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1911 |
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95
people of Italian origin were in the Windsor area |
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1921 |
429 people of Italian origin were in the Windsor area |
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1931 |
2,023 people of Italian origin
were in the Windsor area |
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2001 |
12,335 people in the Greater Windsor area listed Italian as their mother tongue
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2001 |
30,685 people in the Greater Windsor area listed their ethnic origin as Italian (about 1/10th of the population)
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Italians
represent the 4th largest Canadian ethno cultural group in the country. |
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In Windsor, Italians are the 3rd largest group after the British and the French. |
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Italian
Presence in the Great Lakes Region |
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Italians were present in the
Great Lakes region long before the founding of Detroit in 1701. Two
Neapolitan brothers, Enrico (Henri) and Alphonse de Tonti were among
the first to serve the French regime in this region. Enrico (or Henri)
was chief aid to LaSalle in the exploration of the Great Lakes and
travelled through the Detroit-Windsor strait toward the end of the
1670s. Alphonse, his older brother who was the first recorded Italian
to arrive
in what is now Detroit, held posts throughout the Great Lakes
region. He was Captain of Mackinaw from 1697-1700, governor of Frontenac
from 1706-1716, and governor of Detroit from 1717 until his death
in 1727. He supervised the building of Fort Pontchartrain. Besides
owning trading rights in the area, he
also owned a farm on Belle Isle. |
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Language mix-up |
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The Italian origin of many
settlers seems to be hidden in the French and English phonetic transcription
of their names. Historians have uncovered numerous Italians, whose
names had been transformed or mangled, who had settled in the 1700s
in the
Detroit area. For example, the first priest to arrive in Detroit in
1706, Constantine del Halle, was in reality Costantino del Halio, who
was of a noble Florentine family. Another example is found in 1748,
when the Huron Mission farm on the west side of the present Huron Church
Line was granted to a Nicholas Campeau. He was brought from Montreal
by his parents as a child and was most likely the son of Michel or
Jacques Campo whose name in New France had been Gallicised, changing
Campo to Campeau. Thus the descendant of an Italian settler can be
said to have been one of the first farmers in this area. |
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The First Known Italian to Arrive and Live in Windsor |
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The first
known Italian to arrive and live in Windsor in the 1860s was Matteo
Palmieri (1826-1916). He was a fuoruscito, a patriot
of the struggle for Italian unification known as the Risorgimento.
He was also a
girovago, an itinerant worker, as is illustrated by his
story. Originally from Naples, he fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi
in 1849, fled to France,
then to England, and then to Quebec, where he worked as a mine supervisor.
By 1865, he was a photographer in Detroit, after a brief stay in
Windsor. Between 1868-71, he resided in Windsor with his wife Mary,
a music
teacher, but he later moved back to Detroit. Finally, in 1910, at
the age of eighty-four, Palmieri returned to Windsor to live with
his
daughter, Mrs. George Mitchell, at 181 Windsor Street where he died
on February 26, 1916. After 1873, the year he founded the Italian
Benevolent Society, of which he was also the first president, Palmieri
devoted much of this time to assisting immigrants. .. (Walter
Temelini, The Italians in Windsor, Polyphony Vol. 7, No. 2)
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The Italians of Leamington |
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(Source of Information:
La Gazzetta)
The first Italian
group arrived in Leamington (a small town, 30 miles South East of Windsor),
in 1924 from Villa Canale, Campobasso Province (today Isernia Province).
From that time on many relatives and friends were drawn to come and
built a better life in this area.
The fortune for the Italians was the land, the vines, the fruits,
vegetables, etc. Most of the products are shipped all over Canada.
Leamington is called The Tomato Capital City of Canada for the quantity
of the tomatoes produced. Many Italians dedicated their work to
agriculture for the first years and later they started to expand
in other workplaces and industry. The beginning was very hard
and full of sacrifices, but today the Italians in Leamington enjoy
a respectable place among the other communities not only economically,
but socially too. Most of today’s generations hold the
last name Mastronardi, Ingratta, Coppola, Pannunzio, Palomba,
Ricci, Sabelli, Cacciavillani, Colasanti, Di Menna and others.
Since 1960, the Italians in Leamington have their club named “Roma
Club”. The building was built in 1962 at Conc.1, Mersea. The
first President of the club was Gino Di Menna. Also, past presidents
were Don Puglia, V. Ricci, R. Paliani, Armando Masciotra, etc.
The Italians of Leamington have contributed not only in the agricultural
field, industry and civil welfare, but they are also well known for their
artistic endeavors.
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