WEBVTT
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Amy Kwalwasser: I'll start with some basic information, such as will you
please state your name in full.
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Silvestri Silvestri: Silvestri Silvestri.
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Kwalwasser: Silvestri Silvestri.
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Silvestri: It's spelled twice identically.
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Kwalwasser: All right.
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Kwalwasser: No middle name. No middle name. Nickname. So. Okay. Your birth
date, March 7th, 1920. Okay. I think I'm going to place this a little
closer to you since. All right. And your place of birth.
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Silvestri: North Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
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Kwalwasser: You are Italian.
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I am Italian. And what religion are you? Catholic.
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Kwalwasser: Do you speak any languages other than English?
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Silvestri: Italian. Sufficiently to make myself understood. But not as a
grammarian.
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Kwalwasser: And do you understand any other languages besides English? You
understand? Yes. Okay. Your present occupation.
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Silvestri: Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County.
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Kwalwasser: And how long have you lived in Pittsburgh?
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Silvestri: Since 1937.
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Kwalwasser: And where have you lived while you've been here?
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Silvestri: Well, I came down. I came to Pittsburgh as a college student
and lived in the Allentown section, then the Squirrel Hill section. And I
graduated from college. I lived in the Oakland section. Also, when I
graduated from college, I went into the service. Then I came back and I
lived in the Bloomfield area. And then after that.
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The Squirrel Hill area all the time.
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Kwalwasser: In each of these areas, you've named North Charleroi,
Allentown, Squirrel Hill, Oakland and Bloomfield. Would you say in any of
those areas, most of the people were Italian.
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Silvestri: Just the Bloomfield area.
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Kwalwasser: Just the Bloomfield area. Approximately what years did you
live there?
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Silvestri: Oh, 1945 through 1948.
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Kwalwasser: And were there particular reasons why you settled in each of
these areas? I know you had no choice with North Shore. You were born
there.
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Silvestri: Well, the reasons that I lived in Allentown and Oakland, of
course I was in college at the time was because of I worked when I was
going to school with lived near my work and lived near the school, lived in
Bloomfield during the war. My parents, my mother moved to Pittsburgh and
she moved to the Bloomfield area and that's where my home was. And then I
got married in 1948 and moved into the Squirrel Hill area.
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Kwalwasser: I went to the trouble of obtaining your resume. And I hope you
don't mind. I don't. From the Allegheny Bar Association, Mr. Smith. And it
says that you've been a member of the Italian sons and daughters of America
and also the Sons of Columbus.
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Silvestri: That's right.
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Kwalwasser: Are you still members of those?
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Silvestri: Yes, I am.
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Kwalwasser: And can you describe your role in these organizations, how
active you were, what positions you held?
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Silvestri: Well, as far as the both organizations, although I have been
asked over the years to assume some official position in the organization,
I never did. But I have always been active in both organizations serving as
chairman of various committees and conducting some of their affairs and
dinners and banquets and meetings and what have you. I'm close to the
presidents of both organizations, and I meet with them periodically and we
discuss. The affairs of both organizations. I'm sort of what you might say.
An unofficial advisor and close to the policy making aspect of it. For
example, right now, the Italian sons and daughters of America have the
highest cultural Heritage Foundation, and it's been in limbo for the past 4
or 5 years. And the national President has asked me if I would try to
breathe some life into it in terms of getting it reorganized. And that's
I'm in the process of doing that now. They want me to be the executive
director of it. Well, I'm not going to be the executive director because
that takes too much time.
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But I will work to put it together and see that it moves along. And that's
the way I work with the organizations.
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Kwalwasser: Do you belong or have you belonged in the past to any other
ethnic fraternal organizations besides ISB? And also the Sons of Columbus?
No. Okay. What do you see as the purpose of, Oh, I'm.
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Silvestri: The I'm an honorary member of the. Sierra Club. You ever hear
of the Sierra Club?
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Kwalwasser: I've heard of it. I'm not quite sure.
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Silvestri: It's spelled the same, frontwards and backwards. But it's a
town in Italy, and the only way you can become a member of the club is if
you are from that town in Italy or marry into it. And since I am having
married into it or born there, but I am very close to.
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The people in Bloomfield. They asked me if I would be an honorary member
and.
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Silvestri: I was delighted to.
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Become one. I'm going to check the.
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Kwalwasser: Where was your mother born?
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Silvestri: In a place called Montenero Duomo in Italy. That's in southern
Italy. Well, sort of middle Italy. It's in the province of Abruzzo and
Montenero. Duomo is probably the highest point in Italy. I went back there
on two occasions. Montanita DOMA means Black Mountain and it's the top of
the mountain when you get there. There isn't any place else to go.
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Kwalwasser: Okay. And was your father born there also?
