Thesis Submitted to Fulfil Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Identity and Intergenerational Transmission of Culture: A Study of the Italian Diaspora Across Three Countries

Raffaella Lina Rapone

Department of Sociology and Social Policy Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of Sydney

A Thesis Submitted to Fulfil Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Statement of Originality

This is to certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes.

I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged.

All translations from Italian to English in this thesis are attributed to the author.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I acknowledge the tradition of custodianship of the Country of the Gadigal people of the

Eora Nation on which the University of Sydney campuses stand and where I have had the privilege to work on my doctoral thesis. I pay my respects to those who have cared and continue to care for Country.

I acknowledge the support of several academics, administrative staff, and colleagues at the

University of Sydney, in particular Associate Professor Catriona Elder and Associate

Professor Sonja van Wichelen, whose guidance, advice, and ongoing encouragement was crucial to completing my thesis. I also acknowledge the practical assistance from Ms.

Venice Jureidini-Briozzo, Manager of Research Education in the Faculty of Arts and Social

Sciences. I make special mention of Dr Emma Barron whose advice and encouragement I valued, especially while presenting at conferences both within Australia and abroad. Also, to Dr Rachael Cole with whom I was fortunate enough to share a workspace during our time at the University. Since her completion Dr Cole continued to encourage me, providing sage advice to ensure my physical and emotional wellbeing as well as practical hints on my path to completion.

From Melbourne I want to thank Mrs Rosa Verrocchi OAM and Dr Paolo Baracchi, Co- ordinator Co.As.It Italian Historical Society and Museo Italiano, for their assistance in facilitating contact with potential participants. I also thank Dr Baracchi for assisting in promoting my project by facilitating interviews and other interactions with Il Globo, the

Italian language newspaper in Melbourne. From America, I thank Robyn and Tony Colaizzo for their practical assistance in locating participants and for hosting my stay in the United

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States. A special thank you to ‘Donato’ Angelone for allowing me to interview many participants in the comfort of his home office. His effort in preparing and cooking pizza alla

Abruzzese for all those being interviewed on the day was extraordinary. This man is the very embodiment of the motto of the people of the Abruzzo region: Forte e Gentile [Strong and

Kind]. Engagement with potential participants in Canada was only achieved with the assistance of Dr Luisa Del Giudice whom I met in early April 2018 while attending Diaspore

Italiane Conference in Melbourne. From Abruzzo, I acknowledge the assistance and support of Carmelina Cipriani whose enthusiasm for my project led to many photos and newspaper articles from her family archives as well as contacts in North America. I also thank

Domenico (Mimmo) De Nellis who also worked hard to put me in contact with potential contacts in Canada.

Additionally, I thank ‘Donato’ Angelone, Diana Trionfi and Margaret Matthews for forwarding articles and links (to people and websites) they came across on various social media platforms that they thought may be of interest or helpful for my project. I thank

Carmelina Cipriani, Robyn Colaizzo, Domenic Baccante, Giannina Lucantoni, ‘Donato’

Angelone, Michael Angelone, and Eric Marc for providing photos, some of which have been included in the thesis.

I acknowledge the support of my family, friends and colleagues for their ongoing patience, encouragement and understanding. Too many to name, but you all know who you are. I thank my colleague and dear friend Helen Wilson for her assistance with proofing this thesis.

Finally and most importantly I acknowledge the tireless and unwavering support of Annalies van Westenbrugge; she has been my rock from inception to completion of this project.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to all the migrant parents, grandparents and great grandparents, foreigners in their chosen host countries with an unfamiliar culture and language. Their courage, determination, resilience and sacrifice remain an inspiration to generations of their descendants and are a poignant affirmation of their enduring optimism for life.

More personally, this work is dedicated to the memory of my migrant family beginning with

Crescenzo Rapone, my paternal great grandfather who migrated to the United States of

America in 1893. He left his wife and children in Abruzzo, intending to return with his earnings, however his premature death meant he never returned. Anna Agostino, my maternal grandmother was from Calabria. She travelled to Australia with her mother and four sisters in 1930 to join her brothers and father. Francesco Pompeani my maternal grandfather emigrated from the village of Ripa, Fagnano Alto, Provincia Di L'Aquila, in

Abruzzo in the mid-1920s. My father, Fiore Rapone emigrated from Sulmona, Provincia Di

L'Aquila in 1950. Each left their home along with many hundreds of thousands of other

Italians in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries in different migratory waves. Like many, they had limited education, were without money, property or prospects in Italy and in my nonno’s case, took a risk to travel to un’altra America [another America] without knowing where it was or anything about it, because the one he knew of (the United States of

America) had closed its ports.

The reward for their adventure and toil was a better life not only for them but for the children they were to have and the families they were to build. The life I have, the comforts and

v privileges I enjoy, are the legacy of their initiatives. A deep love and respect for them all drives my interest in my Italian cultural heritage and my resolve to keep their memory alive for the generations that follow.

I strongly agree with the sentiment that you have to understand where you come from to know who you are; and that the key to the future lies in an appreciation of the past, or in the words of Roman author, orator and politician Cicero, ‘to be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain forever a child’ (Cicero, 106 BC- 43 BC cited in Ratcliffe 2017

Chapter 34, Paragraph 120).

Neither my grandparents nor my father lived to see the completion of this thesis, but I am sure they would have been pleased at the opportunities the project provided me. I am honoured to have known them and I am very proud to call myself an Australian of Italian cultural heritage.

Sadly, two participants Mr Anthony Colaizzo Snr and Judge Richard DiSalle died before I completed my project. This thesis is also dedicated to their memory.

Photo taken by Robyn Colaizzo in the home of Mr Anthony Colaizzo Snr, September 2016

Judge Richard DiSalle (seated). Photo taken by Donato Angelone, on the day of his interview in September 2016

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Thesis Title: Identity and Intergenerational Transmission of Culture: A Study of the Italian Diaspora Across Three Countries.

Abstract Focussing in the first instance on knowledge and understandings of family mobility, settlement and adaptation experiences, the project was designed to contribute to the scholarship of construction of a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità [Italianness], and the ongoing transformation of cultural and national (host country) identification. Second, the study captures the significance or otherwise of the transmission of culture intergenerationally for the group of descendants living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from ‘home’. The third component reveals how participants manage the tensions between national and cultural identities given that most participants were not born in Italy, generally not fluent in Italian, and few renewed or had acquired Italian citizenship, yet many used the term Italian to describe themselves, all asserting a cogent belief in their own italianità. The project centres on descendants of Italians who emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy, arrived and made their home in one of three major settlements. Melbourne, Australia;

Toronto, Canada and Pittsburgh, United States of America. It draws on a data set of seventy-nine personal narratives, across four generations, to provide insight into identity and how Italian culture has been maintained and/or transmitted across these generations and sites.

One of the key aspects of the qualitative process in this study was the place of emotion. This was apparent from the outset where participants were very keen, excited in fact, to contribute to the research. Ongoing emotion was potently galvanised through the interview where nostalgia garnered memories of experiences and of people. Extracts of participant interviews included in the analysis

(and throughout the thesis) elucidate this factor. Collectively, the participant cohort overwhelmingly identified in ways that demonstrated an enduring power of some type of Italian belonging which is explained as having an acute awareness of the significance of intergenerational transmission of cultural heritage, evincing themselves as vigorous collaborators in ensuring it is maintained.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iii Dedication v Abstract viii PART ONE Introduction and Background for the Study Chapter One Introduction 1.1 Investigating Identity and Culture in the Diaspora 1 1.2 This Research is also Personal 3 1.3 The Increasing Interest in Examining Italian Communities away from Italy 6 1.4 The Current Study 8 1.5 Background and Context 9 1.6 Concepts Driving the Project 12 1.7 Filling an Identified Gap in the Literature 15 1.8 Plan of the Thesis 20 Chapter Two The Cumulative Consequences of the Centuries Long Process of Mobility for Italians 2.1 Introduction 23 2.2 Geographical, Temporal and Sociopolitical Context that Frames the Study 25 2.3 Chain Migration was Always Strategic 32 2.4 The Phenomena of Returnees (or Ritornati) 33 2.4.1 Political Response to Returnees (or Ritornati) 34 2.4.2 Return to Abruzzo 35 2.5 The Making of the Receiving Nations: Australia, Canada and the United States of America 37 2.5.1 Reverberation of Past Policies 38 2.6 Italy is Made up of Twenty Regions 40 2.6.1 The Abruzzo Region 41 2.6.2 The Reasons Abruzzese Emigrated 41 2.6.3 The Reasons Abruzzese Settled in Melbourne, Pittsburgh and 44 Toronto 2.6.4 Regionalism Reflected in Group Settlement 45 2.6.5 Regional Identity through Various Media 46 2.7 Living Transnational Lives as Part of Diasporic Communities 47 2.7.1 Diaspora and Diasporic Communities 49 2.8 Italy has Again Become a Country of Emigrants 57 2.9 Concluding Comments 58

PART TWO Theoretical Framework and Methodology

Chapter Three Theory: Culture and Identity 3.1 Introduction 60 3.2 Culture 65 3.2.1 Cultural Memory 66 3.2.2 Cultural Heritage 69 3.2.3 Intergenerational Cultural Transmission 70 3.3 Identity 73 3.3.1 A Comment on Race and Ethnicity 78 3.3.2 The Notion of italianità 82 3.3.3 Regionalism 85 3.3.4 Citizenship and Nationality 87 3.4 Concluding Comments 90 Chapter Four Research Methodology 4.1 Introduction 92 4.2 Choosing a Qualitative Framework 93 4.3 Participants 94 4.4 A Shared Heritage 96 4.5 Allowing Participants the Freedom to Narrate their Story 97 4.6 The Contention with Personal Narratives 104 4.7 Choice of Research Sites 106 4.8 The Interview Process 106 4.9 Recruiting Participants 112 4.9.1 Recruiting for Participants in Melbourne 113 4.9.2 Recruiting for Participants in Pittsburgh 115 4.9.3 Recruiting for Participants in Toronto 116 4.10 Introductory Interviews 117 4.10.1 The Australian Interviews 118 4.10.2 The American Interviews 119 4.10.3 The Canadian Interviews 120 4.11 Concluding Comments 120

PART THREE The Analysis

Chapter Five On The Move 5.1 Introduction 122 5.2 Leaving Italy 124 5.3 Arriving and Living in the Country of Choice 129 5.4 How Participants Identify 133 5.4.1 Racism or Racist Stereotypes 143 5.4.2 Pride in Being Italian 149 5.4.3 Hybrid or Plural Cultural Identity 151 5.4.4 Not so Hybrid or Plural in Identity 153 5.5 Concluding Comments 156

Chapter Six Food, Language and the Catholic Church in Relation to Culture and Identity 6.1 Introduction 159 6.2 Food, Poverty and Resourcefulness 161 6.3 Honouring the Legacy and Memories of the Past through Food 164 6.4 School Lunch Boxes and other Lunch Time Experiences 170 6.5 Nostalgia and its Relationship to Food 171 6.6 Italian Languages 174 6.7 The Influence of the Catholic Church 181 6.7.1 The Influence of the Church in Settlement and Adaptation of Italian Migrants and their Families 183 6.7.2 The Influence of the Church was not always Recounted as Positive 189 6.7.3 Maintaining Language, Customs and Traditions through Italian Parishes 191 6.8 Concluding Comments 193

Chapter Seven The Family, Identity and Culture 7.1 Introduction 198 7.2 Growing Up in an Italian Family 201 7.3 The Family, Multigenerational Homes and the Influence of Elders 206 7.4 Gender in the Construction of Identity within the Context of Family, Multigenerational Homes and the Influence of Elders 208 7.5 Family and Education including Schooling 213 7.6 Family and Choice of Partners 216 7.6.1 The Phenomenon of Proxy Marriages 222 7.7 Family and Naming Practices 225 7.7.1 Names Parents Choose for their Children 230

7.7.2 Maintaining Italian Names 233 7.8 Concluding Comments 236

Chapter Eight Italians Think, Feel and Behave Differently to the Dominant Anglo Community 8.1 Introduction 238 8.2 Settlement Patterns 239 8.3 A Sense of Separation between Italians and those of the Dominant Culture 244 8.4 Italians Think, Feel and Behave Differently to Anglos 254 8.5 Pride in all things Italian and the Strength of ‘Brand Italia’ 259 8.6 Italian Identity in Day to Day Life 263 8.7 Separating Citizenship and Cultural Heritage 268 8.7.1 Citizenship and Loyalty 269 8.7.2 Dual Citizenship 272 8.8 Concluding Comments 273

Chapter Nine Interactions with ‘Home’ 9.1 Introduction 275 9.2 Visits to Italy 279 9.3 Attachment to Italy the Nation or Abruzzo the Region 291 9.4 Interactions with Family in Italy 296 9.5 Education, Business, Employment and/or other Economic and Cultural Interaction 299 9.6 Political Interaction 300 9.7 Concluding Comments 302

PART FOUR Conclusion

Chapter Ten 304

PART FIVE Maps, Photos, Appendices and References

Maps and Photos 321 Appendices 322 References 338

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PART ONE INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND FOR THE STUDY

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

1.1 Investigating Identity and Culture in the Diaspora

Pursuing this study reflects my interest in migration generally and Italian migration more specifically, the construction of identity, the maintenance and dispersal of Italian culture, and intergenerational continuity of cultural heritage for descendants of migrants. The study also reveals my intrigue in regionalism and notions of a sense of separation for Italians, be that separation of Italians from other regions or the wider community more broadly. As a child growing up in an Italian family within a dominant Anglo community, I was very much what is sometimes referred to in the literature as an inbetweener (see Christou 2006, Marotta

2011). That is, I was straddling both Anglo Australian and Italian identity and culture. I was born in Australia, am an Australian citizen and lived most of my life in Australia. Yet to borrow from Afua Hirsch (2018) I have been and am still perplexed as to my own identity.

I have never been one hundred pe cent comfortable identifying as an Australian in that I do not feel and perhaps have never felt just Australian. There were many moments growing up and in particular during my adolescent years, where I felt estranged and awkward even though I grew up in a regional area of the state of New South Wales where more than seventy per cent of the population can claim Italian heritage. With this background, I became increasingly fascinated in my identity, in how as a descendant of Italian migrants living away from Italy, I shaped and embodied my sense of italianità, [Italianness in English, henceforth written only in Italian], how I maintain (or otherwise) my Italian culture and whether passing it on generationally was important to me. I have been inspired by my own

1 sense that descendants of Italian migrants have not only maintained relationships (both affective and practical) with the country of their forebears, and with their Italian culture within their communities, some may even be seeking a deeper, more nuanced understanding of how the past has moulded and continues to influence their identity.

That said, my resolve was not to study and produce a history of Italian migration, but as a product and a student of it, I often find myself mulling over the phenomenon of a worldwide

Italian diaspora. When I do, I find that my intellectual deliberations and my day to day life processes are tightly interwoven, often inseparable. Besides my scholarly interest in the field, I wanted to encourage other descendants of Abruzzese migrants living as members of the broader Italian diasporic community, to ponder on the multifaceted legacy of our ancestors and the impact that legacy has on us each day. My aim being to focus my thinking on identity and the significance or otherwise of our cultural heritage for my participant cohort. It was also important to me to identify the converging and/or diverging indicators of intergenerational cultural transmission to discover if they occurred differently across varying temporal and geographical spaces. I was principally interested in looking at how the people living in the respective countries adapted, reacted and changed across the distinct migratory waves, to identify possible differences in the three locations. Moreover, I was interested in investigating whether the three English-speaking research sites (Australia,

Canada, and the United States of America), while institutionally and culturally similar, differ in the way italianità is expressed or performed by participants within each national context.

Importantly, I wanted to distinguish national (civic) and cultural identities and explain how participants manage those tensions given that most were not born in Italy, generally not fluent in Italian, and few renewed or had acquired Italian citizenship, yet many used the term

Italian to describe themselves. All asserted a persuasive belief in their own italianità.

Another important factor that propelled my resolve was the actuality that early generation descendants, particularly in the United States of America, are an aging cohort (sadly two participants died before the project was completed). Hence, it was important for me to capture this meaningful data set that encapsulates much more than family migration histories, above all to isolate the understanding of what earlier generations faced, and to determine the impact (if any) of those earlier encounters on culture and identity for later generations.

1.2 This Research is also Personal

Pursuing this study is also personal. I have family who migrated to both the United States and to Australia. My paternal great grandfather left his wife and children in Abruzzo to work in the United States in 1893. He never returned to his hometown. The circumstances of his death are somewhat of a mystery. It is believed he died after becoming ill from working as a coal miner. He was buried in the United States; the precise location of his burial place remains unknown. My maternal grandfather and my father (grandson of my great grandfather who went to the United States), both migrated to Australia from Abruzzo in 1925 and 1950 respectively.

My family for the most part mixed predominately with other Abruzzese migrants. This was despite the fact that my maternal grandmother was Calabrese and my mother was born in

Australia. Interaction with Italians from other regions or Anglo Australians was and remains minimal. Of course, during my childhood (and beyond) I heard many stories not just from

3 my immediate family but also my extended (and extensive) paesani1 network. My lived experiences, and those shared with me by others, were tainted with varying levels (at different times), of the bane of bigoted, intolerant and patronising behaviours of a few Anglo

Australians. Usually these interactions occurred at school, or during school related activities. Their racism was channelled through their expectations of how I was to behave, the food I was to bring to school, or how I was to spell and pronounce my name.

I appreciated at a young age that the migrant community at the centre of my life made the decision to leave Italy to find work to create a better life for themselves and for the family members they left in Italy. The stories of Italy were quite paradoxical; at times describing the many wonders of Italy, at other times filled with descriptors of the scourges of poverty, hunger, and the despair, dysfunction and destruction of war. Similarly, views of the host community ranged from absolute appreciation of the abundance, wonder and opportunity to be had in Australia to an almost vainglorious view of whelming pride in the superiority of the family values and work ethic of the Italian community (over the Anglo Australian host community).

Despite these disparate messages, I did experience a sense of belonging to both Italy and to

Australia. In the early 2000s I had the opportunity to purchase an apartment in Italy, a situation I had no hesitation in taking advantage of. I appreciate the privilege associated with being born in a first world country and to have had the prospects that being Australian afforded. I also acknowledge with pride and much love, the culture of my Italian heritage that permeates my every thought. I choose to live within my Italian culture and my national

1 I use the term paesani which stems from the word paese to mean people from the same town or village, extended family members and/or close friends.

(Australian) culture. This is more confusing than first presented at times because I am a dual national (Australia and Italy). I take what I value most from Italy and what I have become accustomed to in Australia to complement and enhance my day to day life (whether I am in

Italy or Australia).

The fact that I share a cultural heritage with the participant cohort in this study has been both an enormous honour, and an enriching experience. I have greatly appreciated being able to interview other descendants of Abruzzese migrants in four countries. The interviews affirmed much of what I felt growing up. Participant commentary was also consistent with what other researchers in particular Baldassar et.al. (2012) and Gabaccia (2013) find, that is, that Italian migrants and their descendants have set themselves apart to varying degrees, from the dominant Anglo community where they live. Whilst participants embrace much of the host culture, values and attitudes, they do not see themselves as totally Australian,

American or Canadian, but a combination of both, and they acknowledge and promote their

Italian culture and their Italian identity at every opportunity. Many had strong personal relationships in Italy through friends and family. Some maintained a physical attachment through home ownership (purchased or inherited), while others were active participants in the political machinations of Italy as dual citizens with voting rights. Whatever the circumstances, all participants maintained strong emotional attachments to their ‘home’ village, town or region of origin. Through a transnational lens and measured amid various cultural markers, most participants were acutely aware of the significance of intergenerational transmission of cultural heritage and were vigorous collaborators in ensuring it was maintained.

1.3 p The Increasing Interest in Examining Italian Communities away from Italy

As with my own study, there has been an increasing interest in studies examining Italian communities away from Italy in the past few decades (e.g. Harney 2006, Baldassar et.al.

2007, 2012, 2014, Choate 2008, 2012, Iuliano and Baldassar 2008, Ferraro 2011, Brubaker

2017, Ricatti 2018, Marino 2019, 2020b). There are multiple reasons that may explain this, beginning with a shift of focus to culture and identity for those living within the diaspora

(see Balodimas-Bartolomei 2017, Lolicato 2019, Marino 2019, 2020b). In this study, I scrutinise the process of ongoing transformations of cultural and national identification, a consequence of the one-hundred-year migratory span for my informant cohort, living in one of the three separate diasporic communities. Secondly, the processes of globalisation enable descendants of migrants to live and work in multiple locations over a lifetime. Australian,

American, or Canadian born Italians may be engaging in and between several nations and cultures (Rodríguez-García 2010, Skrbiš 2008, 2017). At times encounters will also include coupling and building families with individuals from diverse national or cultural backgrounds. The third reason there has been a focus on diaspora is the consolidation of multicultural policies and practices in host countries. Multicultural policies, including those operating in Australia, Canada, and the United States of America, are more receptive to pluralism, allowing individuals to have more than one (some multiple) citizenships (see

Ambrosini et.al. 2020, Henderson 2020), facilitating plurality of identity and cultural and national affiliations.

What is particular to this study is that it focuses on Italians away from Italy across multiple generations. What I will set out is that newer generations benefit from expanded national and transnational networks available between schools and universities, through social media, and through travel, resulting in strengthened interactions between Italy and wherever

6 individuals live and learn. It is true that each generation has been able to build and extend on the ambitions of the one before, but a time where opportunity, resources, and transnational interconnectedness are able to work concomitantly, in the way they are able to now, is without comparison. Both the processes of globalisation and policies and practices in host countries fostering multiculturalism go to providing opportunities to study the diasporic communities, with willing participants to inform those studies.

Many of the scholars pursuing these studies are themselves descendants of Italian migrants

(e.g. Nicolas DeMaria Harney, Loretta Baldassar, Katrina Lolicato, Krysta Pandolfi,

Donna Gabaccia, Fred Gardaphè). Conclusions drawn from such studies reflect varying perspectives. Fred Gardaphè (2003) for example writes that in the span of less than three generations, Italian Americans have assimilated so quickly into American society that they have become strangers to themselves and other Italians still living in Italy. Differently,

Harney (2006, 2015) researching the Italian community in Toronto, suggests that Italians have maintained a sense of belonging to Italy, arguing the diasporic community survives though a common migration experience and by bonding with others of Italian heritage.

From Australia Lolicato (2019) reflects on a changing identity for descendants of Italians living in Melbourne where Italian cultural heritage remains part of her identity but ‘not the

Italy where my culture was borne’ (Lolicato 2019: 125). This body of work has both inspired and formed the groundwork for my own analysis of transformations in cultural and national identity for descendants of Italian migrants (my second research question) and the significance or otherwise of the transmission of culture intergenerationally for this group living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from Italy (my third research question).

