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“But a lot of them settled on New Orleans’ North Shore, grow- ing strawberries,” explained Robin Abrams, the public relations chair for the Independence Sicilian Heritage Festival. Abrams recently traveled to Sicily for the first time to explore her family’s roots overseas. “It was amazing,” she said. “It puts perspective on how we got here.” Her mother and her uncle still live on the property her grandfather bought in Independence, Louisiana, just six months after he arrived in America. Nearly 90% of the 19th- and early 20th-century Italian immi- grants to Louisiana — largely farm workers and produce trad- ers — were, like Abrams’ family, from Sicily or Southern Italy, according to Justin Nystrom, a historian at Loyola University who recently published a history of the Italian influence on New Orleans food culture. A significant number crossed Lake Pontchartrain to settle, he told The Advocate in a 2016 interview, forming communities so deep-rooted and thriving that the North Shore is home to not one but two festivals celebrating Italian food and culture. The Independence Sicilian Heritage Festival was founded in 2008, with roots in the Italian Festival that takes place in nearby Tickfaw. Both share a common ancestor in the area’s Little Italy Festival, first launched in 1972, and both Abrams and Veda Abene, the chairperson and longtime board member for the Ital- ian Festival, have fond memories of growing up in the area and looking forward to the annual celebration. “It was the biggest fundraiser for our dance team at Inde- pendence High School,” Abene remembered. The teen dancers sold Italian sausage and strawberry shortcake at their booth — a tradition that continues today, with nonprofit and community organizations raising cash with sales of everything from cannoli to stuffed artichokes and sfingi , a fried sweet doughnut in the tradition of zeppole or beignets. Abrams’ grand- father organized a whole float in the parade each year, riding in costume with his six children. Both festivals host a spaghetti cook-off, with local home cooks showing off the now-essential (thanks to those Sicilian immi- grants) Louisiana dish known as red gravy. At the Italian Festival, Abene said, home cooks go the extra mile and add other Ital- ian snacks to their tables, from platters of coppa and salami to bread for dipping in premium olive oil. Both festivals have plenty of local live music, rides and a parade. And each festival has its distinguishing features: The Italian Festival crowns a Spaghetti Queen each year (along with traditional royalty), always a lady with a strong résumé of community service, like this year’s queen Sherry Lemay, who is active with the Knights of Columbus and the local church. The Sicilian Heritage Festival hosts a popular meatball toss that has, Abrams said, featured some real feats of food athleticism: Some competitors have tossed the orbs all the way across the street. Both festivals maintain their presence in town almost all year long, with balls and pageants to select festival royalty spread out over several months. The Sicilian Heritage Festival takes place in early March — this year, close on the heels of Mardi Gras, March 8-10. The Italian Festival takes place the last week- end of April each year (the 26th, 27th and 28th in 2019). Luckily for fans of local Italian food and culture, the two events don’t overlap, making an excellent opportunity for second helpings and a chance to mangia , Louisiana-style.

SPAGHETTI QUEENS

by Alison Fensterstock

Think of the Italian influence in South Louisiana and your mind might make its way to the French Quarter, where Central Grocery upholds the legacy of what was once dozens of immigrant-owned deli-grocers in the neighborhood — and where Louis Prima, a first-generation Ital- ian American, was discovered by Guy Lombardo while the former was leading a hot swing band at his brother’s Bourbon Street nightspot, the Shim Sham Club. The Italian migration to New Orleans that began in the early 19th century was so concentrated in the Quarter, then a resi- dential blue-collar neighborhood, that a corner of its downtown side became known as Little Palermo.

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