Larry Hamberlin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195338928
- eISBN:
- 9780199855865
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338928.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Opera, Popular
The songs in Chapter 2 describe the celebrity status of Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini from the viewpoint of the working-class Italian immigrants whom these stars attracted to the Metropolitan ...
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The songs in Chapter 2 describe the celebrity status of Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini from the viewpoint of the working-class Italian immigrants whom these stars attracted to the Metropolitan and Manhattan opera houses. They highlight the contrast between those immigrants' sincere but noisy appreciation of opera and the more refined by less genuine response of elite operagoers. Gus Edwards's “My Cousin Caruso” emerges as an influential model for the topical operatic novelty song.Less
The songs in Chapter 2 describe the celebrity status of Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini from the viewpoint of the working-class Italian immigrants whom these stars attracted to the Metropolitan and Manhattan opera houses. They highlight the contrast between those immigrants' sincere but noisy appreciation of opera and the more refined by less genuine response of elite operagoers. Gus Edwards's “My Cousin Caruso” emerges as an influential model for the topical operatic novelty song.
Carol Bonomo Jennngs and Christine Palamidessi Moore
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231751
- eISBN:
- 9780823241286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823231751.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The Italian immigrants' documented limited presence — at times, absence — in the American schools was due to cultural heritage. The idea that Italians were far less likely than others to receive an ...
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The Italian immigrants' documented limited presence — at times, absence — in the American schools was due to cultural heritage. The idea that Italians were far less likely than others to receive an extended education has been echoed by many scholars who stress the minimal school arrangements in rural southern Italy from which most Italian immigrants originally came, together with their propensity to return to their homeland. The educational interests that immigrant women expressed in both Italy and the United States were inevitably diverse but certainly remarkable. Although the stories of the lives of these four women in this chapter cannot be generalized, they may be used to widen the narrow picture of immigrant women in America.Less
The Italian immigrants' documented limited presence — at times, absence — in the American schools was due to cultural heritage. The idea that Italians were far less likely than others to receive an extended education has been echoed by many scholars who stress the minimal school arrangements in rural southern Italy from which most Italian immigrants originally came, together with their propensity to return to their homeland. The educational interests that immigrant women expressed in both Italy and the United States were inevitably diverse but certainly remarkable. Although the stories of the lives of these four women in this chapter cannot be generalized, they may be used to widen the narrow picture of immigrant women in America.
Ilaria Serra
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226788
- eISBN:
- 9780823235032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226788.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
The writers of the autobiographies in this last chapter have achieved success as doctors, professors, or business people, so they belong to a different social class than ...
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The writers of the autobiographies in this last chapter have achieved success as doctors, professors, or business people, so they belong to a different social class than the rest of the immigrant autobiographers. All share the work ethic that defined earlier groups of Italian immigrants, but because of intelligence, luck, perseverance, or an indescribable mix of those and other qualities, they have gone on to varying degrees of what we would consider to be success—social, educational, and economic. They view the United States as a land of opportunity, but their standards and their achievements were on a different level from those of the average workers. The autobiographers in this chapter are the ones who are most aware of the tensions between the Italian self and the American society that will become the main topic for many Italian/American writers of second generation.Less
The writers of the autobiographies in this last chapter have achieved success as doctors, professors, or business people, so they belong to a different social class than the rest of the immigrant autobiographers. All share the work ethic that defined earlier groups of Italian immigrants, but because of intelligence, luck, perseverance, or an indescribable mix of those and other qualities, they have gone on to varying degrees of what we would consider to be success—social, educational, and economic. They view the United States as a land of opportunity, but their standards and their achievements were on a different level from those of the average workers. The autobiographers in this chapter are the ones who are most aware of the tensions between the Italian self and the American society that will become the main topic for many Italian/American writers of second generation.
Laura E. Ruberto
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041396
- eISBN:
- 9780252099991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041396.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Migration Studies (including Refugee Studies)
This chapter explores U.S.-produced films from the first decades after World War II through two competing themes—World War II and Italian style—which together influenced how new Italian immigrant ...