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Silvestri: Yes, he was. He was born in a place called La Lama, which is
one hill, then the valley and then the other hill. One hill is La Lama and
the other hill is Montenero Duomo.
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Kwalwasser: Have there been any name changes within the family? Was it
always Sylvester?
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Silvestri: Always. Sylvester.
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Kwalwasser: And can you explain, just for my own curiosity, how why? It's
Sylvester. Sylvester. I mean, is there.
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Silvestri: Well, I can only give you the story that my mother tells that I
was born long about 2 or 3 in the morning. And of course, the North
Charleroi, they didn't have any hospital deliveries. She got delivered at
home. And my father being the typical, typical Italian, you know, they
prefer boy babies to girl babies. So he was delighted that I was a boy. Of
course, he made homemade wine. Then after the doctor administered to my
mother and myself and all was well, he broke out a jug of wine and he and
the doctor proceeded to polish it off. And of course, in those days, they
also filled out the vital statistics at home. And when it came to naming
the naming of me, they were in their cups and I was a result of the name
came out as a result of their being in their cups.
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Kwalwasser: What is your father's occupation and what was your father's?
Coal miners. Was he always a coal miner? Yes.
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Silvestri: And where was he? Charleroi Mines.
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And your mother's occupation never worked.
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Kwalwasser: Were there other people who lived with you in your house
besides your immediate family? Like other relatives or boarders or.
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Silvestri: Oh, a long time ago when I was a child, Yes, But after my last
memory of it is when I really don't have any memory. Last memory. But
from.
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What my mother tells me, that when I was about 3 or 4 years old is the last
time that the.
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Silvestri: Anybody other than the family who lived in the household.
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Kwalwasser: Do you have any brothers or sisters?
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Silvestri: Two brothers and one sister.
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Kwalwasser: And did they all settle in the Pittsburgh area as well?
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Silvestri: They were all in the Pittsburgh area. Okay.
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Kwalwasser: And you have three children? Yes, I do.
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Silvestri: And how old are they now? John is 26. He's an attorney. Jean is
22. She's in her first year of medical school and James is 20 and he is a
mongoloid and he is at the Western State School and Hospital.
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Kwalwasser: Dear children belong to the same fraternal organizations as
you do.
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Silvestri: They belong to the ISda, but not right.
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Kwalwasser: Do you know why they belong to one and not the other?
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Silvestri: Yes. The Sons of Columbus is not that active. The ISda is.
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Kwalwasser: And what benefits do you see that the ISda offers to them or
to you?
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Silvestri: Oh, I think the ISda offers.
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A lot of benefits in terms of.
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Silvestri: Pride in your ethnic background and the maintaining and
developing the cultural heritage of the past. Fellowship, social contacts.
Good for business if you're in a profession. That has many, many benefits.
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What is the extent of your education? Grade school, high school, college,
law school.
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Kwalwasser: And both of the the college and law school, both at the
University of Pittsburgh. Correct. Okay. And you also have a pharmacy
degree.
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Silvestri: That is right.
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Kwalwasser: Could you explain how that came to be that you acquired both
degrees?
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Silvestri: Oh, it was very simple. When I got out of high school, I had
worked in a drugstore all during high school. Became interested in
pharmacy. But the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy graduated in
41. And if you recall, that was the year of the Pearl Harbor. And before I
graduated, I had enlisted in the Air Force. So I got my degree with one
hand and my orders to report to the Air Force and the other hand. And I
spent four and a half years in the Air Force.
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I was a pilot during the war.
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Silvestri: And all that time I was away from pharmacy, naturally. And when
I got out of the Air Force, I had the GI Bill benefits and I decided that I
may as well use it.
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Kwalwasser: And I went to law school. But you still keep up that degree?
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Silvestri: I certainly do. I maintain my license and I have a lot of
pharmacy friends, pharmacist friends that I keep in contact with, including
the dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. And I go into
drugstores periodically and step behind the prescription counter and see if
I can still read the prescriptions. And but if I should go back to doing it
full time, I'd have to take a refresher course.
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Kwalwasser: What was the first job you ever had?
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The very first one.
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Silvestri: You mean beginning when?
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Kwalwasser: Beginning around, say, 14 years old.
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Silvestri: Or sweeping the floor and mopping the floor in a drugstore.
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Kwalwasser: And that was at what age?
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Silvestri: I must have been a sophomore in high school.
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Kwalwasser: And so that was still in North Charlotte? Yes. What was your
first job in Pittsburgh?
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Silvestri: Well, I when I came to Pittsburgh to go to college, which was
in 37, I worked in a drugstore.
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While I was going to college. A clerk.
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Kwalwasser: When did your income first start to support other people,
members of your family?
