roke down the isolation of the Italian neighborhoods and eventually dissolved the strong ethnic identity of the immigrants' descendants (Nelli, 1970, pp. 78-81).
The Italians who arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1920 were a part of a huge wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. Their arrival in the United States caused a serious culture shock, for previous immigrants had come overwhelmingly from Northern and Northwestern Europe. The culture of colonial America and the early United States was essentially that of Northwestern Europe. Previous immigrant groups had suffered some discrimination because they were either Catholic (the Irish) or did not speak English (the Germans). These groups, however, essentially possessed the same culture as the English descendants with regard to entertainment, food, and even mannerisms. The people of Southern Europe, on the other hand, did not share this culture, and a cultural gap divided Southern and Northern Europe. This gap quickly evolved into a clash when the two groups mingled at clos
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