{"id":3819,"date":"2014-11-03T16:50:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T15:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=3819"},"modified":"2016-03-17T03:52:41","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T02:52:41","slug":"italian-american-immigrant-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/italian-american-immigrant-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"A review of “My Two Italies,” by Joseph Luzzi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Italian<\/a>I recently read the thoughtful memoir by Joseph Luzzi entitled, \u201cMy Two Italies<\/a>,\u201d (Farrar, Straus and Giroux<\/em>, 2014).\u00a0 At its core, it\u2019s the tale of an Italian family who crossed the ocean to start a new life in the United States, and how that journey was experienced by different generations. \u00a0But there are several features of this book\u2014and its author\u2014that set it apart from most Italian American immigrant stories.<\/p>\n

First of all, the events take place about fifty years after The Great Immigration (which is when my own great-grandparents arrived from Calabria). \u00a0The 1910\u2019s marked the peak\u00a0of Italian immigration to the United States, when over two million Italians arrived during\u00a0that decade, with a total of 5.3 million between 1880 and 1920.<\/p>\n

Mr. Luzzi\u2019s family\u2014parents and older siblings\u2014arrived in 1956, also from Calabria. (Worth noting that during those fifty or so years, the U.S. had changed quite a bit, as did the North of Italy.\u00a0 Calabria, however, did not.)\u00a0 \u00a0As for the author, he was born 11 years later in 1967 as an American citizen.\u00a0 So while he learned English as his primary language, played baseball, and dressed in American-style clothes, his parents remained Italian in their ways, allowing the young Luzzi to understand something of his parent\u2019s country before he ever traveled there himself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Secondly, when he did finally make it to Italy for the first time, it was the Italy of Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and all of the other players in the Renaissance city of Florence. \u00a0Although he was geographically much closer to his parent\u2019s Calabria at that moment, culturally he was just as distant as he had been back in Rhode Island.\u00a0 The metaphor of two Italies could hardly be more apparent.<\/p>\n

The title of the book is borrowed from a Shelley quote which says, in part, \u201cThere are two Italies [\u2026] The one is the most sublime and lovely contemplation that can be conceived by the imagination of man; the other is the most degraded, disgusting, and odious.\u201d \u00a0For anyone who has spent an extended period of time in that \u201cParadise of exiles,\u201d you know how accurate the statement really is.\u00a0 Italy is rife with contradictions and paradoxes\u2014which, in my opinion, is a big part of its appeal to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

What really gains my admiration about his tale is that the author takes a pragmatic look at both of these Italies, without being overly critical or swaying too deeply into sentimentality.\u00a0 For those of you who crave lyrical accounts of rolling Tuscan Hills, or the sunlight reflecting off the Venetian Lagoon, perhaps this isn\u2019t the book for you.\u00a0 But for anybody who is hungry for an in-depth, honest discussion of this complex country, you cannot do better than \u201cMy Two Italies<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>
\u201cThis [immigrant] family shared more than hopes and fears: they spoke the same [Calabrian] dialect.\u201d \u2013MY TWO ITALIES, p. 109<\/figcaption><\/figure>By focusing the story of a family, we also see a bigger picture of the challenges faced by all Italians, both past and present.\u00a0 We witness the details of daily life; of the stubborn traditions, the centrality of food and the dinner table; of families that stick together regardless of circumstances, because that was crucial to survival\u2014in the Old Country, and for a time, in the New Country, as well.\u00a0 We see this closeness of the family as a blessing and<\/em> a curse, both for individuals and the country at large.\u00a0 We understand how it can smother someone as much as protect them. \u00a0We read about incredible strength of individual spirit, and disgraceful acts of political corruption. \u00a0And in the end we concede that the real Italy rarely gives you something beautiful without asking you to endure (or overlook) something unpleasant in return.<\/p>\n

There is a chapter in the book entitled \u201cNo Society,\u201d which delves into a brief analysis of modern Italian politics from Craxi to Berlusconi, attempting to explain why Italians are so bad at governing, and so bad at choosing the people to govern them.\u00a0 It\u2019s a clear, concise explanation, and perhaps necessary for rounding out the larger discussion.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read all of this before, both from other foreigners (Bill Emmott, Good Italy, Bad Italy<\/em><\/a>), as well as Italians (Beppe Severgnini, La Bella Figura<\/em><\/a>).\u00a0 So for me, I found it awkwardly placed, as I was absorbed by the personal story of Luzzi and his family, and this chapter sort of interrupted the emotional flow.\u00a0 Instead of feeling the joys and pains of the immigrant journey, I felt only frustration towards the modern Italian politicians.\u00a0 Nonetheless, a good overview.<\/p>\n

More interesting is Luzzi\u2019s dealing with the Italian-American stereotypes in the chapter, \u201cCarnal Violence.\u201d\u00a0 Everyone is exposed, from Robert DeNiro\u2019s elegant Don Corleone, to the contrived spectacle of The Jersey Shore \u201creality\u201d show. \u00a0Luzzi shows no mercy to these embarrassing typecasts, deftly dispensing of their negative contributions to the ethnic image, and then pondering \u201cwhy\u201d Italian Americans themselves continue to help perpetuate these unfortunate myths.<\/p>\n

But again, the real delight of reading this book is the personal story of Luzzi\u2019s family, in some ways as surrogates for the Italian-American experience that many of us have lived in some related version.\u00a0 However, Luzzi has the academic knowledge, as well as the temporal proximity to the events which give his voice a rare combination of authority and genuine emotion.\u00a0 He accomplishes what sets out to do on the first page, which is, \u201cnot to solve the riddles of the past, but to bring them truthfully and vividly to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

This book should be required reading for all Italian Americans who have an honest desire to understand Italy, both The Old Country, and the modern one.\u00a0 Many Italian Americans still hold onto a vague image of a country that never really existed.\u00a0 Some even travel there to \u201cget in touch with their roots\u201d without ever venturing south of Rome, and into the mezzogiorno<\/em> where most of their \u201croots\u201d can be traced.\u00a0 And then they are disappointed when they can\u2019t find their grandmother\u2019s braciole<\/em> on the menu at a Venetian restaurant.<\/p>\n

As Luzzi writes, \u201cWe Italian Americans commemorate our past only to remind ourselves how far we have traveled from it.\u00a0 Our pride in our ancestors grows with the distance we set between them and ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to take this trip with Mr. Luzzi, you must be willing to suspend any fondness for Tony Soprano, \u201cSunday gravy,\u201d Dean Martin songs, and the like.\u00a0 You must make the distinction between Italian Culture with a capital C, and Italian-American culture. You must acknowledge that both have rich traditions\u2014but they bear very little resemblance to one another. \u00a0This type of self-examination can produce a temporary \u201cidentity crisis\u201d for some, but you\u2019ll come out on the other end feeling enriched, not disillusioned.<\/p>\n

This is because the author clearly holds affection for both Italies, even if it\u2019s clear that those affections are not of the same nature.\u00a0 This is one of the great accomplishments of the book, and it could have only been achieved by someone like Luzzi who has one foot firmly planted in each \u201cItaly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit the author’s website at:\u00a0http:\/\/josephluzzi.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently read the thoughtful memoir by Joseph Luzzi entitled, \u201cMy Two Italies,\u201d (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014).\u00a0 At its core, it\u2019s the tale of an Italian family who crossed the ocean to start a new life in the United States, and how that journey was experienced by different generations. \u00a0But there are several features […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[304,46,42,5],"tags":[49,140,141,15,77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}