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This chapter explores U.S.-produced films from the first decades after World War II through two competing themes—World War II and Italian style—which together influenced how new Italian immigrant women were shaped on screen. The chapter argues that Italian American women had been previously gendered in cinematic representations, but that the gendering had occurred around issues of domesticity, religion, labor, and family rather than lasciviousness and exotica. However, these postwar films turned Italian actors such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, and Pier Angeli into hyper-sexualized immigrant characters: provocatively out-of-place war brides, nannies, and prostitutes each sexually willing and exoticized through visual and narrative emphases on their bodies, physical abandon, and illicit behavior.Less
This chapter explores U.S.-produced films from the first decades after World War II through two competing themes—World War II and Italian style—which together influenced how new Italian immigrant women were shaped on screen. The chapter argues that Italian American women had been previously gendered in cinematic representations, but that the gendering had occurred around issues of domesticity, religion, labor, and family rather than lasciviousness and exotica. However, these postwar films turned Italian actors such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren, and Pier Angeli into hyper-sexualized immigrant characters: provocatively out-of-place war brides, nannies, and prostitutes each sexually willing and exoticized through visual and narrative emphases on their bodies, physical abandon, and illicit behavior.
Carol Bonomo Jennngs and Christine Palamidessi Moore
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231751
- eISBN:
- 9780823241286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823231751.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
The Italo-American Women's Club of Williamsburg staged a homegrown play entitled Why, It's Mother and was set in 1938 depicting the then gloomy situation of the first-generation female Italian ...
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The Italo-American Women's Club of Williamsburg staged a homegrown play entitled Why, It's Mother and was set in 1938 depicting the then gloomy situation of the first-generation female Italian immigrant. The establishment of Italian Mothers' Clubs was a short-lived twentieth century phenomenon. These clubs filled a need for many first-generation Italian immigrant women. To understand the development of Italian Mothers' Clubs, one must understand a woman's role in the family structure of southern Italy. Italian families were nuclear families headed by the father or eldest male. One's family also included one's in-laws, other nuclear families to whom one was related by marriage. Historians dealing with the Italian family also generally agree that Mezzogiorno culture was “patriarchal.” Italian Mothers' Clubs functioned for a brief time in New York, but in that time Italian women completed their transformation into Italian-American women.Less
The Italo-American Women's Club of Williamsburg staged a homegrown play entitled Why, It's Mother and was set in 1938 depicting the then gloomy situation of the first-generation female Italian immigrant. The establishment of Italian Mothers' Clubs was a short-lived twentieth century phenomenon. These clubs filled a need for many first-generation Italian immigrant women. To understand the development of Italian Mothers' Clubs, one must understand a woman's role in the family structure of southern Italy. Italian families were nuclear families headed by the father or eldest male. One's family also included one's in-laws, other nuclear families to whom one was related by marriage. Historians dealing with the Italian family also generally agree that Mezzogiorno culture was “patriarchal.” Italian Mothers' Clubs functioned for a brief time in New York, but in that time Italian women completed their transformation into Italian-American women.
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037733
- eISBN:
- 9780252095016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037733.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines the conflict over food that pitted New York-born Italians against their immigrant parents during the period 1920–1930. It begins with a discussion of how food became a symbol of ...
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This chapter examines the conflict over food that pitted New York-born Italians against their immigrant parents during the period 1920–1930. It begins with a discussion of how food became a symbol of both domesticity and ethnicity for Italian Americans in East Harlem by focusing on the domestic conflicts that arose between first- and second-generation Italian immigrants, and particularly the food conflicts in the immigrant home. It then explores the factors that fueled the clash of values and tastes between immigrant children and their parents, including the former's fascination for a modern popular culture that disregarded immigrant ways of life as backward and inferior, and the parents' desire to own a home—which meant mobilizing all of a family's resources, including children's paychecks—and sacrificing other investments in social mobility such as education. It also considers how food and food rituals were used in the construction of the Italian American family, with its emphasis on solidarity, strong gender roles, a commitment to work, suspicion toward abstract ideas, and an appreciation of the limits of happiness.Less
This chapter examines the conflict over food that pitted New York-born Italians against their immigrant parents during the period 1920–1930. It begins with a discussion of how food became a symbol of both domesticity and ethnicity for Italian Americans in East Harlem by focusing on the domestic conflicts that arose between first- and second-generation Italian immigrants, and particularly the food conflicts in the immigrant home. It then explores the factors that fueled the clash of values and tastes between immigrant children and their parents, including the former's fascination for a modern popular culture that disregarded immigrant ways of life as backward and inferior, and the parents' desire to own a home—which meant mobilizing all of a family's resources, including children's paychecks—and sacrificing other investments in social mobility such as education. It also considers how food and food rituals were used in the construction of the Italian American family, with its emphasis on solidarity, strong gender roles, a commitment to work, suspicion toward abstract ideas, and an appreciation of the limits of happiness.
