L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 4 SILVIA GIUDICI NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS O v e r 2 6 m i l - lion Ameri- cans of Ita- lian descent currently resi- d e i n t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , making Italian Americans the seventh largest ethnic group. Every October, the Italian-American Heritage Month aims at recognizing t h e c o n t r i b u t i o n s a n d achievements of these peo- ple and their ancestors by celebrating the distingui- shed cultural contributions of Americans with Italian l i n e a g e , h o n o r i n g a n d recognizing the centuries of achievements, succes- ses, and valuable contribu- tions of Italian immigrants and Italian Americans. This year we asked four w o m e n , t e l e v i s i o n c h e f and food writer Giada De Laurentiis, Marianna Gatto, the executive direc- tor and cofounder of the Italian American Museum of Los Angeles (IAMLA), actress Sofia Milos (CSI Miami, The Sopranos) and actress Dina Morrone ( A r m a g e d d o n , A l i t a , Fantastic 4, The Italian in Me), to tell us what this c e l e b r a t i o n m e a n s f o r them and what they perso- n a l l y d o t o k e e p I t a l i a n c u l t u r e , l a n g u a g e a n d legacy alive. Here's what they told us. " I t h i n k i t ' s r e a l l y i m p o r t a n t f o r t h e n e x t generation to be able to speak the language, so I've been teaching my daugh- ter, Jade, Italian. When we're with my mom/Jade's Nonna we try to exclusi- v e l y s p e a k i n I t a l i a n - I really think knowing and sharing the same language is an invaluable tool for connection. I try to keep up on family traditions as well. My family loves to do big Sunday Italian dinners (which we've been doing over Zooms these days) and Jade and I have been making lots of homemade pasta and pizza lately. I think small fun activities l i k e t h i s h a v e a l a s t i n g impact on Jade and encou- rage her to continue hono- r i n g I t a l i a n t r a d i t i o n s . Lastly, I share Italian reci- p e s , f o o d a n d c u l t u r e through my shows, social p l a t f o r m s a n d b o o k s , which hopefully inspires people from all different cultures!" Giada De Laurentiis " My family is Ita- lian," one of our visitors commen- ted as I welcomed her college profes- sor and classmates for a tour of the Italian Ameri- can Museum of Los Ange- les this past June. As her peers meandered through the museum, the student, twenty-one-year-old Oli- via, stood in front of the p e r m a n e n t e x h i b i t i o n screens watching projec- tions of turn-of-the twen- t i e t h c e n t u r y i m a g e s o f peasants in the Mezzogior- no and Italian immigrants arriving at Ellis Island. She seemed genuinely moved. " W h a t p a r t o f I t a l y d i d your family come from?" I asked, sensing her greater- t h a n - a v e r a g e i n t e r e s t . " O n e s i d e c a m e f r o m somewhere in Sicily, but I'm not really sure about the other side...Calabria maybe?" she responded. Olivia shared a bit more about her family: It was h e r g r e a t - g r a n d p a r e n t s who had immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s but they died before she was born. Although her grandparents spoke Italian as children, neither o f h e r p a r e n t s l e a r n e d Italian, and most of her family's Italian American identity was connected to foodways. Olivia recoun- t e d h o w h e r f a m i l y h a d visited Italy two years ear- lier and that they had tou- red Rome, Florence, and Venice. They had not ven- tured further south, to the t o w n s f r o m w h i c h h e r f a m i l y h a d e m i g r a t e d a century earlier, however. Olivia is representative of many Italian Americans I m e e t , n o t o n l y t h e Millennial generation, but Boomers and Gen Xers as well. Yet, for some reason, the image of her, standing silhouetted in front of the projection screens, remai- ned in my head for days after her visit and I found m y s e l f a n a l y z i n g w h y . W o r k i n g i n t h e f i e l d o f public history, and specifi- cally as the director of a c u l t u r a l m u s e u m , I a m c h a r g e d w i t h n o t o n l y communicating and pre- serving history, but with m a k i n g i t r e l e v a n t t o d i v e r s e a u d i e n c e s . I t o c c u r r e d t o m e t h a t f o r Olivia—who was born in the late 1990s—the photo- g r a p h s o f I t a l i a n i m m i - grants and peasants could have as easily belonged to the Civil War era as the early 1900s. They were, simply put, old photos of an era more bygone to her than to many of us. The preponderance of Italian Americans, myself inclu- ded, have, or had at one time in their lives, a direct c o n n e c t i o n t o a n i m m i - grant relative. Olivia did not. A s t i m e m a r c h e s o n , and our living immigrant ancestors grow fewer in number, Italian Americans b e c o m e p r o g r e s s i v e l y removed from the immi- gration journeys of their families, not unlike other g r o u p s o f h y p h e n a t e d Americans. I realized that my exchange with Olivia left an impression on me because she represents the future of Italian America. I found myself wondering, " W h a t w i l l I t a l i a n Actress Sofia Milos at Trinità dei Monti (Photo courtesy of Sofia Milos) Continued to page 6 Italian American heritage month: words of love and pride from four Italian-American women

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