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Chronicling America
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Newspaper L'araldo = the Herald (Cleveland, Ohio) 1938-1959 Herald

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About L'araldo = the Herald (Cleveland, Ohio) 1938-1959

This newspaper began publishing in July 1938 to serve Cleveland, one of Ohio’s large Italian-American population centers. It was printed weekly out of the Little Italy neighborhood, one of Cleveland’s centers of Italian community. Others at that time included Big Italy, Collinwood, and the Woodland Hills/Kinsman Road area. Although L’araldo was mostly written in Italian, there was a noticeable amount of English-language content as well, particularly certain advertisements, photograph captions, cartoons, and other syndicated material. Once Cleveland’s other Italian newspaper, La Voce Del Popolo Italiano (The Voice of the Italian People), ceased production in the mid-1940s, L’araldo became the city’s sole Italian-language paper. Issues varied in length over the years; those from the early to mid-1940s were typically 16 pages long, but by the early 1950s they were only about half that size.

Much of L’araldo’s coverage was on a national or international scale. Cleveland-area news and bulletins occupied relatively little space, though advertisements for local businesses (like the restaurant of the now-famous Chef Boiardi, or Boyardee) were common in either English or Italian. Issues throughout the 1940s consistently offered comic strips and a section discussing film, theater, radio, and sports.

World War II broke out in September 1939, shortly after L’araldo’s inception, and updates from the front often dominated the headlines. Italy and the United States found themselves on opposing sides of the conflict, placing Italian Americans in an awkward position. Despite many Italian Americans’ pre-war admiration for Mussolini and pride in Fascist Italy’s successes, on July 5, 1940, L’araldo’s editor noted “a stampede on [sic] by various Italian organizations to declare themselves, in no uncertain terms . . . contrary to dealings going on in Italy and reaffirming their allegiance to the United States.” Likewise, L’araldo left no room for uncertainty as which side it supported. Wartime issues celebrated Allied victories, printed American flags atop every front page, and urged readers to purchase war bonds.

In his 1976 book Italian Americans and Their Communities of Cleveland, Gene P. Veronesi explains that World War II was a “watershed moment” for Cleveland’s Italians as they embraced American-ness, engaged with wider American society, and began to drift from their inward-facing ethnic enclaves. But as suggested by L’araldo’s enthusiastic commemoration of Columbus Day every October (through at least 1953), this shift toward Americanism did not mean a total or immediate abandonment of Italian pride and identity. These demographic changes did, however, foreshadow L’araldo’s eventual discontinuation in 1959, as the number of Italian-speaking Clevelanders declined and demand for a distinct Italian newspaper faded away.

Provided By: Ohio History Connection, Columbus, OH

About this Newspaper

Title

  • L'araldo = the Herald (Cleveland, Ohio) 1938-1959

Other Title

  • Herald

Dates of Publication

  • 1938-1959

Created / Published

  • Cleveland, Ohio : L'Araldo Pub. Co.

Headings

  • -  Italians--Ohio--Newspapers
  • -  Italians
  • -  Ohio
  • -  United States--Ohio--Cuyahoga--Cleveland

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began in 1938; ceased in 1959. Cf. Veronesi, G.P. Italian Amers. and their communities in Clev., 1977.
  • -  Publisher: L'Araldo Pub. Co., <1942>-Feb. 1, 1952; Louis de Paolo, Mar. 29, 1952-Jan. 16, 1953; L'Araldo Pub. Co., Jan. 23, 1953-.
  • -  Editors: Matteo Teresi, <1942>-Jan. 14, 1949; Igino N. Ceraldi, Jan. 21, 1949-Sept. 9, 1949; Annibale F. Verzumo, Sept. 16, 1949-Jan. 16, 1953; C. Ferri, Jan. 30, 1953-.
  • -  Vol. 15, no. 1 (Jan. 5, 1951) misdated Dec. 5, 1950.
  • -  No issues published Feb. 1-Mar. 28, 1952.
  • -  "Italian-American weekly," <1942>-Sept. 8, 1949; May 23-.
  • -  In Italian with occasional articles in English.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 5, no. 49 (Dec. 4, 1942).

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83035602

OCLC Number

  • 10094919

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

L'araldo = the Herald Cleveland, Ohio -1959. (Cleveland, OH), Jan. 1 1938. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83035602/.

APA citation style:

(1938, January 1) L'araldo = the Herald Cleveland, Ohio -1959. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83035602/.

MLA citation style:

L'araldo = the Herald Cleveland, Ohio -1959. (Cleveland, OH) 1 Jan. 1938. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83035602/.