Elizabeth Zanoni
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823256235
- eISBN:
- 9780823261741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823256235.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
The magnitude of Italian imports in the United States before World War II reflected the role that immigrants played in fostering the commercial flows. Italian immigrants’ conspicuous fondness of ...
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The magnitude of Italian imports in the United States before World War II reflected the role that immigrants played in fostering the commercial flows. Italian immigrants’ conspicuous fondness of imported goods, from cigars to laces to olive oil, witnessed their attempt at articulating their diasporic nostalgia, identity, and taste through shopping, as well as the centrality of consumption in the project of diasporic nationalism—regularly encouraged as it was by the local/transnational immigrant mercantile elites and their supporters in the Italian government abroad. The chapter expands on scholarship by historians such as Lizabeth Cohen and Meg Jacobs who describe consumption’s role as a complex but ultimately successful tool of U.S. nation and citizenship building. The chapter concludes that, instead, by buying and consuming items from Italy, immigrants acted as transnational consumers who formed their national identities around goods from their homeland, as well as around those in their host countries. It was not only Italians’ participation in U.S. consumer culture that turned migrants toward consumption; rather, it was also migrants’ transnational familial, community, and national sentiments that made consumption increasingly acceptable among a people more used to saving than spending. The consumption of Italian exports abroad in some cases strengthened migrants’ ties to their homeland, while fostering a more distinct ethnic and Italian identity in the United States.Less
The magnitude of Italian imports in the United States before World War II reflected the role that immigrants played in fostering the commercial flows. Italian immigrants’ conspicuous fondness of imported goods, from cigars to laces to olive oil, witnessed their attempt at articulating their diasporic nostalgia, identity, and taste through shopping, as well as the centrality of consumption in the project of diasporic nationalism—regularly encouraged as it was by the local/transnational immigrant mercantile elites and their supporters in the Italian government abroad. The chapter expands on scholarship by historians such as Lizabeth Cohen and Meg Jacobs who describe consumption’s role as a complex but ultimately successful tool of U.S. nation and citizenship building. The chapter concludes that, instead, by buying and consuming items from Italy, immigrants acted as transnational consumers who formed their national identities around goods from their homeland, as well as around those in their host countries. It was not only Italians’ participation in U.S. consumer culture that turned migrants toward consumption; rather, it was also migrants’ transnational familial, community, and national sentiments that made consumption increasingly acceptable among a people more used to saving than spending. The consumption of Italian exports abroad in some cases strengthened migrants’ ties to their homeland, while fostering a more distinct ethnic and Italian identity in the United States.
Marcella Bencivenni
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814791035
- eISBN:
- 9780814723180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814791035.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter offers a general overview of the Italian radical movement in the United States. It begins by mapping the social and political scene in Italy after the struggle for unification in 1861, ...
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This chapter offers a general overview of the Italian radical movement in the United States. It begins by mapping the social and political scene in Italy after the struggle for unification in 1861, focusing particularly on the rise of anarchism and revolutionary socialism. It then turns to the United States and the emergence of the Italian immigrant radical movement from the first anarchist and socialist clubs at the turn of the nineteenth century, when the great Italian immigration began, to the fight against fascism and the movement's eventual decline after the 1930s. The story of Italian American radicalism begins with the massive emigration of Italians who entered the New World between 1880 and 1920. More than five million migrated to the United States during this period. The radicalization of thousands of Italian immigrant workers can be traced back to their exposure to ethnic discrimination and economic exploitation in America.Less
This chapter offers a general overview of the Italian radical movement in the United States. It begins by mapping the social and political scene in Italy after the struggle for unification in 1861, focusing particularly on the rise of anarchism and revolutionary socialism. It then turns to the United States and the emergence of the Italian immigrant radical movement from the first anarchist and socialist clubs at the turn of the nineteenth century, when the great Italian immigration began, to the fight against fascism and the movement's eventual decline after the 1930s. The story of Italian American radicalism begins with the massive emigration of Italians who entered the New World between 1880 and 1920. More than five million migrated to the United States during this period. The radicalization of thousands of Italian immigrant workers can be traced back to their exposure to ethnic discrimination and economic exploitation in America.
