The Voices of Italy: Italian Language Newspapers and Radio Programs in Rhode Island

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In his salutatory of the first issue of the weekly newspaper L'Eco del Rhode Island, editor Federico Curzio declares that the ‘Italian Colony of Providence’ had increased to the point where it warranted a media source that focused on and addressed the customs, traits, and interests of the Italian diaspora of Rhode Island. The founders of L'Eco del Rhode Island came together to begin to address the journalistic and literary needs of this growing community. In his study on the immigrant press, Robert E. Park argues, ‘In addition to every other reason for the existence of a foreign-language press is its value to the immigrant, in satisfying his mere human desire for expression in his mother tongue.’ In the late nineteenth century the Italian diaspora of Rhode Island, having become a substantial immigrant community within the state, yearned for a medium which would reflect their culture, written in their madre lingua. In later years this penchant for the Italian language would manifest itself in radio programs in addition to the Italian language newspapers.