My Little Italy

Today I am going to show you more photos from Italian Days on the Drive. I am also going to tell you a little about this area of town.

Prior to the 1930s, Italian immigrants settled mainly in the Strathcona district of Vancouver. However, on the 40s and 50s, mainly of these newcomers moved to the northern area of Commercial Drive. The Italians who moved here opened businesses and restaurants and are credited with revitalizing the area.

Little Italy, as this part of town was known, became a real ethnic Italian enclave. By the 1960s, more Italian businesses were springing up in the Hastings and Nanaimo area although Commercial Drive remained the cultural core. Ethnic Italians were influential in this area from the 1940s to the mid 1970s.

A number of things changed during the 70s though. Many different cultures began to move into the Grandview-Woodland area. In addition, a schism in the Italian community led to the decline of Italian influence and concentration in the Little Italy.

I lived in this area, not far from where I am now, for part of 1984 and '85. There seemed to be more Italians in the area at that time then there are now. That doesn't mean that the Italian influence is gone because far from it. Not only does the Italian days still attract a lot of people but there are businesses on the Drive that have an Italian influence. From coffee shops to Italian bakeries - the influence of these earlier inhabitants is still strong. Sometimes, though not as often as before, I will still see little old Italian ladies doing their shopping at one of the numerous vegetable and fruit stores on the Drive.

So if you are in Vancouver, don't forget to visit Commercial Drive. It is a vibrant area full of restaurants where you can eat food from every corner of the world. It is an exciting mixture of nationalities and cultures. Hopefully, one of the many festivals held here will be on at that time and you can really see the personality of the area.

I want to thank Wikipedia for the above information.

 I hope you find the beauty around you.

I.I.C.

On Sunday, June 8, 2014, I went to Italian days on Commercial Drive. I was going to write on the contributions of Italians to Vancouver when I found an  article in the Georgia Straight newspaper that has some interesting information I wanted to share.

The date was June 10, 1940 and the Canadian government had just declared war on Italy. The government also declared that any Italian nationals, who were naturalized after 1922, were enemy aliens.

At that time, there were 4,500 Italians living in Vancouver and roughly 40% of them, 1,800, were classified as enemy aliens. These 'aliens' were forced to file monthly reports with the RCMP explaining their whereabouts and activity.

Many Italian Canadians were able to live a somewhat normal life even with this designation. However, there were others whose lives were more difficult. These were the men shipped off to internment camps.

Over 600 Italians (44 from Vancouver) were gathered and sent to internment camps around the county. These men were not charged with anything and some were held for up to two years. This left the families back home struggling since the breadwinners, the ones keeping the family from dire poverty, were the ones imprisoned.

Now some of these men had ties to fascist Italian groups but the question remains: "Where these men being punished or was interning them a precaution?" I suppose the same thing could be said of the Japanese people who were interned during WWII as well.

These families were denied 'relief' from the certain provinces and not allowed to speak Italian or congregate in groups of more than five. Many lost their jobs and faced hostility from the non-Italian community.

I also consulted Wikipedia for additional facts. I  hope you enjoyed the pictures of the fine Italian auto mobiles. I will explore and find more to tell you about Italians in Vancouver while I show you more photos from Italian day in a later post.

I hope you find the beauty around you.