Sicilian Americans
Sicilian Americans (Italian: siculo-americani; Sicilian: sìculu-miricani) are Italian Americans who are fully or partially of Sicilian descent, whose ancestors were Sicilians who emigrated to United States during the Italian diaspora, or Sicilian-born people in U.S. They are a large ethnic group in the United States.[1]
The first Sicilians who came to the territory that is now the United States were explorers and missionaries in the 17th century under the Spanish crown. Sicilian emigration to the United States then increased significantly starting from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Direct connections by sea departed from the ports of Palermo and Castellammare del Golfo.
Since emigration from Sicily began in the United States before Italian unification, and reached its peak at a time when regional differences were still very strong and marked, many Sicilian immigrants identified (and still identify), both linguistically and ethnically, primarily on a regional rather than a national basis. Today, there are many studies also dedicated to the history of Sicilian Americans.