From Wooster Square, Back To Amalfi

With a documentary in tow about new lives in the U.S., we traveled from the heart of New Haven’s Italian-American community back home to Amalfi — where we saw immigrants’ stories in a new light.

That doesn’t mean any minds were changed about pizza.

We had premiered the film at the New Haven Documentary Film Festival last year, and later screened it more than 35 times in and around New Haven.

Typically, our audiences included children and grandchildren of immigrants, and, often, after the screening, they told stories of their families and their memories of the neighborhood when it was a bustling Italian-American community. Frequently, tears came to their eyes as they spoke.

In Amalfi, the coin was flipped. Our audience there loved hearing about the lives that their Amalfitani brothers and sisters lived in America.

Like their American cousins, they were sometimes emotional. One woman, Iolanda Aurioso-Brangi, said many of the people who didn’t emigrate imagined that those that did lived easy lives in New Haven — which the film shows they did not.

A man, Nicolo Castello, spoke passionately about some of today’s immigrants — the refugees from Africa hoping to escape violence and poverty and live in Europe.

“You show an example of love and community that has been lost in Italy,” he said in Italian. He spoke passionately about how the African refugees are turned back on the sea, and how some of them drown when their flimsy boats sink. ​“Why can’t we accept them as we were accepted in the United States?”

The Italian immigration into New Haven peaked between 1880 and the 1920s when the U.S. government put limits on the number of Italians who could enter the country. In New Haven, the people from the Amalfi coast recreated the culture of their homeland. They retained their values and traditions even as they strove to succeed in America. In one tight community, they lived, worked, shopped, cooked, worshiped and played.

After World War II, Wooster Square gradually became less and less Italian. People moved to the suburbs. Urban renewal and highway construction forced many out. Today, the neighborhood retains a taste of its Italian heritage in the famous pizzerias, the restaurants and the pastry shops, but it’s now a diverse, cosmopolitan enclave.

Meanwhile, back on the Amalfi coast, seaside towns and mountaintop villages transport visitors back to another place and time — to the origins of the people who came here. John Cavaliere, one of the New Haveners interviewed in the film, told us: ​“It looks good; it tastes good; it smells good.” He was spot on.

During our stay on the Amalfi coast, Frank, Scott and I, plus some friends, enjoyed the warm hospitality of our hosts. Mayor Milano spoke to us of his goal of creating a global network connecting the people in Amalfi with those who have emigrated elsewhere. For instance, he said, a group of Amalfitani moved to another Italian province, Calabria, where they still observe the old traditions — just like people in Wooster Square.

At the screening, we presented greetings from New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and the New Haven Sister Cities organization. Mayor Milano and other Amalfi dignitaries presented us with gifts and proclamations for Mayor Harp and for members of New Haven’s Society of St. Andrew the Apostle.

An Italian TV crew followed Frank as he visited the Church of St. Andrew, which dominates the main square in Amalfi. There, he viewed a grandfather clock from the New Haven Clock Co. given to the church by a group of New Haven men, including one of his grandfathers. He touched the face of the saint on the door of the church — a ritual performed daily by hundreds of visitors. And we all got a rare look at the statue of St. Andrew, which is locked away in a cabinet in the church sacristy except for feast days. When the cabinet doors were opened, Iolanda Aurioso-Brangi began to weep with happiness.

Now, about the pizza.

Everywhere along the Amalfi coast and in Naples, there are pizzerias. Some of them made good pizza, but none of those we tasted held a candle to the three great pizzerias in New Haven: Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern. In Naples, I went with my son, Daniel, and his friend, John Reyes, to what was purported to be the best pizzeria in that city, Starita’s.

The place is hugely popular, with a line of people crowded at the door waiting for tables. We ordered a couple of pizzas (sausage and broccoli rabe; peppers and olives) and dug in. While the toppings were delicious, we felt the centers of the crust were undercooked — soggy, like thin white sponges. Plus, you had to eat them with a knife and fork. Sacrilege!

Reyes, who hails from Queens, N.Y., commented: ​“Somebody should teach them how to leave it in the oven a little longer.”

Here are a couple of scenes from Starita’s: