The tiny state of Rhode Island, wedged between Connecticut and Massachusetts, is one of five such states that comprise what is recognized as the New England region. It is located in the extreme northeastern portion of the United States.
Rhode Island has the distinction of being the smallest geographically-sized State in the Union. With only 1,060,000 residents, it is the seventh least populated state but uniquely is also the second most densely populated. It is bordered by Connecticut to the West, Massachusetts to the North and East, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via the Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is the state capital and its most populous city.
Rhode Island comprises a total of approximately 1,214 square miles. It is 48 miles in length and 37 miles wide. Although landlocked on three sides, it has nonetheless garnered the nickname “The Ocean State” because of the many bodies of water running through its geography. It is an important and vibrant little State to both America’s history and economy nonetheless.
Rhode Island also has the honor of being, pound for pound, the most heavily populated state of residents claiming Italian ancestry. Nearly one in five Rhode Islanders proudly trace their lineage back to either Italy or Sicily. That makes the Ocean State the most heavily concentrated Italian area in the entire country.
Because of the state’s strong Italian representation, by 1950, Italians were able to get a hometown boy named John Pastore elected as the first Italian-American ever selected to the United States Senate. In fact, today, the overall New England region’s population of descendants of Italian immigrants is more than 10 percent of its total population within every New England state except Vermont and Maine.
Every New Englander can recognize the voice of Don Orsillo, Joe Castiglione, or the Magliozzi brothers. Tens of thousands attend the region’s 45 Italian “festas” annually from Our Lady of Assumption in Portland, Maine to Saint Bartholomew in the city of Providence itself.
Italian-Americans have undeniably heavily influenced New England’s food history as well. Boston’s North End brought us the Prince Spaghetti Company, Pastene brand tomato sauces, Dragone cheese, and the first Italian café, Cafe’ Vittoria, way back in 1929.
Not to be outdone, the Nutmeg State’s John Bello of New Britain, created SoBe brand beverages. Another Connecticut hometown boy named Frank Pepe, claims to have invented the popular “white clams apizza”, which he serves at his famed Frank Pepe Pizzeria in New Haven.
Even little ole’ Maine has its Italianate claim to fame. The popular Amato’s Italian delicatessen up in Portland claims to have originated the “true” first Italian sandwich.
In 1880, the first wave of 1,000 Italian immigrant families came to Boston. Others soon followed. They settled into the various Little Italy’s that sprang up.
In Connecticut, they had the Front Street section in Hartford, Central End in Bridgeport, and Wooster Square in New Haven.
Massachusetts had the famous North End of Boston, Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, and Springfield’s South End section.
And of course, the City of Providence has its Federal Hill neighborhood.
Although no longer in existence, even out-of-the-way cities like Burlington, Vermont, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Portland, Maine, once could claim their own Little Italy sections as well.
These statistics would also bode very well, of course, for its resident Cosa Nostra Family, which would draw its members and associates from this Italian populace. The Raymond Patriarca Family of LCN would continue to replenish its ranks through the decades from the steady flow of young Italian hoodlums drawn to it.
Side Note: Few American cities ever had such a tightly knit Cosa Nostra structure as the mafia in New England. Both Providence and Boston were chock full of capable and very willing Italian hoodlums.
This provided a rich underworld tapestry from which to design a small but highly organized and tightly run Borgata, one that Raymond Patriarca would rule over with an iron fist for over thirty years. This is their story.
Note: Please see The Patriarca Family Leadership Chart for a comprehensive pictorial chart on this historic Mafia family.