Peter G. Vellon
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814788486
- eISBN:
- 9780814788493
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814788486.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter provides a glimpse into the Italian communities of New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by mapping out where Italian immigrants lived, the cultural ...
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This chapter provides a glimpse into the Italian communities of New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by mapping out where Italian immigrants lived, the cultural institutions and networks they built, and the types of employment they found. Moreover, it provides a detailed breakdown of the multifaceted Italian language press in New York City and its impact and importance for the immigrant community. Examining the role of prominenti such as Carlo Barsotti, the chapter argues that Italian language newspapers played a vital role in shaping immigrant attitudes toward race, color, civilization, class, and identity. The press had united the provincial Neapolitans, Sicilians, and Calabrians—among whom the social, cultural, and educational divides from back home had persisted even in a new country—into a single Italian consciousness.Less
This chapter provides a glimpse into the Italian communities of New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by mapping out where Italian immigrants lived, the cultural institutions and networks they built, and the types of employment they found. Moreover, it provides a detailed breakdown of the multifaceted Italian language press in New York City and its impact and importance for the immigrant community. Examining the role of prominenti such as Carlo Barsotti, the chapter argues that Italian language newspapers played a vital role in shaping immigrant attitudes toward race, color, civilization, class, and identity. The press had united the provincial Neapolitans, Sicilians, and Calabrians—among whom the social, cultural, and educational divides from back home had persisted even in a new country—into a single Italian consciousness.
Kenneth Scambray
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823257966
- eISBN:
- 9780823268924
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823257966.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter discusses how the Watts Towers is as much about Italian immigrants in California as it is about its creator, Italian immigrant Simon Rodia. Italian American immigrant novels and ...
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This chapter discusses how the Watts Towers is as much about Italian immigrants in California as it is about its creator, Italian immigrant Simon Rodia. Italian American immigrant novels and autobiographies of the era reveal that one common measure of success in the New World was how much wealth the immigrant could amass in the shortest amount of time. However, Rodia's life and Towers must be located on that other side of the success story, transcending the mere pursuit of riches in the New World. Ultimately, what is important about the Towers is that Rodia's site, like the over 100-year history of Italian American literature, expresses not only Italian immigrants' aspirations but conflicted recollections of their past in the Old World.Less
This chapter discusses how the Watts Towers is as much about Italian immigrants in California as it is about its creator, Italian immigrant Simon Rodia. Italian American immigrant novels and autobiographies of the era reveal that one common measure of success in the New World was how much wealth the immigrant could amass in the shortest amount of time. However, Rodia's life and Towers must be located on that other side of the success story, transcending the mere pursuit of riches in the New World. Ultimately, what is important about the Towers is that Rodia's site, like the over 100-year history of Italian American literature, expresses not only Italian immigrants' aspirations but conflicted recollections of their past in the Old World.
Luisa Del Giudice
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823257966
- eISBN:
- 9780823268924
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823257966.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter addresses, first, Rodia's life and worldview as an Italian immigrant and, second, the Italian cultural practices and imagery embedded in his art. That is, it examines Rodia's life and ...