1.4 The Current Study

The project is designed to include several generations of descendants living in one of the three research sites to gain a better understanding of the construction of identity, including their sense of being or feeling Italian and ongoing transformations of cultural and national identification. It was also important to hone the significance of the transmission of culture intergenerationally for this group living as part of the Italian diasporic community away from ‘home’. My objective is to identify if there are significant geotemporal, economic and social differences within and between research sites, and to determine the impact of those differences (if any) on materialisations of italianità and cultural transmission for them through different ages and stages of their life. Because I see culture and identity as not static, but constantly evolving and changing through time and space; and because culture and identity can also be more a state of mind (i.e. a feeling or a sense of being) than a way of life as with the outward representation of cultural behaviours (Lalich 2003), I use these ideas to better understand culture and identity formation through my participant narratives. Thus the key questions that underpin this study are:

• What does it mean to have a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità?

• What is the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification

for multiple generations of descendants of Italian migrants?

• What is the significance or otherwise of the transmission of culture

intergenerationally for this group of descendants living as part of an Italian diasporic

community away from ‘home’?

1.5 Background and Context

Participants are descendants of Abruzzese migrants who were born in Italy or arrived as children and grew up in one of three urban communities at the centre of this study. Each of the three cities: Melbourne, Australia; Toronto, Canada, and Pittsburgh, United States of

America are cosmopolitan locations, well-established and widely recognised among

Abruzzesi both in Italy as well as Abruzzese diasporic communities elsewhere. The participating cohort begins at the second generation. To clarify, generation refers to the distance of descent from point of migration to the host country. The term is used to refer to both the numerical positioning from the migrating generation as well as an inferred distance from ‘home’ from the passing of time (Foner and Dreby 2011).

By convention generations are numbered starting with the migrant as the first generation, children second, grandchildren third and so on (Baldassar 2011a, Baldassar et.al. 2012).

Consistent with the convention, in this study the term first generation migrant is used to mean those born in Italy and who migrated as adults. My participants were born in their host country and have at least one parent born in Italy, or they themselves arrived before the age of twelve and completed some of their schooling in their host country. Third and subsequent generations have at least one grandparent or one great grandparent born in Italy.

Additionally, in this thesis when referencing people other than those informing the project I will use terms such as the broader Australian, American, or Canadian community/society to mean all those living there inclusive of First Nations or African American people, and those of other migrant heritage. If known (or noteworthy), the home country of ‘other’ migrants will be nominated. When using the term Anglo Americans/Australians/Canadians or the

9 dominant Anglo community, I mean those whose cultural heritage is British whether they be part of the original colonising group or later arrivals.

The question of what it means to be Italian is seen by some scholars (see Gabaccia 2013) as problematic. This discussion within the literature leads to conclusions that people emigrating from what became the Italian peninsula left their ‘paesi [town, village or nation] but came from many Italies’ (Iuliano 2010: 9). Meaning that the plurality of identities and sense of italianità, is applied beyond the boundaries of the nation Italians emigrated from

(Di Camerana 2003). The rationale for this assertion, in part, is that for many Italians, their roots lie in a history divided into many ethnic, cultural, and political identities, coming together relatively recently under one national identity which members of the diasporic communities may or may not embrace. Studies on Italian migrant identities touch on these complexities and the immense differences across and between Italian regions, and generally affirm that Italians, especially those who left in the period after Unification2 and before the start of World War One, were more likely to have been attached to a collection of regions rather than the singularity of one nation. A more detailed discussion of the intersection of factors, primarily those leading to the curtailing of access to opportunity such as geographic location of home region, socioeconomic status and level of education, sustaining attachment to a region, in this case to the Abruzzo region is set out in Chapter Two. Thus, critical to the understanding of the diffusion of Italian culture and the construction of identity for descendants of Italian migrants, is an appreciation of these pluralities, both inside and outside of Italy (Sheller 2016), many of which were in existence well before mass migratory movements and indeed may have precipitated them. This absence of a sense of a unified

2 1861 Italian Unification, also known as the Risorgimento, was the political and social movement that consolidated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of the Kingdom of Italy.

10 nation may in fact be considered a pivotal characteristic of what it means to be Italian

(Sassatelli 2006).

It is more than a coincidence that the mass movements out of Italy and the long process of national unification were concurrent. The mobility of Italians was a response to poverty, illiteracy, political repression, and social and economic injustices within the Italian nation

(Ricatti 2018). Each movement had been informed by the transcultural skills, practices, and strategies acquired from ongoing temporary and seasonal migration (a key feature of Italian mobility), which were then applied to the specific social, geographic, and historical contexts of mass migration following Italy’s unification (Ricatti 2018). Each feature, beginning with

Italians not having had a long history of a strong and unified state, individually and as a consortia, are given detailed consideration in Chapter Two and variously referred to throughout the thesis.

I appreciate that mobility has become a widely used concept in the social sciences spanning a wide range of research that includes, among other things, movement and emigration, transnationalism and diaspora studies (Hannam et.al. 2006, Blunt 2007). This study draws on data from participants living in three subsets of a wider Italian diaspora to look at mobility and locatedness, participant place in their diasporic spaces, and ideas of nation and transnationality for them living as part of Italian communities away from ‘home’ (see Kalra et.al. 2005). Thus, when I use the term mobility, I draw from the literature of settlement, adaptation, diaspora, and transnationalism to reflect movement of Italian people to their chosen locations especially in the one hundred year period (1876-1976) of the study. In this context, mobility is broader than a discussion on migration or diaspora because mobility has and continues to define both the nation and the Italian people (more detail in Chapter Two).

It remains relevant because of the numbers involved in the centuries long process of movement in and out of Italy, the consequent diaspora that is scattered to most points of the globe, the resultant dispersal of Italian culture, and because it continues to impact and resonate on the lives of millions of people living both inside Italy and abroad (Jupp 2007,

Gabaccia 2013, Ben-Ghiat and Hom 2016). Thus, an understanding of mobility is essential to comprehending Italian identity and intergenerational transmission of Italian culture.

As will become clearer in the next chapter, movement in and out of the Abruzzo region to various locations across Europe, the Americas and elsewhere, culminating in Australia,

Canada, and the United States of America is what distinguishes the participant cohort. Their families have been part of diasporic communities where they live, interacting transnationally with family and paesani in other diasporic communities across the world and with those who remained in Italy. The life of each participant has been impacted by movement at some point on a continuum from around 70 to 150 years. To varying degrees, their lives remain intersected, making them quintessentially a transnational group. From this frame I analyse the construction of a sense of being or feeling Italian, or italianità, the process of transformation of culture and identity intergenerationally, and the significance or otherwise of intercultural transmission for my participants living as part of an Italian diasporic community within a broader Anglo dominant society.

1.6 Concepts Driving the Project

Two key concepts; identity and culture, drive this project and help explain the descriptions of being Italian, feeling Italian or of italianità. Within the consideration of culture, I also explore cultural memory, cultural heritage, and intergenerational cultural transmission. For

12 example, the discussion around cultural memory explains how aspects of the past are created and recreated within current day to day sociocultural contexts (Erll 2010a), and the outward representations and performances that denote intergenerational transmission of heritage as valued and significant (Erll 2010a). Participant discourse highlighted traditions such as those associated with food, and customs and rituals performed as rites of passage through

Catholicism or other aspects of Italian culture that they see as vital to the ongoing processes of transformation and transmission of culture intergenerationally for descendants who value their heritage living away from Italy. Likewise, stemming from identity, I look at the converging and diverging aspects of living in the three diaspora sites including ethnicity

(cultural identity), notions of italianità, regional identity, citizenship and nationality.

Identity and culture are linked, but identity is concurrently subjective and social, constituted in and through culture (Brah 2005: 20). Combined with socialising agents such as family, significant others, and the community in which participants live, each works to influence attitude, motivation and behaviours. And all impact on how identity is constructed and displayed by the individual, and ultimately how people behave with others.

In this study, identity is seen as critical to human consciousness as it goes to the most central of needs; the sense of who we are, where we belong and how we are recognised and acknowledged by others (see Anthias 2002, Bolaria and Hier 2006, De Fina 2006). It includes cognitive and emotional components of Italian culture, regional identity, citizenship and nationality.

Throughout this thesis, I make specific and ongoing references to emotion and affect. From the inception, I was cognisant that participation in this study would be emotional. I was delving into deep personal reflections of childhood and of family (the one the participant

13 grew up in and their own as adults). The interview discussion begins with the ancestral move from Italy to one of the three locations to gain some insight into ongoing adaptation and transformation in daily activities within their chosen communities, as well as their interactions with family and friends who remain in Italy.

I foresaw that recounting what they knew, understood, or their perceptions of that migration and settlement would evoke memories (nostalgic or otherwise) and feelings affecting family members (probably for generations) because I understood that what was being discussed was never just about the migrant. Paolo Boccagni and Loretta Baldassar (2015) are part of a growing group of scholars in migration studies to consider emotion as an important part of the discourse. They write that mixed and contrasting emotions and feelings including

‘hope and nostalgia, guilt and ambition, affection and disaffection’ (Boccagni and Baldassar

2015: 75) are integral to the experiences of migrants and their families. Emotions are easily understood both in migrant family and in group relationships, but they are also part of relations with dominant Anglo and broader community, and in interactions with friends and family in ‘home’ communities (see Davidson et.al. 2012, Boccagni 2014).

Despite the relevance, consideration of the emotional component has been thought to be less scientific or noteworthy than economic motivations. However, considering emotion in relationships, in recounts and reflections of family migration processes, enables a more substantial and multilayered thinking about identity and intergenerational attachment to cultural heritage (Boccagni and Baldassar 2015). Accordingly, I draw from several researchers (e.g. Strayer 2002, Morton 2013, Boccagni and Baldassar 2015, Smith and

Campbell 2016, Campbell, Smith and Wetherall 2017, Falk and Dierking 2018, Lolicato

2019, Seymour 2020) working on culture and identity or in the Italian diaspora studies and

14 who recognise that emotion is an important feature of participant discourse. Emotion is what made discussion with my participant cohort meaningful and interwove culture

(including notions of belonging and association) and the construction of identity for them.

Working from the literature on Italian families (e.g. Smolicz et.al. 2001, Chiro and Smolicz

2002, Schenone 2008, Erll 2010b, Cinotto 2013, Sala 2017, Sala and Baldassar 2017, 2019),

I anticipated that some participants would have grown up with elders in multigenerational households or at least have close interaction with them. I wanted to investigate the significance of grandparents and other significant elders to the understandings of maintaining a sense of belonging and attachment to Italian cultural heritage and intergenerational transmission of culture.

Participants made a clear distinction between citizenship and cultural heritage. They were unequivocal on separating their country of birth and their country of cultural heritage. Many spoke of their migrant forebears taking citizenship of their host country, at times having to forfeit their ‘home’ citizenship for purely pragmatic reasons. That is, citizenship was about property not patriotism (Huntley 2012), or culture where ambition to own land drove naturalisation, with citizenship a necessary step, the result of which they saw as essential for economic security.

1.7 Filling an Identified Gap in the Literature

Studies in migration often target the political, social, or economic context for migration.

The core of this research has been on the impact of the history of European migration in determining the success or otherwise of mass movements of people within the parameters

15 of assimilation, or in the monetary benefit to both home and host countries of their inward and outward mobility program. Some of this chronological history is required in this study.

I have therefore included a historical context in the next chapter to facilitate the framing of the geographical and temporal spaces. Though, as my thesis demonstrates, there is a need for research to move beyond a focus on the migrant’s place in and adjustment to their respective host society.

Migrants bring with them aspects of their past; they transmit this past onto their children and ultimately develop a sense of place and identity relevant to their real-life day to day experiences. I acknowledge that as a research field, identity and culture is extensive.

However studies focusing on the construction of identity and transmission of culture for descendants of Italian migrants that include multiple generations is still rare. In Australia,

Canada and the United States of America research remains predominately at the second generation, with studies whose participant informers span several generations in an emergent phase in the literature (e.g. Fellin 2007, Balodimas-Bartolomei 2017, Lolicato

2019). Many studies that examine how migrants identify are informed by adolescents and undergraduates (e.g. Smolicz et.al. 2001, Giampapa 2001, 2007, Berry et.al. 2006, Asher

2008, Chiro 2008) or first and second generation (Roberts et.al. 1999, Portes and Rumbaut

2001, Romero and Roberts 2003, Christou 2006, Sabatier 2008, King and Christou 2010,

Nahirny and Fishman 2011, Marinelli and Ricatti 2013, Sala and Baldassar 2017, 2019).

Simone Marino (2020b), based in Australia is the only other researcher I have found who has focussed on migrants originating from one region of Italy (Calabria) to look at intergenerational ethnic identity construction and transmission among Italian Australians.

His informants include three generations (the migrant and up to two generations of descendants). Work with adults across multiple generations and several locations is

16 completely lacking in the literature despite their importance. I am not aware of any other study that has a conjunction of four generations, four sites and one regional group. Given its scope, this study is able to isolate differences and similarities necessary for comparison.

It also has depth that is essential to investigate changing conditions and trends over time.

Generally, early researchers predicted that migrants and their descendants would shift their attention away from ‘home’ to their host country as they became integrated into the countries that received them, though increasingly scholars are acknowledging that migration can no longer be seen as a one-way process (Tirabassi 2002, Alba and Nee 2003, Iuliano and

Baldassar 2008). Nevertheless, while some concede the strength of transnational ties among first generation migrants, most maintain the prediction that bonds with the ‘home’ will diminish among children born in the host countries (see Falicov 2005, Christou 2006,

Sabatier 2008, Gans 2014, Hirsch 2018). In more recent years, technology, and the relative low cost of travel, enable descendants to sustain connections to whatever country is of interest including the country of their forebears whilst they reside elsewhere.

Notwithstanding, how descendants identify, the extent to which they interact or are likely to interact with friends and family in Italy, and whether intergenerational transmission of

Italian culture is a consideration for them, remain open questions (Levitt and Waters 2002).

My sense is that for Italian descendants, the pull of Italy remains strong. Moreover, my perception is that with greater accessibility, increased resources and higher levels of education available to newer generations, engagement with ‘home’ will increase exponentially.

Some studies raise notions of a so-called ethnic revival (e.g. Tirabassi 2002, Wirth 2015) and draw conclusions of culture and identity within that context. This is not a consideration

17 in this study. My focus has been on intergenerational cultural continuity. Whilst I agree that the engagement within diasporic communities and performance of Italian culture and identity may be different at various times during life’s phases, I conclude that mostly it has never been severed for descendants of Italian migrants. Accordingly, my first research question will investigate if augmented opportunities for transnational interactions encourage or lead to an increase in affective notions and/or performance of italianità. However, even where it does, it is unlikely that children and grandchildren of migrants will be involved in their ancestral homelands with the same emotional intensity as their parents and grandparents. This brings into play my second question, which will investigate changes in thinking, feeling and behaving Italian, and how those transformations apply to identity and culture for my participants. The third area of investigation with my participant cohort concentrates on significance. By this I mean the worth or otherwise of intergenerational transmission of culture for them, living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from

‘home’.

Drawing from the scholarship on identity construction, this thesis argues that identity is fluid and responsive to changes in geographical, temporal, economic and political contexts (see

Rutherford 1990, Grossberg et.al. 1996, Hall 1996, Hall and Du Gay 1996, Berry et.al. 2006,

Anthias 2008, Taylor 2009, Balodimas-Bartolomei 2015). Cultural identity in this study in a broad sense, includes both heritage and national identity and is an outcome of their interplay. Broadly, the literature considers cultural heritage as located in the past but valued in the present (Blake 2000). The potency of heritage rests in its capacity to arouse meaning and affective responses in individuals or groups (Vecco 2010). Identity for my participants is constructed from them owning and valuing their cultural heritage particularly while they were growing up in migrant families within the wider host community (Sabatier 2008).

For the most part, research implies that cultural and national identity are part of a continuum moving from the cultural perspective of ‘home’ to a national identification with the host country. Phinney et al (2001) are among a few researchers, who do not look at a lineal movement. Rather they propose a two-dimensional interactional model where the interrelationship of cultural and national identity are understood as an interaction between those in the diasporic community and the wider host society. They conclude that optimum adaptation is achieved when individuals have both a strong cultural identity and national identity (Phinney et al. 2001: 493). This work complements studies completed by Phinney and Devich-Navarro (1997) on variations in bicultural identification and precedes Phinney and Ong (2007) focusing on cultural identity. Collectively the studies tell us it is possible to identify strongly with more than one culture. How effective or comfortable the interplay of cultural and national identity is, depends on several factors, not the least being how the

‘home’ culture is received as a whole and the initial and ongoing perception of the individuals and the group in the wider community (Bourhis et.al. 1997, Berry et.al. 2006).

Descendants of Italian migrants are no longer a marginalised group. The extensive diaspora that is a consequence of the continuous migratory waves of Italians is well received as is

Italian culture in all its representation. This shift permits descendants of Italian migrants to have both a strong cultural identity and national identity (Phinney et al. 2001). It also encourages transnational engagement between ‘home’ and host country (Harney 2006,

Gabaccia 2013), which work to sustain Italian identity and intergenerational cultural continuity.

Within the globalised and interconnected world in which we live, migration remains one of the most powerful drivers of human progress and social justice. It is estimated that more than

272 million people today live in a country other than that in which they were born. Some choose to move freely while for others it is an economic necessity. While conflict, natural disasters, and persecution are among some of the reasons why people are on the move, the majority of migrations reflect economic reasons for moving to other parts of the world and the desire for a better, safer and more just life (Levin Institute 2019). Participant responses to questions of family mobility indicate similar reasons. For some economic devastation as a consequence of war and politics was the reason to emigrate, for others it was wanting to join family who had emigrated earlier. Though for most, it was the desire for a better life for themselves and for their children. This outcome both saddens and drives me at the same time. Throughout the time it has taken me to complete this project, at every opportunity, I have reminded those I have interacted with of the history and context for Italian mobility in the hope of encouraging a more informed and fairer view of current movements across the globe. I have found it necessary to do this in order to mitigate against the pervasive populist rhetoric that seems to have influenced the memory of many individuals and families. Each of the countries at the centre of this study (Italy, Australia, Canada and the United States) has struggled (is struggling) with the challenges of migration. At the time of writing, in all four countries, the politics of migration remains a major challenge. For Italy the struggle has included both the movements in and out of the nation. For me, it is precisely the interlinked histories of mobility, as well as a deep sense of attachment to place and tradition for Italians that ensures that the study of intergenerational transmission of culture among the descendants of Italian emigrants remains relevant and important.

1.8 Plan of the Thesis

This thesis is organised into five parts, comprising ten chapters. Part One provides the introduction and background for the study. It includes a discussion of the mobility of the

Italian people, the key features of geographical, temporal and sociopolitical context for

Italian emigration, the phenomena of returnees, legislation impacting on Italian migration, and rudimentary information on the Abruzzo region, together with the reasons Abruzzese emigrated and settled in the identified research sites.

Part Two provides the key concepts that inform the study and are used in a social constructionist approach to knowledge, which enables the development of a framework to explain the processes of identity formation and intergenerational transmission of culture.

The concepts also facilitate the analysis of participant responses and drive a more nuanced discussion on the value placed on maintaining cultural heritage. Methodology and the process of recruiting participants concludes part two.

Part Three of the thesis is the analysis of participant interviews, comprising five chapters organised thematically. In each chapter I use my key concepts to explain what it means to have a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità, the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification, and the significance or otherwise of cultural transmission intergenerationally for the participant group. The first chapter in this section scrutinises responses of participants in relation to leaving Italy, arriving and living in their family’s country of choice. Discussion then shifts to questions of how participants themselves understand their identity. More precisely, the impact that racism, pride in being

Italian and hybrid or plural lives have on identity formation. Chapters Six and Seven reflect the institutions and behaviours most associated with being Italian, such as activities related to food, language, the Catholic Church, the family (and the practices and traditions therein).

Each was overwhelmingly nominated by participants as influencing their culture and identity as Italians. Chapters Eight and Nine are the most discerning in the analyses of responses in that they focus on a sense of difference and separation for participants as well

21 as transnational interconnectivity with Italy. In Chapter Eight participants are clear to assert that Italians think, feel and behave differently to the wider community, and their interactions, particularly those between Italians and the dominant Anglo community remained for the most part detached. Within this context, views of the currency or the strength of ‘Brand

Italia’ suffused the discussion. Chapter Nine focusses on participant interactions with

‘home’. The interactions arising from a combination of practical, emotional and intellectual engagement between and within the participant communities in the different locations all derive from their common homeland, Italy. First and subsequent visits to Italy and/or the

Abruzzo region, the significant of attachment to the country as a whole or the region, and relationships with family and friends, contribute to the discussion.

Part Four ties and concludes the thesis by underlining what has changed and what has been maintained in the construction of identity and what works to facilitate intergenerational transmission of Italian culture for the participant cohort. Combined, the chapters provide an understanding of the relational processes in identity construction and intergenerational cultural continuity for those participating. The study concludes that this group of participants not born in Italy, generally not fluent in Italian, and few with Italian citizenship, mostly identify as Italian. Additionally, what they describe as Italian traditions, customs and values are a significant part of their day to day lives, transmitted intergenerationally primarily through family.

Part Five includes the maps, photos and appendices mentioned throughout the thesis. They augment the analysis and provide additional context for the reader. The final inclusion in part five are the references used.

CHAPTER TWO

The Cumulative Consequences of the Centuries Long Processes of Mobility for Italians

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter I review the literature that explains mobility as a peculiarity of Italian people, and the cumulative consequences of centuries old habits for them, the basis of which provides the necessary background for this study. The discussion primarily focusses on key factors in place at differing times from the mid-1870s to the mid-1970s that impacted on movements to and from the Italian territories. These include geographic and temporal factors such as demographic data of those leaving, legislative influences that shaped migration both within Italy and in the receiving countries, group settlement patterns culminating in chain migration, and the trend of returnees (also known in the literature as ritornati). The chapter then moves to provide a brief introduction to the Abruzzo region, highlighting the sociopolitical factors that drove its residents to emigrate. A brief commentary of living transnationally within a diasporic community concludes the chapter, which I use as scaffolding to introduce the theoretical framework in the next chapter.

Whilst it may sound somewhat grandiose, there is a body of literature that attests to the people of what is now Italy, being at the historical centre of a world of ancient and early modern Mediterranean migratory movements, as well as a launch pad of global movements out of Southern Europe to the Americas and elsewhere in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Choate 2012, Gabaccia 2013, Fiore 2017). The literature also provides many examples where across the twentieth century, this history has been used to support Fascist

23 beliefs, projects, and colonialism (Polezzi 2014). For example, Luigi Petrella, describes

Mussolini’s rule as ‘being marked by his mission to imprint onto modern Italians the martial spirit of a glorious past’ (Petrella 2015: 1). Further to this, the work of Del Boca et.al.

(1995), and Del Boca (2014) delves into attempts by the regime to increase the popularity of their colonialism by using a frame of national consensus, and Farnetti and Dau Novelli

(2015) discuss Fascist colonialism within the context of Italian national identity.

