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*Virtual* Forgotten Voices: Italian Americans Uprooted in Wartime California
Join us for a compelling program based on Beneath the Sicilian Stars by Lindsay Marie Morris, a novel inspired by the little-known World War II-era evacuations of Bay Area Italian American families.
This presentation explores the overlooked impact of Executive Order 9066. Though best known for authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans, it also led to the forced relocation of Italian U.S. residents from military zones.
You’ll learn how the town of Pittsburg, California—home to many Sicilian immigrants—was upended, with 22% of its population displaced. A local newspaper published evacuees’ faces like mugshots, and fishermen were banned from their livelihoods. One of the novel’s protagonists, Vincenzo Aiello, reflects this reality: arrested the night after Pearl Harbor, he is swept into a network of internment camps across the U.S.
Families were forced to relocate to towns like Concord, navigating housing, prejudice, and loss. Despite these hardships, their resilience shines through.
Drawing on local oral histories and real-life events, this talk offers an essential glimpse into a previously overlooked chapter of American history. Attendees are invited to reflect, learn, and share their own family connections to this powerful legacy.
About the Speaker
Lindsay Marie Morris is a Los Angeles-based novelist and journalist whose work blends historical fiction with themes of resilience and identity. A former travel editor at Shape magazine, her writing has appeared in Forks Over Knives, The Chicago Tribune, and more. Inspired by her Sicilian-American roots, her novels The Last Letter from Sicily (January 2025) and Beneath the Sicilian Stars (July 2025) explore untold WWII-era stories.
Lindsay also leads workshops and author talks, and blogs about Italian heritage and history at lindsaymariemorris.com.
Program is conducted on Zoom. Learn more at zoom.us.
Free Program. Registration is required.