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Silvestri: Well, let's put it this way. You see, you have to break it up.
When I was in college, I supported myself by working in a drug store. Then
came the war, and I got out of the service in 45 and went to law school.
And of course, under the G.I. Bill, we got a monthly supplement and we were
permitted to earn X number of dollars.
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And. I worked in the drug store while I was going to law school.
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Silvestri: And I worked all the way through law school in the drugstore.
And I contributed to my mother, who was a widow at that time. And then when
I finished law school, I got married and opened up an office with my many
clients and. I, of course, was a registered pharmacist. So while I would go
to my office during the day, I worked as a pharmacist at night, and that's
how I supported my family with one. Plus, my wife is a physician and she
was just starting out also. So between us, we made enough money to get
along. Okay.
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Kwalwasser: Check this sometimes. Okay. Sometimes it runs very low and you
don't hear it. And people keep talking. It's not on tape. Okay. What would
you say is the is the worst job you ever had?
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Silvestri: Never had any worst job.
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Kwalwasser: Okay. Your best job. The one I have now. Okay. And your
highest paying job?
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Silvestri: Well, for a salary. The one I have now. But the greatest income
was when I was practicing law.
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Kwalwasser: Why do you say that? The job you have now is best versus being
an attorney or whatever?
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Silvestri: Well, I practice law for 20 years before I went on the bench
and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And one of the nice things about being in law
is that you can go from being a practicing lawyer on to the bench, and it
came along at the right time in my life.
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What I mean by that is that when the opportunity to go on the bench.
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Silvestri: Was presented to me, I was in a position that I could take it
because my finances were in such a state that I wasn't going to suffer. So
my job now is I'm free of.
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Speaker4: Do you want me to leave that on in case it.
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Silvestri: Does? Yeah. Can you turn it off? You were asking about Why is
my present position a best job I ever had? I said to you I enjoyed the
practice of law every moment of it. But one of the great things about the
legal profession is that you can change your focus by going from the
practice of law onto the bench and going on to the bench. The salary
isn't.
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Bad. Matter of fact, it's pretty good.
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Silvestri: And people defer to you, despite the fact that we are becoming
more and more cynical. There still is a respect for the judiciary and the
people who occupy the office of Judge. And you don't have the hurly burly
of the practice of law. People come to you. It is more academic. And
although I am not a brilliant person, I do enjoy the academic approach to
many of the legal problems. And you're not concerned with the, you know,
paying your rent and paying the secretary and whether you have paperclips
or pencils.
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And all that's done for you.
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Silvestri: And it's a. You work at your own pace, although you have a
sense of duty and obligation that you must do the work. And it's really a
great job. You might consider going to law school and running for judge.
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Kwalwasser: Instead of learning.
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Kwalwasser: Rushing.
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Kwalwasser: In talking about the different fraternal organizations that we
referred to before. Was there one group that really represented most of the
people in your neighborhood when you were growing up?
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Silvestri: Do you remember? Well, the neighborhood in which I lived in
North Charleroi was again predominantly ethnic and sort of, you might say,
around 50% Italian, around 30% of the Slav nationalities and the balance
made up of French and Irish. And as a matter of fact, the popular club at
that time in North Shore was a place called the French Club, and it was run
principally by Italians.
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Kwalwasser: Okay.
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Kwalwasser: What was the purpose of the club?
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Silvestri: Well, you have to understand that in those particular days we
didn't have television, and radio was in its infancy and there wasn't a
home entertainment that was a place for the people to gather and pass the
time of day.
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Kwalwasser: And the people who. Was it strictly Italian or were there
other nationalities involved?
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Silvestri: Oh, no. In the in most of the even back in the early 30s and
40s or 20s when ethnic. Groups would get together and form a club
initially. Initially. Initially, they would be rather clannish and limited
to the own ethnic group. But as time passed and with intermarriages and
mixtures in a neighbourhood, they would begin to take in members of other
ethnic groups, not on a large scale, but particularly as a result of
intermarriage.
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Kwalwasser: Did your neighbors change much?
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Silvestri: What do you mean by that?
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Kwalwasser: Was there a lot of mobility?
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Kwalwasser: Oh, no, no, no.
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Silvestri: Not not when I was growing up. There. There wasn't that much
mobility. And of course, again, that was due to the circumstances of the
time, you know, despite the fact that automobiles were just coming into
vogue and despite the fact that they were selling anywhere from $250 to
$500 and for $750, you could get a LaSalle, which was the top of the market
at that time. People didn't have 250, $300. You know, it was great that
butter at that time sold for $0.25 a pound, but they didn't have $0.25 to
buy the butter. But the nature and circumstances of the time didn't lead to
mobility. You know, you didn't have the buses, the airplanes. And although
you had trains, the trains weren't built to cater to mass transportation.