While understanding the historical and contemporary appropriation of aspects of this Italian history to support Fascist propaganda or their projects and processes, it is not my intention to endorse Fascist rhetoric or any form of nationalistic jingoism. I draw on early explorers of the thirteenth century (Marco Polo), the navigators of the fourteenth and fifteen centuries

(see Cachey 2002), then mass migration around the 1870s, through to the movements, albeit in smaller numbers, which continue today to represent and add to the explanation of mobility as a peculiarity of Italian people. Tourists too are part of the chronicle; they have been flowing in and out of Italy from the time of the Grand Tour of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries when Italy was the most travelled country (Colletta 2015) to the present (Ballinger

2016). This broad and inclusive view of mobility provides the historical roots of the idea of italianità, important in this thesis.

The outcome of centuries of movement is that mobility, be it transborder or within Italy, has defined the people of the Italian territories and its inhabitants (Bergreen 2012), providing in effect a pragmatic confederation of people whose prerogative it is to identify as Italian by way of inheritance (Fiore 2017). It has also meant that Italian culture, including a sense of being and feeling Italian has been disseminated to millions of people and multiple locations across the world. In turn, resulting in many who are able to embrace one or some of the

24 aspects of Italian culture (say food or style), or more fundamentally to re-evaluate their approach to life (Fiore 2017, Hales 2019) through traveling or living in Italy, ensuring the expansion of Italian culture on a global scale (Gabaccia and Ottanelli 1997, Choate 2012).

2.2 Geographical, Temporal and Sociopolitical Context that Frames the Study

While the history of Italian migration in itself is not a major focus of this dissertation, a brief reference to the geographic, temporal and sociopolitical context for Italian mobility, as part of the background for the study is appropriate. Italy and the migration process are intertwined to the point where discussion of one cannot be separated from the other, influencing the society of both Italy, and the host countries. The nation can claim to have the largest international migration program in world history; where Italian people may be the oldest, continual migration of individuals ever recorded (Cohen 2008). Emigration from

Italy has been so substantial that its narrative is a vital chapter in the history of not only Italy and the Italian people but also the history of the receiving country. The prolific output attests to the fact that migration captivated Italy as a nation and scholars of Italy from well before

Unification but especially since that movement ended in 1870 (Pearce and Stiles 2015), and still today (Ballinger 2016).

The story of Australia, Canada, and America as colonised countries share many common elements. Each nation was born of violence and the subjugation and oppression of the First

Nations peoples and of the African people in the United States of America continues today.

In the case of North America, colonisation took the form of a British incursion of what has become the United States of America. French colonisation of parts of present day Canada began in the 1500s and they remained for about two hundred years before British

25 ascendency. In Australia, colonisation occurred with the arrival of the First Fleet transporting prisoners to Australia to establish convict settlements. This meant that from

1776 in the United States, 1788 in Australia and 1876 in Canada, each country has become culturally pluralist, though the Anglo-Celtic dominance in each has ensured that perspective in terms of political, legal, and civil development (van den Berghe 1983). Apart from the many historical, political, and cultural features, there are remarkable similarities in how each received and settled Italian migrants. For example, the first known Europeans in both

Canada and America were Italians. They did not sail under an Italian flag nor for the political or territorial benefit of the Italian people (e.g. Giovanni Caboto for the English,

Cristoforo Columbo for the Spanish, Amerigo Vespucci for the Spanish and the Portuguese and Giovanni da Verrazzano for the French) but these explorers and navigators were at the forefront in the early colonisation of the Americas (Cachey 2002). Italians were also said to part of the colonising fleet to Australia (Castles 1994).

Then, following occupation by the British, each nation became important settler countries; each being formed and their structures influenced by a continual flow of migrants from

Europe, and Italian emigration history has had a measurable impact on the evolution of all three countries. Each country has remained predominately Anglo; where Anglo conformity held as a central assumption the desirability of maintaining English institutions (albeit with modifications), the English language, English centric cultural patterns remain dominant and standard in each country, a legacy of their imperialist colonisers (Anderson 2006).

Critiques of transnational mass migration, as occurred with Italian migration, need also to consider the evolving view that colonialism (Ricatti 2019) and the subsequent flow of settlers in the United States of America, Canada and Australia did not end with the frontier

26 wars in each location, and that racism and the trauma associated with the past remain and resonate for many First Nations and migrants groups in the present (Kauanui 2016). As part of this consideration, Ricatti et.al (2019) press the point that scholars need to acknowledge that Italian migrants were complicit in endorsing, even supporting the structures of racism in the countries in which they settled, benefitting socially and economically from the disadvantage and displacement of both First Nations and African

American peoples.

In earlier work Ricatti asserts that Italians to Australia particularly southern Italians, became intermediaries between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and between colonisers and the colonised. This position he argues, actively sustained settler colonialism and resulted in inevitable contacts between Italian and Indigenous people (Ricatti 2013, 2018). He develops his position from the point that Italians benefited directly or indirectly from settler colonialism and that they had a role in maintaining those settler power structures even from their secondary position in the communities they lived. The intermediate position between colonisers and the colonised argues Ricatti, is what helps him explain why many Italians developed close relationships with Indigenous people and contrariwise why many others aspired to be whiter, driven by socioeconomic growth at the expense of the Indigenous people and other non-British or Western European migrants (Ricatti 2019).

While not directly going to Italian migrants’ relationships with Indigenous people and their complicity in settler colonialism, this thesis does address significant features of Italian migration that are interrelated. One is the racialisation of southern Italians that has been central to the experience of all Italian migrants and arguably shaped south/north relations for descendants of Italian migrants wherever they reside. This positioning of northern

Italians as having a physical closeness to those of Anglo, German or Dutch heritage and

27 southern Italian as terroni3 and from a white supremacist view of northern Italians, was racially parallel with Africans or Arabs (Pugliese 2019). Another is the apparent obliviousness of some Italians and the politicians that represent them to the mass movement of 27 million people out of Italy, some of whom were colonisers and then settlers in Africa, and the responsibilities the nation now has to arrivals into Italy today.

Thinking about this point in relation to my participant cohort, while no direct references to relationship between Indigenous and Italian communities were initiated by participants in

Australia or Canada, their migrating family members arrived and settled in large urban communities from which Indigenous people had been displaced much earlier. While not referencing First Nation peoples, some American participants did explain that their family have been living in areas where newly arrived Italians had settled as in industrial areas and around factories where many Italians worked. Several of them did spotlight the perpetuation of a ‘fear’ of the African American community as the reason the Italian community remained close as in this example:

USM58…Murdock Street had so many Italians [and] others like, Polish, Greeks, and Syrians in one end of town…the Johnny Bulls were on the west end too but we were down by the mill were our fathers worked and we did not mix with them…I grew up in 1960s and 1970s and there was more of fear from the black community…

Others provided commentary on Italian migrants’ relationships with African American communities:

USM36…I have a lot of African American friends and I feel that Italians, at least around here, like my grandfather, he felt he was discriminated against so when that happens you can see how other people were discriminated against and you have some common courtesy to the people, I saw that with my family, I inherited that from my grandfather and my family…

3 Terroni or people who come from the land (terra being Italian for land) is a derogatory Italian term used to describe Italians from Southern Italy or those of Southern Italian descent.

In terms of receiving Italian migrants, the magnitude of migration to the United States of

America is unmatched. Italians were the single largest migrant group (in numbers and longevity), to be processed through Ellis Island, particularly before World War One

(Cannato 2009). Then came the mass movements into Australia and Canada post World

War Two. The bulk arrived in the 1950s and 1960s, resulting in Italians being the biggest and second biggest non-English speaking migrant group in Australia and Canada respectively (De Cecco 2002, Cresciani 2003). Each country maintained high growth and prosperity post-World War Two, with Italians having made substantial contributions through agricultural, mining, manufacturing and forestry industries as well as nation building and transforming the locations where they settled (Gabaccia 2013). Italian migrants and their descendants are acknowledged as being part of a distinct cultural group within all three multicultural societies, and by most measures, the emigration has been and remains fruitful for both the home and host country and for the migrant families themselves (Del

Boca and Venturini 2003, Iuliano and Baldassar 2008, Durso 2012, Collins et.al. 2016).

This was particularly the case in the first decades after Italian Unification (1861), where the new nation was struggling not only to unite the populace but also because the economic insecurity across the Italian territories coincided with industrial and economic expansion elsewhere. Unskilled Italian workers who could not be accommodated at home provided the workforce for developing economies around the world, including in Australia, Canada, and the United States of America (Iuliano and Baldassar 2008, Gabaccia 2013). The period after 1871 saw a steep rise in Italian emigration. By 1900, mass emigration emerged as a response to Italy’s aspiration to imperial, economic and cultural influence outside of Italy as well as nation-building challenges inside Italy. Numbers peaked around 1913 with more

29 than 870,000 departures. Migrants both sent substantial funds to family in Italy (or returned to Italy with their earnings) and purchased Italian goods in their country of residence, precipitating both the MADE IN ITALY phenomena and what became known as the

‘Economic Miracle’ of 1950-1973 development (Choate 2017: 337). The nation’s industrial success stemming from producing goods for Italian migrants in the Americas and across the world and migrants balancing out foreign loans and Italy’s import costs such that in 1913,

Italy’s commercial deficit was matched by credit, where more than half the credit came from remittances (Di Pietro 2013, Choate 2017). Today, innumerable Italian households have family homes, land/agribusinesses, investment properties and/or other commercial enterprises that were funded, at least initially, as an outcome of migration. Thus, emigration has been an extremely important factor for Italian society as well as for the individual

Italians and their respective immediate and extended families (Gabaccia 2013, Choate

2017).

Whatever the intention of the people, to social historians and other researchers working on the early publications of Italian mobility, the lack of accurate records was the major challenge because in the middle of the nineteenth century, no Italian jurisdiction was noting statistical data on movements (Choate 2012, Gabaccia 2013). What can be generalised from most accounts is that movements were primarily from the Alpine areas and the Ligurian coast, perhaps influenced by the explorers, navigators and commercial voyages of times past. However, this point also needs to be understood within the context that in parts of southern Italy laws prohibited all emigration during the first decades of the nineteenth century, while movement from other parts of Italy was relatively free. The country’s geography also had an impact; much of the country’s terrain is mountainous, limiting

30 productive land for farming, grazing and industry, making sustaining a living difficult, particularly for the unskilled and landless peasantry (Gabaccia 2013).

The ongoing movements in and out of Italy provided the precursor for the development of mass migration, particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century (Ballinger 2016).

Each built on the previous, using the knowledge, experience, skills and connections that had been gradually developed during earlier periods (Ricatti 2018). The time span that is the concern of this study is characterised by peaks and troughs in Italian mobility leading to periods of stagnation, notwithstanding the two World Wars, during which the movement of civilian populations ceased. With the exception of the deportation of Italian workers to

Germany by the Nazi régime after Italy’s armistice with the Allies in World War Two, movement from Italy has been in the broadest sense voluntary (Choate 2012).

Of the 27 million Italians who left their homeland between the 1870s and 1970s, about half returned to Italy. A large proportion of these (precise numbers are unknown) migrated repeatedly over their working lives, making migration a way of life for people. Such was the scale of the emigration that most Italian families had at least one member who had migrated, however in some instances the member or members would have returned to the home country. Today there are around 60 million Italians living in Italy, but it is estimated that there are around 100 million people who are descendants of Italian migrants across the world (Choate 2008, Gabaccia 2013). Plainly much of Italy’s population had ties through the paesani and kinship networks to Italians living away from their homeland and in areas of intensive migration. Those ties persisted over generations, making migration and transnational ties the norm rather than the exception and part of everyday social and economic life for many.

2.3 Chain Migration was Always Strategic

The exodus that followed Unification, being an extension of the process that had been developed over centuries (Ricatti 2018), guaranteed that most Italians had someone who encouraged or facilitated their migration. Some regions, towns or even villages, may have had unique circumstances for emigration but most research isolates rising populations, lack of industry, unproductive agricultural land, scarcity of resources, the imposition of high taxes, natural disasters such as earthquakes together with political unrest at different times of Italy’s past. Italians summed up these factors in one word, miseria [Italian word meaning extreme poverty, destitution]. However, fortuitously for Italians, the political turmoil and the economic difficulties in Italy coincided with the beginning of the Civil War in the United

States of America, the outcome of which was a need for a new labour force in agriculture and manufacturing. Later, Canada and Australia too opened their borders in response to a need for labour and Italian migrants responded in their thousands (Cavallaro 2003, Cresciani

2003).

Mostly chain migration was both rational and strategic, achieving the goals set by the individuals or family groups involved despite the challenges including at times opposition from various hosts as well as their own governments. For example, between 1946-1967, almost 90% of those going to Canada were sponsored by family or other paesani. This high percentage underscores the importance of networks to gain accommodation, employment as well as social interactions (Harney 2006). Building on the features specific to Italian settlements, chain migration has been one of the most effective migratory processes in the study of Italian migration for several reasons. Firstly, it provides a framework within which to explain the selectivity in migration, meaning that Italian migrants were drawn from particular areas, going to specifically targeted locations. Secondly, it goes to explaining

32 how, in most cases semi-illiterate agricultural workers entered countries like Australia,

Canada and the United States of America, succeeding over governments which sought at times to restrict if not exclude them. Thirdly, chain migration explains patterns of settlement in respective host countries (Sturino 1989). Chain migration also established communities based on premigration traditions and loyalty to home regions, towns or villages, essential characteristic of Italian migrant identities, as a well as being strongly related to the historic and political fragmentation of Italy (Ricatti 2011).

2.4 The Phenomena of Returnees (or Ritornati)

Returnees (or ritornati) provide important context for this study because understanding the phenomena helps to explain ongoing association and belonging to both home and host country, transformations of cultural and national identification, and heightened transnational perspectives, for multiple generations, all of which work to sustain culture and identity for them. Italian migration is habitually characterised by its temporary nature. The continuous inflow and outflow of people, often the same persons at different times in their life, make returnees almost synonymous and certainly inimitable to the migration process. Many never saw themselves as permanent citizens of their adopted land, either returning to Italy or departing their host country to re-join their family in a different host country (Moore 1990).

Individuals participating in this type of non-permanent migration were comfortable with the concept because it represented an extension of the long-established custom of leaving their homes in Italy during the winter months in search of work and returning for the summer. As travel became easier, these migratory workers (variously referred to in the literature as swallows, circular migrants, birds of passage or sojourners) travelled further afield, to other parts of Europe, North and South American, and Australia (Cinel 2002). In this study,

33 references to returnees is specific to those Italians who emigrated to host countries other than Italian colonial territories. It does not include the category of rimpatriato, a term used in the literature to refer to those returning from Italian colonised territories (Tirabassi 2012).

2.4.1 Political Response to Returnees (or Ritornati)

Politicians and bureaucrats did note the number of Italian returnees as early as 1904, but documentation of such notations only began from 1921. Before 1903, Italian government reports diminished the magnitude of returns despite repeated objections by American governments to ‘birds of passage’ (Cinel 2002). However, by 1904 Italian officials were admitting that hundreds of thousands of their citizens sought temporary employment in the

United States of America each year while their families remained in Italy (Moore 1990).

Returnee numbers closely followed the trends in migration, that is, lowest numbers of returnees when migration was low. This feature is symptomatic of the high turnover of the

Italian labour force and the extent to which the host country could absorb the labour either definitively or over the long term (Cinel 2002). Most Italians who were part of the temporary migration process may well have been oblivious to the actions of the Italian government to facilitate their return to Italy. For example, their government had reduced the costs of parts of their return journey by subsidising agents in America and elsewhere who fostered ties with Italians in host countries and Italy as well as making the resumption of Italian citizenship simpler on their return (Golini and Birindelli 1990).

By the 1970s there were more Italians moving into Italy than out of it; for every hundred moving out, one hundred and ten were returning. This trend can be explained to some extent by the fact that in the early 1970s the Italian government, in response to heavy criticism

34 from expatriates who claimed that their government had abandoned them, had again set up processes to facilitate the return of Italians abroad. This included the availability of funds for the study of the Italian language and assisted return passage. As an example, returns from Canada to Italy was very low until the end of the 1960s (1/10 or fewer of Italian

Canadians were returning) and remained so into the early 1970s. However, in the period

1972-1977 this figure rose to 82%. While this return is high for Canada compared to the

United States of America (64%) it was higher from Australia (95%) (Jansen and La Cavera

1981: 17).

2.4.2 Return to Abruzzo

On my regular visits to Abruzzo, I quickly realised that there was an extensive American,

Canadian, Australian and New Zealand expat community living in various locations across the region. In some municipalities, Pacentro and Introdaqua for example, in the summer months the towns fill with the sounds of an assortment of English language accents. Some of those I met reside in Abruzzo permanently while others manage residential property or business interest in Abruzzo, live elsewhere, and visit somewhere between three and six months annually. Most have a familial connection to Abruzzo, but not all. Some had chosen

Abruzzo because of its natural beauty and the lifestyle it afforded. Others settled there because of familial encounters with Abruzzese people, many of whom were active members of the resistance (Resistenza italiana or la Resistenza, known as partisans or partigiani) during World War Two when there was a large contingent of allied forces in the region as well a prisoner of war camp known as Campo 78 [Camp 78] (for more on this see Jones

1980, Fox 1988, Di Mattia 2015, Verney 2019). There have also been many recent examples of publications with an interest in descendants of Abruzzese migrants seeking or returning to their familial town or region. For instance, the April 2019 edition of La Nostra

Voce: We Are Italian American; the official publication of the Order of Italian Sons and

Daughters of America included a section titled From Abruzzo to the United States (Dean

2019). In another example, the May 2019 edition of IL Centro, a newspaper from the

Abruzzo region, included an online publication titled Personaggi Ricchi e Famosi

Acquistano Casa a Sulmona [Rich and Famous People buy Houses in Sulmona]. The article included a reference to Mario Verrocchi from Australia, the Chief Executive Officer of a large pharmacy retail group whose family, originally from Sulmona, had returned and acquired two complete ‘palazzi’ [apartment blocks] in the historic Piazza Garibaldi.

Similarly, focussing on returns, there appears to be a surge in material on the internet. For example, From Sulmona to Boston, an article published on the Welcome to Sulmona website

(January 2017) details the story of the Frattaroli family, well-known restaurateurs in Boston and their return to Sulmona after forty-seven years.

When thinking about returnees further, I thought it would be valuable to broaden the discussion by seeking out Abruzzese migrants who returned to Abruzzo after they or their family had migrated and would be willing to share their experiences with me. Several confirmed they used the money their family had returned with to establish a business, for example a swimming centre establish in Corfinio by a family returning from the United

States, and a hotel and ski resort in Passo San Leonardo purchased by a family returning from Melbourne. Others spoke of the family being able to purchase a home to secure their family’s future, as was the case of the mother and son team who cleaned the stairs at the apartment block I was staying in. The mother recounted fond memories of Melbourne, saying that she enjoyed her migration experience, but felt she worked too hard and did not have time to enjoy the benefit of her hard work. Still, she added that her son may have had more options if she had stayed in Melbourne. A gentleman who worked as a driver and

36 general duties hand at an American chain hotel in Sulmona told me he was very happy to return and had no regrets, adding he enjoyed a good lifestyle, did not work too hard, was able to use his English language skills with tourists staying at the hotel and, after his shift, returned to his family home purchased on the family’s return from the United States. I also interviewed several who returned as children from Australia and are now living permanently in Abruzzo (extracts from their interviews are included in appendix one).

The phenomena of returnees has many dimensions. The available literature is broad, making it much more than a component mobility of the Italian people. It provides multiple perspectives, including from the receiving country, but mostly it helps to explain constructions of identity, especially the impact of regionalism. The last word on return to

Abruzzo I leave to one of the participants who poignantly shared with me her mother’s desire to ‘return’ to her hometown. The participant is the only member of her family left in

Australia and said that ‘if the blood is calling you home, you must abide’:

AUF58…when my dad went over in 1991/1992, my mum asked him to buy a couple of [burial] plots over there…she wanted to go back…when mum died [1995] we had her body taken back to Italy and interned there…she is buried in La cappella di famiglia nel cimitero di Fossa [the family chapel in the cemetery of Fossa]…

2.5 The Making of the Receiving Nations: Australia, Canada and the United States of America

The outwardly perceived culture of a country, including its attitudes and values, is formed by the sum of the nation’s history and the outcome of its transformations. As such, the historical and regulative framework of a society is constructed from that history. In

Australia’s case for example, the pivotal elements would consider around seventy thousand years of continuous Indigenous occupation, history and culture, Anglo colonisation, and

37 post-World War Two migration. For Canada, it would be the recognition of the indigenous

Inuit and Métis people, both British and French colonisation, both biculturalism (Anglo and

French) and bilingualism (English and French) in presence and influence, and post-World

War Two migration. For the United States, the First Nations people, the American War of

Independence, African slavery, the Civil War, the continued oppression of African

American (and First Nations) people and the mass migration in the first quarter of the twentieth century, have all contributed to the making of that country. Each of these factors have been monumental, having consequences that continue to resonate in the present, and all go to forming the attitudes and values of the respective nation. Additionally, for all three countries, the prolonged and large-scale Italian migration was impacted by each of these histories and other sociopolitical structures. For example, Italian migrants though on the receiving end of racism, particularly from the Anglo community, also benefitted from the dispossession of Indigenous peoples.

Attracting multidisciplinary attention, Italian migration has been well represented through scholarly research, biographical and memoir accounts and general literature, through cinema and in song, and goes to the meta-narrative of each country (Dewhirst 2008). Cumulatively all these components as well the standing of Italians as a cultural group, how they are received (and perceived) all contribute to how members of the diasporic community present themselves to others and perform (or otherwise) what their italianità means to them.

2.5.1 Reverberation of Past Policies

Clearly, assimilation and acculturation theory and practices that imply and perpetuate racist notions of an inferior culture directed at migrant communities and particularly towards

Indigenous communities have been universally discredited (Elenes 2003, Freeman et.al.

2005, Rodríguez-García 2010). Still, it remains important to reference these views because they have had a long and central position in migration, settlement and adaptation discourse.

The theories however were so conflicted that there is little consensus to make empirically based predictions about the current or future course of identity construction and intergenerational cultural transmission for descendants of Italian migrants. That said, the consequences of those past policies, especially the determination behind the assimilation paradigm that dominated much of the twentieth century, reverberates in descendants of

Italian migrants today. They may provide the background to understand or to explain aspects of family settlement and adaptation narratives. This includes for example, loss of

Italian language, anglicising names, joining the military (particularly for descendants living in America), aspects of which formed part of the discussion with participants and inevitably impacted on cultural resilience and the construction of identity for them.

It is more important however, to move beyond such positioning and formulate a synthesis of ideas to more accurately explain and understand migrant descendant adaptation in communities undergoing constant changes within the realities of twenty-first century transnationalism (Stavrianidis 2012). Therefore what is more relevant to this study, is consideration of those researchers who have included migrants and their families in their research (for example Balodimas-Bartolomei 2017, Sala and Baldassar 2017, 2019, Lolicato

2019). These researchers have moved beyond ideas of predicted loss of culture for descendants to build and reflect the changing complex, plural and transnational lives of descendants.

