Just south of Omaha’s downtown are remnants of the city’s historic Little Italy.
There’s Orsi’s Bakery on the corner, Sons and Daughters of Italy on 10th Street, and St. Frances Cabrini Church down the block.
The neighborhood has seen changes through the years. There are fewer descendants of the Sicilian immigrants who shaped the area in the early to mid 1900s. More apartments and condos, newer homes and fewer Italian businesses.
But there are still traditions alive today, explained Steve Woodrich, as he took a seat inside the Santa Lucia Hall near Seventh and Pierce Streets. And lately, there are a lot of Italian families coming back to the “old neighborhood.”
“Even though a lot of families have moved away, in the last several years, you could just see it growing again,” Woodrich said.
The father or three and grandfather of seven grew up on 13th Street. His maternal grandparents moved from Italy as teenagers and opened a barbershop a few blocks from St. Frances Cabrini.
They were among thousands to make the journey from the Sicilian towns of Carlentini and Lentini in search of economic opportunity. The culture of those towns became engrained in the new communities where they settled, said Gerald Steinacher, a history professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“Of course they had a Catholic priest, they had a Catholic church. In the 1940s the first American Catholic saint, Frances Caprini,” Steinacher said. “I think the Catholic Church in Little Italy today in Omaha is named after the saint.”
The cathedral for generations was the geographic and spiritual core of the community, and at the heart of the church is the patron saint of the blind and martyrs.
Italian immigrants brought the worship of Santa Lucia, also known as Saint Lucy, to Omaha. For 101 years, the Santa Lucia Festival has honored the Sicilian saint. The first festival was held in 1925 and ran for 10 days. Its location moved around Omaha a bit over the years but is now back where it all began in the Little Italy neighborhood.
The festival’s founder, Grazia Bonafede Caniglia, led fundraising efforts for the centerpiece of the event: an intricate statue of Santa Lucia herself. Designed in Italy, it took a small fortune of $2,000 to bring the saint to Omaha.
“Italian is not widely spoken or Sicilian in Little Italy in Omaha,” Steinacher said, “not that I know of. But people still want to keep the tradition alive, the history alive.”
Santa Lucia is still kept in the church today. Each year during the festival, the statue is decorated with donated jewelry, some of which dates back to the early days of the festival.
Photographs of Santa Lucia and Grazia Bonafede Caniglia adorn the brick walls of Santa Lucia Hall. The building was originally built to house several Omaha Fire Engine Companies and was purchased from the City of Omaha in the late 1920s — Santa Lucia Festival meetings have been held there for nearly a century.
The space is a memorial of sorts to the neighborhood. An embroidered green cloak from the Queen of the Santa Lucia Festival is on display. Banners from past parades, photos of former Santa Lucia Band members, small colorful statues of saints sit in a nook high up the wall.
Woodrich paused in front of a photo and plaque.
“These are two recent members that passed away,” he said. “Vince Emmanuel, his dad was the band director when I joined, and this is Dominic DiGiacomo, Dom DiGiacomo, was a band leader, and now his son Mike is in charge.”
Woodrich joined the festival committee in 1974 and served as Santa Lucia Festival president in 1977. Santa Lucia and all the traditions that surround her have been a part of Woodrich’s life since 1960. As a young child, he would join his mother for the festival’s closing ceremony.
“She wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Woodrich said.
Woodrich has never visited the Sicilian town of his and his in-laws’ ancestors, but he would like to travel there someday. In 2024, Carlentini and Omaha became sister cities, a diplomatic designation that recognizes the historic ties between the two cities. This year, Carlentini celebrated its 404th Santa Lucia Festival.
Interest in the Santa Lucia Festival and the committee dwindled in recent decades, but Woodrich said there’s been a resurgence.
“I’m seeing more today than I did, I swear, 40 years ago,” he said. “I don’t know what turned things around, but these kids are really involved, which is great. When I joined, it seemed like we had maybe 40, 50 members. Now it’s 200, 300 members.”
The next Santa Lucia Festival is scheduled for June 3. The band will play, a festival queen will be crowned, Italian food will be dished — and Santa Lucia will make her annual procession. Just as she has for 100 years.