20/10/2015

AUTHOR GUEST POST: JOE GIORDANO, IMMIGRATION THEN AND NOW - SPOTLIGHT ON NEW RELEASE "BIRDS OF PASSAGE" - GIVEAWAY


           
Immigration Then and Now
The United States is a country of immigrants. Ironically, anti-immigration views have a long history. We can site John Adams's signing of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, Millard Fillmore's run for the Presidency on the Know Nothing/American Party ticket of the 1856 opposing Irish-Catholics immigration. A Wisconsin and an Illinois governor were defeated for promoting anti-German immigrant laws in 1890. The Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted in 1882, and a 1907 unofficial agreement between governments stopped Japanese immigration to the United States. The Immigration Restriction League out of Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco in the 1890s believed southern and eastern Europeans were racially inferior and threatened the American way of life. The Dillingham Commission consisting of both Senate and House members agreed with the Immigration League and in 1911 recommended reducing southern and eastern European immigration. United States immigration laws were tightened after World War I.
Jacob Riis in How the Other Half Lives, an 1890 exposé on the deplorable conditions of tenement life, labeled Italians as the worst of the new immigrants and “dirtier than the Negro.” Italian immigrant labors were given the worst jobs, and while they were instrumental in building New York’s subways and skyscrapers, were often used like human steam shovels. In Birds of Passage, An Italian Immigrant Coming of Age Story, small asides by Americans are used to recall these biases against Italian immigrants.

Today, there are many valid concerns relating to illegal immigration. However, some opponents of Hispanic immigrants echo similar themes from the past. Ironic, for a country of immigrants. 

Joe Giordano

Book Blurb 


What turns the gentle mean and the mean brutal? The thirst for wealth? The demand for respect? Vying for a woman? Birds of Passage recalls the Italian immigration experience at the turn of the twentieth-century when New York’s streets were paved with violence and disappointment.

Leonardo Robustelli leaves Naples in 1905 to seek his fortune. Carlo Mazzi committed murder and escaped. Azzura Medina is an American of Italian parents. She’s ambitious but strictly controlled by her mother. Leonardo and Carlo vie for her affection.

Azzura, Leonardo, and Carlo confront con men, Tammany Hall politicians, the longshoreman’s union, Camorra clans, Black Hand extortion, and the Tombs prison.


About the author



Joe Giordano was born in Brooklyn. His father and grandparents immigrated to New York from Naples. Joe and his wife, Jane have lived in Greece, Brazil, Belgium and the Netherlands. They now live in Texas with their shih tzu Sophia. Joe's stories have appeared in more than sixty magazines including Bartleby Snopes, The Newfound Journal, and The Summerset Review.


Connect with the author:   Website  ~   Twitter  ~   Facebook






a Rafflecopter giveaway
N.B. The Kindle copy of Birds of Passage will be free to download  for five days starting the day after the end of this virtual tour (Saturday, November 7th through Wednesday, November 11th)


Tour Schedule:


Oct 19 - Working Mommy Journal - review / author interview / giveaway
Oct 20 - FLY HIGH! - book spotlight - guest post / giveaway
Oct 20 - Room With Books - book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 21 - Jayne's Books - review
Oct 21 - Notes from Verona - review
Oct 22 - Jaquo Lifestyle Magazine - review / guest post
Oct 23 - The Autistic Gamer - review
Oct 26 - Library of Clean Reads - review / giveaway
Oct 26 - Readers' Muse - review / guest post
Oct 27 - The World As I See It - review / giveaway
Oct 27 - Kimberly's Bookshelf - review / guest post / giveaway
Oct 28 - 3 Partners in Shopping - book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Oct 28 -  A Bit Bookish - review / giveaway
Oct 29 - The Cubicle Escapee - review / giveaway
Oct 29 - Cassidy Salem Reads & Writes - review / giveaway
Oct 30 - Deal Sharing Aunt - book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Oct 30 - Puddletown Reviews - book spotlight / author interview
Nov 2 - Life as Leels - review
Nov 2 - Worth Getting in Bed For - review
Nov 3 - Bound 4 Escape - review / giveaway
Nov 4 - Studentessa  Matta - review
Nov 4 - Writer With Wanderlust - review / giveaway
Nov 5 - Singing Librarian Books - review / author interview / giveaway
Nov 6 - Essentially Italian - review / author interview / giveaway
Nov 6 - #redhead.with.book - review

4 comments:

Joe Giordano said...

Thanks for supporting my book, Birds of Passage, An Italian Immigrant Coming of Age Story.
Joe Giordano

Maria Grazia said...

Hello from Italy, Joe! It's always a pleasure for me to let my readers meet passionate authors and discover new interesting books :-) Buona fortuna!

traveler said...

Thanks for this captivating and fascinating novel which interests me greatly. Family sagas, and family history is what is important and meaningful. Reading about the trials and tribulations with which they lived through is profound and unforgettable. Being from Italy this is even more memorable and special. Best wishes. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

Joe Giordano said...

Thanks for your strong support.

Joe Giordano