2.6 Italy is Made up of Twenty Regions

The outcome of a difficult process of Italian Unification was the amalgamation of disparate territories belonging to foreign powers or the Catholic church beginning in the mid-1800s and concluding after World War One, resulting in twenty distinct regions (Fiore 2017). As this project is informed by participants from one regional group, it is germane to introduce the regions generally and then the Abruzzo specifically. During the height of the emigration,

Italians were very similar in demographic and economic characteristics, but regional differences were and remain an important identifier (Sowell 1996: 143).

Map One: The Twenty Regions of Italy

Source: https://understandingitaly.com/regions.html Downloaded 14/03/2019 at 3.17pm

2.6.1 The Abruzzo Region

The Abruzzo region is physically situated in the central part of Italy, east of Rome. Its western border is less than eighty kilometres from the capital. Two-thirds of the region is covered by mountains, leaving minimal land for agriculture. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions in Italy. Stretching from the snow-covered Apennine Mountains to the

Adriatic Sea, nearly half of the region's land mass is protected through the national park and preserved land legislation. Historically the region has also had limited industry. These limitations worked to make Abruzzo a major source of emigrants to the three host countries included in this study (FILEF Rapporto Annuale 2018).

Map Two: Location of Abruzzo in Italy

Source: https://www.viamichelin.com/web/Maps/Map-Abruzzo-Italy Downloaded at 3.45 14/03/2019

2.6.2 The Reasons Abruzzese Emigrated

Over the course of the last century and a half, over one million people left Abruzzo. Today the Abruzzese population (including descendants) living overseas outnumber the local population by around four to one. The largest group of Abruzzese, around 600,000 migrated

41 to the United States between 1880 and 1920 (Russo 2019). The concentration of post-World

War Two Abruzzese emigrants was to Toronto, Canada. The city claims to be the second largest Abruzzese city outside of Italy, second only to Pescara (De Cecco 2002), with a population of around eighty thousand Abruzzese out of a population of half a million people of Italian descent. In 2010, there were about one hundred and seventy thousand Abruzzese in Australia, largely concentrated in Victoria with forty per cent residing there, primarily in

Melbourne (Di Gregorio 2017).

The reasons for the mass emigration from the Abruzzo region are imbedded in the region’s history. The unification of Italy (1861) initially offered hope; the contadini [farmers, peasants, farm labourers] living under a feudal system were granted land to develop, by the newly formed national government (Dean 2019). However, the Abruzzese people lived in an almost isolated territory, with a self-sufficient economy and independent local administration systems. The land grants failed for them essentially because there were no systems of support in place (i.e. no tools, no financial assistance to put in crops). Thus, the contadini and artigiani [artisans] did not succeed but the wealthy landowners profited from the dire situation, ensuring the return to a life of servitude and poverty for the greater populace of Abruzzo. By 1915, half a million Abruzzese were living outside of Italy but the reduction in the labour force did not result in more employment opportunities for those

Abruzzese who remained. In fact the opposite was true. Those who emigrated were the young and able bodied while those left behind were predominately elderly and thus the already debilitated economy continued its decline (Maccaroni 2016).

The prejudices towards southern regions, including Abruzzo, is another factor contributing to movement from the region. Politically, these prejudices can be noted from as early as

Italy’s first Prime Minister, Cavour (born in Torino, the capital city of Piedmont region in northern Italy) who referred to the south as Italy’s Africa (Moe 2006). Marinaro and

Walston (2010), and Cimino and Foschi (2014) provide evidence that the ‘southern question’ remained a serious political issue and may go in part to explaining why regionalism remains an important point for Italians and their descendants living away from

Italy.

Comino and Foschi add that ‘following the unification of Italy (1861), when confronted with the underdevelopment problems of the south that had given rise to the so-called ‘southern question’, some Italian anthropologists and psychologists began to study the populations of the south from the psycho-anthropological point of view. These scientists at times subject to preconceived ideas toward the southerners, conveyed observations and descriptions of the southern character traits that in general were considered different, in a negative sense, with respect to those of the northern peoples. To explain such diversity in the psychological characteristics between the north and south of the country (presumed cause also of the south’s backwardness), various hypotheses were advanced related to innate and heredity type notions of southern population suggesting that there were measurable differences between northerners and southerners’ (Comino and Foschi 2014: 1).

These ideas were used by some receiving governments to prevent southern Italians from working or settling in their country. For instance, the Queensland State Government

(Australia) restricted entry to Italian labourers from below the city of Livorno. Similar racist theories prevailed in the United States of America alleging that southern Italians were

43 inherently inferior to people of the north, leading to the restrictive migration legislation based on race. For an American example, I refer to Roger Daniels’s (1997) study of migrants entering there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century where he wrote, that after 1899 Ellis Island officials recorded every person by racial group and separated northern and southern Italians as different races (cited in Gabaccia 2006).

Variations of theses notions have remerged in the last thirty years within parts of the north of Italy, led first by the Lombard League (Lega Lombarda) and then the Northern League

(Lega Nord) which have campaigned either for devolution or at times secession from southern Italy. While neither the theories of racial superiority for northern Italians, nor the broader ‘southern question’, have so far not succeeded in splitting Italy, they have inhibited the growth of a strong and clear national identity (Marinaro and Walston 2010, Cimino and

Foschi 2014) remaining in existence today and probably contributing instead to sustaining regionalism.

2.6.3 The Reasons Abruzzese Settled in Melbourne, Pittsburgh and Toronto

Apart from the self-perpetuating pull of chain migration and the interconnected facet of returnees, Abruzzese settled in the three locations to work. They worked in enterprises and projects that required an abundance of unskilled labour. In Melbourne it was factories such as the Ford and General Motors assembly plants (Thomson 2020), in Toronto it was construction and clothing factories (De Cecco 2002) and in Pittsburgh it was the railroad, iron and steel mills and coal mines (Spalla 2008).

2.6.4 Regionalism Reflected in Group Settlement

Much has been written on Italian migrants settling and interacting mostly with their paesani.

In a well-known example, Luigi Villari (1912) an Italian Consular official, argued that at the turn of the century in New York’s Little Italy, ‘some neighbourhoods are inhabited exclusively by newcomers from a given region; we can find only Sicilians in a street, only people from Calabria in another street, and migrants from Abruzzi in a third. There are even streets where only individuals from a single town live’ (Villari 1912: 216).

The literature accommodates a plethora of examples of group settlements concentrating in specific geographical locations, usually in response to a combination of deliberate actions either by government and/or fellow group members. For example, in Australia Italians from the Piedmont region of Italy brought to the state of Queensland to replace the Pacific Island worker4 on the sugar estates in the 1890s. Also, Calabrian settlement in Griffith, New South

Wales, essentially started by five Calabrian migrants from three comuni5 who after not being able to enter the United States, were all advised to go to Griffith by the office of the Italian consulate during the early 1920s (Price 1959: 276). In Canada in the early 1900s, Canadian railways and the Canadian government began an active recruitment policy with Italians responding in great numbers (Jansen 1988). In the United States, many southern landowners, struggled to find labour and directly recruited Italian migrants as farm labourers on plantations after the abolition of slavery meant a labour shortage (Durso 2012).

4 Known as ‘Kanaka’ a term once widely used in Australia, but now regarded as an offensive term for a Pacific Islander labourer. 5 Local administrative municipality.

Group settlement was reflected in the responses particularly from American participants whose families began arriving in the United States around one hundred and forty years ago.

They recounted that on arrival their family members settled in clusters with other paesani and relatives, sometimes whole neighbourhoods in specific suburbs or towns were inhabited by people from a specific location. Several extracts are included as an appendix (see appendix two) that explain families grouping themselves on one block, or a side of the street.

2.6.5 Regional Identity through Various Media

I have included refences to regionalism found in various media as part of the thesis because they too underscore the strong sense of attachment and loyalty to home regions. A closer examination of available literature referencing the Abruzzo region reveals a prolific output spanning more than two hundred years beginning with a visit in the nineteenth century by

Italian diplomat and journalist Primo Levi (1853-1917) who said that the adjectives ‘forte e gentile’ (strong and kind) best describe the beauty of the region and the character of its people (Vastospa 2012). Forte e Gentile has since become the motto of the region and its inhabitants6. More recently, Sebastiano Santucci (2010), born in Pettorano, Provincia Di

L'Aquila, in Abruzzo penned a story about his home roots and Canadian dream. Santucci invokes the strength of family, and similarly to Levi, the resilience of the Abruzzese people in writing:

‘I am going to tell my story. It isn’t just my story though. It really is the tale of a resilient town in the hills of Abruzzo, a family and compatriots caught in the tragedies of war, and an intrepid immigrant class driven by circumstances leaving the home fires in search of fame and fortune only to find hard work, heartache, and a grudging integration’ (Santucci 2010: 20).

6 Source: www.avezzanoinforma.it

There are many others (see MacDonnell 1908, Morton 1969, Harvane 1974, Dell’oso 1999,

Clifton 2000, De Cecco 2002, Hardacre and Valentini 2006, Boccabella 2011, D’Agnese et. al. 2017, Marino Leyland 2019), all writing about or through their association or loyalty to the Abruzzo region.

The material is expansive and includes multiple social media sites and newspaper articles

(see references). In some instances, publications come from individuals who have a fascination with the region, but mostly they are written (or managed in cases of various online publications) by migrants from the Abruzzo region or their descendants now living in

Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Abruzzo also features in films and documentaries, most notably in the Australian context in Red Dog, a film produced by

Screen Australia, where a forlorn migrant working as a miner continually references the beauty and magnificence of his home region of Abruzzi to his co-workers. Combined, the commentary on regionalism, both scholarly and general, provides a powerful exemplar of attachment, belonging and loyalty to village, town and region. Additionally, it enhances understanding of the strength of regionalism by adding background information that affirms the widely accepted notions that Italians emigrated with stronger regional ties than an overarching national identity. Many participants too expressed strong attachment and loyalty to the Abruzzo region, with several across the three research sites, nominating their

Abruzzese heritage as being of more significance to them than their Italian national heritage.

2.7 Living Transnational Lives as Part of Diasporic Communities

Diasporic communities living transitional lives encapsulate mobility, both the consequence of migration, and working to transform and shape localised identities from a national,

47 transnational and global perspective. Studies of human mobility have had a proclivity to concentrate on the political and economic context that led the individual to leave their home, or an analysis of migrants as culturally different populations in host communities emphasising integration and acculturation. Within both perspectives, the focus is on separation, displacement and loss (Broudehoux 2017). More recently these parameters have been challenged, and research has been expanded to include maintaining transcultural networks and continuity of culture across borders, especially within the discourse of adaptation for second and subsequent generations of Italian migrants. This paradigm shift ensures that migration is not seen simply as a relocation from one country to another. The shift reflects an understanding that migrants may embrace two nations, the home and the host (Baldassar 2001, Baldassar et.al. 2015), because migration is now less about one-way movements, and more about transnational processes. Transnationalism provides a research lens through which to view the outcome of mobility, including everchanging but durable ties and interactions, both transnationally and across populations and more widely to refer to the social formations, such as active networks, groups and organisations transnationally

(Faist 2010: 10).

Many scholars have sought to pluralise Italia and italianità; both the idiosyncrasies of Italian people and their culture, and the spirit of their Italianness, mostly asserting that ‘there isn’t a single history of Italy but rather two histories of Italy: that of Italians in Italy and those of

Italians outside of Italy’ (Di Camerana 2003: 5). For them, a transnational way of life was quite normal, their mobility across the world has had a focus on circular exchange, with individuals and communities framed as transnational communities, offering their allegiance and loyalty to whatever nation gave them a home and opportunity (Di Camerana 2003,

Gabaccia 2003). Others acknowledge that mass migration has generated the infrastructure

48 to facilitate transnational connection, but they say that the ‘intense and consistent engagement’ between home and host countries rate remains low (Waldinger 2013: 765).

That links are upheld is acknowledged. However these researchers maintain that the epicentre of life is the country of residence, and that it is precisely because few actually pursue transnational activities in a continuous and systematic way. Leading them to deconstruct the application of the term to apply to social and familial events as well as economic and entrepreneurial activities (Waldinger 2013).

2.7.1 Diaspora and Diasporic Communities

Allan Gravano (2018) succinctly distils what many others have written, saying that in the last twenty years, the term diaspora has become increasingly popular within academia, noting that the proliferation in use attests to its potency to migration, settlement and adaptation studies more broadly (Gravano 2018). The consequence of its expansive use has been that the meaning of diaspora has been stretched to accommodate the various intellectual, cultural and political agendas in the service to which it has been applied. This means that constructing individual hypotheses of what it means to be a member of a diaspora is complicated by the different understandings of the concept. To facilitate the use of the concept for this study, the most relevant applications are those that stem from researchers whose work include notions of cultural spread from home to host locations. Thus, consideration of diaspora facilitates the understanding of transnational identities, emphasising the relationship the migrant (and descendant) has to their cultural homeland

(Brubaker 2005) as well as to their country of residence.

Cohen (2008) and Braziel (2008) are among the many who write that at its simplest, the term diaspora refers to the scattering or the dispersal of human migratory populations of people from their homelands into new communities. In this way, the term can be applied essentially to any population that has originated in a country different from that in which they reside, and whose social, economic and political networks cross borders or span the globe (Braziel

2008: 12, Cohen 2008: 15). Research stemming from this view, tends to examine the people and the locality of the distribution, by hypothesising and generating conclusions concerning the diffusion of nation groups and their cultures across the world. Augmenting this view,

William Safran (1991) provides a comprehensive theory of diaspora that suggests they can be understood in relation to a set of characteristics. He lists the characteristics as:

• shared ancestors • a collective memory or identity • a sense of common history and common historical experience including common bonds of language (dialects), religion, culture • emotional, economic or nostalgic ties to a geographical place, physical location, achievements and, • solidarity with members in other countries of settlement (Safran 1991: 8, 34).

Anna Lee Saxenian (2005) stays with Safran (1991) type markers, however she looks for connections between groups and across different countries, while maintaining the reference to dispersal to an actual or imagined homeland. She includes both an affective and generational component to the relationships between people and provides four key features of diaspora useful to this understanding. They include:

• dispersal from an original homeland to a minimum of two or more destinations • the sustained relationship to an actual or imagined homeland • self-awareness of the group’s identity that binds the dispersed people not only to the homeland but to each other as well and, • the diaspora’s existence over at least two generations (Saxenian 2005: 192).

Combined, the work of both authors enables a practical and pragmatic frame to consider the

Abruzzese diaspora from which participants have been drawn. The group is bound through the sustained relationship to an actual or imagined Italy; emphasising their sense of belonging or attachment not only to their cultural heritage, but also to each other. They share ancestors, they are of a similar mindset and their sense of identity stems from a collective memory of their migrant narratives, with their region of origin and with the society in which they currently reside. They coalesce as one group intergenerationally, through specific times or migratory waves in history, and through their innumerable social relations and interactions, both formal and incidental (Agnew 2005, Saxenian 2005, Faist 2010).

They galvanise memories to construct an identity from that common narrative of experiences, bonds of language (including dialects), and traditions. They project an emotional attachment to a geographical location, a set of values and a history, that with a sense of camaraderie has been sustained through multiple generations, across various locations whose point of reference remains Abruzzo.

That said, I did not anticipate that the participant discourse would consistently reflect popular imagery of Italians as people who are spontaneously endowed with self- consciousness, living in homogenous families, conveying and reproducing traditions. In shifting the idea beyond the historical movements of displacement, it is recognised that diaspora is best not conceptualised in essentialist terms, or thought of as necessarily, close- knit group (Anthias 1998, Gabaccia 2013). Thinking about diasporic communities within the context specific to one Abruzzo or one Italy, adjoined in a singular culture is inconsistent with the realities of the cultural and historical mechanics of belonging (Gilroy 2006: 123).

Rather, participant discussion will more probably contribute to the analysis of intercultural and transcultural processes and formations through identifying a relational network, characteristically produced through dispersal across three host countries, suggesting that

51 while there will be some display of commonality in beliefs, attitudes and behaviours, they do not have a set of characteristics that make them what they are.

The work of Scully (2009) is also of interest because he notes that the discourse around diaspora tends to concentrate on the concepts potential for deconstructing the notion of a

‘unitary national identity residing solely within the nation state’ (Scully 2009: 125). This is particularly relevant in this study, because many participants differentiate identity as it applies for those living in Italy and those living in Italian diasporic communities away from

Italy. By this I mean that while some participants saw themselves as different from those living in Italy, this did not equate to seeing themselves as less Italian.

Incorporating references of a sustained relationship to an actual or an imagined homeland,

Peters (1999) is one of the researchers who use the term diaspora more as a description of a social consciousness or as a mode of cultural production that places people in multiple cultural and social places, where the social phenomena reflects the changes and inclusions of day to day lives in host countries. The consciousness is formed through identification with cultural heritage. Hence, he argues that diaspora can be more than the social relationships that tie people to specific times in history or geographical location. Diaspora can also be used to conjure networks of real or imagined relationships among people living across the world whose connection is sustained through a variety of approaches to communication and contact including for example kinship (or a paesani network), business, travel, a shared culture, customs, tradition and beliefs, a common language or dialect to name some (Peters 1999: 20).

Reflecting this premise, Brah (2005) drawing on Benedict Anderson (1991), delineates the concept to a field of identifications where ‘imagined communities’ are forged from the telling and retelling of family narratives by different generations of descendants. She adds that as a description of specific migratory waves and experiences, diaspora represents a

‘heterogeneous category’ differentiated along lines of class, gender, or education, and therefore needs to be considered within the historical and contemporary elements and also understood in terms of their diachronic relationality (Brah 2005: 196-7). Researchers working from this perspective (among them, Braziel 2008, Faist 2010, Gabaccia 2013) add wide-ranging and social application to diaspora to shape understandings of plural identities and transnational connections, redirecting attention on the concept in a way that more ably reflects the prevailing norms in pluralistic communities (Dufoix 2003, Harney 2015).

Further to this, both Brah (2005) and Scully (2009), argue that conceptualising national identity as diasporic, enables the emergence of a wide variety of hybridised, deterritorialised identities, whose reference or connection to the homeland varies, adding that thinking about a diaspora space also facilitates the construction of transcultural identities. Along these lines, the concept diaspora is consistent with community that is imagined, to some degree within a national context, but importantly dispersed across and beyond national boundaries, enabling participants (and their extended families) to identify as members of a diasporic communities, rather than solely as descendants of migrants, or as a member of a minority group in a majority society.

Sökefeld (2006) sees the concept of diaspora more as a mobilising process. He takes the imagination of a transnational community and a shared identity as the defining characteristics of diaspora and draws on constructivist concepts of identity to argue that the formation of diaspora is not a ‘natural’ consequence of migration, rather a diaspora emerges

53 as an outcome of responsive processes of mobilisation that have to take place within the host community (Sökefeld 2006: 265). Viewing diaspora as a process is useful in relation to the settlement and adaptation of migrants, in that the concept is applicable more widely to references of connections between groups and across different countries whose cohesion derives from a common homeland rather than a focus on intergroup relations (See Arutiunov

2002, Gilroy 2006, Lee et.al. 2007, Mavroudi 2007).

This study accepts that diaspora is dynamic and constantly evolving, and that diasporic communities are simultaneously both local and global networks of transnational identifications encompassing both ‘imagined’ and ‘encountered’ communities (Brah 2005:

196), reflecting the transnational interconnected realities of the twenty-first century.

Converging and diverging notions of diaspora are accommodated. This allows multifaceted notions of culture and identity. It also provides optimum conditions from which to observe and assess changes in cultural interaction and values, emerging or growing differences in cultural traditions and social behaviour between and within the group, the wider community, as well as connections to Abruzzo and Italy more generally become apparent for the participant cohort (Alba and Nee 2003, Gilroy 2006, Sabatier 2008). Apart from shedding relational construction of minority communities within majority societies, this approach to the diasporic discourse allows repositioning of Italy (and Abruzzo) as places of attachment rather than as something left behind (Clifford 1994).

As determined in the preceding chapter, Italians as a people have not had a long history of a unified nation, rather their history lies in multiple transnational identifiers, with an increasing acceptance of difference, leading to an overarching identity as Italians. Within the backdrop of a globalised world, progressively cultural ties are operating transnationally.

As a large cultural diaspora, Italians have been operating without borders for some time.

Where a sense of belonging and an identification to being Italian exists, it would include networks involving social, symbolic and material ties to Italy, but those ties may operate across and between multiple locations (spaces) and time. The participant cohort in this study is the inheritor of centuries-old processes of mobility, but wherever its members reside, they have their roots in Italy. They remain, in the broadest sense Italian transnationals, having undergone transformations through interactions in their host communities. They are positioned as transnationals, in the sense that their family, having migrated from Italy to another place, live their lives transcending borders, participating simultaneously in relationships that embed them in more than one location. Maintaining interaction within their diasporic community, the broader host community and Italy, provides a sense of belonging to all and the behaviour signals ongoing identification with the various people or places (Schiller 2017). In the same way, their extended families are transnational families, interacting with other family members and the wider paesani network living in Italy or elsewhere. The idea of transnational families captures the growing awareness that family members can retain their sense of collectivism and kinship in spite of being spread across multiple nations, across time and distance and not determined by particular localities or national borders (Baldassar et.al. 2015: 5).

Accordingly, transnationalism in this study is considered conceptually to work in conjunction with diaspora and taken to be an all-encompassing sense of cultural belonging, association and behaviours, in the broadest sense. Thus, I use the concept to include all the ties that link people transnationally, and transnational activities that can entail connections between families or kinship groups while other activities involve identification with the specific groups. The links allow people to feel loyalty to more than one country or culture

55 even though they live primarily in a host country (Faist 2000, Stone et.al. 2005). Including ideas of transnationalism in this study enabled me to develop understandings of mobility to take into account multivariate components such as familial and kin ties, social, economic, and religious networks, that facilitate and augment connections that descendants have to home countries. Some cross-border activities and exchanges involve connections between specific families or kinship groups, while others involve whole transborder communities.

Some intersections between home and host countries take on concrete, behavioural or specific forms of behaviours (e.g. salsicce [sausage] and salami weekends, making passata at home, baking traditional sweets etc) while others entail a symbolic form or symbolic identification (Levitt and Waters 2002: 7).

