L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 L et's start with a concept that is not as obvious as it s e e m s : i d e n t i t y i s s o m e t h i n g t o b e invented. Each of us is the declension, the free and very personal interpretation of a culture, a language, a territory, a piece of society. And just as every morning we wake up happier or more tired, so our being Italian, American, Italian American or whatever else, changes and is different every day. Fact is that identities, just like cultu- res, are a constantly evolving product of interactions, exchanges, influences, contaminations. They are mixed, hybrid, plural, multicultural, migrants and, above all, neither static nor definitive. Because, firstly, we are free to be who and how we want. Identity should not be seen as a photograph but as a movie, that is, not as a fixed and immutable image over time, but as a sequence of events, a superimposition of situations, a sum of stories that flows and evolves continuously. In this sense, the identity of each and every one of us shouldn't be seen as the end of a path, but rather, as the ulti- mate aim of the path itself. It is, in other words, the opposite of a predefined element: it is something continuously crea- ted by selecting from a thousand possible alternatives, it's something we must fight for, something to be conquered and, above all, something that changes and adapts itself constantly to the world around. This happens because our identity lies in things, because it is a natural path: today we are like this, tomorrow we will also be something different. Let's think of a house made of bricks: it'll have founda- tions (childhood), on which we place a first layer of bricks Italian-American: reinventing an identity every day From the director (those of youth). On those, then, we superimpose others (the experiences, encounters, travels and passions we discovered to have little by little, our maturity…), all the way up to the roof. Under that roof, rests a tale made of many different bricks. We got rid of some, too: an open space is better than narrow rooms and let's get rid of that wall! We need more light, but without forgetting to build a small closet to keep everything in order. The Italian Heritage Month reminds us precisely of this bringing together several aspects of our cultural, social, linguistic, communitarian and professional way of being. We were born and raised in a context that became part of us, but then we learned and embraced more and more, as the years passed. Now, we have become — or rather we feel to be — someone who, very likely, we will no longer be tomorrow, because other changes will have happened within ourselves, changes that don't erase any of the previous stages, though. At this point, identity means coexistence. Coexistence of several elements which, however, do not have fixed and pre- defined proportions. Each of us chooses. Knowing Italian, speaking it fluently, does not automatically mean being Italian. Eating a pizza every week does not mean being Neapolitan. Adoring the monuments of Rome, Sicilian land- scapes, the art of wonderful Florence is not the same as being Roman, Sicilian or Tuscan. Not even someone from Valle d'Aosta who lived in Molise for a lifetime feels like this. Being Italian American today doesn't mean the same for the whole "category," for the entire Italian American community. Also because there is no exact definition, an exact label that qualifies us as such. We choose independen- tly what we want to be, how much we want to feel American or Italian, and how we want to live and experience our dou- ble— or multiple — cultural identity. Obviously, everyday life is something we have to deal with: pandemic aside, we can't go back to Italy as often as we'd like, just as we can't call our, let's say, Lombard relati- ves because we don't speak Italian and they don't under- stand English. And we cannot impose Italian on our children at home, if their father has Korean origins, just like we can- not have a spaghetti meal with friends if we have no Italian or Italophile mates in the city where we moved … But it's nice to know that we can choose to be Italian. We can feel a bit Venetian despite everything and keep our Turinese origins because our maternal grandparents came from there; we can discover our roots during a summer in the peninsula, while leafing through an old photo album, when walking in a museum or enjoying a theatrical show that portrays something we also recognize as Italian or Italian American. We can recognize our identity even when w a t c h i n g a m o v i e o n T V o r w h i l e r e a d i n g L ' I t a l o - Americano, a paper that helps us, between a story, a cha- racter and a handful of traditions, to preserve that "tiny piece" of Italian within us. October is an opportunity to talk about us, about our way of being both "double" and "half." Rooted a bit in the Belpaese and a bit on the West Coast, taking pleasure in listening to Italian but speaking English, of living in a stron- gly multiethnic and multicultural society, but of being anchored to the very Italian idea of Sunday lunch, strictly with family. Choosing what it means for each of us to be Italian American is a fortune to be rediscovered, and not only in October: by doing so, we'll get richer every dat, we'll feel more complete, more aware of what we are. Let's take advantage of this Italian Heritage Month to love oursel- ves and each other, in all our complexity and uniqueness! Simone Schiavinato, Director NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 P.O.BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 Member of FUSIE (Federazione Unitaria Stampa Italiana all'Estero), COGITO L'Italo-Americano 610 West Foothill Blvd. Unit D, Monrovia, CA 91016 - Tel.: (626) 359-7715 PLEASE SEND CORRESPONDENCE TO P.O. BOX 6528, ALTADENA, CA 91003 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano Newspaper (a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization), www.italoamericano.org, is the largest and longest-running Italian newspaper in America, not to mention the cultural and news resource for all things Italian in the US. A bilingual newspaper which represents an historical landmark for the Italian American Communities in the West Coast and throughout the US. L'Italo-Americano benefits from subsidies by the Italian Government, Memberships and Donations intended to support and not interrupt a mission that began in 1908 to preserve and promote the Italian language and culture in the USA Periodicals postage paid at Monrovia, California 91016, and additional mailing offices. PUBLISHER Robert Barbera Grande Ufficiale DIRECTOR/EDITOR IN CHIEF Simone Schiavinato ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Patrick Abbate EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Barbara Minafra COPY EDITOR Francesca Bezzone LOS ANGELES CONTRIBUTOR Silvia Giudici SAN FRANCISCO CONTRIBUTORS Catherine Accardi Serena Perfetto SEATTLE CONTRIBUTOR Rita Cipalla CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mariella Radaelli, Francesca Bezzone, Luca Ferrari, Stefano Carnevali, Joel Mack, Paula Reynolds, Nicoletta Curradi, GenerosoD'Agnese, Fabrizio Del Bimbo, Maria Gloria, Alfonso Guerriero Jr., Anthony Di Renzo Serena Perfetto, Kenneth Scambray, Chiara D'Alessio © 2020 L'Italo-Americano Membership: One year $59 - Single copy $2.25 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to L'Italo Americano PO Box 6528 Altadena, CA 91003

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