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This chapter addresses, first, Rodia's life and worldview as an Italian immigrant and, second, the Italian cultural practices and imagery embedded in his art. That is, it examines Rodia's life and the Towers in Watts through the prism of Italian diaspora history and southern Italian peasant cultural practices, imaginaries, and worldviews seemingly adapted by Rodia in California. It listens for Rodia's expressions of personal longing and enduring cultural myths and seeks to identify his hidden landscapes of memory. It considers the possible sources of his topographies—both mythic and physical. It focuses on the symbolic culture embedded therein—for example, bell towers, ships, gardens, hearths, treasure—and explores cultural practices of devotion, such as village celebrations (e.g. the Gigli of Nola) and ex-votos, to consider how the Towers might be considered a street festival or conversely a tangible expression of gratitude for “graces received”.Less
This chapter addresses, first, Rodia's life and worldview as an Italian immigrant and, second, the Italian cultural practices and imagery embedded in his art. That is, it examines Rodia's life and the Towers in Watts through the prism of Italian diaspora history and southern Italian peasant cultural practices, imaginaries, and worldviews seemingly adapted by Rodia in California. It listens for Rodia's expressions of personal longing and enduring cultural myths and seeks to identify his hidden landscapes of memory. It considers the possible sources of his topographies—both mythic and physical. It focuses on the symbolic culture embedded therein—for example, bell towers, ships, gardens, hearths, treasure—and explores cultural practices of devotion, such as village celebrations (e.g. the Gigli of Nola) and ex-votos, to consider how the Towers might be considered a street festival or conversely a tangible expression of gratitude for “graces received”.
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037733
- eISBN:
- 9780252095016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037733.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how, during the period 1930–1940, Italian immigrants in East Harlem articulated new food-based strategies aimed at controlling the mobility of immigrant children by delaying ...
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This chapter examines how, during the period 1930–1940, Italian immigrants in East Harlem articulated new food-based strategies aimed at controlling the mobility of immigrant children by delaying their embrace of middle-class values. It considers how the family table became a place for negotiating generational conflicts between immigrant parents and their American-born children by expounding on the so-called generational contract, whereby children were granted much greater autonomy in public in exchange for showing allegiance to the family through regular participation in the gatherings centered on ritual food consumption that brought families together. The chapter asks why immigrants insisted on such family food rituals in exchange for relinquishing control of their children's public life, and why younger Italian Americans agreed. It shows that the Italian American family's ritual Sunday dinner was not only about eating but also about the discursive articulation of nation and ethnic identity in the diasporic private sphere.Less
This chapter examines how, during the period 1930–1940, Italian immigrants in East Harlem articulated new food-based strategies aimed at controlling the mobility of immigrant children by delaying their embrace of middle-class values. It considers how the family table became a place for negotiating generational conflicts between immigrant parents and their American-born children by expounding on the so-called generational contract, whereby children were granted much greater autonomy in public in exchange for showing allegiance to the family through regular participation in the gatherings centered on ritual food consumption that brought families together. The chapter asks why immigrants insisted on such family food rituals in exchange for relinquishing control of their children's public life, and why younger Italian Americans agreed. It shows that the Italian American family's ritual Sunday dinner was not only about eating but also about the discursive articulation of nation and ethnic identity in the diasporic private sphere.
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037733
- eISBN:
- 9780252095016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037733.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how the fondness of New York City's Italian immigrants for imported foods helped make the food import business crucial to the project of diasporic Italian nationalism. It argues ...
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This chapter examines how the fondness of New York City's Italian immigrants for imported foods helped make the food import business crucial to the project of diasporic Italian nationalism. It argues that the Italian state, especially the fascist regime after 1922, and its representatives in New York supported the business of importing food in order to expand the country's economic and political influence in the United States. The chapter first provides an overview of New York's food imports from Italy during the period 1890–1920, along with the food import crisis and the Italian Chamber of Commerce's “Buy Italian!” campaign of 1935–1936. It then considers how food frauds, imitations, and canned symbols sparked a feud between Italian food importers, on the one side, and domestic Italian food producers and grossieri, on the other. It also explains how supplying immigrants with “authentic” Italian food helped strengthen relations between Italy and America and created a tangible economic dimension that complemented ideological and emotional diasporic nationalism.Less
This chapter examines how the fondness of New York City's Italian immigrants for imported foods helped make the food import business crucial to the project of diasporic Italian nationalism. It argues that the Italian state, especially the fascist regime after 1922, and its representatives in New York supported the business of importing food in order to expand the country's economic and political influence in the United States. The chapter first provides an overview of New York's food imports from Italy during the period 1890–1920, along with the food import crisis and the Italian Chamber of Commerce's “Buy Italian!” campaign of 1935–1936. It then considers how food frauds, imitations, and canned symbols sparked a feud between Italian food importers, on the one side, and domestic Italian food producers and grossieri, on the other. It also explains how supplying immigrants with “authentic” Italian food helped strengthen relations between Italy and America and created a tangible economic dimension that complemented ideological and emotional diasporic nationalism.
