First Published in 1988. There are somewhat fewer than 12,000,000 Italian-Americans of both single ancestry and multiple ancestry living in the United States. They comprise 5.3 percent of the total population. This is a study of one particular segment of the larger metropolitan region. Located in the central part of the Bronx, Monte Carmelo’s beginning as an Italian-American community dates back to the last decade of the nineteenth century when immigrants from southern Italy and Italian-Americans from neighborhoods in New York City began moving in.

New York City's five boroughs have been home to more Italian immigrants than any other place in America. Over the last 140 years, scores of Italian neighborhoods have spanned Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens, and the Bronx. These communities preserve their heritage by celebrating special events and feasts, such as Manhattan's 130-year-old Feast of St. Rocco, the Dance of the Giglio in East Harlem and Williamsburg, and saint processions for Padre Pio and Maria Addolorata; maintaining famous Mulberry Street storefronts and the Arthur Avenue Market in Little Italy, as well as popular bakeries and restaurants in Greenwich Village and Queens; and supporting and worshipping at notable Italian churches, like Brooklyn's Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine Church and Alba House, a religious bookstore on Staten Island. To help demonstrate the special place Italian immigrants hold in the city of New York to this day, readers will experience a visual tour of their traditions and landmarks.