COMMEMORATING ITALY'S LIBERATION DAY IN NEW YORK

Today, The Grangers and The Grandma have visited the Italian American community in New York City, that was celebrating a national Italian day that commemorates the end of the nazi occupation in 1945.

Before this meeting, they have been studying the irregular forms of Past Simple.

More information: Past Simple (Irregular Forms)

Italian Americans are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. According to the Italian American Studies Association, the current population is about 18 million, an increase from 16 million in 2010, corresponding to about 5.4% of the total population of the United States.

The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, with significant communities also residing in many other major U.S. metropolitan areas like New York City.

Between 1820 and 2004 approximately 5.5 million Italians migrated from Italy to the United States during the Italian diaspora, in several distinct waves, with the greatest number arriving in the 20th century from Southern Italy. 

Initially, many Italian immigrants (usually single men), so-called birds of passage, sent remittance back to their families in Italy and, eventually, returned to Italy; however, many other immigrants eventually stayed in the United States, creating the large Italian American communities that exist today.

More information: Take Walks

Festa della Liberazione (Italy's Liberation Day), also known as the Anniversario della Liberazione d'Italia, Anniversario della Resistenza is a national Italian holiday commemorating the end of Nazi occupation during World War II and the victory of the Resistance in Italy.

The date was chosen by convention, as it was the day of the year 1945 when the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the insurgency in a radio announcement, propounding the seizure of power by the CLNAI and proclaiming the death sentence for all fascist leaders, including Benito Mussolini, who was shot three days later.

Bella Ciao, Goodbye beautiful is an Italian protest folk song that originated in the hardships of the mondina women, the paddy field workers in the late 19th century who sang it to protest against harsh working conditions in the paddy fields of North Italy.

The song was modified and adopted as an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance by the Italian partisans between 1943 and 1945 during the Italian Resistance, the resistance of Italian partisans against the Nazi German forces occupying Italy, during the Italian Civil War, and the Italian partisan struggle against the fascist Italian Social Republic and its Nazi German allies.

Versions of Bella Ciao are sung worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance.

Bella Ciao was originally sung as Alla mattina appena alzata by seasonal workers of paddy fields of rice, especially in Italy's Po Valley from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century with different lyrics.

They worked at monda (weeding) the rice fields in northern Italy, to help the healthy growth of young rice plants. It took place during the flooding of the fields, from the end of April to the beginning of June every year, during which the delicate shoots needed to be protected, during the first stages of their development, from temperature differences between the day and the night. It consisted of two phases: transplanting the plants and pruning the weeds.

Monda was an extremely tiring task, carried out mostly by women known as mondinas, from the poorest social classes. They would spend their workdays with their bare feet in water up to their knees, and their back bent for many hours.

The atrocious working conditions, long hours and very low pay led to constant dissatisfaction and led, at times, to rebellious movements and riots in the early years of the twentieth century.

The struggles against the supervising padroni was even harder, with plenty of clandestine workers ready to compromise even further the already low wages just to get work. Besides Bella Ciao, similar songs by the mondina women included Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi and Se otto ore vi sembran poche.

Other similar versions of the antecedents of Bella Ciao appeared over the years, indicating that Alla mattina appena alzata must have been composed in the latter half of the 19th century. The earliest written version is dated 1906 and comes from near Vercelli, Piedmont.

Bella Ciao was revived by the anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy between 1943 and 1945, with modified lyrics. The author of the lyrics is unknown.

In 2015, the song was banned in some municipalities of Northern Italy, ruled by the right-wing League.

More information: The Local

 

Una mattina mi son alzato,
o bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao!
Una mattina mi son alzato
e ho trovato l'invasor.
 

One morning I awakened,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao!
One morning I awakened
And I found the invader.
 

Popular Italian Song