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037733
- eISBN:
- 9780252095016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037733.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter examines how Italian restaurateurs used food to represent Italian American identity and nation outside the community. In the interwar years, the position of Italian Americans in the ...
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This chapter examines how Italian restaurateurs used food to represent Italian American identity and nation outside the community. In the interwar years, the position of Italian Americans in the larger life of New York City was still far from secure and subject to a complicated range of attitudes. The exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924 was filled with fearful allusions to the racial inadequacy of Italian immigrants and their inability to make good American citizens. At the same time, however, Italian immigrant restaurateurs and restaurant workers were beginning to transform cultural differences into highly marketable products for mass consumption. This chapter first provides an overview of the economy of Italian restaurants during the period 1900–1940 before discussing how popular culture, race, and performance converged at such establishments. It also considers customer–worker relations in Italian restaurants and shows that Italian restaurants attracted non-Italian middle-class customers by offering popular Italian food in an original and ultimately appealing ethnic narrative.Less
This chapter examines how Italian restaurateurs used food to represent Italian American identity and nation outside the community. In the interwar years, the position of Italian Americans in the larger life of New York City was still far from secure and subject to a complicated range of attitudes. The exclusionary Immigration Act of 1924 was filled with fearful allusions to the racial inadequacy of Italian immigrants and their inability to make good American citizens. At the same time, however, Italian immigrant restaurateurs and restaurant workers were beginning to transform cultural differences into highly marketable products for mass consumption. This chapter first provides an overview of the economy of Italian restaurants during the period 1900–1940 before discussing how popular culture, race, and performance converged at such establishments. It also considers customer–worker relations in Italian restaurants and shows that Italian restaurants attracted non-Italian middle-class customers by offering popular Italian food in an original and ultimately appealing ethnic narrative.
George Epolito
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823257966
- eISBN:
- 9780823268924
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823257966.003.0011
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter reveals the artistic contributions of Italian immigrants in the Río de la Plata Basin of South America—Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil—which ran parallel to the lifetime of Simon ...
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This chapter reveals the artistic contributions of Italian immigrants in the Río de la Plata Basin of South America—Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil—which ran parallel to the lifetime of Simon Rodia in the United States. It outlines how, through the eyes of Italian immigrants, the common value of the everyday became manifest in hybridized expressions. It also identifies the differences in modes of expression of two major groups of contributors in South America. The first grouping of artists concentrated more on social themes through pictorial narratives that were often poignant critiques of everyday life in their countries as experienced by the working-class natives, former slaves, and immigrants. The second major grouping included avant-garde artists whose works were far less narrative and more abstract in aesthetic expression. Interwoven into these narratives are questions regarding issues of marginality and displacement: When does an individual, a group of people, or a work of art make the transition from the margins to the center of society? What are the factors that allow such a radical change? Who determines when and under what terms this transition may happen?Less
This chapter reveals the artistic contributions of Italian immigrants in the Río de la Plata Basin of South America—Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil—which ran parallel to the lifetime of Simon Rodia in the United States. It outlines how, through the eyes of Italian immigrants, the common value of the everyday became manifest in hybridized expressions. It also identifies the differences in modes of expression of two major groups of contributors in South America. The first grouping of artists concentrated more on social themes through pictorial narratives that were often poignant critiques of everyday life in their countries as experienced by the working-class natives, former slaves, and immigrants. The second major grouping included avant-garde artists whose works were far less narrative and more abstract in aesthetic expression. Interwoven into these narratives are questions regarding issues of marginality and displacement: When does an individual, a group of people, or a work of art make the transition from the margins to the center of society? What are the factors that allow such a radical change? Who determines when and under what terms this transition may happen?
