Francesco Constantino (1873 – 1943) was an Italian immigrant who settled in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa in the early 20th century. A tile worker, he created many of the mosaics that once graced Tampa’s sidewalks and the homes of its wealthy. In the 1910s, he began to create mosaic tile-on-concrete markers for members of the city’s growing Spanish and Italian immigrant middle class, who desired memorials of beauty, but could not afford imported granite or marble. Constantino’s vibrant and unique style uses symbols both familiar and novel, and is further marked by a contrast in the use of religious symbols: in place for children, but rarely adults. This mirrors a rise in secularism among adults in the community, embittered by their perceptions of the role of the Catholic Church in their former poverty and need to leave their countries of birth. In Constantino’s work can be seen the history of a community, building itself up and defining who they would be in this new world, and this presentation will share both.
About the presenterKara Van Dam
Dr. Van Dam holds a PhD and MA in linguistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the way people use language as a marker of identity, analyzing issues arising in language contact situations, and surveying the effects in diverse settings from immigrant letters to public records to gravestone inscriptions. She is the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at the University of Maryland University College.