The New York Grand Lodge, Order Sons of Italy in America is committed to assisting wherever necessary the development of programs that will foster the education, language and culture of our great Italian heritage.  Both the Commission for Social Justice and the Garibaldi Meucci Museum are the venues through which we work to accomplish these goals.

Inaugural Address by OSIA Founder Vincenzo Sellaro, M.D.

The following is part of a translation from Italian of the inaugural address given by Dr. Vincenzo Sellaro, founder of the Order of the Sons of Italy in America on June 22, 1905. OSIA thanks Professor Frank P. Oliveri of Rochester, New York.
Lost since 1935, the Sellaro speech was discovered recently after a three-year search by Professor Oliveri, who also translated it.

"Some say that history has dealt us a lousy hand, being that we are the last to come to America. After all, wasn’t it one of our own who discovered America? I say to them that the others, for the most part, came here with masters, came as slaves in many cases. We, on the other hand, have come of our own accord. We are a free people. It is because of this that today I have a dream, and hope that someday, even if it takes a hundred more years before we are fully accepted, our children and their children’s children, even if they carry a single drop of Italian blood will be able and proud to continue to carry on our traditions, our culture and our language. It is up to us, and what we do today!"