Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
New York may be more famous for its Italians, but "New York Italians" are for the most part very Americanized and would stand out in Italy. In America, the melting pot ideology prevails. Cheesesteaks and saying "capiche" does not a real Italian make. So while it has more people of Italian descent, Vancouver probably has more people who can actually speak Italian. People in Italy know the difference.
Go to Burnaby Heights or Commercial Drive, and you'll hear lots of Italian on the street and RAI broadcasting at Italian establishments.
New York may be more famous for its Italians, but "New York Italians" are for the most part very Americanized and would stand out in Italy. In America, the melting pot ideology prevails. Cheesesteaks and saying "capiche" does not a real Italian make. So while it has more people of Italian descent, Vancouver probably has more people who can actually speak Italian. People in Italy know the difference.
Go to Burnaby Heights or Commercial Drive, and you'll hear lots of Italian on the street and RAI broadcasting at Italian establishments.
I can't speak for Vancouver, but I will say the Italians in Toronto seem very connected to their roots, and it's probably because their arrival is generally more recent.
Immigration from Italy to New York stopped in 1920 or so, while Vancouver received Italian immigrants in the 50s and 60s. So you're actually more likely to meet somebody actually from Italy in Burnaby than you are in Brooklyn where they're mostly 3rd, 4th and 5th generation Americans.
For example, the so-called "Italians" of New York mocked Mayor Bill de Blasio for eating pizza with a knife and fork, even though it's the way pizza is eaten in Italy. This wouldn't happen in Vancouver because Italians there are actually connected to their roots.
New York may be more famous for its Italians, but "New York Italians" are for the most part very Americanized and would stand out in Italy. In America, the melting pot ideology prevails. Cheesesteaks and saying "capiche" does not a real Italian make. So while it has more people of Italian descent, Vancouver probably has more people who can actually speak Italian. People in Italy know the difference.
Go to Burnaby Heights or Commercial Drive, and you'll hear lots of Italian on the street and RAI broadcasting at Italian establishments.
Well, Italians in New York have been there for 100+ years...so yeah, of course there are a TON of American influences...it goes without saying.
Immigration from Italy to New York stopped in 1920 or so, while Vancouver received Italian immigrants in the 50s and 60s. So you're actually more likely to meet somebody actually from Italy in Burnaby than you are in Brooklyn where they're mostly 3rd, 4th and 5th generation Americans.
Wrong. Italian immigration to NYC stopped around 1980. The Brooklyn and Staten Island and Bronx Italian neighborhoods are all Sicilians and Calabrians who arrived in the 1960's and 1970's.
The stereotypically most Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, Bensonhurst, was actually almost all Jewish until about 1970. It didn't become Italian until the great waves of migration ended around 1980. Same goes for the most Italian neighborhood in the Bronx, Morris Park. In these neighborhoods, all the social clubs, coffeehouses, bakeries and the like reference the small towns in Sicily and Calabria that fed the later migration. Many of the stores have "Si parla Italiano" and you will hear Italian and especially Sicilian dialects every day, just by walking down the street.
Italians who arrived 100 years ago don't live in NYC, and are scattered about the U.S. They have nothing to do with present Italian culture in NYC. They are fully integrated into American society.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Van City Man
For example, the so-called "Italians" of New York mocked Mayor Bill de Blasio for eating pizza with a knife and fork, even though it's the way pizza is eaten in Italy. This wouldn't happen in Vancouver because Italians there are actually connected to their roots.
That makes no sense whatsoever, and you're wrong about Italy.
If you go to Naples, home of pizza, people use their hands to eat pizza. They don't use a fork and knife. In Rome, the same is true. In fact, I don't know how one could even use a fork and knife to eat Roman-style pizza, as it's so thin and crackly, and they don't give you silverware.
I have seen people frequently use a fork and knife in Northern Italy, but that's not where pizza is from. Milan has as much to do with pizza as Stockholm.
DeBlasio was mocked because in NYC you don't eat pizza with a fork and knife. It has nothing to do with "being Italian", it's because DeBlasio is not from NYC and in NYC you eat street pizza with your hands (and NYC street pizza has nothing to do with Neapolitan pizza, or Roman pizza, but you are totally lost on this thread anyways, so what's the point of explaining).
New York may be more famous for its Italians, but "New York Italians" are for the most part very Americanized and would stand out in Italy. In America, the melting pot ideology prevails. Cheesesteaks and saying "capiche" does not a real Italian make. So while it has more people of Italian descent, Vancouver probably has more people who can actually speak Italian. People in Italy know the difference.
Go to Burnaby Heights or Commercial Drive, and you'll hear lots of Italian on the street and RAI broadcasting at Italian establishments.
Guess I need to check out Vancouver more, never got the Italian feel that I do in places like NYC and Philly
I am a second generation Italian, and hear Italian spoken pretty regularly in my current neighborhood
I also dont agree with the stereotype you call out, there are many Italian traditions still present where I live
Still have family in Italy and they know NYC and Philly very well, not sure on Vancouver as I said I have little experience there But is a beautiful area and enjoyed my limited time there very much
Just got back from morning shopping at the Italian market
Metro Vancouver has 76,000 people reporting Italian ancestry and 75% were born in Canada while some report multiple ethnicities.
Nearly 700,000 people in just the city of New York report Italian ancestry and 50,000 were born in Italy. That doesn't even factor in that the New York Metro all the way through to New Jersey and Philly metro and Connecticut/Rhode Island and the Boston metro are all heavily Italian.
LOL. Even to this day, NYC gets more Italian immigrants every year than Vancouver does.
NYC gained 500,000+ international immigrants in the past 4 years alone. That's more international newcomers in a few years the total amount of people who currently live in Vancouver. Something tells me there are some Italians in that 500,000 number.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
