L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS DONATELLA POLIZZI S ince the 1870s, approximately 30 million people have left Italy to move to the US in search of a life in the early migrational tides, and of a better life in the more recent ones, making Italians the fifth largest ethnic group in America. A large percentage (probably 40%) of early migrants eventually returned to Italy, but the majority remained and provided labor for mines, factories, and helped build rail- roads, dams, tunnels and other infrastructures. Willing to work for low wages, Italians rivaled the Irish for unskilled work in industrial cities, which often lead to hostilities between the two groups. Italians coming to America based their survival on two ele- ments: work and family. While the first is easy to understand, the second means not simply the loving relationship among a blood family but, in a broader sense, the continuation of Italian traditions, among which cuisine and its related customs were, and still are, the center piece. Italian parents wanted their children to be assimilated in the American life so they often spoke no Italian to them and children, on the other hand, wanted to speak English so that they would not stand out among others. Italian, or more often Ital- ian dialects, did not disappear but were absorbed into a new language that phonetically rewrote original words while at the same time creating others. Pasta e fagioli, pasta and beans, which in Sicilian was pasta e fasola, becomes pasta and fazo- ol; capocollo becomes gabba- gool, prosciutto becomes prazhut, and mozzarella becomes mutzarel. At the same time, American cuisine undergoes an Italianization process with peo- ple like Chef Boyardee, who produced Italian sounding dishes like macaroni and cheese that had little to do with Italian cui- sine, but more with an Italian sounding one. Over the course of time, it hasn't been only Italian cuisine names, like bruschetta, spaghetti, and mozzarella, to have become part of the American culture but, first and foremost, those of Ital- ians who excelled, like the Fon- das, Frank Sinatra, Rudolph Valentino, Robert De Niro, Vin- cent and Liza Minnelli, Al Paci- no, Leonardo Di Caprio and, in other fields, Tommy La Sorda, Mario Cuomo, Anthony Scalia. Written by Mario Puzo and put on screen by Francis Ford Coppola, are two of the best movies of all times, The Godfa- ther I and II, many lines of which, like "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse," have become common sayings. The recognition these movies received, encouraged other artists to produce works with similar themes like Goodfellas, The Sopranos, Jersey Shore, and The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Unfortunately, these pro- ductions acted in two opposite directions: success for Italian Americans, but also reinforce- ment of many negative Italian American stereotypes.These stereotypes, mainly connected to mafia, still exert a sort of fasci- nation on the general public, so much so that tourists can take mafia tours in cities like New York and Chicago as well as in Sicily, where the attractions are not only The Godfather locations but also, as advertised on some tour operator booklets, meetings and chats with the son of a noto- rious mafioso. Many Americans, even those of distant Italian descent, are now trying to learn more about their origins also thanks to DNA testing and websites that facili- tate genealogical research. If they meet legal requirements, they can often acquire double cit- izenship (American and Italian), which caused the constitution of many agencies that, for a fee, will research the past and get original Italian status certificates to prove one's connection to Italy. Social media make it easy to create connections, and Italian Americans have many pages dedicated to them. There, I have come to understand how Ameri- cans of Italian origin define themselves based only on their blood, considering themselves Italians if children of Italian par- ents, even when they have never been to Italy, nor speak any Ital- ian. It seems to me that, in a nature vs nurture dilemma, the pride of being Italian-American is thus lost and, with it, the efforts and work of all migrants who put their blood, sweat and tears not only in the two world wars they fought as American soldiers, but also into the build- ing of today's USA. Being Italian American is the beauty and privilege of being uniquely shaped by the richness of two cultures. It means people like Vincenzo Florio, as reported in the 1902 The World's Work magazine, came at age fourteen with just a cardboard suitcase, a pair of old shoes and $1,80 to pursue their American dream, for many of whom it became a reali- ty. I cannot even imagine how much courage it took these peo- ple to leave their family and their small, albeit well known, world for the unknown. Denying an Italian American conforma- tion means denying the courage and entrepreneurship of such men and women. I find, however, hard to con- ceive the idea of "being Italian" without having lived specific his- torical events. Being Italian is not Ferrari and Valentino, Prada, Gucci or Ducati. It is not what one's parents were, that makes one Italian. It is the life, the experience, the language, the common life reality that one shares with a group of people. Have you lived through the Capaci bombings that killed judge Falcone, his wife and 5 of his agents? Have you lived through the terror years of the Red Brigades and Moro's kid- napping in the '70s? Have you experienced the tragedy of the FIAT factory near Palermo shut- ting down, with thousands of people loosing their job? Have you experienced the tragedy of all the earthquakes? Have you lived through 20 years of Berlus- coni politics and bunga bunga? Actually, you probably don't even know what bunga bunga means, whereas even children in Italy do. I think the pride of being Ital- ian American has been expressed at best by Rosa Cavalleri, who arrived in the US as a young woman in 1884 to join her hus- band in a mining camp in Mis- souri, and later settled in Chica- go. As Cavalleri neared death in 1943, she mused: "Only one wish more I have: I'd love to go in Italia again before I die. Now I speak English good like an American, I could go any- where—where millionaires go and high people. I would look the high people in the face and ask them questions I'd like to know. I wouldn't be afraid now—not of anybody. I'd be proud I come from America and speak English. I would go to Bugiarno and see the people and talk to the bosses in the silk factory.... I could talk to the Superiora now. I'd tell her, `Why you were so mean—you threw me out, that poor girl, whose heart was so kind toward you? You think you'll go to heav- en like that?' I'd scold them like that now. I wouldn't be afraid. They wouldn't hurt me now I come from America. Me, that's why I love America. That's what I learned in America: not to be afraid." The Italian American community gave a lot to the US's cultural, social and political world The pride - and tr ue meaning - of being Italian American

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