Category: Politics & History

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Pope Leo XIV: The Hidden Sicilian Roots of the First American Pope

Behind a French surname and a Chicago birth certificate, the first American pope hid a Sicilian grandfather from Milazzo — and a secret a century old.

Pope Francis’s Italian Roots: The Bergoglio Family of Piedmont

His surname told the story: the Bergoglios were a family of Piedmont, from the province of Asti, whose emigration to Argentina carried the name that would one day be spoken from the balcony of St Peter’s.

Justice Antonin Scalia, official Supreme Court portrait (public domain)

From the Sulphur Mines of Sicily to the Supreme Court: The Italian Roots of Antonin Scalia

Documented family tree & key facts Antonin Gregory Scalia — Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1986–2016). b. Trenton, New Jersey, 11 March 1936; d. Shafter, Texas, 13 February 2016.Parents: Salvatore Eugene Scalia (b. Sommatino, Sicily, 1 Dec 1903) × Catherine Panaro (b. New York, 7 November 1905). Paternal line — Scalia, of Sommatino…
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Al Capone’s Italian Roots: A Pasta-Making Family from Angri, Salerno

The most notorious gangster in American history was the son of Angri, in the province of Salerno — a family of pasta-makers whose names are written in the Campanian registers.

The Two Italies of Fiorello La Guardia: From Foggia to Fiume

Two Italies meet in the blood of New York’s legendary mayor: the Catholic South of his bandmaster father from Foggia, and the Jewish Adriatic of his mother, born in Fiume.