Carol Bonomo Jennngs and Christine Palamidessi Moore
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823231751
- eISBN:
- 9780823241286
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823231751.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
In this chapter the author focuses on the history of cookbooks written by, or for, immigrant cooks and their descendants, attending particularly to those cookbooks that offer information about the ...
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In this chapter the author focuses on the history of cookbooks written by, or for, immigrant cooks and their descendants, attending particularly to those cookbooks that offer information about the kitchens and cooking of Italian origin foods in the kitchens of Italian immigrants and their descendants. He interpreted Italian-American cookbooks against the backdrop of a much larger body of American cookbooks that introduced Italian recipes to cooks with no immigrants in their kitchens. Numerous books about Italian cooking are published in English in the United States and Canada, but few would agree that this makes them Italian-American. There are many ways to bridge the culinary worlds of Italy and America. The history of migrations from one land to another is just one bridge among many — and it is a complex bridge — but it is the one that most Italian Americans would probably choose to define a cookbook as Italian-American.Less
In this chapter the author focuses on the history of cookbooks written by, or for, immigrant cooks and their descendants, attending particularly to those cookbooks that offer information about the kitchens and cooking of Italian origin foods in the kitchens of Italian immigrants and their descendants. He interpreted Italian-American cookbooks against the backdrop of a much larger body of American cookbooks that introduced Italian recipes to cooks with no immigrants in their kitchens. Numerous books about Italian cooking are published in English in the United States and Canada, but few would agree that this makes them Italian-American. There are many ways to bridge the culinary worlds of Italy and America. The history of migrations from one land to another is just one bridge among many — and it is a complex bridge — but it is the one that most Italian Americans would probably choose to define a cookbook as Italian-American.
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037733
- eISBN:
- 9780252095016
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037733.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This chapter explores the interrelationships among food, place, and race in Italian Harlem and shows that the Italian immigrant community was also a race-inflected geography of food consumption. ...
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This chapter explores the interrelationships among food, place, and race in Italian Harlem and shows that the Italian immigrant community was also a race-inflected geography of food consumption. During the 1930s, Italian Americans were hit hard by the Depression. Italians were disproportionately represented among the recipients of city and federal subsidies, particularly in Harlem, where the poorest among them lived. However, in those same years, Italian immigrants and their children managed to make East Harlem their home in America through a careful deployment of social, material, and emotional responses. This chapter examines how Italians in Harlem carved distinctive Italian foodscapes into “their” neighborhood that gave the community a secure sense of place. Italian Americans created around them a sensually familiar world filled with the tastes, aromas, and colors of Italian food, provided by “ethnic” restaurants, food stores, and street markets that dotted the neighborhood. In Italian Harlem, the production, commerce, preparation, and consumption of food gave rise to a distinct urban ethnic foodscape and smellscape that shaped social identities.Less
This chapter explores the interrelationships among food, place, and race in Italian Harlem and shows that the Italian immigrant community was also a race-inflected geography of food consumption. During the 1930s, Italian Americans were hit hard by the Depression. Italians were disproportionately represented among the recipients of city and federal subsidies, particularly in Harlem, where the poorest among them lived. However, in those same years, Italian immigrants and their children managed to make East Harlem their home in America through a careful deployment of social, material, and emotional responses. This chapter examines how Italians in Harlem carved distinctive Italian foodscapes into “their” neighborhood that gave the community a secure sense of place. Italian Americans created around them a sensually familiar world filled with the tastes, aromas, and colors of Italian food, provided by “ethnic” restaurants, food stores, and street markets that dotted the neighborhood. In Italian Harlem, the production, commerce, preparation, and consumption of food gave rise to a distinct urban ethnic foodscape and smellscape that shaped social identities.
Simone Cinotto
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814717387
- eISBN:
- 9780814717394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814717387.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book explores the role played by Italians in shaping California's wine industry. It examines why, of all the many ethnic and immigrant groups in turn-of-the-twentieth-century California, ...
