L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano HERITAGE COMMUNITY IDENTITY TRADITIONS FRED GARDAPHE W hy is it that Italian America is better known for its wise- guys then for its wise men and women? In 1927, after the United States had severely restricted immigration from southern European countries, Antonio Gramsci published "The Southern Question," an article in which he attempted to explain the failure of southern Italy to generate a revolutionary force. But years before Gramsci's essay, the southern Italians were answering the southern question in their own direct way by leav- ing the impossible socioeconom- ic situation that a unified Italy had produced for them. One of the effects of this emigration would be the development in the United States of intellectuals who, under different circum- stances, might have become provocative instruments of a southern Italian-led revolution. Until the arrival of the Italian American intellectual who works specifically on the subject, Italian American culture would be per- ceived and processed by the larg- er American culture via mass media; more often than not, the stereotypical images that appeared in the newspapers, on radio, and in film and television broadcasts were those of gang- sters, buffoons, working stiffs, and suffering mothers, rarely reflecting the diversity, complex- ity, and sophistication that exist- ed inside Italian America. Immigrant intellectuals such as Constatine Panunzio, Titì, Pascal D'Angelo, and Maria Barbieri had received little atten- tion in comparison to those media stereotypes. They had written autobiographies and essays arguing that Italians could become Americans; to be American, however, Italians would have to lose their native language, hide their differences, and sometimes even demonstrate outright hatred toward their homeland. Heroes in Italian American communities would come initial- ly from popular culture (Rudolph Valentino, Enrico Caruso, Joe DiMaggio, and Frank Sinatra) and business (A. P. Giannini, Amadeo Obicii, and Lee Iacocca), never from academia. It would take a generation or more for Italian Americans to realize how formal education could be used to their benefit. The work of early immigrant Italian American intellectuals by and large was focused on work- ing-class issues. Maria Roda, Carlo Tresca, Arturo Giovannitti, Tia Cacici, Luigi Fraina, and oth- ers established a strong Italian presence in the U.S. labor move- ment. Their writings and teach- ings focused on improving the lot of the Italian immigrant worker in the United States. Just as the immigrant worker was, for the most part, alienated from the mainstream economy, these intel- lectuals would not mainstream American culture, nor would their contributions warrant inclu- sion in the educational materials mastered by subsequent genera- tions. Their work would become part of a lost radical world acknowledged only recently by American intellectuals. The children of Italian immi- grants who became intellectuals were busy proving that they were Americans, especially through service to their country during World War II. Some, but not many, took advantage of the G.I. Bill and earned a college educa- tion. However, very few ventured into academia with the idea of studying Italian American cul- ture. The study of Italian American culture had not been stabilized by political lobbies, cultural foundations, or endowed university professorships. Only recently have Italian Americans entered higher educa- tion in numbers approaching the national average, this despite the fact that since 1960 the income of Italian Americans has been above the national average. These train- ing grounds for intellectual development have only recently accepted the idea of Italian American studies—years after other American ethnic groups have become part of the new national multicultural curricula. The major problem facing Italian American intellectuals would not be not a lack of prepa- ration for or sophistication in their critical methods, but a lack of self-confidence that the culture they come from could be used to express themselves to the American mainstream audience. The larger community has only begun to realize the importance of ethnic studies and some sup- port of education has been offered by organizations such as the National Italian American Foundation, the Order Sons of Italy in America, and UNICO. When professors Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum and Camille Paglia uncover the pagan origins of Italian Catholicism as a means of renewing and perhaps even revolutionizing American cul- ture, who remembers that the same was done in fiction by Pietro di Donato in 1939 and Jerre Mangione in left-wing pub- lications of the early twentieth century? When Frank Lentricchia tries to tell Sandra Gilbert that her idea of feminism does not include working-class women like his mother and Gilbert opens her reply by signifying the Italian connection that should have prevented her from having to defend her thought to another paesano, academic America becomes witness to the evolution of an Italian American psyche as it makes its way into mainstream cultural awareness. These Italian American intel- lectuals are just a few of many whose writings reveal the sociopolitical implications of invoking an ethnic identity in one's criticism of American cul- ture. Although some have become traditional intellectuals, others have come to value and utilize a sense of identity with their Italian ancestry. Richard Gambino, one of the first professors to offer college courses in Italian American stud- ies, wrote in 1983: "If any of the traditional Italian values are to survive, they can no longer rely solely on the custom of family education. Italian Americans must become conscious of their traditional values through formal education." Without serious inclusion in curricula, Italian Americans cannot learn the value of maintaining an ethnic identity through their formal studies. Today, public intellectuals such as Helen Barolini, Marcella Bencivenni, Mary Jo Bona, Nancy Carnevale, Donna Gabaccia, John Gennari, Edvige Giunta, Jennifer Guglielmo, Michael Parenti, Joseph Sciorra, Robert Viscusi, and many others have forged a powerful presence in Italian America. Dean Anthony Julian Tamburri of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute is leading the way for the institutionalization of Italian American culture in the U.S. and Italy. The Institute, created by the New York State Legislature to address the needs of an increasingly educated pop- ulation of Italian Americans in New York, provides a model for the examination and dissemina- tion of Italian American culture throughout the United States. All this is to say that Italian America has always had its intel- lectuals; it's just that most of us didn't know they were there, and that we need them now more than ever. Donna R. Gabaccia is professor of history and former director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota The Italian American Intellectual

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