another reason is that most of italian immigrants in california came from northern regions
This I believe.
Southern Italians in California have more in common with Latinos than they do with the bourgeois Italians that claim a generational identity to the region.
"...the successful annihilation of organized crime's subculture in America would rock the 'legitimate' world's foundation, which would ultimately force fundamental social changes and redistributions of wealth and power in this country. Meyer Lansky's dream was to bond the two worlds together so that one could not survive without the other." - Dan E. Moldea
