L'ordine figli d'Italia in America. New York: Società Tipografica Italiana, 1925.

We have some biographical details about Aquilano, a free-lance journalist, from Flamma's Italiani di America (b. Chieti, 1885; d. New York?). He directed out of Milan the daily, and still one of today’s most popular Italian-language newspapers, Il Corriere della Sera, from 1911 to 1913 and thereafter, when he came to the U.S., Il Messaggero, a weekly published out of Paterson and Passaic, New Jersey. He also contributed to several weekly and monthly magazines.

In 1907, Aquilano joined the OSIA (Order, Sons of Italy in America, the English name (and source of the acronym) of L'ordine figli d'Italia in America), and was instrumental in the development of that organization’s laws and rituals, as well as of the first circulating library of Italian books.

This work traces the development of the OSIA, the most durable of Italian American fraternal organizations, as well as the Italian immigration that gave rise to its formation.

The OSIA took an active role in the support of Mussolini after he rose to power in November 1922. Its Supreme Venerable, Giovanni di Silvestro, attempted to pledge the loyalty of the OSIA to Mussolini and purge the organization of “radicals.” A vivid discussion of this schism in the organization is recounted in Salvatore Benanti's 1926 work, in the collection, La secessione della "Sons of Italy Grand Lodge": Studi polemici sui diversi problemi degl'italiani in America; con prefazione del Dr. Ornello Simone.

Fiorello La Guardia, Arturo Giovannitti and others opposed this action, thus sparking a serious and long-lasting crisis within OSIA, ending with formation of a separate fraternity in February 1923. Later that year, Arturo Giovannitti and labor leader Luigi Antonini were purged from the OSIA’s ranks. 

It is unclear if "Costa, Lentini & Aliani, Props." refers to the printers of this work.

Baldo Aquilano

Società Tipografica Italiana

1925

23 x 16cm; 380 p.

Italian