In her work, Anthias (2008) includes the term ‘translocational positionality’ as a means of addressing issues of identity in terms of location that may not be fixed but are context and time driven, and thus involve movement and contradictions. The term is particularly relevant to the study, because participants identity evolves through their family narrative, where they place themselves in particular time and place. They will articulate notions of identity making claims to ‘who I am’, which groupings ‘I identify with’ and which groups

‘I participate within’. These stories draw on and derive from collective narratives told from conversations, representations and normative systems, as well as anecdotes told within families and by a range of significant others (Anthias 2008: 5,6). When transnationalism includes consideration of transnational spaces, attention is given more to the social relationship, rather than simply to the economic factors of the migration. Increasingly, transnationalism is a normalised feature of post-modern communities reflecting the realities of the interconnectivity of the world. As such, it challenges the concept of identity in individuals (and their descendants) who can live anywhere in the world without leaving their

56 home country behind (Bassetti 2015). This ensures that descendants of migrants grow up in a markedly different context than their migrant forebears (Stone 2017).

Indeed, identification and a sense of attachment with one group is under considerable pressure from the realities of a twenty-first century life for those living transnational lives

(Royal 2003). Plus, diaspora ‘have productive powers in themselves’ (Baldassar et.al. 2012:

16), adding to the understanding of fluidity, change and the lived realities of descendants of

Italian migrants living outside of Italy. The point that is important to consider in this study is whether living transnationally within different diasporic communities enables or hinders individuals to sustain multiple identities and loyalties, or perhaps helps create new or multiple cultural formations, all whilst drawing from a variety of elements to maintain fluid paradigms of both culture and identity formation (Levitt and Waters 2002).

2.8 Italy has Again Become a Country of Emigrants

In June 2018, the Five Star Movement and the Northern League formed a governing coalition in Italy and remains in power at the time of writing. Part of their populist rhetoric has been the tenuous claim that of recent years Italy has become a country for migrants rather than of emigrants. Certainly, economic prosperity of the 1960s did correspond with a steady annual increase of migrants into Italy from the 1970s (Del Boca and Venturini

2003). However, a report examining Italians living abroad establishes that from 2006 to

2018, Italian mobility has in fact increased by 64.7% from just over 3.1 million Italians resident abroad (see AIRE or registry of Italian Citizens Residing Abroad Report 2019) to more than 5.1 million. The data in the 2018 Edition of Italiani nel Mondo (Italians in the

57 world) confirms that as of the 1st of January 2018, Italians living abroad (registered as part of AIRE) total 5,114,469 or 8.5% of the almost total 60.5 million residents in Italy on the same date. At times this latest mobility is referred to as the ‘brain wave’ because the high numbers involve mostly young educated Italians (FILEF Rapporto Annuale 2018).

Conversely, figures from United Nations on migration indicate that migrants arriving in Italy fell with 119,369 arriving in 2017 and 23,370 arriving the following year in 2018 (United

Nations migration statistics cited in the Washington Post January 6, 2019 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world). These figures indicate that rather than Italy becoming a country for migrants, Italy has again become a country of emigrants.

2.9 Concluding Comments

This chapter has provided the geographic, temporal and sociopolitical background to explain

Italian mobility. This includes demographic data, returnees, the political responses to returnees, group settlement patterns culminating in chain migration, legislation and the reverberation of past policies. The chapter introduced the region of Abruzzo and the people from that region, the Abruzzese. Notions of regionalism, regional identity through various forms of media, and national identity form part of the discussion and will be revisited in other sections of the thesis.

This chapter also outlined similarities in Australia, Canada and the United States of America since colonisation and the shared aspects of racial, sociopolitical and economic development in each country as well as the significance of Italian migration for them. The discussion established how governments in each (as well as Italian governments), have been involved in regulating migration at various periods in their histories. Sometimes this regulation has involved restricting, at times halting, Italian migration. However, it has also involved

58 instances of active recruitment and financial inducements for Italians to emigrate and oppositely to return. Arguably, Australia has had a more effective system of control than either the United States of America or Canada. Still, the major factor in controlling entry was Italy’s distance from Australia. For many potential migrants, Australia was too far way and therefore very expensive to get to, thus North America was a more alluring destination.

Combined, the features cited in the chapter are significant to understanding the mobility of the Italian people. They inform the discourse on the structural, social and cultural consequences of various geographic and temporal forces impacting on the construction of identity and intergenerational continuity of culture for descendants living beyond the boundaries of Italy, in one of three large urban Italian diasporic communities included in this study (Ben-Ghiat and Hom 2016, Sheller 2016).

In the next chapter I focus on the concepts of identity and culture to help explain the processes involved in having a sense of being or feeling Italian, the ongoing process of transformation of culture, and the significance or otherwise intergenerational transmission of cultural heritage.

PART TWO THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER THREE

Theory: Culture and Identity

3.1 Introduction

I began the preceding chapter by highlighting how centuries of mobility have defined both

Italy and Italian people; focussing in the latter part on the particular experiences of those from the Abruzzo region and the diasporic movements of its people to the United States of

America, Canada, and Australia. In this chapter I attune my thinking to the consequence of that mobility to muse on the lived realities for descendants of those Italian migrants who grew up in Italian households, as part of an Italian diasporic community within an Anglo dominant country. With this in mind, I concentrate on two concepts; culture and identity, which I use to explain how participants in this study present themselves to others and how they express their Italian heritage in their day to day lives. Both concepts and the broader historical framework in which I situate them (see Chapter Two) permit me to explore how italianità is perceived, felt or experienced. They also help me to understand the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification and to draw conclusions on the significance or otherwise of the transmission of Italian culture intergenerationally for my participants.

Culture and identity are complex concepts and have been used and understood in different ways. In this study they are used to investigate the lived experiences of my participants. I am interested in theories around culture that explore cultural memory, cultural heritage and intergenerational cultural transmission. Likewise, the research literature around identity is extensive but the ideas I find most useful are those that help me explain the converging and

60 diverging aspects of living in the three diaspora sites including ethnicity (cultural identity), notions of italianità, regional identity, citizenship and nationality.

This set of concepts will facilitate the analysis of participant responses by enabling a more nuanced understanding of the types of experiences and practices that are reported by participants; those that go directly to feeling or being Italian, and to the worth or significance of the transmission of that culture and identity intergenerationally for this group of descendants living as part of Italian communities away from ‘home’. The analyses of the narratives are advanced in the third part of the thesis, Chapters Five to Nine, where by using the concepts, I can explain the role of family, the steadfast allegiance to traditional cuisine and other food related practices learnt and performed through family, the ongoing membership or engagement in events conducted through Italian community clubs and associations for four generations and beyond, the continued participation in religious feste and Catholic rites of passage and rituals even when religiosity as such may be diminishing, and a sustained association and interaction with Italy the nation and Italians therein, as ways in which feeling Italian or italianità are produced or understood.

Working from a Foucauldian perspective, Strozier (2002) writes that identity production and intergenerational cultural transmission are part of a continuous process of ‘becoming’. And that answers to ‘who am I’ type questions point to a situation where we understand identity as transitory and impermanent, both relating to intricate sets of social relationships that normalise what are always ‘temporary historical forms of knowledge about who we think we really are’ (Strozier 2002: 219). Agreeing with the premise, I take the position that culture and identity are not firmly fixed positions. Rather, the process of identity formation inescapably must be fluid, having been formed congruently with the developments of

61 diasporic communities in which people live. Therefore, it is subject to change from the interplay of multiple factors (both past and current), that address the ongoing transformations of both cultural and national identification7 that I have signalled as one of my questions. What is more, intergenerational cultural transmission is contingent on cultural knowledge (i.e. knowing the traditions, attitudes and behaviours of your group). This cultural knowledge needs to be significant, valued, and seen to be important enough for descendants to take time to learn, generally achieved by engaging with others, in this case, others who want to identify as Italian or Abruzzese. In this way, culture and identity are formed consistent with changing circumstances that are part of an individual’s life cycle of observation, participation, experience, and shared knowledge, built and transmitted across multiple generations (Du Chesne 2016).

Before embarking on a review of culture and identity from the literature, it is appropriate to locate both concepts within a brief discussion of emotion and affect (see Wise and

Velayutham 2017). Both function to create a state of ‘readiness’ to embrace, people, objects and values (Wise and Velayutham 2017: 127) making a sense of identity and belonging to a culture more profound. Additionally, both are pivotal to shaping and reproducing makers of culture and identity, thus ensuring transnational connections (Wise and Velayutham

2017) between where descendants live and Italy. Understanding emotion and affect within a frame of culture and identity provides a context to explain: 1) the ongoing engagement of participants within their Italian diasporic communities, 2) their enduring commitment to

Italian traditions through participation in cultural events, and 3) the ongoing transnational

7 While I accept that racial identification is important in some research, my explicit focus in this study is culture and national identity.

62 interactivity with other Italian diasporic communities elsewhere on the globe and with Italy, all of which are claims on Italian culture and identity for my participants.

As will become clearer in the forthcoming chapters, participation in this study relies on deep personal reflection, imagination and recall, beginning with what is known or understood of family migration, settlement and adaptation experiences. This type of discussion requires an emotional commitment to provide relevance and meaning (Campbell 2003, Morton

2013). I draw from several researchers (e.g. Strayer 2002, Boccagni and Baldassar 2015,

Campbell et.al. 2017, Falk and Dierking 2018, Lolicato 2019, Seymour 2020), some working in the area of culture and identity for Italians, others writing on emotion and affect, to show that emotion is what ties cultural belonging and association, and what propels the construction of that identity for my participants. Stayer (2002) is of particular interest because whilst she agrees that an achieved identity requires emotion as the connector to provide meaning, her work additionally points to emotion being the organiser and motivator, provoking action that drives identity formation and maintenance, and thus intergenerational cultural continuity, where emotion plays an essential role at difference stages over a lifetime.

She concludes that ‘an emotionally neutral identity is more than inconceivable’, it would be illogical (Strayer 2002: 48).

Emotion can also reignite behaviour that would otherwise be dormant in day to day life experiences (Lolicato 2019). For example, as will be seen in the extracts from interview discourse that form part of the analysis, consistent across participant responses is their unremitting reference to traditions, especially those relating to food (e.g. the making of salsicce and salamis, preserving fruit and vegetables, passata etc.) as important markers of their identity as people of Italian heritage. Plainly, these rituals incite many senses and

63 skills: talking, listening, smell, taste and memory, to enact these performative signposts.

However, the specific outcomes of the activity (a sausage, a salami, a jar of pickles, a bottle of passata) is not necessarily the most valued part of the custom. These items can all be purchased easily and relatively cheaply in most supermarkets, certainly those within the targeted locations of this study. What is more important is the significance of the transition from a functional necessity to a cultural marker (Lolicato 2019), especially for newer generations. For their parents and grandparents, the primary function may have been to feed the family or to preserve favoured fruits for children and grandchildren to consume in the winter. For participants however, the primary motivator in pursuing the endeavor is emotion. Nostalgia often being what drives the learning and transmission of these traditions realised through the senses, where memories are optimised when the senses evoke emotion

(Falk and Dierking 2018).

Nostalgia and emotion are an embodied part of dealing with the past, and thus used when engaging about the past (Campbell et al 2017). While it is understood that nostalgia can idealise the past, it can also imply optimism, where nostalgic memory can create a social cohesion among individuals who share a connection to a past, and by implication use their shared past to inspire them into the future (Finkelman 2009). Nostalgia is what motivates affective practice for participants. Their feelings and sentiments are recruited and mobilised in the present and worked (variously for personal, social, cultural and political reasons) in organising a way of thinking about and relating to the past (Finkelman 2009). Nostalgia helps them to construct the past by remembering and creating images to contrast with and provide meaning in the present. The interconnectivity of emotion and nostalgia, through the maintenance of traditions was a common theme that regularly surfaced throughout the interviews. The following examples provide a snapshot view of this point: ‘…my heart is

Italian…my family is very strong in tradition… we are still very much in the traditions’; ‘I want to celebrate more our traditions, the wine that we drink, the food that we eat, the religion that we share, the love that we share, the emotionality we share, the creativity we share’; ‘a big part of my Italian cultural heritage is maintaining traditions…every winter we make salsicce and polenta and every year in the summer we make tomato sauce and do all the vegetables like the giardiniera’; ‘we love that it’s nostalgic and you have to stop yourself from crying sometimes…just amazing!’

3.2 Culture

As a word, culture is well used, meaning there is no single all-encompassing definition or application for the concept. Mostly culture may be considered as the symbolic construction of the amassed experience of a group’s life (Baldwin et.al. 2006). For this study, the understanding of the concept draws from the work of multiple researchers and incorporates the overall totality of cognition, emotion, affect (Finizio and Di Pietro 1986, Brah 2005) and loyalty (Sowell 1996) in self-identification. By this I mean that to accept a culture (or be accepted or perceived by others as being in that culture), individuals must think, feel and perform it as part of their daily life, with ongoing commitment (or loyalty) achieved through affective engagement with people, objects and traditions that are both respected and cherished. It also includes decision and choice in social interaction and behaviours that demonstrate the public take up of long-standing traditions and practices conveyed to and by members of the group for generations (see Cassirer 1992). The comprehensiveness of the behaviour patterns incorporates outputs and thought, both tangible and symbolic, that can be seen, written, heard or manufactured (e.g. the arts, beliefs, philosophy, values) (Cassirer

1992, Langer 2009). While acknowledging the abstract nature, using this all-inclusive frame, provides the scope necessary to explain cultural knowledge as the combination of

65 experiences, values, contextual information and insights. Although more notably, the span reflects that which has emerged through participant discourse. Collectively each are bonded and thus have ongoing representation because behaviours are grounded in and driven by beliefs (culture), and beliefs are drawn from memory and lived experiences (knowledge)

(Gammelgaard and Ritter 2000, Du Chesne 2016).

Culture and cultural knowledge are used in this study to help explain how or why my participants embody or describe what it is to be a descendant of Italian migrants. By this I mean, the totality of what they say, and how they represent themselves to others, beginning with the recount of their family migration history and experiences living as part of their respective Italian diasporic community.

3.2.1 Cultural Memory

Cultural memory is often described as a metaphor or a cover term for various forms of shared backgrounds, representations and understandings of a declared identity, common values and traditions, as well as certain modes of behaviour (Erll 2010a: 306). In the context of this thesis, I draw on Erll’s definition of cultural memory as shared and passed on within social formations in the separate diasporic communities where participants live. There it takes on a kind of archival role, processing and adding meaning to individuals and groups who accessed it (Erll 2010a: 306). In addition, I draw on the idea that memory is essential to culture (Melotti 2011), and that memory is what verbalises culture for participants. Their

Italian culture relies on what they have heard and remember from their elders, what they learn (formal and incidental) from their engagement and interaction with the Italian

66 community, clubs and association, or programs of study in schools, community colleges or universities and from travelling to Italy.

Building on his key point above, Erll also sees cultural memory (read family memory or intergenerational memory) as a collective memory that represents ongoing interaction and communication between and within families (Erll 2010a). Cultural memory usually develops intergenerationally but is located in the present for those drawing from it (see

Ibrahim 1999, Crumley 2002 and Erll 2010a). Cultural memories are included in this study because these memories are the foundations to the construction of culture and identity where the process of building relies on cumulative memory (Ibrahim 1999). Memories of a group or family member’s life shared within families, preserve and transmit cultural values, traditions and beliefs (Lackey 2005). Memories relayed through family are formative in relation to identity. Families tend to remember and share the information that is consistent and reflects the image and interest they wish to project. Where cultural continuity is the need, the emphasis will be placed on similarities (Erll 2010a). I am cognisant of the work of several researchers, for example Schönflug who remind me that ‘transmission is assumed to be selective’, and ‘not all culturally relevant contents are transmitted’ (Schönflug 2001:

174). Thinking about this further, I reflect on Davis’s words, when he wrote ‘that nostalgia is a memory with the pain removed’ (Davis 1979: 37) and understand that some attributes or behaviours pertaining to culture will be omitted from participant narratives. Having said that, participants did describe some very painful personal or family experiences. They also addressed what they saw as the unwarranted and hurtful perceptions or portrayals of the

Italian community by the wider society

Drawing on all these concepts, I argue that descendants of migrants seek answers to questions relating to culture, identity and cultural heritage through memory and the information embedded in the stories from elders and significant others (Dunlop 2005).

Moreover, I suggest that for participants in this study, stories are encased within a social, political and economic context of Abruzzo and the country(ies) their family moved to.

Through the reiteration of the family’s past, usually via oral stories told at family gatherings, those who did not experience past events directly can still share a particular and curated memory of them. In this way an exchange of ‘living memory’ occurs between those who experienced or witnessed the event and the descendent (Erll 2010a: 306). Thus, memory can be transmitted intergenerationally, and it can be traced as far back as the oldest members in the group can remember, either directly or through the recall from elders. Memories then can also generate epistemic features of their own, be reproduced and replicated with modifications, as subsequent generations adapt to different experiences and circumstances

(Lackey 2005).

Introducing another perspective relevant to this study, Erll (2010b) writes of the idea of

‘regional memory’ in his work, contending that it can operate on collective, individual and social levels. He affirms that events, persons, stories, folklore, and images associated with certain regions are transmitted and circulated through social interaction and multimedia media fora, adding that regions can become collective constructs that function as a social platform for individual remembering. Depictions that are characteristic of a specific region

(say natural landscape, fauna, the strength and kindness of the people) may influence individual experience, memories and recounts of particular events. However, he cautions, they do so as part of a complex interplay with other social frameworks given that individuals can draw on several collective memories because they belong to numerous social formations

(i.e. a village community, a political movement, a religious group formed in the region and so on). Therefore, regional frameworks of remembering can ‘intersect, overlap, feed into, or clash’ with familial, political, religious, national, and transnational social context (Erll

2010b: 308). Region centred memory is significant in this study because where participants do express an interest in their cultural heritage, I am interested in using this perspective to investigate if that is an attachment to the regional or the national, and to better understand the subtleties of shifts in allegiance over time or in response to events or social movements.

3.2.2 Cultural Heritage

Consideration of research literature around the notion of cultural heritage is also helpful in explaining participant identity formation and ongoing transmission and performance of culture in their day to day lives. In developing that understanding, it is useful to discuss the two components: culture and heritage.

In the preceding section (cf. 3.2 above), I positioned culture within a cogent and pragmatic context as comprising the totality of experiences, symbolism, institutions, patterned behaviour, language, values, beliefs, ideas, ideologies and so on, for participants. Typically, the literature considers cultural heritage as located in the past, valued by those who own and curate it (Blake 2000). It can be framed as both tangible as well as intangible, with the strength of cultural heritage resting in the capacity of those objects, values and traditions identified with cultural heritage to arouse affective responses in individuals or groups

(Vecco 2010). The significance of heritage as a component of culture and those aspects of it which a society (or group) views as valuable is recognised (Blake 2000) as is the interconnectivity with identity. Drawing from the work of Blake and Vecco, I focus on

69 isolating and identifying the components of Italian culture that are most valued by the participant cohort, and explain why, because they are most likely to be maintained intergenerationally through their transmission to children and grandchildren, viewed as an inheritance or perhaps legacy for the future.

3.2.3 Intergenerational Cultural Transmission

The literature on intergenerational transmission of culture addresses the transference of values, beliefs, knowledge, traditions and behaviours, prominent in preceding generations and taken up transgenerationally (see Trommsdorff 2009, Tam 2015, Corsaro 2017). The focus is on relationships, where the effectiveness of the transmission process relates directly to the quality of the relationship as well as to the worth, that is to ‘deeply held, important, widely shared, consistent and well-integrated traditional values, cultural knowledge and practices’ (Trommsdorff 2009: 128). Intergenerational cultural transmission is fundamental to this study; understanding the processes involved allows me to address issues of cultural stability, maintenance and continuity (Tam 2015) noted in the interview discourse with participants. As will become clear in the analysis section of this thesis, as a group, my participants did not passively take on internalised characteristics of being or feeling Italian.

Rather, they strategically used their understanding of cultural norms to guide their actions

(Tam 2015) as part of their day to day lives. Transmission was mostly intentional and planned. It was the direct consequence of engagement and participation within family and within community. Over time, the direction and process of transmission is subject to variation (Trommsdorff 2009, Schönpflug, 2009b), The outcome however, was intergenerational continuity of Italian culture and identity.

Significant studies addressing intergenerational maintenance and transmission of skills and knowledge have been undertaken within the last twenty years by several researchers (see

Schönpflug 2001, Trommsdorff 2009, Stavrianidis 2012, Tam 2015, Balodimas-Bartolomei

2017, Lolicato 2019, Marino 2020b). Collectively, the studies stemming primarily from the disciplines of social psychology and sociology, hypothesise that cultural transmission of beliefs, traditions, customs, forms of entertainment, sports and other habits, occurs in at least three different, non-mutually exclusive ways. These are a) from parents, b) from age peers, and c) from older generations. The assumption being that intergenerational cultural transmission is mostly determined though strong family relationships, which guarantees stability and maintenance. For example, Euler et.al. focus on the specificity of relationships between transmitter and receiver as key to ‘shaping transmission pathways’ (Euler 2001:

155) with Schönpflug adding that intergenerational cultural transmission is optimised ‘when adults intentionally teach the younger generation or when the younger generation imitates adults’ (Schönpflug 2001: 174).

Agreeing with the fundamental premise that parents and significant elders are crucial in transmitting culture, Tam also sees their importance as processing changes, ‘channelling’ adaptations of culture to the next generation (Tam 2015: 1263). Others explore the process of social reproduction in which cultural knowledge, skills, traditions and customs are communicated, learned and transmitted within groups developmentally. Here, Richerson and Boyd put a coherent case for the gradual development process that works to delineate attitudes and behaviours, focussing on what is distinctive about culture thus ensuring cultural transmission (Richerson and Boyd 2005). Also working from a developmental perspective,

Gisela Trommsdorff argues that differences in views and behaviours in families relate to different stages in the receiver’s life span, concluding that ‘intrapersonal changes and discrepancies’ are a normal component of broader dynamic development processes and

71 therefore transmission must be considered over the long term (Trommsdorff 2009: 151).

Berry et.al. differentiate the three types of transmission further, to 1) vertical transmission between parents and their children, 2) oblique transmission occurring through social interaction and other agents (parents, peers, clubs and associations), and 3) horizontal transmission among peers (Berry et.al. 2002).

Overall, studies on intergenerational cultural transmission generally conclude that both parents and grandparents are important transmitters, but they also focus on what is being shared or taught, and how that may be influenced by other variables, but importantly age and gender (Barni et.al. 2013). For example, Ricatti argues that migrant women are often the bearers of tradition and cultural identity, which in itself should be understood within complex transcultural, transnational, and generational negotiations (Ricatti 2018: 78).

While I arrogate from all narratives, I do note the gendered distinctions in parent/grandparent/child relationships as principal transmitters (Schönpflug 2009a). This is the case whether these relationships are based on emotional closeness or normative obligations, harmony or conflict or a hierarchical or vertical structure, on a long or short chronicle of shared experiences, and on interdependence or independence (Trommsdorff

2006, Schönpflug 2009a), where values are the core element of culture (Schwartz 1992,

Smolicz et.al. 2001, Chiro and Smolicz 2002).

