L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS well. He moved to America in 1906. He lived a life of sacrifice and could eventually buy some apartments in New York. He laid the groundwork for your family's future successes. Your cousins moved to New York in 1954. Six years later, you, your mother, your brothers and sis- ters joined in. I have always had great respect for him and the emigrants of his generation because they moved to a world that, in many ways, was still cruel, unjust and permeated by the pain of discrim- ination. Those emigrants, faceless people who never received the respect and even the attention they deserved for their contribu- tions in pouring the foundations of America and for enriching Italy through their remittances, are truly my heroes. In the case of my grandfather, it was because of his significant sacrifice of work- ing hard and saving his meager income that his children and grandchildren felt a sense of secu- rity when they came to America. You wrote that growing up on a farm in Southern Italy made you acquire a sort of stoic attitude. Did you learn how to be more resilient and adapt bet- ter in the US? Even though my siblings and I were going to school, my father kept us fully engaged in farm life on a daily basis. We had assigned tasks and responsibilities to ful- fill. In the summertime, our work on the farm became more involved and more demanding. Some of the work was quite heavy and harsh. Consequently, when I came to the US and found a factory job working 10 hours a day, frankly it was not an impos- sible task. I certainly would have preferred a lighter job, possibly working in an office. However, that experience toughened and prepared me to overcome obsta- cles with less stress. I say in the book that "the hardest steel comes from the hottest fire:" the metaphor is very true for life experience. When you arrived in NY, "It was also a new era for Italian- ness," starting from the multi- tude of Italian-American singers who dominated the music scene with their melodic voices. The Italians also played a "decisive role in the American Civil Rights Movement." You remembered Monsignor Geno C. Baroni who became the coordinator of the March on Washington when Martin Luther King delivered the exalted "I Have a Dream" speech. The emergence of Italian Americans was part of the social and cultural transformation of America. Many young Italian Americans fought in WWII with some volunteering to show alle- giance to the US. When the war was over the GI Bill, which made college education free for war veterans, helped thousands of Italian Americans pursue a col- lege education and break down social and cultural barriers. Even- tually, they also deflated many stereotypes that their fathers and grandparents had to endure. In large numbers, they entered the middle class and became part of the mainstream, and in some parts of the US, like Long Island, New York, where my university is, they directed the stream. One of the many tangible pieces of evidence of that success is that on Long Island every public high school introduced the teaching of the Italian language, often due to community pressure. I perceived bitterness in your words when you talked about the younger generation of Americans, "teenagers cov- ered with tattoos who isolate themselves from the world and demand subsidies from the gov- ernment". You are a teacher. How do we teach kids responsi- bility, respect and work ethics? We have seen a profound cul- tural change in the way my par- ents and people of my generation related to children, to institutions and society in general. Today there is a strong interest in pro- tecting individual freedom, priva- cy, identity and diversity. It could be a wonderful way of living, but we need respect for laws and order accompanied by a personal sense of responsibility to main- tain and improve our civil soci- ety. Teachers require authority and the respect to teach ethic val- ues. Freedom of action and speech cannot exist in an absolute sense! You wrote that poverty is also a state of mind. "We had pride, a sense of self-esteem, decorum and determination to succeed." You never felt poor. And you added: "Paradoxical- ly, we had to become poorer to become richer." In Italy, we lived on a farm that my parents owned. My father claimed that the Mignone family had always lived in their own house and owned property. In America, we started from ground zero. Yes, we had less than we had in Italy and in a way we were poorer. Nonetheless, we never felt poor because we sensed that with work and collective family cooperation we would acquire social status. In fact, after three years in America, we bought a building with five apartments. The Chinese, Indians and Kore- ans who form the new wave of immigration are following the same road to success. Many immigrant students in my classes at the university, who read the book said that my story in was also their story. What would you suggest to a young Italian today who cannot find a job in Italy? Be more resilient in your home country or pack and leave? What about leaving for the US today? Today many young Italians are moving out in the world with many achieving success. In fact, there are many young Italians employed as researchers at my university. I have met a number of them working in various fields and most are full of energy and eager to prove themselves in their careers. But I do not suggest that everyone should pack up and leave, not at all. However, if vari- ous attempts at finding a job in Italy, and not necessarily the ideal job, have failed, then I might say leave, but be prepared to face huge obstacles and have faith in human strength, imagina- tion and creativity. Today I do not feel the same collective energy that was pro- pelling the US into the future in the '60s. However, there is almost full employment here and some companies are struggling to find qualified personnel. In my huge family, my children, my nieces and nephews, the first generation born here, are all doing well, some extremely well and they did not have to struggle to assert themselves. Yes, they are the children of immigrants who still have that strong desire to achieve in American society, yet the opportunities are still those of the '60s if one understands the changes that technological advances have created and the employment needs in our society. Your journey back to your childhood with your wife and your daughters was what you expected. You wrote it con- firmed "Heraclitus's old say- ing: 'you never bathe twice in the same waters of a river.'" Do you experience nostalgia for a time in Italy that you have never known as an adult? The problem of the emigrants is confronting the changes that have occurred in their place of birth. It is the problem of Anquil- la, the protagonist of La luna e i falò by Cesare Pavese. The return home may be traumatic: the birthplaces have changed, some- times profoundly, and the emi- grant has also changed profound- ly. Thinking we will find our for- mer homes the way they were when we left can be unrealistic and ultimately painful. What is your current rela- tionship with Benevento and the Beneventani? I love to go to Benevento, but my ties are mainly sentimental with no relationships with institu- tions or organizations. Many years ago, I tried to create a stu- dent exchange between my uni- versity and the university at Ben- evento, but I did not succeed. I had established four exchanges with other universities in Italy, but I did not find interest in Ben- evento. However, I am very excited about an upcoming visit to our local high school and my university by a group of students from the Liceo Classico "Pietro Giannone" in Benevento. I am working hard to make the visit memorable for the students of Benevento. "The kitchen was the altar of my mother," you wrote. It was a place where your mother, through food, healed your body and soul, a space of protection against "the street wolves." Mothers had fundamental roles in Italian families. That role was the glue for the unity and success of my family. My sisters and some of our wives still try to carry out that role. Italian dishes are the main food in our families, but it's the role of the mother, also through the dinner table, to keep the family together and energize it. Without the security my mother created at home, I doubt that of her eight children three would have become doc- tors, one a dentist, two university professors, and two public school teachers. Continued from page 4 Mario Mignone in Rome with his students (Ⓒ: Stony Brook University)

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