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This book explores the role played by Italians in shaping California's wine industry. It examines why, of all the many ethnic and immigrant groups in turn-of-the-twentieth-century California, Italians were the ones who came to dominate one of the state's most important agricultural industries. It argues that it was the social and cultural capital stemming from the racial identity of Italian immigrants that made it possible for them to attract a nationwide Italian American consumer base and develop their commercial networks. The book profiles three wineries, all founded and run by first- and second-generation Italian immigrants who eventually succeeded in expanding California winemaking into a mass-market operation and turning wine into a national beverage: the Italian Swiss Colony winery of Asti in Sonoma County, the Italian Vineyard Company of Secondo Guasti, and the E. and J. Gallo Winery of Ernest and Julio Gallo.Less
This book explores the role played by Italians in shaping California's wine industry. It examines why, of all the many ethnic and immigrant groups in turn-of-the-twentieth-century California, Italians were the ones who came to dominate one of the state's most important agricultural industries. It argues that it was the social and cultural capital stemming from the racial identity of Italian immigrants that made it possible for them to attract a nationwide Italian American consumer base and develop their commercial networks. The book profiles three wineries, all founded and run by first- and second-generation Italian immigrants who eventually succeeded in expanding California winemaking into a mass-market operation and turning wine into a national beverage: the Italian Swiss Colony winery of Asti in Sonoma County, the Italian Vineyard Company of Secondo Guasti, and the E. and J. Gallo Winery of Ernest and Julio Gallo.
Marcella Bencivenni
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814791035
- eISBN:
- 9780814723180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814791035.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter offers a collective profile of the sovversivi, as well as a discussion of their organizations and cultural life. It examines their role as ethnic leaders, the institutions they ...
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This chapter offers a collective profile of the sovversivi, as well as a discussion of their organizations and cultural life. It examines their role as ethnic leaders, the institutions they established, and their worldview. The Italian American radical cadre was composed of an immigrant generation of writers, artists, editors, and political organizers who had grown up in the turbulent years following the unification of Italy. This group included anarchists and socialist political emigres, educated and self-taught immigrants who were radicalized in America and, after World War I, a large number of antifascist and communist refugees. The three most important Italian radical leaders in the United States were the anarcho-syndicalist Carlo Tresca, the revolutionary poet Arturo Giovannitti, and the ultra-anarchist Luigi Galleani.Less
This chapter offers a collective profile of the sovversivi, as well as a discussion of their organizations and cultural life. It examines their role as ethnic leaders, the institutions they established, and their worldview. The Italian American radical cadre was composed of an immigrant generation of writers, artists, editors, and political organizers who had grown up in the turbulent years following the unification of Italy. This group included anarchists and socialist political emigres, educated and self-taught immigrants who were radicalized in America and, after World War I, a large number of antifascist and communist refugees. The three most important Italian radical leaders in the United States were the anarcho-syndicalist Carlo Tresca, the revolutionary poet Arturo Giovannitti, and the ultra-anarchist Luigi Galleani.
Peter G. Vellon
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814788486
- eISBN:
- 9780814788493
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814788486.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter investigates how the Italian American press negotiated and digested the American racial system by examining its discussion of Italian and African American issues. In response to American ...
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This chapter investigates how the Italian American press negotiated and digested the American racial system by examining its discussion of Italian and African American issues. In response to American violence against Italian immigrants, especially lynching, mainstream newspapers such as Il Progresso resorted to the experience of African Americans as a frame of reference to understand their own racialization. These newspapers stridently criticized self-appointed standard-bearers of white America who claimed ancestry from Anglo-Saxon or Nordic racial stock for questioning the Italian race while hypocritically oppressing African Americans as a consequence of skin color and African ancestry. In addition, empathetic news stories about issues such as segregation and race riots were ubiquitous within the Italian American press alongside sympathetic commentary.Less
This chapter investigates how the Italian American press negotiated and digested the American racial system by examining its discussion of Italian and African American issues. In response to American violence against Italian immigrants, especially lynching, mainstream newspapers such as Il Progresso resorted to the experience of African Americans as a frame of reference to understand their own racialization. These newspapers stridently criticized self-appointed standard-bearers of white America who claimed ancestry from Anglo-Saxon or Nordic racial stock for questioning the Italian race while hypocritically oppressing African Americans as a consequence of skin color and African ancestry. In addition, empathetic news stories about issues such as segregation and race riots were ubiquitous within the Italian American press alongside sympathetic commentary.
