An Italian American (Italian: Italoamericano singular, Italian: Italoamericani plural), is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States (not including American ethnicity, an ethnonym used by many in the United States; overall, Italian Americans rank seventh, behind German, Irish, African American, English, American and Mexican).
About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. from 1820 to 2004. The greatest surge of immigration, which occurred in the period between 1880 and 1920, alone brought more than 4 million Italians to America. About 80% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy, especially from Sicily, Campania, Abruzzo and Calabria. This was a largely agricultural and overpopulated region, where much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule, and the economic measures imposed on the South after Italian unification in 1861 . After unification the Italian government initially encouraged emigration of landless peasants to relieve economic pressures in the South. In the U.S., most Italians began their new lives as unskilled, manual workers in Eastern cities, mining camps and in agriculture. Italian Americans gradually moved from the lower rungs of the economic scale in 1890-1910 to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. By 1990, more than 65% of Italian Americans were managerial, professional, or white-collar workers. The Italian-American communities have often been characterized by strong ties with family, the Catholic Church, fraternal organizations and political parties. Today, over 17.8 million Americans claim Italian ancestry.
Aelita Andre (born 9 January 2007) is an Australian abstract artist known for her Surrealist painting style and her young age. She began to paint when aged nine months, and her work was displayed publicly in a group exhibition shortly after she turned two. Her first solo exhibition opened in New York City in June 2011, when she was four years old.
Andre was born to Australian father Michael Andre and Russian mother Nikka Kalashnikova. As a baby, she often watched her parents, both artists themselves, work on canvases on the floor. She learned to paint before she could walk, several months prior to her first birthday. She and her family currently reside in Melbourne.
Andre's mother, believing her daughter to be a child prodigy, showed some of Andre's paintings to a Melbourne-based art curator when the girl was 22 months old. Impressed with the work, the curator agreed to include it in a group exhibition in the Brunswick Street Gallery, and he began advertising the show with Andre's paintings before he learned of her age. Although he was surprised, he kept his promise to display the work. The show opened shortly after her second birthday and also featured Kalashnikova's photography. Several months later, Andre and her parents visited Hong Kong, where she sold her most expensive painting to date for $24,000.
Im Norden zieht ein Sturm herauf der Kälte bringt und Tod
Über die helle Welt der Menschen fällt ein Mantel aus Schwärze und Not
Niemand weiß wohin soll er fliehen, die frostige Hand greift überall hin
Wenn die finsteren Wolken am Himmel ziehen macht Widerstand gar keinen Sinn
Der Winterdämon auf der alten Zeit
Ein tödlicher Hauch der Ewigkeit
Keine Menschenmacht kann ihm widerstehen
Wer ihn spürt wird untergehen
Steife Glieder, der Atem gefriert
Kaum einer der den Sturm überleben wird
Ein Unheil so groß wie das letzte Gericht
Tilgt die Menschenbrut vom Erdangesicht
Im Zuge dieser Eisesmacht senkt sich Dunkel übers Land
[Wolf doesn't sing it like this, but that's the version in the booklet]
Keine Stimme läßt sich vernehmen, alles ist vom Frost gebannt
In den Wolken rasen schwarze Vögel wie Todesengel der Dunkelheit
Doch eine Gestalt mit zwei grauen Wölfen durchstreift die kalte Einsamkeit