Federal Hill Tours

Providence

I am Walter Potenza, a chef by trade but a fanatical historian of the Italian Immigration movement in the USA early in the 70s, after arriving here from Abruzzo, Italy. I began collecting photographs and documents about the people who walked this noble land much before me. It has been an honor and, in many ways, a moral obligation to share my people's history and food culture in an effort to maintain their memories alive and bring to knowledge all the sacrifices endured along with sociological and language obstacles. While here, I will do my best to honestly share my heritage while never forgetting that we were once treated as different, racially profiled, and socially not accepted at every level within American society.

WE WERE ONCE  "PEOPLE WITH DARK SKIN AND READY TO CRIME"

Quote by New Orleans Chief of Police David Hennessy, before the New Orleans Lynchings on March 14, 1891, resulting in the death of 11 Italian Immigrants.