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People in terms of trips.
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Silvestri: Just for trips.
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Kwalwasser: Were there any problems that you encountered in growing up in
Pittsburgh as an Italian?
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Silvestri: Not in. Pittsburgh as such. Keep in mind, when growing up in
Pittsburgh, I. I was in adolescence. I came down when I was 17 years old.
You know. And. I wasn't particularly involved in. Of the social, political
or business activity of the community. Because I was a student and.
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Working and nobody paid any attention to me.
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Silvestri: And thus they didn't pay any attention, any adolescent. You
know, we weren't competing for any power positions. However, when I got out
of the service and in law school, one of the first things I did since I
wanted to get some notoriety.
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In terms of I was an attorney.
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Silvestri: Having no hopes of winning whatsoever. I ran for city council
figuring that I could get my name on something like 400,000 ballots with an
occasional.
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Mention in a newspaper. And it came to.
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Silvestri: The fore then that there still was a degree of discrimination
against Italians and Slavs, various ethnic groups.
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Kwalwasser: How do you say that? You say it came to the fore. In what
way?
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Silvestri: Well, in terms of being accepted politically by the power
structure that existed at that time.
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Kwalwasser: Well, how do you measure that? That's what I'm asking you.
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Silvestri: By the reception that you get, the the seriousness with which
they take you. The time of day they give you or rather don't give you.
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Kwalwasser: Do you feel that the press was was more discriminatory than
any other organization?
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Silvestri: You mean the press media? Well. Of course the answer is yes and
perhaps not consciously. But they were because they were victims of the
times themselves. Incidentally, just to digress a moment, one of the
interesting things about discrimination is that in today's society, 1977.
The discrimination against ethnic groups has really fallen off
tremendously. And I don't know whether you can recall, but if you just
think about it for a moment, the early days of Hollywood back in the 30s
and 40s and 50s, anybody that had some talent, if they were Jewish,
Italian, Russian or what have you, they always changed their name to a good
Anglo-Saxon name. That doesn't happen anymore. Everybody is using their own
name as they're changing it. They probably changing it from a good
Anglo-Saxon name to an ethnic name. And I'm not so sure that that is a
change resulting from arriving at the millennia as it is with the rise of
the civil rights movement in the early 60s, that the common enemy is the
black. And so we have forgotten our differences among the whites and
concentrated to protect ourselves against the black. I'm not so sure that
that isn't really what happened. It's an interesting.
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Kwalwasser: Thought. Did your family display a pride in being Italian in
any way?
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Silvestri: Well, there wasn't any outward manifestation of it. You know,
my father, he belonged to the Sons of Italy, which was the local Italian
organization up in the Charleroi area. So he was proud of being an Italian.
And. I don't know that I was ever I was always conscious of being an
Italian, and I didn't know that there was ever any time that I was ashamed
of it. So I think that my mother and father not consciously instilled that
pride. That's right. You know, sort of what you might say subliminally.
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Kwalwasser: Did your community.
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Kwalwasser: In any way display a pride? I mean, for example, in Italian
national holidays, were there any kind of celebrations?
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Silvestri: No, not in the north shore, north shore either way. As I
mentioned to you, it was a small community. And although the makeup I gave
a percentage wise was as it was, the still the community was still run by
the Anglo Saxon.
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Small minority of the community.
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Silvestri: And we were still when I say we, I mean the ethnic groups were
still trying to assimilate. And since no ethnic group was that dominant, we
weren't out as a group saying rah rah Italian and celebrating Garibaldi Day
or Saint Theresa's day or what have you.
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Kwalwasser: You mentioned experiencing discrimination in midst of running
for city council. But going back a while, did your parents or did you
encounter any discrimination in terms of finding housing or jobs?
00:29:18.000 --> 00:30:07.000
Silvestri: No, I don't think so. I don't think that my parents and their
peers at that time were really aware of discrimination. Now, keep in mind
that my parents and, as I say, their peers. Were first were born in Italy
and they came over here. Now, they came from abject poverty and anything
was better. They were just happy to be here and they wouldn't understand
discrimination because what they had was a one hell of a lot better than
than what they came from. And, you know, they were their attitude was, if I
read them right, was that they were just happy to be here, happy to be
working and happy to be left alone.
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:10.000
Kwalwasser: Do you know when they came over?
00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:12.000
Silvestri: They came over in 1919.
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:15.000
Kwalwasser: And was the port of entry in New York? Yes.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.000
Silvestri: Okay. Don't ask me how they landed in Charlotte right away.
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:24.000
Kwalwasser: Okay.
00:30:24.000 --> 00:31:24.000
Silvestri: You know, the interesting thing about discrimination I just
mentioned for a moment my wife's.
