John Felice has lived more than eight decades in the Greensburg neighborhood of Hilltop, which was settled nearly a century ago by Italian immigrants from the village of Cercemaggiore.
Now, a group of Italian journalists from the mountain village in southern Italy plan to devote an edition of their magazine, Millemetri, to the Italian immigrants who settled in what is now the east side of the city. Their work is part of a cultural exchange project to strengthen ties between the two communities, said Giovanna Sanzo, a 30-year-old reporter and translator for Millemetri.
The journalists from Cercemaggiore, located 90 miles northeast of Naples, were in Greensburg for about three weeks in May, interviewing almost a dozen residents whose ancestors came from Cercemaggiore in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Sanzo said. The stories may be published in Millemetri in June, Sanzo said.
"The purpose of our visit is to get more people involved in this exchange project. We hope there will be more exchange projects between the two towns. We even hope to get the young people involved," said Sanzo, who served as the translator for her fellow journalists and a representative from town council.
The seeds for the venture were sown three years ago when some Greensburg residents whose ancestors emigrated from Cercemaggiore visited their ancestral home. Residents of Cercemaggiore, pronounced Cher'-chay-ma-jeeor'-ray, knew their kinsmen settled in Waterbury, Conn., and Greensburg, but the Italian community in Waterbury kept in closer contact with their ancestral home, Sanzo said.
The ties were strengthened in 2000 with a visit by Mayor Karl Eisaman and his wife, Carmen, whose ancestors are from Cercemaggiore, Sanzo said.
"We were all looking for the same thing. We've always paid much attention to our cultural heritage," Sanzo said.
Sanzo said she believes many people left Cercemaggiore for jobs in coal mines in the Greensburg area at the end of the 19th century, when there was a great wave of Italian immigration.
"The U.S. represented a dream — to live a better life," Sanzo said.
Felice, who lives in the 700 block of Highland Avenue, said his parents came to the United States in 1906. He believes that many Italians came to the Greensburg area to work in the former Walworth Co. manufacturing plant in South Greensburg. They learned about job opportunities from earlier immigrants, he said.
Sanzo speculated that the immigrants settled in what was then East Greensburg because of its location on a hill overlooking the town. The neighborhood lies east of Southwest Avenue to the top of the hill and from Steck Street almost to Mt. Pleasant Street, Felice said.
"Hilltop is a mirror of Cercemaggiore," which sits atop a hill more than 3,000 feet above sea level, Sanzo said.
Many of the Italian immigrants became contractors, which was not unusual because the people of Cercemaggiore are renowned for their building skills, Sanzo said.
The Italian community also founded Our Lady of Grace Church at the intersection of Highland and Tremont avenues in 1910. It served as the "Italian parish," created to minister to the influx of Italian immigrants, according to the 1949 book "City of Greensburg — A History."
For fellowship outside the church, the Italian immigrants formed the Hilltop Club, which sits along Southwest Avenue.
Felice said most of the immigrants remembered their families back in Italy and would send a few dollars to their relatives whenever they could.
Sanzo said they found in their research that many of the Italian immigrants did not talk a lot about the "old country" years ago and the hard life they had, Sanzo said.
"They were caught between feeling love for the village where they were born, and they did not want to talk about it," Sanzo said.
Sanzo said the group of journalists was received warmly by the Italian community and people cooperated with their research for the stories.
"We were struck by the fact that so many Italian people love Italy. We really felt like home here. We felt like they live like we live (in Italy)," Sanzo said.
While visiting Greensburg, they helped cook a traditional Italian meal at Rizzo's Malabar Inn in Crabtree and had a meal at Our Lady of Grace Church in Hempfield Township.
They also visited Aquinas Academy in Greensburg and spoke to a journalism class at Greensburg Salem High School, where Sanzo said she was surprised that students did not have an opportunity to study Italian.
At a Greensburg Council meeting, they set up a video conference between city officials and the town council in Cercemaggiore.
Sanzo said the journalists hope their visit will be the impetus for Greensburg residents with roots in Cercemaggiore to strengthen ties with people in their homeland.
"We hope our visit here is not just a break from ordinary life. We hope that we will still keep in touch in the future. It's important to do projects that find our roots to understand where we belong," Sanzo said.
