Bill de Blasio has won the New York mayoral elections, becoming the first Democrat to hold the post since 1989. He follows in the footsteps of three other Italian-american mayors of the city who left an important mark in New York's history: Fiorello Henry La Guardia (born Fiorello Enrico La Guardia) who was the 99th Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a Republican. Vincent Richard Impellitteri (born in Isnello, Sicily, moved with his family to the United States as an infant in 1901) who served as the 101st Mayor of New York City from 1950 to 1953. And more recently, Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani (born in an Italian-American enclave in East Flatbush in the New York City borough of Brooklyn) who served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001.
Proud of his Italian origins, De Blasio twitted "Grazie New York" as soon as he realised he won the elections.
According to many media experts, De Blasio hit upon the winning strategy when he involved his children, making them the public face of his campaign. It started with an ad starring his teenage son Dante, who, sporting a large afro, praised his father's positions on affordable housing and New York's controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Dante has conquered the Italian press too, with many Italian national newspapers reporting about his videos and profile, much in line with the current debate on the changing face of Italian youth we reported about earlier.
Listen to Mayor De Blasio talking about his origins in Italian and thanking his grandparent's town Sant' Agata de' Goti in Campania.
