San Francisco, Where Italians Have Been Trying Their Luck for 150 Years
Gianfranco Norelli is a filmmaker who told the story of Italian immigration to the United States in two documentaries with very different, and very emblematic, titles. For the East Coast, he chose Pane amaro / Bitter Bread, and the title dedicated to the West Coast, Finding the Mother Lode, was right on target. Even today, California is a place that demands much and gives back a lot to anyone coming to seek their fortune. It's a privilege for me to represent Italy here in San Francisco, where I've been general consul since 2012.
The first Italians came to California with the gold rush in the mid-1800s and tried their luck as farmers, merchants, fishers and financiers. The symbol from that period is Amadeo Giannini, the son of Genoese immigrants. He founded the Bank of Italy, which would later become Bank of America. Italians were the ones who brought grape and olive farming to California at that time, and they molded the landscape into what we see today, so similar to some Tuscan or Sicilian panoramas and so enjoyable for the citizens of San Francisco.
The next wave of immigration began in the 1960s and was connected with the development of the semiconductor industry. The most important person from that time is Federico Faggin, the Venetian physicist who engineered the first microprocessor in the world, but the flow was constant. Here, Olivetti created an Advanced Technology Center that, in the 1980s, employed almost 200 engineers. After the center closed, many of them became serial entrepreneurs and business angels, attracting other Italians to Silicon Valley.
More recently, the economy has revolved around technology startups. Italians come here because it's the place where more than half of US venture capital is concentrated. Dozens have already been financed, to grow and sell – the most common exit strategy. And they understand how to create networks, which is essential for survival around here.
Some interesting data: there are 20,000 official Italian residents in the area and 700,000 Americans with Italian ancestry living in Northern California. Widening the horizons, more than half of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are non-Americans.
But it's important to remember: the environment is advantageous to anyone working in the technology sector or who has combined a legal US and Italian education, but there are serious immigration restrictions. IT industries have created a lobbying network in Washington, Fwd.Us, to support the loosening of these restrictions. San Francisco and Silicon Valley welcome you regardless of race, nationality or sexual orientation, but they are fiercely meritocratic: the doors are open to everyone, but the transition is not easy for anyone. Failure among startups is almost the norm, it does not entail any social stigma and one can always start over.
Lastly, the constant influx of professionals is creating a cultural conflict between San Francisco and nearby Silicon Valley, which has crossed over into the city. Rents are sky high, evictions are more frequent and venues that are symbols of alternative culture are limping along. We hope that you can still walk around the city and meet people like Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the legendary poet and editor of the Beat Generation – son of a Lombardy immigrant – and have a cappuccino with him at Caffé Puccini.