Related to the point of familial relationships as key, where intergenerational cultural transmission is the aspiration, timing is critical. It is generally agreed that the most intensive time of learning new knowledge is childhood, and that learning is most profound when it is applied or put into practice (see Fox et.al. 2010, Mustard 2010, Center on the Developing

Child 2014). This assertion which speaks to the transmission of skills (as in learning the language, the making of pasta, the reciting of a poem, nursey rhyme or song) as stronger

72 than the acquisition of knowledge (say the geography of Abruzzo), with those skills learnt from grandparents acknowledged as the most effective in cultural maintenance (Reyes-

Garcia et.al. 2009). This provides a plausible explanation for gender differences, consistent with Ricatti above, suggesting that women, grandmothers most significantly, demonstrate and teach more practical skills, whereas men are more likely to impart knowledge of a more general sense. Whatever the circumstances, the essential element is that some key aspects of learning are achieved through explicit planning, and that knowledge and skills and do not automatically transmit across generations as a fait accompli (Ingold 2000). Culturally specific learning needs to be part of a process of continual regeneration in the context of the learners’ practical engagement, with parents, elders and peers.

My third research question spotlights the significance or otherwise of the transmission of

Italian culture intergenerationally. Through a better understanding of that significance for my group of descendants living as part of an Italian diaspora away from Italy, I am able to draw conclusions on adaptations and changes to culture over time and locations that may impact on identity for them. It is also important because the strength of the family and time spent in multigenerational households, are noted as key practices that shape the identity and culture of Italians generally, with participants highlighting both points as important in their discourse.

3.3 Identity

Identity and culture are inextricably linked, but identity can be ‘singularly elusive’, with

Brah viewing the concept as an ‘enigma whose very nature defies a precise definition’, being concurrently subjective and social, constituted in and through culture (Brah 2005: 20).

Thinking about identity is complex because it includes consideration of the collective as

73 well as individual and personal spheres, where attitudes and behaviours can be individual or group centred, rational or emotional, focussed on performance as well as values and beliefs.

Identity is also multidimensional in character, combining cultural and historical experiences, memories, emotions, affections, religion, kinship as well as various visible markers (Marino

2020b). Research ascertains that individuals have various different identities which are usually condensed as social identities (Phinney 1990, Barrett et al. 1999, Phinney and Ong

2007). For Snow (2001) social identities are ‘the identities attributed or imputed to others in an attempt to situate them in social space’ (Snow 2001: 36). Among possible social identities is cultural identity (Phinney 1990, Marino 2020a). Additionally, identity can be seen as constantly evolving due to a number of diverse factors such as take up and use of language, religiosity, traditions and customs, physical appearance, sometimes dress, ancestry, or what Nagel (1994) referred to as regionality.

Theories of identity have evolved differently across disciplines. The ones that are most relevant to this study are those emanating from the fields of psychology and education that look at the formation of identity during early childhood to focus on identity in migrant groups (for example Tajfel 1978, 2010, Di Carlo 1986, Phinney 1989, 1990, 1992, Phinney and Ong 2007, , Buckingham 2008,), and those from sociology and cultural anthropology that work on identity through the diasporic experiences of transnational migrants (including

Smolicz 1983, , Giddens 1991, Smith 1991, Vasta 1993, Castles 1995, Miller 2000, Vertovec

2001, Chiro 2003, Bauman 2005, 2013, Jacobs 2011). It is also useful to return to the

Foucauldian perspective referenced by Strozier (2002) earlier, positioning the construction of identity as a continuous process, transitory and impermanent, taking from social relationships that which normalises values, beliefs and behaviours. While not presenting myself as a scholar of Foucault, I do take from his work on self, fundamental principles

74 including thinking about self as conveying identity, particularly the ability to practice freely that which one views as ethical and embodying a valued lifestyle (Foucault 2019). These perspectives allow me to theorise about identity as a social construct that is both fluid

(Crawford 2011, Jacobs 2011), and formed based on the perception or understandings of shared or common experiences, that lead to a sense of belonging to and identification with a specific cultural group that is meaningful (Phinney 1990, Fabietti 2009).

Within this frame identity is relational, the processes involve individuals negotiating their belonging within a constantly modifying system of representations and emblematic behaviours that allow them to interpret and perform their Italian culture (Di Giovine 2016:

84) as an outcome of inheritance or acquiescence. Individuals can symbolically or overtly acknowledge, embody and transmit (Baldassar et al. 2015) values, beliefs or practice tradition through the family or other institutions such as the church or culturally based clubs and association. This is significant because social interactions, especially in pluralist communities, at times require individuals to affect different identities in response to different social contexts (Appadurai 1996, Bauman 2005, Hall 1992, Hobsbawm and Terence 1983).

In the paragraphs that follow, the focus shifts from a discussion of identity in more general terms to that which has a specific focus on ideas of an Italian cultural identity. The work of several other researchers (see Galambos and Leadbeater 2000, Schwartz 2005), have focussed my thinking on isolating key emotional and affective factors in identity formation as well as social and cultural characteristics of identity. For example, that identity is formed: a) against an Anglo dominant identity, b) within the family and with significant others, overriding all others and c) in relation to the strength of an Italian national identity. When combining these with key socialising agents such as education, employment, and the

75 community in which individuals live, each work to influence attitude, motivation and behaviours that impact on how Italian identity is constructed, performed, presented and interacted with others.

Additionally, descendants may be in the same phase of identity development, but different generational cohorts employ and combine self-identification labels differently (Zubida et.al.

2013). For some, Italian identity can be a multiple descriptive concept (Giampapa 2001,

2007) while others choose a single descriptor. Studies that have analysed hyphenated national identities as a concept are foremost in critiques of culture as being homogenous and contained. They argue that descendants may shape their behaviours and create an ethnic character that is more transitional in disposition rather than becoming hyphenated, hybrid or inbetweeners. Whatever the circumstances, in a world that increasingly signals transnationally connected communities, hyphenated, dual, hybrid or multiple cultural identities reflect the reality of lives lived for many migrants and their descendants. A reality of lived cultural variance that perhaps includes experiences of social, economic and vocational prejudice, all whilst negotiating and forming identity (Diminescu 2008, Wirth

2016). Those with plural or multiple cultural identities may acknowledge all of them, however, they will usually favour the one that forms the basis of their social circles at home, with peers, or the one that seems most acceptable by the dominant group in the community or the one by which others identify them (James 2006).

In the end, identity is an individual’s understanding of who they are, who other people are, and reciprocally, how those other people understand themselves and others (Jenkins 2008:

173), and all implicated or created in spaces with uneven power dynamics. The construction takes place as part of a process of negotiation within a social environment where who a

76 person is and what they become is closely associated to the social circumstances in their lives, and the interactions with individuals and other social interactive phenomena (Ryan

1997). It is also shaped by the value and emotional significance of attachment, be that individual relationships or group membership attachment. The emotional strength is built over time and space and relies on how people understand the possibilities for their future

(Svašek 2010).

Taking all this into account, I view identity as a social construction in and through culture, evolving over time and inclusive of experiences, deliberate actions from family and significant others, and choices made or not made by individuals living within the diasporic community in response to changing circumstances (Hall 1990, Romero and Roberts 2003,

Ashmore et.al. 2004). In my use of the word choice, I accept that for many poor and illiterate migrants generally and women more specifically, ‘choice’ can be seen as problematic in its neoliberal assumption of ‘free to choose’. In Chapter Two, I provide an explanation of the context for the mass movement of people from the Italian peninsula and explain that whatever agency they may have had, their mobility was situational and responsive (c.f.

Chapter Two, Section 2.3 Chain Migration was Always Strategic). Additionally, in the analysis chapters of the thesis (Chapters Five to Nine) I acknowledge that for many women their ‘choice’ was to follow fathers, brothers and husbands (Chapter Five, Section 5.2), while for others marriage was their reason to migrate (Chapter Seven, Section 7.5).

From this frame I am able to draw conclusions on cultural identity formation for my participants including what it means to have a sense of being or feeling Italian, the ongoing transformation of cultural and national identity and the significance or otherwise of the transmission of culture intergenerationally for them. When cultural identity is positioned

77 within a social constructivist framework, it has the scope to include plural identities that are not mutually exclusive or incompatible with identifying as Italian, with other cultural heritages or with the wider Anglo community where participants live.

3.3.1 A Comment on Race and Ethnicity

Given I am working with descendants of Italian migrants living in predominantly white

Anglo cities, I acknowledge ethnicity and race as important to the discussion of identity formation. However, I am conflicted by their application. Mostly terms such as ethnic and ethnicity are used by academics and bureaucrats, sometimes interchangeably with race, migrant, and culture, in an attempt to socially define and locate people. To illustrate, the term ethnic8 has been used in the past to differentiate or characterise groups, at times benevolently, for example by educators or local government authorities to fund programs and other resources, but it has also been used with deprecatory intent. Additionally, I am more than cognisant that the use of the term ethnic has been problematic for descendants of migrants living in the dominant Anglo culture. Still, I have not dismissed race and ethnicity.

Oppositely, I will delineate the scholarly understanding of the two as concepts in the next few paragraphs.

I have established that Italians were racialised when they first migrated to their respective host countries (c.f. Chapter Two). Moreover, participant discourse elaborated on (and I have underscored) the context for the myriad of reasons emigrant family members acquired so

8 I find the use of the term ethnicity problematic and dated. It is aligned more to the language, politics, and bureaucratic policies and process of the 1970s. I do not use the term as a descriptor of people or behaviour, I use ethnicity to differentiate cultural groups.

78 called whiteness. Foremost in my thinking is that I want to separate ethnicity (and race) from ideas of culture. Likewise, I want culture to be the precious and esteemed notion that the participant cohort who owning their Italian culture living within a dominant Anglo culture indicated it was. That said, including ethnic identity in this study is significant because each of the three research sites is part of a white settler colonial state (c.f. section

2.2 in preceding chapter) and therefore ideas on ethnicity have been (and remain) hierarchical. Some groups were seen (are seen) as normative (i.e. normatively white), as in

British groups or those from north western European or Scandinavian countries (i.e. the

Netherlands, Germany, Denmark), where the focus was not on their nationality but rather on ideas of race founded on degrees of likeness to people of Anglo heritage. While other groups, for example those of Italian heritage, particularly those from the south of that country, were seen as non-normative (and therefore non-white).

As a scholarly concept, the foundation premise of ethnicity lies in a story of classification of common ancestry. It is by definition not biological. Rather than being fixed ontologically, ethnicity is considered both dynamic and a socially mediated process based on mutually agreed markers for the individual and the cohort as a whole (Waters 2006). The association can be both a matter of ‘descent or consent’, and that while common markers are visible, say language, music, or art, they can also be a state of mind expressed symbolically (Waters 2006: 137, Gans 2009). The relationship between ethnicity, culture and identity are ‘historically, socially and contextually based’, where the social affinity is dynamic, with meanings subject to change over time (James 2006: 47-53). Thinking of ethnicity in this way (i.e. historically, socially and contextually), adds to the understanding of ideas of a shared culture, the evolution of differences, and the process of continual transformations within groups (Luconi 2004).

The work of Herbert Gans has been at the centre of scholarly discourse on ethnicity for close to four decades (Gans 1979, 1994, 1996, 2009, 2017). He began his writing at a time when Italians were living in an Anglo dominant America where they and other groups were separated along racial, political and cultural lines (Stone and Harris 2017). His concept of symbolic ethnicity was developed in response to the prevailing ‘straight line’ notions of total loss of culture and identity for migrants and their descendants as a consequence of assimilation (Stone and Harris 2017: 1398). He uses the concept to describe an allegiance to a culture (or an identity), usually expressed as a nostalgic attachment or pride for tradition or heritage that can be felt without the culture being actively represented as part of everyday behaviour. His work also associates symbolic ethnicity with renewed interest in cultural heritage in descendants who are otherwise engaged in the dominant host community, where the symbolism is embedded in traditions and displayed within family gatherings, celebrations, religious feste, or during recreational type activities that have become more mainstream, such as making and cooking Italian meals or playing Bocce [an Italian game similar to bowls].

In a similar way to other scholars (e.g. Anagnostou 2003, 2013, 2015, Stone and Harris

2017) I draw from the expansive work on symbolic ethnicity of Herbert Gans and use ethnicity to mean a ‘voluntary’ (Stone and Harris 2017: 1398) and sustained association or identification to Italian culture and formation of identity for my participants and their families to get a sense of what being Italian or feeling Italian is for them. Participant narratives allow me to study culture from their point of view to evaluate the transformations of Italian culture and identity for them but more meaningfully to answer my third question;

80 the significance or otherwise of intergenerational transmission of Italian culture and identity for them as descendants of Italian migrants living away from Italy.

I will iterate in the analysis chapter, that my participants are unambiguous in their assertions that their chosen identity and their adapted culture is based on what is prized and significant to them. That both are maintained intergenerationally reflects the respect and reverence they hold for family (both in their diasporic communities and those who remained in Italy).

Participants are proud custodians of what they have inherited, making explicit decisions that assure continuity. Their recounts demonstrate that their cultural identity is their italianità.

It takes many forms and provides multiple markers of Italian identity for them. Italian culture remains a powerful way for them to represent ongoing Italian and national (civic) affiliation. They were more than just loyal to the customs and traditions they learnt from their parents and grandparents, they made deliberate decisions to maintain them, promoting their sense of being or feeling Italian or of their italianità at every opportunity. The process undertaken by the state (or the broader community)of ascribing the dominant Anglo ethnic or racial identity to them is emphatically rejected by my participant cohort. They are first and foremost Italian, and the intergenerational transmission of both Italian culture and identity is not only significant, it included explicit strategies to achieve it.

Broadly speaking, with the passing of time (and generation), as a cultural group Italians

(both current and descendants of earlier waves of migration) living in Australian, Canada and the United States of America have lost their ‘ethnic status’ (Stone and Harris 2017:

1398).They have been positioned by their wider communities to become the very prototype of model migrants and descendants. Even so, the analysis (Part Three of this thesis) will make clear that identity is engrained in the lives of my participants, represented both publicly

81 and privately, mainly through family and the wider paesani network. Their Italian cultural identity was constructed through strength of positive family connectivity and interactions, and against the oft times negative external dynamics (both overt and covert) of the dominant

Anglo community.

3.3.2 The Notion of italianità

The term italianità is central to my thesis. When discussing Italian cultural identity with my informants I use italianità to explain what it means to have a sense of being or feeling Italian, the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification and the significance or otherwise of the transmission of Italian culture intergenerationally for them living as part of an Italian community away from ‘home’. In doing so however, I understand that the question of what it means to be or to feel Italian has been (and remains) problematic due to multiple factors, beginning with the late formation of Italy as a nation and then the deep-rooted regionalism (discussed in greater detail later in the chapter). Italy as a nation is relatively new, making references to Italy, Italian people or Italian migrants before

Unification (1861) inexact (Ascoli and von Henneberg 2001). Those behind the

Risogimento9 understood that before they could unite Italy, they had to create the idea of an

Italian nation by imagining an Italian community of economically and culturally diverse people, bringing together the peasantry, the gentry and the intelligentsia (see Anderson 1991,

Di Pietro 2013). However, the difficulty of unification itself was part of the problem because: a) the process began in 1861 but was not completed till around 1871, b) it was contentious and violent and c) even after the decade long process, many argued that the

9 Risogimento refers to the movement for political unification

82 creation of a nation state where the people were politically unified did not occur until the completion of World War One (Fabrizio 1999: 102).

As happened all over Europe, the domestic project of unification for the nascent Italian state of the 1860s, later was expanded to signify pride in Italy’s historic, scientific, and artistic inputs to the world (see Anderson 1991, Di Pietro 2013). Unification coincided with mass emigration from the peninsula therefore the migrant generation who left Italy before the start of World War One, were more likely to have been attached to a collection of regions rather than the singularity of one nation (Sassatelli 2006). With the support of academics and other community leaders, successive Italian governments have focussed on the spread of italianità in an attempt to overcome entrenched regionalism and to create a national identity (Lee

2016). Despite their best efforts, for Italians, regionalism remains a focal point in their culture and identity and goes some way to explaining attachment and belonging to the home village, town or region, even after several generations of living away from Italy. This point is an important consideration in the discussion of culture and identity in this study, particularly in the analysis of the data from the American participant cohort, given that in most instances, their migration story begins towards the end of the 1880s.

Moreover, I accept that within the context of cultural identity, italianità has passed through many transformations. It has been connected to Fascism, the repression of linguistic and cultural differences, and a rather rhetorical and monocultural/monolingual understanding of what it means to be (or to feel) Italian. I also acknowledge that many of these rhetorical aspects of italianità have been appropriated by Italian communities abroad, where the term is being continually adapted and reinterpreted through structures such as the various migratory movements, representations of Italians in the mainstream media, social media and

83 popular culture, through cultural icons (cuisine, art, fashion, buildings, prestige cars to name a few) and cultural performance (opera, carnevale, patron saint feste etc ) (Harney 2006).

Italianità can also be influenced by the state and by capital. Fundamentally, expressions of italianità have always been both pragmatic and symbolic, embedded in history and geography, as well as in class (e.g. luxury labels versus the everyday and affordable say

Prada and pasta ). Likewise italianità can ascribe an emotional attachment to feeling Italian and to maintaining cultural traditions generally associated as being typical of Italians by the wider community. Italianità is fluid and changeable, variously reflecting the intersection of elements from Italian national culture as represented by Italians in Italy and those who identify as Italian away from ‘home’. In this way, my participants are not completely beyond influence by governments and businesses who expend much time and money representing particular types of italianità. Thus, italianità will be formed and deployed differently depending on the context in which it is being cited.

In this thesis, the analysis of italianità includes assessing the impact of historically large numbers involved in Italian mobility, the length of that migration history, the visible success of Italians, the shift in attitudes leading to an embracing of ‘all things Italian’ by the wider community. This serves to explain how each has encouraged an appreciation of Italian cultural heritage for descendants of Italian migrants and thus facilitated their willingness to embrace and promote their own Italian culture and Italian identity or italianità (Baldassar

2001, Cresciani 2003, Ferraro 2011).

3.3.3 Regionalism

In using the term regionalism in this thesis I am describing a focusing on the home region.

Regionalism intersects other terms such as parochialism (relating to parish) and provincialism (relating to borders of a parish, province, or a region) (Merriam-Webster

2021). It has been included in the thesis because references to regionalism in the overall literature on the mobility of the Italian people, as well as in writings on their culture and identity are quite common, and because both the region and the provinces (or province) of origin are a focal point of discussion with participants

As with many European states, though perhaps more powerfully in Italy, regionalism is in tension with nationalism. The position that nations do not have a singular widely shared national culture and identity is well understood. The long standing issue with some researchers working in the area of Italian culture and identity is their assertions that Italian migrants only assumed a national identity after they arrived in their host country as a consequence of their shared difficulties and collective experiences of the group (Carnevale

2003, Choate 2008). An example is Gabaccia (2013) who argues that it was the subsequent sense of support and solidarity for each other that made many feel Italian, rather than citizens of a village, town, province or region. Much of the writings, scholarly and otherwise, similarly denote the absence of an overarching cultural entity for all members of an Italian community and routinely refers to Italians as Genoese (people from Genoa), Veneziani

(people from Venice), Abruzzese (people from Abruzzo) or whatever the case may be (see

Janni and McLean 2003, Dewhirst 2008, Choate 2008, Desideri 2014, Luconi 2015, Harney

2015). This example from Marie Di Mario, an early scholar writing on the proliferation of

Little Italies in the United States of America succinctly typifies the point:

‘an Italian seldom refers to himself as an Italian among his compatriots; he defines himself with a tiny town…differences in dialect, food and occupation tend to segregate provincial groups…each group lives its own life, has its own leaders, celebrates its own holidays…any self-respecting Italian would explosively denounce the artless lumping together of representatives of eighteen regions, which, with their independent historical background, are further carved into about four times as many provinces and about one hundred times as many comuni…’(Di Mario 1942: 19 cited in Luconi 2004).

Scholars of this mind have been unwavering, arguing that what characterises Italy, is precisely its diversity, maintaining that although Italy is a single nation state, any assessment of its social characteristics shows that there are many Italies, adding that some internal differences are so significant as to generate pressures for political fragmentation still10

(Dunford 2008, De Martino 2012, Gabaccia 2013).

Others however put the case that regional, city and village loyalties are not maintained outside of Italy, arguing that second and subsequent generations of descendants feel a strong identification with their Italian nationality, with little, if any of the old ties to the village or province their parents displayed (Paolino 1987: 25). For younger people, a deep sense of regional identity may be more a matter of loyalty than detail, driven by emotion, nostalgia and shaped by familial sensitivities of their identity (Stone 2017). However, within the realities of a globalised Italy, some fragmentation may remain but the overall essence of what is perceived by descendants to be Italian (as well as that which is imposed by others), together with the currency of ‘Brand Italia’ both within Italy and abroad, may ultimately mean that the national will prevail (Sassatelli 2006: 95).

10 For example: Lega Nord (English: Northern League), whose complete name is Lega Nord per l’Indipendenza della Padania (Northern League for the Independence of Padania), is a right-wing regionalist political party in Italy. Commentary on succession of northern regions has been persistent for some time. See article: Northern Italy regions overwhelmingly vote for greater autonomy. Voters in Veneto, which includes Venice, and Lombardy, home to Milan, back further devolution from Rome, say regional leaders (Source: Guardian Australia, Sunday 4 March 2018).

Regionalism is central in this study because the work has a focus on one region. One aim of the interview discussion is to clarify regional and national affiliation for participants.

Their responses will underscore differences (if any) within and between generational cohorts, and differences across locations, all adding to the understandings of identity and whether localism continues among this cohort of descendants over nationalism. Both regionalism (and italianità) are key to explaining the formation of identity for my participant group. For more on regionalism, see appendix two which highlights the idea with reference to group settlement for participants and appendix three, a poem titled My Home Town from an Italian emigrant to Australia in the 1950s.

3.3.4 Citizenship and Nationality

The concepts of citizenship and nationality are also important influences in my analysis of identity formation. Both concepts help hone participant narratives because they have impacted and remain significant in their lives wherever they live. The meaning of both citizenship and nationality reflects varying political and economic fluctuations depending on the jurisdiction (see Castles 1992, Faist 2000, Ong 2006, Green and Weil 2007). In general terms, to be a national is to be a member of a nation state, where nationality is acquired by birth or adoption, marriage, or descent (the specifics vary from country to country). Having a nationality is crucial to receiving full recognition under international law. Indeed, Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘Everyone has the right to a nationality’ and ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality’ but the article is silent on citizenship (Adjami and

Harrington 2008). Citizenship relates to a legal relationship between a state and a person that involves both rights and responsibilities. Being a citizen of a country does not always require nationality, but it is more often the case. In Mexico for example, a person acquires

87 nationality at birth but receives citizenship only upon turning eighteen. Similarly, not all

American nationals are American citizens, however, those born in the territorial possessions of the United States are increasingly gaining citizenship (see Ong 2006, Green and Weil

2007, Schiller 2017, Wren-Lewis 2017, Ambrosini and Jacobson 2020, Henderson 2020).

