Early 1900s, Italian immigrants living in the “Bottoms,” one of Pueblo, Colorado’s first Little Italies.
In June 2021, mutual friends introduced Marianna Gatto — the executive director and cofounder of The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles (IAMLA) — to Harvard-educated lawyer, law professor, and Pueblo, CO native Fred Galves. A year prior, Galves had been hired by the city of Pueblo to serve as the mediator when tensions surrounding the city’s historic Columbus monument escalated.
The conversation between Gatto and Galves promptly shifted the mediation. “What I felt was missing, sometimes from both sides, was historical context — a sense of how and why these Columbus monuments came to be,” Gatto remarked to Galves, before recounting how anti-Italianism, violence, and the experience of being a denigrated immigrant led Italian Americans to embrace Columbus, who was widely regarded as an intrepid explorer and America’s discoverer. The two would continue speaking for over an hour, discussing, among other things, the importance of education as a means to promote change in the community. Before saying goodbye, Gatto and Galves agreed to keep in touch.
In Pueblo Diversity Runs Deep
Located 115 miles south of Denver, the city of Pueblo once sat at the border between the United States and Mexico. The Colorado Gold Rush drew many fortune-seekers to the city. However, it was the opening of what would become Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I) in 1882 that changed the course of Pueblo’s history and defined its cultural fabric. Pueblo became a manufacturing powerhouse; it was nicknamed “Steel City” and “Pittsburgh of the West.” CF&I, along with Pueblo’s smelters, foundries, and fertile agricultural land, drew thousands of immigrants, especially Italians, Slovenians, and Czechs. They lived and worked alongside Mexicans, many of whom had resided in the region prior to Colorado’s statehood, as well as Japanese Americans and African Americans. At its peak, over forty languages were spoken at the steel mill alone, and more than two dozen foreign language newspapers were published in Pueblo, a city that long exemplified cultural pluralism. While Colorado is seldom the place that comes to mind when we speak of Italian American communities, by 1920, roughly twenty percent of Colorado’s population claimed Italian ancestry. The state boasted several “Little Italies,” and in 1907, Colorado became the first state in the nation to recognize Columbus Day.
When Colorado State University Pueblo hired Galves as the special assistant to the President for community engagement in 2021, Gatto, a historian and frequent guest speaker on Italian American history, felt the time had come to revisit the possibility of presenting an event that would promote historical literacy among students and the larger Pueblo community. Gatto approached Galves and the university with the idea of an Italian American history seminar, to which they were very receptive. While Colorado State University Pueblo has offered an impressive array of classes in Italian language, literature, and cinema for decades, as well as a study abroad program in Italy, it does not currently offer a course in Italian American history. As Gatto envisioned it, the seminar would be designed to engage not only Italian Americans but academics and lay people in general.
After the collaboration was formalized, Gatto turned to the Koncilja family, owners of Pueblo’s historic Union Depot, a former train station-turned event venue that was once known as the “Ellis Island of the West” because millions of immigrants and migrants passed through its doors. The Koncilja family, longtime supporters of the Italian American community and historic preservation in the region, graciously obliged to host the seminar. Then the outreach began to local organizations, schools, and residents. Colorado’s Italian newspaper, Andiamo, ran a feature, as did the Pueblo Chieftain, and the RSVPs started to pour in.
Over 250 community members attended the free, two-night event. During the first three-hour seminar, Gatto covered topics including the push factors that led an unprecedented number of Italians to leave their homeland; the establishment of Little Italy’s; nativism and eugenics; anti-Italian violence; faith; activism; the Sacco and Vanzetti trial; and legislation to restrict immigration. The second night of the seminar included topics such as the World War II restrictions on Italian Americans; the impact of Italian Americans on the nation’s diet; Italian Americans in the arts; and representation. While many who attended the seminar were of Italian descent, many diverse groups that have long called Pueblo home were also well represented. One of them was Thomas Eliot, vice president of the Pueblo Archaeological and Historical Society, who described the seminar as “A fascinating look at the underexposed aspects of Italian American history.”
“Learning about one’s history and identity is empowering and connects one to the larger American immigration story. Ms. Gatto’s lecture on the Italians who immigrated to the United States allowed many in the audience to fill in the gaps of their own life stories. For others, it generated curiosity that will serve as a source of motivation to learn more about one’s rich heritage,” said Dr. Timothy Mottet, President, Colorado State University Pueblo.
Conversations are currently underway to present similar seminars highlighting the other groups that have long called Pueblo home. “Pueblo has a very rich and interesting history,” said Galves, “and the university believes it is important to reach out and support all the many diverse communities that make up our city.”
For Gatto, speaking about Italian American history at Pueblo’s historic Union Depot carried added significance. It was through the former train station that her great-grandparents arrived in 1898 and her grandfather arrived in 1929. “At one moment during the seminar, I looked up at the audience, and my heart swelled. The idea of my family walking through the station’s doors a century ago and setting the foundation for the lives we live today—it was an incredibly special moment.”
Marianna Gatto is the executive director and cofounder of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles (IAMLA), a historian and author with more than a decade of experience in public history, non-profit leadership, museums, and education.
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