One hundred years ago in southwest Portland, what is now Portland State, high-rise apartments and hotels was a thriving Italian-Jewish community. The area between Clay Street, the Portland city dump—now Duniway Park—and Ross Island Bridge was known as Portland’s Little Italy.
According to the Oregon Historical Society, Italian immigrants were present in this region as early as 1856—predating the founding of the state of Oregon by three years. They migrated in search of security and opportunity and often found employment in Portland sawmills, railroad yards or construction—albeit amidst xenophobic pay discrimination.
By 1901, Portland’s Italian community had constructed St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church. By 1930, SW Portland was the city’s first Italian hub, with Italian restaurants, grocery stores, schools, an Italian film theater and three newspapers in Italian.
However, the Italian-Jewish quarter would not survive Portland’s urban renewal project—an effort to modernize downtown with various capitalistic ventures. The project launched at the close of the 1950s, terminating small businesses, displacing the district’s residents and demolishing the historic buildings.
The only remnant of SW Portland’s Little Italy is St. Michael, where the original cornerstone remains in the building’s foundation with Italian inscriptions.
Italian-American culture thrives visibly in Portland, even though Little Italy dispersed. “When people think about Italian communities, they typically think of New York or Chicago or things like that, but Oregon has a fairly robust Italian-American community,” said Edward Ferrero, president of Portland’s Festa Italiana association. “We’re just trying to bring them together and connect the dots.”
To this end, the nonprofit organization will host Portland’s 2023 Festa Italiana on Aug. 20 at Cedarville Park to celebrate Italian tradition in the United States and share in the living Italian heritage.
“We think it’s important to share our culture, food, and music. It shows that Portland is made up of many different groups and ethnicities, and we like to be part of that,” Ferrero said.
This year’s Festa Italiana will include Italian food, kids’ activities, a wine raffle, a bocce tournament and an Italian mass. This event is open to the public, $5 for adults and free for children.
Festa Italiana intends to foster community amongst Italian-Americans and across Portland’s immigrant communities. “We really enjoy sharing our story but also hearing the story of others who walked that same immigrant path,” Ferrero said. “We think it’s important to celebrate that, because Portland undoubtedly was built by immigrants, so we’re all kind of sisters and brothers.”
Another component of Festa Italiana will be the live music from 12–8 p.m. Erin Mikelle Walker—PSU alumni, music teacher and classical opera singer—plans to perform works of Italy’s prominent opera composers, such as Giacomo Puccini, Gioachino Rossini and Isabella Colbran, Rossini’s wife.
Opera—which means work in Italian—originated in Florence, Italy and would come to color music as we know it today. “It was like going to the movies back in the day,” Walker said. “Opera was for everyone. It’s become this really high art thing that we put up on a pedestal, but it wasn’t necessarily intended to be that way.”
Initially and often still today, opera was performed in the language of its origin country. Walker is showcasing a classical aspect of Italian culture. “I like getting to do these performances in more casual venues, so that more people can hear opera that don’t necessarily go to the opera house,” Walker said.
Andrea Algieri is another musician who will be performing at Festa Italiana. Algieri—lead singer-songwriter of the Portland-based band Mbrascatu—creates music representing a more contemporary Italy. Originally from Luzzi, Italy, Algieri writes original songs in Italian and sometimes in his native Luzzese dialect.
“I wanted to do something different, something that’s fresh and new,” Algieri said. He observed how multicultural festivals in the U.S. often rely on outdated cliches in their musical selections. “I wanted to bring new music to this Festa Italiana, to show Americans that our music is not just that… Nothing against that genre of evergreen or traditional music, because I love it—I grew up with it—but we are more than this.”
Algieri moved to Portland in 2007 and formed Mbrascatu three years later, named in honor of his grandfather. The band has been playing at Portland’s Festa Italiana for nearly 15 years, performing at other festivals throughout the country—including Reno, Salt Lake City, Seattle and San Francisco—and frequently touring in Italy.
Mbrascatu’s style combines European folk, rock and modern indie. Algieri hopes to introduce his listeners to more contemporary Italian culture through his music.
“It’s good that we show some history, because it’s true,” Algieri said, “I remember when I was a kid in my town people were going around with donkeys and mules, but right now there’s nothing like that. I remember my grandpa was making the wine and they used their feet to crush the grapes, but not anymore. So I like it—that this is part of our history—but I would like to introduce something more new.”
Cultural festivals should honor the traditions and commemorate a people’s history, but a cultural gathering also depends on the convening of a living identity.
This means “making events where people can feel what the Italian culture is,” Algieri said. “What we do when we go out, what is the fun part about being Italian, what is the dolce vida… the real culture. This is what I would like to promote.”
Festa Italiana harmonizes past and present, celebrating the sweetness of Italian culture here in Portland.