The legacy of British colonialism too ensures six types of British nationality: British citizens,

British subjects, British overseas citizens, British overseas territories citizens, British overseas nationals, or British protected persons (Hansen 1999). The outcome is that there are several types of citizenship and some nationals who are not citizens (Wren-Lewis 2017,

Ambrosini et.al. 2020, Henderson 2020). In Australia, the terms ‘nationality’ and

‘citizenship’ can be used interchangeably, with nationality most often used in official documents (Rimmer 2007). Customarily, a person may acquire citizenship by operation of law, through birth, through descent, or by application (for naturalisation after a period of residence in Australia) (Australian Citizenship Bill 2007, Parliament of Australia. Retrieved

February 8, 2019). These points relate to my discussion on cultural identity because citizenship and nationality is another prism through which participant identity is formed.

Many referenced both in their discussion, some hailing citizenship of both their country of birth and their country of heritage, others expressing disappointment, frustration, even resentment at not having the opportunity to claim Italian citizenship.

Moving onto the three countries included in this study, citizenship and nationality have been vexed issues since colonisation in each. Legislators actively pursued (and still do) laws affecting citizenship and nationality that have a far reaching civic and economic impact on

Italian migrants and their families. The United States of America, Australia and Canada followed similar patterns during periods of conflict, especially conflict against the Italian

88 nation, but also when regulating the purchase of land, homes or businesses, which at various times required relinquishing of Italian citizenship to take that of the host country (Castles

1992, Faist 2000, Ong 2006, Green and Weil 2007, Baldassar et.al. 2012, Schiller 2017).

Additionally, laws defining citizenship for Italians living in the United States encouraged them to naturalise at ‘unprecedented rates’ (Lee 2016: 13). In the three decades following the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, the population of American citizens born in Italy increased by almost 170 per cent, by 1940 Italians became America’s largest group of migrants and naturalised citizens, and by 1950 no other nation came close to the Italian population in America (Lee 2016).

Of most relevance for this study is that more recently the discourse on identity has altered to reflect a more transnational perspective, where the relationships between place of birth, place of residence and sense of belonging are deconstructed, providing a means to include national or cultural identities that are not bound by a nation-state (Scully 2010). There is clear evidence that many descendants of Italian migrants, wherever they reside, have been taking advantage of Italian Nationality Law of 1992, to gain Italian citizenship, allowing them to work and live in Italy for extended periods, to purchase property or buy or initiate business enterprises in that country (Italian Citizenship by Descent: Consolato Generale d’Italia, Sydney). The law, similar to that in many European countries, is largely based on jus sanguinis, a principle of nationality law by which citizenship is not determined by place of birth but by having one or both parents who are citizens at the time of the child’s birth.

The law also provides discretionary powers to bureaucrats to confer citizenship on children whose parents belong to a diaspora and were not themselves citizens of the state (Source:

Italian Citizenship by Descent: Consolato Generale d’Italia, Sydney, Toronto and

Pittsburgh 2016).

Using notions of citizenship and nationality furthers my understandings of how participants express who they are culturally. They allow me to draw conclusions on having a sense of being or feeling Italian, the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification, and the significance or otherwise of transmission of culture for this group of descendants living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from ‘home’. For example, some descendants have told me that they are quite angry at the Italian state for rejecting their application for citizenship, whilst others have shared their dismay when they realised some members of the same extended family gain citizenship while others do not.

3.4 Concluding Comments

In this chapter I have explicated the two concepts, culture and identity, that I will be using to explain how participants in this study present themselves to others and express their Italian heritage as part of their day to day interactions. In my deliberation, I presume processes of globalisation and mobility of Italian people as a given that has shaped (and continues to shape) the lives of people living as part of the Italian diaspora. My exploration of culture focuses on sub-categories of cultural memory, cultural heritage and intergenerational cultural transmission. Likewise, identity includes a discussion of the cognitive and emotional components of cultural identity, notions of italianità, regional identity, citizenship and nationality. Culture and identity are used as key concepts to explain what is happening with the addition of emotion as fundamental to expressing and describing being or feeling

Italian. All are vital, and when combined, they work towards the development of a frame to explain the process of identify formation and intergenerational transmission of culture.

In the next chapter (the second chapter in part two of the thesis), the design and research methodology for the study are explained.

CHAPTER FOUR

Research Methodology

4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the research design and provides the methodology for the study.

Choice of research tool is explained, and a discussion developed on the key issues of recruitment of the participants and the supposition of a shared heritage, both fundamental to this study. Studies investigating construction of cultural identity and intergenerational transmission of culture moving beyond the second generation of descendants of Italian migrants are relatively few (Stavrianidis 2012). Those investigating four countries (three research and one home site), involving descendants of one regional group across multiple generations are very rare. This study is positioned within the broader context of the construction of identity and intergenerational cultural transmission for migrants and their families living outside of their ancestral home country. Participants are asked to reflect on growing up in Italian migrant families, with a focus on the pathways and affiliations to cultural heritage they may or may not have maintained, and the identity they constructed for themselves, while living within a dominant culture that was different from their own.

Themes are investigated: (a) within the particular context of an urban community with a strong Italian presence (that is, Melbourne, Australia; Toronto, Canada; and Pittsburgh,

United States of America), (b) within a particular regional group (that is, descendants of

Abruzzese migrants), and (c) intergenerationally (that is, across four generations). As used in this study, identity and intergenerational transmission of culture is inclusive of physical, emotional, intellectual, imaginary or virtual, connection or perceptions of such with the

92 country, region or town (or village) of birth of familial ancestors. This research adds to the corpus of material by profiling descendants to provide some insights into what it means to have a sense of being or feeling Italian or italianità, the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification, and the significance or otherwise of the transmission of their culture intergenerationally for them living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from Italy.

4.2 Choosing a Qualitative Framework

The focus of this thesis is on lived experiences from the participants’ perspective

(Brinkmann 2016). Descriptions of the life world, both family and personal, mostly through family stories provide a major source of information about culture and identity drawn from their sociopolitical past (Stone et.al. 2005), allowing declaration of membership to groups and providing the opportunity to describe how that membership is sustained. With this in mind, I chose a qualitative approach based on narratives because it enables a deep reflective process for participants, as well as an exploration of biographical memories of growing up in an Italian household. The interview is the context from which the narrative evolves, and the experiences being described centre on how participants growing up and living in the respective community construct identity, interact with the wider Italian community, other migrant communities, and the wider Anglo community. Like other scholars, I wanted to take a humanistic sociological approach in this study. One that anticipates that broad cultural and social phenomena can only be studied from the viewpoint of the participant. Data derived in this way informs conclusions drawn from participant responses based on the themes, labels, categories or constructs of the study. The approach also identifies links and interconnections more broadly between or across the four research sites as well as the appropriateness of applying these findings to other settings (Byrne 2001).

The project was submitted for approval to the Sydney University Human Research Ethics

Committee in the second half of 2015. The application included a summary of the project, an outline of the academic merit of the study, and the potential sample size. A detailed explanation of how participants were to be recruited and the safety protocols for participants and researcher against any risk involved in conducting the fieldwork were provided. The introductory Circular Letter/Email to potential participants, together with Participant

Information Sheet, Consent Form and Interview Guide were also part of the application.

Approval was received from the Sydney University Human Research Ethics Committee in

October 2015.

4.3 Participants

Participants are either descendants of Abruzzese migrants who emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy or Abruzzese migrants themselves who arrived as children to settle in either

Melbourne, Toronto, or Pittsburgh. Some participants have both parents, and both sets of grandparents born in Abruzzo, others have parent/s and at least one set of grandparents born in Abruzzo, while others still have great grandparents from Abruzzo. Generationally then, participants are second-generation born in their country of residence to migrant parents during the first quarter of the twentieth century (or who arrived as children) from Abruzzo, through to the grandchildren and great grandchildren of post-World War Two migrants, the youngest of whom were born in the 2000s. The age range spans seventy-four years, from the youngest participant of eighteen years to the oldest at ninety-two. Eight are in the seventy-eight to ninety-two years group; mostly they are from the United States of America, reflecting the earlier mass migrations from the late 1890s to the mid-1920s to that country.

The largest group is between forty-six and seventy-seven years at the time of interview.

The study attracted an enthusiastic and positive response from all participants. I was expressly encouraged by the engagement of younger participants, especially from Toronto, where project details were distributed in various schools at the University of Toronto and St

Michael’s College, a college with a long-standing association in the Italian community of that city. Related to this point I acknowledge the issue of selection bias in my participant cohort. I appreciate that descendants who were not passionate about their Italian cultural heritage, or perhaps those who did not grow up in supportive families may not have responded to my study. I am alert to this point in the analysis of participant responses.

Participants resided in various parts of Australia, Canada or the United States of America.

The critical factor was not their place of residence at the time they were interviewed but the fact that their parent/s, grandparent/s or great grandparent/s settled in one of the three research sites and that they themselves grew up in that same locality. Several of the

American respondents did not reside permanently in Pittsburgh, though two did maintain a home in the area; one lived in Florida, one in New York, two in Seattle and one had relocated his family to Eastern Europe. However, each explained that work was the reason they no longer resided in Pittsburgh; all asserting that they willingly and unreservedly travelled back for holidays and family functions, with the couple who lived in Seattle saying that their intention was to return to Pittsburgh on retirement (they have since returned to Pittsburgh).

Most participants grew up and were educated in their host location, with those who arrived as children enrolled at least for some of their schooling, and consequently were fluent in

English, allowing all interviews to proceed in English. Education backgrounds of

95 participants varied considerably. Some participants completed the minimum formal schooling requirements necessary at the time of their school attendance, others had completed high school, others still were graduates and postgraduates; five were PhD candidates at the time of interview, with two working as academics. Overall participants were well-educated and appeared well-resourced. Mostly, they were confident, articulate individuals whether established in their professions, recently retired from their careers, or completing various levels of tertiary education (a tabulated summary of participant profiles for each research site that includes age, gender, generation, emigrant forebear, cultural heritage of life partner, education attained, employment or study, and place of residence at the time of interview is provided in appendixes five to seven). In the analysis of participant responses I have not used pseudonyms, choosing markers at the beginning of each extract instead. I do this to signal country, gender, and age of participant; all of which are crucial identifiers in the study. Where possible, for each cluster of extracts I try to provide a representation of each location, gender and generational cohort.

4.4 A Shared Heritage

A shared heritage (participants and researcher) is a key feature of this study given that all grew up in Italian families as part of wider dominant Anglo communities in whichever country they lived. All participants were made aware of my Abruzzese heritage at the onset as it was disclosed as part of the initial contact letter or email. This dynamic may have presented some practical advantages in that it is reasonable to assume that within the context of an interview, the discourse between people of similar background would be familiar and empathetic (Smolicz et.al. 2001, Codò et.al. 2008, Bryman 2016). A platform for an interpersonal perspective, where trust and perhaps mutual respect may have been enhanced

96 due to our shared experiences, arguably heightened the sense of accountability to that group and the effectiveness of the process (Lambert 2008, Bessarab and Ng’andu 2010).

For myself, disclosure as a person of Abruzzese heritage was more than a strategy to construct familiarity between interviewee and respondent (Abell et al 2006), or an attempt to enhance rapport and mitigate against power inequalities (Kvale 2008). It was also about seeking participants with a shared cultural heritage to be part of a process with me of self- reflection, focussing our thinking on our identity. In this context, I formed the view that my disclosure as a member of the group with a shared heritage was important because it would add to the ongoing conversation by empowering participants and encouraging them to share experiences (Eder and Fingerson 2003) through their own stories (Abell et. al. 2006). It did not however include my sharing of ideas, attitudes or beliefs, but it did relay a shared experience that was useful in prompting and extending engagement and discussion

(Reinharz and Chase 2002). Participant discourse from this deeply personal perspective not only provided an account of family migration narrative but also allowed me to add meaning to construction of identity for both of us (Hammersley 2003).

4.5 Allowing Participants the Freedom to Narrate their Story

Boenisch-Brednich (2002) defines three broad types of narratives when recalling family migration experiences: 1) stories about leaving, 2) stories about the first year after arrival, and 3) stories about the day to day life of the migrants and their families. While narratives from different generations of migrants (or descendants) may highlight different priorities, all migration stories are transformed into family narratives and thus are part of the story that is repeated intergenerationally. Through their family stories, anecdotes, and memories,

97 individuals and families try to make sense of their lives and their family’s decisions to migrate, the many fractures and traumas that migration produces, as well as the copious new relationships and opportunities it engenders (Ricatti 2018). Knowledge and understandings, including questions on what is known, surmised, recorded or retold of familial migratory journeys provide a useful trigger to initiate personal narratives to explain the changing geographical and temporal contexts that are integral to the construction of cultural identity

(Luconi 2004, Bamberg et.al. 2011). My interview discussion guide (see appendix eight) follows a similar path of enquiry with participants, beginning with asking them the reasons family members left Italy and what they had shared about the first few years of settlement and adaptation in the host country. I then shift the focus by encouraging them talk more directly about their own experiences growing up in an Italian family household living in a dominant Anglo community.

By allowing participants the freedom to narrate their story, I am acknowledging that identity within the same diasporic community is not predetermined, homogenous or static. Rather it is moulded from similarities and differences (Brah 2005). In this way, the methodological framework that supports qualitative research through interview discussion, focuses on the everyday, real-life cultural components, to better understand living within and as part of the real world (Fontana and Frey 2000, Brinkman and Kvale 2015).

Given the personal and reflective nature of the investigation ‘it is highly relevant to engage in qualitative interviews because the topic under scrutiny is something that lends itself to being addressed in the context of a face to face encounter with a focus on verbalisations’

(Brinkmann 2016: 521). While other forms of data gathering processes were considered, the semi-structured interview rather than a questionnaire or a fixed set of questions was thought to be a more powerful tool because the process is dynamic and interactive. A free-

98 flowing conversation is integral to the process but differently to a spontaneous exchange, this type of interview ‘is a conversation that has a structure and a purpose’ (Brinkman and

Kvale 2015: 14). It encourages open ended responses, provides flexibility as well as the possibility to explore themes, to obtain descriptions of the life world from the respondents for the purpose of interpreting the meaning of the described phenomena, allowing the researcher to gather a lot of information in relatively little time (Brinkman and Kvale 2015).

A qualitative research project is always contextual, and reflexivity for the researcher critical in enabling a deep understanding of participant perspectives in interviews (Pessoa et.al

2019). The challenge for me in using semi-structed interviews as my primary source of data was amplified by the fact that I share a cultural heritage with the participant cohort in this study. I well understood that the manner in which I conducted myself during all aspects of my fieldwork would impact my relationships and the level of engagement (responses) with my participants and therefore the efficacy of my data (Brown and Danaher 2019), and the outcomes of my study (Haynes 2012).

As I have said, my participants were informed of my positionality in relation to what is being studied in the introductory circular letter/email to them as potential participants. Those accessing my thesis are alerted in my dedication page and my position is explained in detail in Chapter One, Introduction (section 1.2, page 3) of the thesis. At those points I acknowledge that my family migration narrative, my social understandings and cultural experiences, are similar to those of the participant cohort. Additionally, I came to this research as a woman in her early sixties, who had a middle-class career, living and working from the perspective of a descendent of an Italian migrant. Collectively, within the context of my family, my cultural community, and the broader society, I have always positioned

99 myself within my Italian culture and identified as Italian. This clarity has been central in my thinking about my thesis, beginning in the planning of my project and throughout the data collection and analysis stages.

During each interview I was responsive to discussions and encouraged each participant to share experiences both freely and openly. My priority was to stay focused, listen attentively and where appropriate (understanding my boundaries) to share some personal information.

I was cognisant that any information I disclosed may have implications for the participant's assessment of me, and what information they choose (or not) to share with me (Adams

2010). My aim was to enable deep reflection on the part of the respondents while maintaining optimum levels of impartiality and objectivity for me as the researcher (see

Kvale 2008, Sarantakos 2012, Brinkman and Kvale 2015). I understood that managing emotion had the potential to be difficult given the intersection of analogous narratives, experiences, and life interactions. Equally, I understood that it was critical to allow participants to talk unincumbered, particularly to be free from any perception of concern in relation to my feelings or interactions with them as participants or what they said in their interview (Adams 2010). Managing overall emotions (both my reactions to emotions exhibited by respondents and my own) throughout my discussion with participants, together with the contextual locatedness and perceived awareness and confidence of the researcher when drawing from a similar background of the participants, added depth to the self- reflexivity of the conversation and richness of the data collated from interviews (Cousin

2009, Adams 2010).

Serious attention was given to the use of focus groups as the fieldwork tool, because they too can provide data quickly and can be more time and cost effective than one-to-one

100 interviews. However, for this study, a freer conversation was the potent factor and this consideration far outweighed deliberations of travel cost and time. This reflects the work of others, for example, Anthias (2002) who said that open discussion permits participants to share their thoughts, memories and attitudes, allowing them to talk about themselves, the realities of their day to day lives and experiences, thus facilitating the emergence of cultural identifiers through their narration. She concludes that family stories rather than being devoid of social structure and place, simultaneously reflect the reality of individual social positioning, adding that it is best to allow people to talk about themselves, their lives and their experiences, and their ‘identity’ will emerge through this narration (Anthias 2002: 492).

Other researchers (among them Brockmeier and Carbaugh 2001, Byrne 2001, and Chiro

2008) add that more than other forms of data gathering, past personal narratives are optimum sites for the investigation of culture and identity because they provide a rich insight into the reflexive and evaluative self-understanding of the ongoing transformations of cultural and national identification. Additionally, De Fina (2006) states that a focus on personal narratives is appropriate for the exploration of biographical memory to better understand the formation of individual identity through representations of the self from the perspective of cultural heritage. It is from this biographical locus that identity is both constructed and developed, and from where individual participants will consider their actions, reflect, think and determine their sense of being, or feeling Italian or of italianità, and how they then present that in their wider communities.

The significance of family in migration narratives is noteworthy in this study. In part this is because I have made various conjectures on the role of family in participant lives, particularly in the transformations of Italian culture within households and of positioning of family in terms of the importance or otherwise of intergenerational cultural transmission.

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For possible answers on the role of family, I look to the recent work of others. For example, to Elizabeth Stone (2017), herself the granddaughter of Italian migrants to the United States of America at the beginning of the twentieth century, who writes of the strength of narratives within the family, especially in relationship to mobility, and the competing, sometimes conflicting sense of belonging that follows. She concludes that how family members position and characterise themselves in their day to day life is a direct follow on from how they remember family narratives told to them by significant others in the past. Similarly, two others, Marino Leyland (2019) and Capetola (2020) both with Abruzzese heritage, explore experiences living within Italian culture in Australia. Capetola engages with other women to explore their experiences as post World War Two second generation Italian

Australians, while Marino Leyland (2019) focuses largely on her own experiences, but both affirm that family is fundamental to who we are and how we present ourselves to others, with Marino Leyland acknowledging her mother in her work ‘for recounting family stories from the moment of my conception until now’.

Clearly, the past is something to be shaped and reshaped (Shils 1981), where cultural groups living in diasporic communities tell and retell stories about their past and their origins. These stories are unequivocally important in constructing group and individual identities and for intergenerational transmission (Finkelman 2009). More than this, I was also interested in understanding if participants themselves had a sense of being Italian or feeling Italian or their italianità. This was important because I understand that migrant family narratives are never just about geography and place; the broad parameters of the recounts concern culture and identity but each begins with migration and the migration process, where the story includes a sense of belonging as part of settlement and adaptation; settling in one place, but not yet fully belonging anywhere, having distance and perspective, perpetually balancing

‘home’ and where people actually live.

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Participants drew on nostalgic childhood memories and other past experiences, all part of their migrant story shared by elders and recounted by children and grandchildren. Strong emotions were on display during interviews, mostly through language; at times even exposing feelings of guilt at their own indulgences, at other times declaring affection or disaffection for some of the traditions, customs and performances of the early generations.

Emotions were also witnessed behaviourally, the most obvious of which was participants crying at different times during their interviews. Scholars such as Boccagni and Baldassar

(2015) write that refences to the migrant condition in the literature is characterised by the ambiguities and tensions around emotional connections to ‘here’ and ‘there’; adding that ‘at all of its stages, the migration process is characterised by important transformations along the migrants’ life course involving the transmission, reproduction and evolution of emotions in relation to belonging, identity and ‘home’ (Boccagni and Baldassar 2015: 2).

Nostalgia and emotion are common in responses within heritage discourse, because they are an embodied part of dealing with the past, and thus used when engaging about the past

(Campbell et al 2017). Nostalgia is a complex, nuanced emotion, critically important because it motivates active affective practice for participants, where their feelings and sentiments are recruited and mobilised in the present and worked (sometimes for personal, social, cultural and political reasons) in organising a way of thinking about and relating to the past (Finkelman 2009). Nostalgia helps participants to construct the past by remembering and creating images to contrast with and provide meaning in the present.

Whether it was driven by the mild tensions or the more overt displays of prejudice and intolerance in reaction to the politics of fear and xenophobia from citizens of the receiving country at different times in migratory cycles, migration narratives are deeply emotive. I

103 anticipated participant narration of family’s migrant process and life experiences would provide rich data with emotion underpinning and directing the story, evoking the feelings of hope and ambition that their family member/s brought with them. By this I mean that while it is understood that nostalgia can idealise the past, it can also imply optimism, where nostalgic memory can create a social cohesion among individuals who share a connection to a past, and by implication use their shared past to inspire them into the future (Finkelman

2009).

Participation in the study provided respondents with an opportunity for both a cognitive and an emotional experience, addressing feelings, perceptions, understandings and value of their

Italian cultural heritage, while reflecting on relationships and interaction in their lives and the conduits and networks between and within both their Italian and the broader Anglo community. It may even have led some of them to conclusions they were not expecting, or it may have even rekindled an awareness that has been dormant for some time. It is important for descendants of Italian migrants to reflect on and understand their family migration narrative in order to assert their own identity. If they do not they will be relying on others to represent them (Gardaphè 2003) or their culture. Through agreeing to participate in this study, participants had that opportunity.

4.6 The Contention with Personal Narratives

Ricatti (2018) whose work also focusses on migrant narratives, especially those that rely on collective memory from participants who are drawn from a group with similar experiences and histories, warns that because they can be deeply personal, they can be contested, suggesting that human memory relies on fragile processes through which common themes around a sense of identity build to recall sometimes conflicting experiences and memories.

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An unscripted outcome of the recruitment process for this study has been various family groupings (i.e. mother/daughter(s)/father/son/daughter/siblings/cousins etc) among the participants, all relying and reflecting on similar themes and narratives from their own memories. While initially I was a slightly concerned with these configurations given the commonality of experiences and responses, but the cohort overall, including the extended family groupings, provided varied insights; with differently subtle and layered understanding of events within specific time and location emerging. This provided valuable data for analysis and discussion, demonstrating that within the same cultural group or extended family groupings, different generations (or even the same generation) will offer different versions of a shared history (see Fausey and Boroditsky 2008, Robinson 2012,

Christianson, 2014).

