In Italy, societies like the Mafia had formed to enforce justice in instances where the local police were ineffective. However, once brought to America, the Mafia came under control of criminals known for racketeering, blackmail, and extortion. The Mafia also used violence and even murder to retain control of the Italian underworld. The Italians were only one group of many that emigrated from their homeland to the United States in search of a better life. Though they faced poverty, discrimination and the isolation of being in a strange land the Italian people stuck together.
Italian food is a staple of the American diet.
The flood of Italian immigrants in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century did not provide the immigrants with simply a better life, it provided the U.S. with another ingredient to add to its melting pot. A Nation of Newcomers . Delacorte Press, 1967. The Immigrant Upraised . University of Oklahoma Press, 1960.