Remembering Italian America: Memory, Migration, Identity

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"Remembering Italian America: Memory, Migration, Identity examines the life of Italians in the United States and the role of migration and collective memory in the history of the construction of Italian American identity. Employing the concept of communicative memory, the authors explain the processes which gave shape to Italian identity in America and the ways in which a symbolic identity became concretized in Italian American oral histories. The text explores the Italy migrants left behind, transatlantic networks, the welcome received by the Italian newcomers, the socioeconomic fabric of Italian America, and the singular worldview that grew out of the immigrant experience. In exploring the role of memory in the construction of Italian American identity, the book analyses the commonalities in the lives of immigrants, allowing the Italian American experience to speak to the circumstances of newer immigrant communities and allowing these new immigrant communities to speak to the Italian migrant history. Looking at Italian American culture from a multi-disciplinary perspective, this volume brings various theoretical perspectives to bear on "what, why, and how" questions concerning the Italian American experience. This book will be of interest to students of ethnic studies, immigration studies, and American/transnational studies, as well as American history"-- Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents Acknowledgments List of Figures Introduction: Memory, Nostalgia, History Stories: The Lineaments of Community History: Aunt Celia’s Famous American Dinner Socioeconomy: Kingfish, an American Padrone Worldview: The Godmother Remembering Italian America: An Overview Memory Nostalgia History Part I History 1 The Origins of a Diaspora First Stirrings Miseria Risorgimento: Italian Unification Disenfranchising Southern Italians Taxation Without Representation Expropriation of Lands Political Oppression 2 Exodus The Exodus Begins Network Migration Who Left Italy? The Steamship Remittances, Birds of Passage, and a New Spirit 3 Entering the United States Ellis Island Immigration Restrictions and the Shrinking Diaspora The Literacy Test and Quotas Post–World War II Immigration Policy The Hart-Celler Act Immigration Law and Identity Part II Socioeconomics 4 Family and Community Imagined Identities Family Community 5 Little Italy A Hundred Little Italies Mulberry Street Little Palermo Ybor City Mount Allegro 6 Making a Living The Job The Padrone System Kingfish Homework 7 The Factory, Labor, and the Body Politic The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Italian American Radicals Italians in the American Labor Movement The Bread and Roses Strike Sacco and Vanzetti The Aftermath 8 Mafia Prologue Origins A Hometown Example Epilogue Part III Worldview 9 Folk Catholicism Worldview Rites of Passage Holidays The “Italian Problem” Pentacostali 10 Malocchio: The Evil Eye Intercession Malocchio The Godmother The Victim Divination and Healing 11 Saints’ Fests From the Old World to the New San Gennaro Saint Anthony of Padua Our Lady of Mount Carmel The Giglio: San Paolino of Nola 12 Stories and Their Social Context Telling Tales From Fairy Tales to Social Satire Saints and Bandits Conclusion: Memory, Migration, Identity M’a’rricord: Conversational Memory Discrimination: Betwixt and Between Affirmation: At Our Grandmother’s Kitchen Table Perennial Birds of Passage References Index