Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Thank you, Basil. I’m grateful for your leadership of this organization.

And it was wonderful to see you and so many friends at the White House reception last year. The same feeling is here in this room tonight—the warmth that makes our community so special.

And to Joe and Sharon, thank you for all of your work to celebrate our heritage and elevate Italian American stories, here in Pittsburgh and all across the country.

Buonasera, everyone!

It’s great to be with you all. Not only because I’m proud of my Italian roots, but also because I can’t help but feel home-state pride whenever I’m in Pennsylvania. 

A blank space on a piece of paper greeted my great-grandparents when they arrived at Ellis Island. There, Gaetano and Conchetta Giacoppa filled in their names so they could start their new lives in the United States.

It must have felt like they were entering another kind of blankness too. They left behind everything they had known in Italy: their family, their homeland. Even their name, Giacoppa, eventually became Jacobs.

But their hearts were full. They had carried their values with them across the Atlantic: Loyalty. Kindness. Grit. And the courage to chase this country’s unlimited promise.

Their son, Dominic, my grandpop, found work delivering furniture for a small store in New Jersey.

He and my grandmom worked hard to build a life they could be proud of.

To this day, the scent of Italian bread toast and the sound of sauce bubbling on the stove brings me back to their tiny kitchen.

They raised my dad, who went on to fight for this country in World War II at the age of 17. When he returned, he used the G.I. Bill to get his business degree and eventually became a bank manager. That’s how he and my mom carved out a middle-class life for me and my sisters.

When I was growing up and dreaming of what my life would become, I knew I wanted two things: a marriage like my parents’—strong and loving—and a career.

I found both.

Education is my life’s work. And I continue to teach at a community college just outside of Washington, DC.

In Joe, I found a husband who always supported my career. His family’s struggles to reach the middle class felt so familiar to my own family tree. And the loyalty and closeness of the Bidens rang true in how I was raised.

Now, three generations after my great-grandparents arrived at Ellis Island, I am proud to stand before you as the first Italian American First Lady.

So many generations of Italian Americans have shared the beauty of our culture with their communities and made this country a little brighter and a little better along the way.

But of course, we haven’t always been welcomed. There have also been dark days in the Italian American story.

Whether it was the Sicilians who were dragged from their cells and killed by an angry mob in New Orleans, the people turned away by signs that said, “Italians need not apply,” or people, like my dad, who was never fully accepted by my mom’s family because he was Italian.

Despite this, Italian Americans persevered.

Our ancestors kept true to the same values that echo in the motto of this organization: Liberty, Unity, and Duty. You make sure everyone can build a good life in America.

That work is personal for Joe too.

He’s been making sure that no matter where you start in life, there’s no limit to what you can achieve.

He’s helped us heal from the pandemic, created millions of good jobs—including good union jobs, led the strongest economic recovery in modern history, and given more families a sense of real security in the middle class.

Last year, I visited Ellis Island, walked into the Great Hall, and saw the registry where my grandparents—and so many of our ancestors—filled a blank space with the loops and swirls of their new names, many signing with just an “X.”

Let’s consider how our ancestors would feel if they saw us tonight.

This is what they dreamed of.

The unknown that stood before them when they arrived, now filled with their descendants coming together to lift up our community, and preserving a piece of our homeland in the home we’ve built here.

So let’s make sure that their stories and sacrifices are never forgotten, and that their values live on in every generation to come.

Grazie mille.

###