociologists who said that because the immigrant was backward and showed unsocial tendencies. the scum of Europe should not be allowed to come to our shores anymore. The doctor saw that life within these ghettos was not so drab and dull as the expert social workers thought. He saw the Italian immigrant play bocci and tre sette. He heard him sing beautiful Italian melo. dies. and dance la tarantella. He saw him praying to God and the saints with childlike devotion and joy in church and at religious festivals. More than this. he saw what sustained and encouraged the immi. grant in his labors. pleasures. and sacrifices. He had a glimpse of the vision of the immigrant of a future day when his children would have the things he wanted but could not havethe day when his children would be respected and admired not for la pizza but because they had become leaders in business and the professionshe saw the day they would break through the economic and social barriers of the ghetto to enjoy the full rights and privileges and opportunities of the American citizen. And when that day would come. Dr.