The UC Berkeley Library has rich collections pertaining to Italian-American communities in California. An online exhibition Italian Americans in California created in 2007 imparts little known facts about centuries of immigrants to the Golden State and is now archived on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Here are just a few from this marvelously researched exhibit:
- Though small in number, Italians were some of the first European explorers and settlers of California. From 1687 to 1711, Father Eusebio Chino (probably pronounced Kee–no) traveled in northern Mexico and Lower California. He was the first person to prove that Lower California was a peninsula, not an island. Other early Italian visitors to the shores of California were sailors and fishermen.
- Though we often associate Italians in California with San Francisco, the initial Italian settlers established themselves in such diverse communities as Monterey, Stockton, and San Diego during the years of Spanish Rule. While the majority of Italians settled in the urban centers of the east, many, especially northern Italians came out west. As late as 1890, there were more Italian immigrants on the Pacific coast than in New England.
- As early as the 1840s, settlers from Genoa began to arrive in the valleys of northern and central California after hearing their Ligurian (the region that includes Genoa) sailing relatives talk about how ideal the valleys were for vinting. Despite the fact that Liguria is not a major wine producing region in Italy, the wine industry in California was mostly built by Genoese.
- The first significant wave of Italian immigrants came to California during the Gold Rush. Those who came quickly moved to buy land or work in service industries, rather than stay in the mines.
- The majority of these Italian immigrants to California came from northern Italy. They began building communities, introduced Italian Opera to California in 1851, and founded an Italian language newspaper in San Francisco as early as 1859. Amadeo Giannini founded what became the Bank of America, first known as the Bank of Italy, in 1904 as a way for Italian immigrants to save and borrow small amounts, but the genius of his bank was the first use of branches put in locations closer to his customers.
- The aftermath of the Gold Rush brought even more northern Italians to California. The ostentatious wealth of those who succeeded during the Gold Rush years brought with it a demand for stone and marble cutters from Italy to work on the mansions of the newly rich. The fishing grounds and warm climate began to attract Sicilian fishermen, especially in the Bay Area and San Diego.
- San Francisco’s Little Italy bounced back from the 1906 earthquake in better shape than ever. At the same time, Italian immigrants had established themselves as the primary fishermen in the San Francisco Bay, and as a major agricultural force as well. Some children of the first wave of immigrants were coming of age in the 1900s to the 1930s, and these achieved greater success than their parents in law, politics, business, and agriculture, especially wine.
- The cultural contributions of generations of Italian Americans in San Francisco in particular is impressive. Writers such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso, Diane di Prima, Philip Lamantia and others fostered the Beat movement in the post-World War II years, rebelling against the conventions of mainstream American life (consumerism, racism, homophobia, etc.).
From Doe Library’s collection in the Main Stacks and NRLF, here are some noteworthy publications:
- A.P. Giannini : Banker of America / Felice A. Bonadio. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
- Avanti Popolo : Italian-American Writers Sail beyond Columbus / Edited by the Italian-American Political Solidarity Club. San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2008. (in Bancroft)
- Beyond Cannery Row : Sicilian Women, Immigration, and Community in Monterey, California, 1915-99 / Carol Lynn McKibben. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
- The Brotherhood of the Grape / John Fante. Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Press, 1999.
- Conversations with Diane Di Prima / Edited by David Stephen Calonne. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2022.
- Freedom’s Orator : Mario Savio and the Radical Legacy of the 1960s / Robert Cohen. Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2009.
- From Italy to San Francisco : The Immigrant Experience / Dino Cinel. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1982.
- Fulfilling the Promise of California : An Anthology of Essays on the Italian American Experience in California / Edited by Gloria Ricci Lothrop ; Introduction by Andrew Rolle. Spokane, Wash: California Italian American Task Force and the Arthur H. Clark Co., 2000.
- Ferlinghetti : A Life / Neeli Cherkovski. Expanded edition. Boston: Black Sparrow Press, 2022.
- Francis Ford Coppola : A Filmmaker’s Life / Michael Schumacher. New York: Crown Publishers, 1999.
- Golden Gate / Valenti Angelo. New York: Arno Press, 1975, c.1939.
- The Italian Theatre in San Francisco / Compiled by Lawrence Estavan ; Edited by Mary A. Burgess. 1st rev. ed. San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press, 1991.
- Kino en California : textos, cartografías y testimonios ; 1683-1711 Carlos Lazcano Sahagún, Gabriel Gómez Padilla. Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, México: Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, 2021.
- New Italian Migrations to the United States: Vol. 1: Politics and History since 1945 / Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
- New Italian Migrations to the United States: Vol. 2: Art and Culture since 1945 / Laura E. Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
- Soft Soil, Black Grapes : The Birth of Italian Winemaking in California / Simone Cinotto ; [Translated from the Italian by Michelle Tarnopolski]. New York: New York University Press, 2012.
- Struggle and Success : An Anthology of the Italian Immigrant Experience in California / Edited by Paola A. Sensi-Isolani and Phylis Cancilla Martinelli. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1993.
- La valle del vino : un secolo di presenza italiana in California (1850-1950) / Pietro Pinna. Prima edizione. Roma: Viella, 2023.
- The Varieties of Ethnic Experience : Kinship, Class, and Gender among California Italian-Americans / Micaela Di Leonardo. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018.
![At the play [portraits of prominent San Franciscans, California]](https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/at-the-play.png)
- Carmelo Zito papers, 1920-1997
- City Lights Books records, 1953-1970
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti Papers, 1919-2003
- North Beach Changing
- North Beach Italian tour photo album, 1936
- Oliver family photograph collections, circa 1880-circa 1920s
- Philip Lamantia papers, 1944-2005
- Photographs of Agricultural Laborers in California, circa 1906-1911
- [Walter Robert and Gail Lynn Kransky collection of Edward H. Mitchell postcards], bulk approximately 1895-1959, bulk 1898-1920
Early California Italian-American Newspapers in The UC Berkeley Library
- ll Corriere del Popolo. San Francisco, CA: Pedretti Bros., 1914-1943, 1948-1967 (lacks issues)
- L’Eco d’Italia. San Francisco, CA: Pierino Mori, 1966-1980.
- L’Italo-Americano. Los Angeles, CA: Scalabrini Fathers, 1985-2016. Online archive for 2012-present available via UCB only. Former titles: Eco d’Italia and Italo-Americano di Los Angeles
- La Voce del Popolo. San Francisco, CA, 1868-1939.
See also the website for the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco.
