You Wanna Be Americano?

Poor, unlettered immigrants built this country, then stepped up to thrash her enemies.

Photo credit: Fabian Fauth on Unsplash

I’m a child of the 1940’s and 50’s; the descendant of Italian immigrants. You know: Dagos and Wops and Guineas, those troublesome little brunettes from the Mediterranean?

The piccolo mundo (small world) on Chicago’s South Side where I grew up bore no…