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Richard Gambino (1939) -- Italian-American Studies

Richard Gambino is an American author and educator. A professor emeritus at Queens College, City University of New York, Gambino pioneered the field of Italian-American studies in the 1970s.

Richard Gambino was born in 1939. He was raised in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York. He studied at New York University, where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree.

The professional career of Richard Gambino was related to the service at City University of New York Queens College. In 1973, he initiated the Italian-American Studies program at the institution.

A year later, he published his first book, ‘Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian Americans’ where he analyzed the many issues facing Italian Americans, particularly those of gender, sex, and religion. According to critics, it was Gambino’s personal experience as an Italian American that distinguishes the book from other existing works on the Italian American people. The same year, Gambino along with Ernest Falbo and Bruno Arcudico founded an academic journal titled Italian Americana. In 1975, he was appointed to the United States Bicentennial Commission by President Gerald Ford.

Gambino’s next book, ‘Vendetta: A True Story of the Worst Lynching in America, the Mass Murder of Italian Americans in New Orleans in 1891, the Vicious Motivations behind It, and the Tragic Repercussions That Linger to This Day’, appeared in 1977. It took a close look at the 1891 New Orleans murder of a popular police superintendent.

Gambino’s first work of fiction, ‘Bread and Roses’, saw the print in 1981. The book portrayed the multigenerational story of a Sicilian family and their struggle in late nineteenth-century America. While the work is fiction, it did reference numerous historical events.

From 1984 to 1992, Richard Gambino served at the New York State Council on the Humanities. In the middle of the 1990s, he was invited as a full-time visiting professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he served for seven semesters.

Richard Gambino was the first who introduced Italian-American studies into the educational system of the United States in the 1970s. He was a co-founder of a historical journal Italian Americana.

In 1999, Gambino’s book ‘Vendetta’ was adopted into a fictionalized feature movie by HBO. Christopher Walken, Ed Hermann, and Bruce Davison played in the movie.

Works

Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian-Americans

A Guide to Ethnic Studies Programs in American Colleges, Universities and Schools A Guide to Ethnic Studies Programs in American Colleges, Universities and Schools