Ustica

The photograph is that of the island of Ustica taken from a ferryboat as it approaches the coast.

Ustica is an island about 50 miles northwest of the city of Palermo in Sicily. A ferryboat runs regularly between the island and the city. The island itself is very small, just a few square miles; and it would seem to have little or no significance to people thouands of miles away in New Orleans.

But, amazingly enough, it has a major connection to the Crescent City.

Although my own background is mainly Irish, I first learned of the existence of Ustica from my aunt whose family has roots there. Most of the people historically called "Italians" in New Orleans are actually from just one part of Italy -- Sicily. And many of the people we call "Sicilians" actually can trace their ancestory back to another single place -- Ustica.

One of the leading sources of information today about Ustica and New Orleans comes from the San Bartolomeo Society (St. Bartholomew Society). This society was created in New Orleans in 1879, although many people came from Ustica to America from the 1850's. Incredibly, most of the immigrants who left Ustica for political or economic reasons came to settle in one place in the world, New Orleans. The society was at first created to help immigrants re-settle, but today it is a way to help preserve a unique and amazing heritage and history. (See more about the San Bartholomeo Society at www.ustica.org/san_bartolomeo/index.htm )

As an example, one of the most famous musicians from New Orleans was the trumpet player Louis Prima. (I recall seeing him in person only once when he visited Jesuit High School in New Orleans when I was a student there and also a trumpet player in the school band.) His mother was actually born on Ustica, although she eventually came to New Orleans. Other members of Trumpeter Prima's family came from Palermo, Sicily; and it appears that there were many historical ties between those two locales -- Ustica and Palermo. (From my days studying military history, I recall the epic campaign of Gen. George Patton during World War ll when he drove the Nazis out of Sicily by taking Palermo and then racing to Messina. Although Italy was technically "the enemy" under the rule of the Fascists, the Sicilian people clearly sided with the Americans and welcomed Gen. Patton.)

Another amazing connection between New Orleans and Ustica is the world-famous, superb resturant Commander's Palace in the Garden District. Although today it is associated with Brennan's (a restaurant in the French Quarter), originally in the 1880's it belonged to Emile Commander. Emile was born in New Orleans; but his father, Peter, was from Ustica. Peter Commander -- whose actual name was Pietro Camarda -- is thought to be actually one of the first people from Ustica to come to New Orleans. Peter's family had ties to Palermo; for business purposes, most likely, he changed his name from Camarda to Commander.

The Italians (really Sicilians) came to New Orleans and settled right in the French Quarter where rents were actually low in the 1880's. The old Vieux Carre' became known as "Little Italy." It was there that the Sicilian and Ustican influence was felt first in New Orleans. The famous muffuletta sandwich was invented there at an Italian grocery called The Central Grocery on Decatur Street. The Progresso Food company began in the French Quarter in New Orleans by a Sicilian named Giuseppe Uddo. Today its products are sold nationally.

Many Sicilians -- despite the many cultural benefits they brought to New Orleans-- suffered from terrible discrimination upon arrival here. This culminated in a notorious case of lynching in 1891where many Sicilians (perhaps some were from Ustica) were faslely accused of a crime, and though found innocent, were hanged to death by a bigoted mob, some from lamp posts. It took a long time for the Sicilians to gain acceptance in the city.

Ustica itself has a long and fascinating history. Its modern history began in 1763 when 100 families came from the island of Lipari north of Messina to Ustica. The Government was afraid of pirates operating in the region and felt the best way to stop this was to inhabit the island of Ustica -- which had been a pirate base -- with civilians and then defend those civilians with soldiers. There is a very interesting yet complicated history about all this concering the "Kingdom of Two Sicilies." And a real study of the island's history could go all the way back to the days of the Roman Empire.

But for our purposes in modern-day New Orleans, it is just fascinating to think that so much of our culture in music and food in the Crescent City (and even relatives of my Irish family) come from a tiny island north of Palermo that, for most of my life, I never knew existed.

The best source of information I have found on the internet about Ustica can be found at http://www.ustica.org/; much of the information in my little story here came from that excellent site which also has wonderful color photos of the island.

For more about the history of the Sicilians in the city, see Beautiful Crescent by Joan Garvey and mary Lou Widmer, Queen New Orleans by Harnett Kane, and A Short History of New Orleans by Mel Leavitt. (Note: The photo above of Ustica is from Wikipedia Commons and in public domain.)

-- Adrian