A student of history, Jacovini can talk at length about Italian-Americans in the civil rights movement and how Italian-Americans were the second most likely group to be lynched in the South.

He describes how in the 1870s—in the streets of Northern Liberties and South Philly—Philadelphia's native (aka English) Americans fought Gangs of New York-style battles with the Irish. And how the Irish in turn refused to let the newly arrived Italians use their Catholic churches.

Today, “the cycle of the last person who came into the country stepping on the next person to come into the country has been broken. That's the real story.”

He points to how the pastor of St. Paul's invited Mexican South Philadelphians to carry a statue of Our Lady of Guadeloupe—the patron saint of Mexico—in the traditional (and very Italian) procession of saints.

“To me, this was the Italian community's way of welcoming their new Mexican neighbors. I'm proud because no one welcomed us when we first arrived.

Good one Bobby. I wonder just what excuses and other non-plausible creative reasons the contingent the closet bigots will use to attack this clip.