Ultimately, memory depends on perception; that is, the position individuals take will affect how they see the world (Christianson 2014); how they interpret the world, and how they remember it when required. As an early stage researcher, I am cognisant that recorded narratives through an interview process are subjective, that there is a need on my part to be accommodating, and that the information provided can be constrained by the process itself.

In recognising the complex, contested and emotional nature of migrant stories, my aim was to provide an opportunity to look at culture and identity through a graduated lens because reflections and life narratives remain of enormous value with the interview providing variation and multifaceted perspectives, on the same events involving the same people.

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4.7 Choice of Research Sites

Participants were drawn from the three locations because these communities attracted the largest numbers of Italian migrants from the Abruzzo region of Italy in the English-speaking world. Argentina and other parts of South America also attracted large numbers (at various times even more than Canada and Australia). However, from early enquires with individuals who had family in South America, as well as through contact with Italian clubs and associations particularly in Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, it was determined that the primary language for most potential participants would be Spanish. Consideration was given to conducting the research in Italian but again, based on the information available I predicted that most descendants were not proficient Italian speakers. Thus, because my language competency extends to Italian and English and not Spanish, and because participants would probably not be able to complete the interviews in English, it was resolved that South America was not a viable option for this study.

4.8 The Interview Process

A significant challenge of the study was to identify convergence and/or divergence in intergenerational and intercultural transmission processes to discover and distinguish if transmission occurred differently across varying temporal and geographical spaces. Usually the migration process involves leaving one setting to embrace another and encompasses three stages: 1) the motivation or reason to emigrate, 2) the logistics of the migratory process, and 3) settlement and adaption which may involve ongoing negotiation of social and cultural norms of the host country. Each of these stages are addressed as part of the interview discourse. The discussion, informed and guided within an identity construction and intergenerational transmission of culture frame (cf. Chapter Three), dissects personal and family memories, to gauge participant interaction as part of an Italian diasporic

106 community, while addressing Italian cultural heritage, identity (and includes regionalism, citizenship and nationality), as well as the emotional and affective impact of a sense of being or feeling Italian or italianità.

The interview process was choreographed to direct participant attention to thinking about growing up in Italian households and then life as adults, to explain decisions or practices identified as markers of Italian identity. Participants were also asked to reflect on visits to

Italy and interactions with family in Italy. In the first instance, the discussion focussed on visits and interaction with family and friends in Italy by parents and grandparents. From there participants were asked about their initial and subsequent visits and interactions as adults, where visits and the associated transnational experience are seen as a powerful metaphor for identity (Giampapa 2001). Language use, naming practices, the role of the church, membership to Italian clubs and associations are also markers of intergenerational cultural continuity, and related to this, marriage or partner choice to ascertain endogamy and exogamy rates. Each was explored as part of the participant discourse.

Another challenge of qualitative research that relies on listening to personal narratives is that the respondent decides what to include and what to leave out. This research counts on the strength of the engagement as part of the conversations between myself as the researcher and participants to understand what was important and significant for them at various stages of their life. Throughout the interview I was mindful of an assumption of prior knowledge on the part of the participants, the outcome of which may have been that information remained unsaid because it was ‘understood’ or taken as ‘given’. When I thought something may have been left out or minimised, I redirected the conversation to delve deeper and encouraged participants to reflect and discuss without any assumption of prior knowledge;

107 the point was reinforced as required. The task was not an arduous one given that I could relate to many aspects of participant’s worldview; placing me in the process shifts the relationship from participant and ‘expert’ to descendants of migrants with shared experiences, enabling a grounded interaction as researcher and participant (Fontana and Frey

2000: 647, Bessarab and Ng’andu 2010: 38,42). Another concern was the possibility that participants may give responses that they felt would in some way be more in line with what

I needed, expected or wanted to hear. Related but different from this was the possibility that the participant wanted to project a preconceived image of themselves or their families, or that perhaps they felt some constraint by the interview situation itself with a person that they knew as an acquaintance, as a paesani or as part of the wider cultural group (Codò 2008).

The interview discussion varied in length, with most being completed within an hour but some extending well into the second hour. The discussion was generated in two parts. In the first part the discussion centred on the fundamental questions of how participants perceive their Italian forebears negotiated cultural boundaries in order to cope with the challenges of migration, settlement and adaptation in their chosen host context in the wider community of Melbourne, Toronto or Pittsburgh (Glenn and Costanzo 2007). In the second part of the interview, participants were asked to talk more purposely about what having a sense of being or feeling Italian or italianità meant to them. During the interview I was not concerned about exact wording or sequence of questions or responses. More importantly, the face to face semi-structured dialogue allowed me the opportunity to pursue other issues related to the themes or as raised by the respondent and to provide any prompts or additional questions that may have been appropriate from the conversation (Merriam and Tisdell 2015).

Within this assistive framework, participants were encouraged to consider and reflect on whether their identity has changed throughout the phases of their life, to elaborate on shifts

108 in cultural and national identification, to think about how their Italian culture impacts on their daily life and if the transmission of cultural heritage to their children or significant others is of value to them.

All interviews were live interactions, but several interviews were completed through Skype or a telephone (Facetime or WhatsApp) call rather than in person. For example, while interviewing in North America, four participants were not in Pittsburgh at the time of my visit, and three Canadian participants were not able to complete the interview at their scheduled time, but all were keen to be included in the project. From Melbourne, five individuals made contact after that groups’ interviews were completed. They too were offered interviews conducted via Skype or the telephone at a time of their choosing. All respondents participating in this way were emailed consent forms, asked to sign, scan and return electronically prior to the interview.

All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed by me soon after the interviews were completed. I listened to the recordings several times before beginning to transcribe. The transcriptions were ongoing but, in most cases, completed within three weeks of the interview. Outsourcing the transcriptions was never a consideration, because each interview provided an abundant and vibrant data source that I needed to absorb. Listening to each interview several times, together with the transcription, both enhanced and augmented my comprehension of the content. Transcribing was emotional; sometimes humorous other times sad, mostly the process elicited memories of similar experiences as those being recounted by the participant.

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I concluded that my participants were comfortable, content, and relaxed, enjoying the process, willingly speaking, and liberally sharing their memories, thoughts and experiences, seemingly free of any expectation or anxiety. I am able to conclude this because: a) they told me, b) I encouraged and continually reminded participants that they were free to stop at any point (none did), c) all responded to my requests for clarification or additional information, d) most have requested a copy of my completed thesis and e) many have maintained contact.

Collectively, they indicated that they enjoyed the experience of the interview to the point that some even verbalised disappointment at its conclusion. On several occasions the discussion continued informally over a cup of coffee, food and other refreshments for some time after the audio recording device was switched off. The ongoing conversation was also experienced during some of the interviews conducted on the telephone or via Skype. Several of the older participants were keen, if slightly bemused at the interest being shown by me in their story. Others were somewhat nervous at first not so much because of the interview process, but because they felt they would ‘not have much to say’, though all were demonstrative in their support, some becoming very emotional when elaborating on why they thought projects such as this one were very important and must be supported. Many asked if they could talk about the interview experiences and pass on my contact details to others they felt might be interested in participating in the project. Correspondingly, during the interview I was particularly attentive to my own emotions including my mood and the general ambiance. I wanted participants to feel welcomed, comfortable and to know that their time and what they were about to share with me was valued. However, as the interviews proceeded, it became clear that mostly my concerns were unwarranted. After their interviews, participants were encouraged to read, review and approve their transcripts.

Seven participants (four from Canada and three from America) amended their transcripts,

110 adding more information and further details. All the Australian participants approved their transcripts as presented.

Feedback and ongoing communication with many participants also indicate that the interview discussion was a heartening experience for them, with some saying that they were reflecting upon areas to which they had not given serious consideration in the past. For some, the interview triggered sequences of events that may have been formative and significant components of growing up in an Abruzzese household in their respective community. Several participants have asked that at the completion of my thesis, I return to present my findings to the wider Italian community where they live; to church groups and to Italian clubs and associations. Additionally, I have agreed to work with several of them to assist with their archival searches to gather more information relating to their family both in Italy and in their host community.

Time and available funding meant I began interviewing participants in Melbourne in 2016, in Pittsburgh in 2017, and in Toronto late in 2018. The shared background allowed for convivial conversations. As the researcher, I was comfortable, at ease, and reasonably confident, particularly when interviewing the Canadian cohort where I had the benefit of the accrued experience from the preceding two years.

Time interviewing in and of itself did not necessarily equate with deep or inversely minimal engagement. I have already indicated that interviews varied in length and that participants were very generous with their time, encouraging me to make contact if I needed clarification on any part their interview or for additional questions after face to face interviews. On reflection, an even deeper engagement perhaps revealing more intimate, novel, unusual, or

111 nuanced perspectives was more a matter of honing of my questions and questioning approach rather than time. For example, questions around family did not pursue, nor did participants disclose non-heterosexual family dynamics. It would be reasonable to presume that in the large urban communities from where participants were drawn, families other than heterosexual (or single parent families) may have been part of the Italian diasporic groups.

Similarly, questions on relationships between the migrant family and Indigenous (or African

American) families while participants were growing up, or stories told to them of such relationships from parents or grandparents lived experiences of family complicity in settler colonialism were not pursued. Drawing from the work of Balla (2019) a more nuanced engagement with descendants of Italian migrants on why their family member/s left Italy could have included questions that explored notions of the cost of that settlement to the First

Nations populations in each of the three countries (and African American in the United

States), and whether descendants knew whose native America or First Nations homelands their family came to or the one they themselves were living on. Balla elucidates the point powerfully when she says ‘it’s hard to remember people if you have participated in their erasure to accommodate your passage to place, home, and the future of your descendants

(Balla 2019: 22).

4.9 Recruiting Participants

Planning to recruit potential participants began in the second half of 2015. Considerable time was spent identifying leaders in Abruzzese associations, groups or other networks in

Melbourne, in Toronto and in Pittsburgh. Recruitment relied on potential participants responding to my initial contact via email or letter. In the Australian and American context this was achieved with the assistance of individuals on location. That was not the case in

Canada, where participants were mostly alumni from the University of Toronto. This study

112 is prone to the limits of all qualitative research, but also like all qualitative research it provides a rich set of material of the broader spectrum of views in the Italian diasporic communities in the three countries. Reflecting on the makeup of the cohort of participants it is important to note that the age of participants ranged from 18 to 92 across at least three generations in each of the national groupings at the time of interviews. Gender representation was relatively balanced to include 43 females and 34 males. The scope in education included participants who had not completed high school through to those with

PhDs. Occupational variance included factory workers to those with professional careers in law, academia, and the performing arts.

4.9.1 Recruiting for Participants in Melbourne

Introductory emails and/or letters were sent to potential participants in Melbourne. The letter provided the project title and a brief explanation of the focus on descendants of Italian migrants from the Abruzzo region of Italy who settled in Australia, Canada and the United

States of America. It clarified that the study will gather family stories to provide an understanding into how people participating think and feel about their cultural heritage and their identity. It also noted that I was interested to find out if participants placed any value on maintaining a physical, emotional or intellectual association with Italy, Abruzzo or the town/village of origin of their parents or grandparents. Where they did, I wanted to pursue if that association was important enough to pass onto subsequent generations of descendants.

The letter stressed that participation in the project was completely voluntary, and that it would involve an interview/discussion with me of approximately forty-five minutes to one hour, which would be audio-recorded. Those interested in participating were asked to make contact via email or by post, although both landline and mobile telephone numbers were included. Initial responses included an email list (names and contact addresses) of potential

113 participants from an active member within the Melbourne Abruzzo Association.

Additionally, pragmatic advice was forwarded by the coordinator of Co.As.It11 in

Melbourne, which led to flyers being placed on the reception desk at the organisation’s head office located in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton as well as the Museo Italiano12 located within the same building. The coordinator also sent flyers to a journalist at Il Globo newspaper13 which resulted in a telephone interview where I provided the journalist with the key elements of my project as well as inviting interested potential participants to make contact, either directly to me, or alternatively through Co.As.It or the Museo Italiano. The outcome of flyers and the article was that many potential participants made contact expressing their interest in being interviewed, some offering encouragement and good wishes but not proceeding.

Importantly, many people sent on flyers and the introductory letter to other family, friends and colleagues of Abruzzese heritage. Each email received from a potential participant was responded to with a ‘thank you for your interest’ email or letter together with a Participant

Information Sheet, Participant Consent Form, as well as a copy of the flyer distributed at the

Museo Italiano and the article that appeared in Il Globo newspaper. No potential participant was contacted after the initial invitation to participate and the information had been provided. A group list was formed from responses and participants were provided with an interview schedule for their consideration. Respondents were also asked to consider where they wanted to be interviewed (e.g. the hotel/ their home, place of work or a café) and when

11 Co.As. It is a not for profit organisation established in 1967 to provide a range of social welfare services in response to the needs of the Italian migrant settlers in Australia. The headquarters was in Carlton; the suburb many Italians chose to settle in when they first arrived. 12Italian Museum 13 Il Globo is an Italian language newspaper published in Melbourne Australia

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(e.g. morning, middle day or evening, weekday or weekend). That information informed my choice of accommodation in Melbourne. A total twenty-six participants were interviewed.

4.9.2 Recruiting for Participants in Pittsburgh

Well before planning for recruitment stage, in September 2014, I was in my father’s hometown in the Abruzzo region of Italy. On a visit to the cemetery (almost obligatory for those visiting family in Italy), accompanied by my elderly aunt and cousin, I was approached by the caretaker who asked for my assistance with an American couple, both of Abruzzese descent, who were trying to locate their grandparents within the cemetery. The Americans did not speak a word of Italian and the caretaker spoke not a word of English. After providing the required assistance, the American visitors and I lingered for some time in general conversation. I was able to establish that they had both grown up in Pittsburgh. I signalled my intention to research descendants of Abruzzese migrants who grew up in that part of America. They encouraged me to make contact and committed to help facilitate the recruitment of other potential participants. With that, email addresses and telephone numbers were exchanged. I maintained contact with the couple through an occasional email or telephone message during 2015. Early in 2016, I emailed the information sheet and consent form, and asked that they distribute the information through their Abruzzese network and Italian clubs and associations in Pittsburgh. They agreed, indicating that they would begin speaking with individuals they described as being ‘key people we know of Abruzzese descent’. They also indicated that they had a very good friend who was a member of the local Italian Club who would be able to distribute information. Potential participants were contacted by telephoned and/or email and forwarded the information package on my behalf by my facilitators. A total of twenty-six participants were interviewed.

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4.9.3 Recruiting for Participants in Toronto

Participants who grew up in the greater Toronto area of Canada, proved to be more elusive and difficult to recruit than either those in either Melbourne or Pittsburgh, so much so that for a brief moment I did consider not including the Canadian component in my data.

Thirty-eight introductory letters or emails were sent to every Italian or Abruzzese association

I was able to identify from websites, my known Abruzzese networks and Abruzzo clubs and associations, but no response was received. In February 2017, on a visit to Abruzzo, I contacted individuals identified as having family in Toronto, seeking assistance in initiating contact with potential participants living in Toronto. Many names and contact details were forwarded to me directly or through a family member, but again no responses were received.

The breakthrough came in April 2018, while I was in Melbourne to present at a conference.

There I met and enlisted the assistance of a researcher of Italian heritage who was a native of Toronto; she was not of Abruzzese descent and no longer lived in Canada but knew others who were. She agreed to forward my biography and information sheet to those she knew.

Many of those contacts then forwarded the information to their various networks including alumni and students at the Italian Studies Department at the University of Toronto and members of various Abruzzese Associations in Toronto. From the responses I received, I was able to formulate an interview schedule, and twenty-seven interviews were conducted in Toronto in early October 2018. Although much later in the doctoral candidature than I had anticipated, I was encouraged because the integrity of the potential empirical data ( three sites) was maintained. Seventy-nine participants in total were interviewed for this study.

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4.10 Introductory Interviews

The Melbourne interviews were the first conducted, beginning Sunday 10th April 2016.

Prior to embarking on the week of fieldwork, two introductory interviews were conducted.

The participants, both male, and known to each other, agreed to meet with me at the same location. Both interviews provided the opportunity for a relatively comfortable transition into a week of interviews. These introductory interviews confirmed what was generally anticipated. Firstly, once the introductory discussion had begun the participants became more relaxed and unperturbed by a process they were not familiar with, and secondly, they affirmed my decision to begin the discussion with a broad introductory question that encouraged a free-flowing discussion, easing both participant and me into the process.

The two introductory interviews also provided valuable insights that informed changes for the subsequent interviews. For example, on the theme of pride, when the participant indicated that they were proud to be Italian; was it Italy centred or Abruzzo centred pride?

Did it reflect a pride in Italian culture, Italian people, or both? In subsequent interviews participants were asked to describe and/or elaborate with specific examples of what being proud to be Italian meant to them, and then I explored if that pride was general or specific to the Abruzzo region. There was also a need to focus interviewee’s responses on the issue of language. As an example, when participants reported that they spoke Italian at home while growing up, that response required clarification. It was important to establish if they were referring to standard Italian or to an Abruzzese dialect. These introductory interviews also confirmed that demographic data needed to be asked for specifically at the end of the discussion rather than attempting to elicit the information incidentally during the interview.

Consequently, all interviews were initiated by encouraging the participants to develop a personal narrative beginning with what they knew, understood or imagined of the family

117 member’s decision to emigrate, their choice of location and the early years in their chosen location (Codò 2008:160) and ended with collecting demographic data.

4.10.1 The Australian Interviews

Twenty interviews were completed in Melbourne from Sunday 10th April to Friday 15th

April 2016. One participant was interviewed in Sulmona, Italy, where she now resides, and a further five interviews were conducted via Skype or telephone after contact from the participants on my return to Sydney. Interviews took place in a meeting room of my

Melbourne hotel, the home of the participants or in a mutually agreed location convenient to both parties. The age of the Melbourne participant cohort ranged from twenty-three to seventy-seven years at the time of interview. As a group the participants were relatively homogenous in terms of background; some were known or were familiar with each other as part of the wider Abruzzese community. Several participants were members of the same immediate or extended family group, and included husband/wife, parent/child, siblings, and extended family combinations. Most participants were born in Australia, with three arriving in Australia as children accompanied by their parents. Each of those had family members already in Australia, two in Melbourne and one in regional NSW. Two of the three were from different villages in the Provincia Di Pescara (6.3 kilometres apart). These two individuals were not known to each other prior to coming to Australia, they met at an

Abruzzese Picnic Day some years after their respective families had settled in Melbourne.

The third was from a larger town in the Provincia Di L’Aquila (29.1 and 34.8 kilometres respectively) from the home villages referred to above (see appendix five for a tabulated summary of the Australian participant profile).

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4.10.2 The American Interviews

Twenty-one American participants were interviewed face to face, with four interviews completed via Skype, and one via WhatsApp telephone call to Budapest, during my time in

Pittsburgh, making a total of twenty-six interviews from Tuesday 5th September to Saturday

10th September 2016. On the Tuesday of that week, I travelled to the home of one of the participants who had gathered several others. The morning was spent making and cooking a pasta lunch. During that lunch, loud and animated discussions ensued on growing up and going to school together. After lunch I interviewed participants individually while the others tended to the washing up. On the Wednesday another participant kindly offered his home office as an interview location and several respondents travelled there to be interviewed.

The remaining interviews were conducted in various locations including homes of participants, coffee shops, and shopping centres.

The American cohort, like those from Melbourne was also relatively homogeneous. In terms of background, many were known to each other with some being quite good friends. Others had family friendships that went back several generations. There were similar extended family combinations, including one husband/wife, two father/son, one father/daughter, and one aunt/niece combinations. The age at time of interview ranged from eighteen to ninety- two years. As a group, the American participants were friendly and congenial, appearing very interested in the project. Several displayed a heightened level of emotion, to the point where interviews had to be paused and time given for participants to compose themselves enough to resume the discussion (see appendix six for profile of the American participants).

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4.10.3 The Canadian Interviews

Twenty-four participants from Canada were residents of greater Toronto and were interviewed there. One lived in Montreal but travelled to Toronto to be interviewed, explaining that he had a daughter living in Toronto and was happy for an excuse to visit.

Another was interviewed in Melbourne where she has lived for around twenty years and the third lived in Fort St John, British Columbia, and was interviewed via Skype from my hotel room. Most other interviews were conducted either at my hotel, at St Michael’s College

Library, University of Toronto, with three conducted over meals with participants and their families. Age of participants ranged from eighteen to eighty-nine, with education levels ranging from minimal school education to postgraduates (see appendix seven for profile of the Canadian participants).

4.11 Concluding Comments

This research study stands on the collation of personal narratives as the primary source of evidence. I formed the view quite early in my planning phase that interactions other than semi-structured interviews would have compromised the integrity of the data. These interviews have been a powerful tool in facilitating open-ended responses. They gave me the flexibility to explore the themes central to this study, and also allowed me to pursue other themes raised during the course of the interview. The personal component has been the key factor in the discussion between me as the researcher and the participant as the respondent.

The narratives have been critical to the way in which participants constructed their identity and how they have negotiated that identity with others. Through this dialogue, I have gained a deep understanding of identity and culture, as well as the significance or otherwise of intergenerational cultural continuity for this participant group. While participant narratives varied in terms of social and historical experiences, the underlying themes were interwoven

120 with similar anecdotes, affirming several points raised in preceding chapters. Principally these include the assertion that Italian migrant narratives remain focused on mobility, settlement, adaptation; that stories of growing up in Italian families were comparable, that

Italian values and traditions, especially those performed through family remain strong, as is transnational interconnectivity with ‘home’.

Having interviewed the majority of respondents in situ, visual representations and performances of Italian cultural heritage by community members were obvious (or highlighted by participants) and virtually inseparable from the wider community in each of the research locations. These were evident in the landscape in signage, writings and broadcasts (Italian language newspaper and other media), in buildings (Italian Catholic parishes, hospitals and aged care facilities, museums), in engagement in learning (bilingual schools, universities, community centres), cuisine, Italian restaurants, speciality delicatessens or designated isles in supermarkets, and in collected iconography on display in the homes of participants I visited. That said, it is important to note that participants were not a homogenous or static group bonded through a shared migratory history and steadfast allegiance to a series of nostalgic or actual cultural values, beliefs or behaviours. For this cohort of descendants, the opportunity to have a voice from which to share the day to day realities of their Italian culture and identity seemed efficacious. Extracts from participant interview transcripts included in the analysis chapters underscore participant voice. That said, as mentioned earlier, I am cognisant of selection bias in that participant voice.

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PART THREE THE ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FIVE

On The Move

5.1 Introduction

Drawing on the concepts of culture and identity, Chapter Five scrutinises the responses of participants in relation to leaving Italy, arriving and living in their country of choice. As identified in the previous chapter, the choice of location was often facilitated or at least encouraged by another person, usually a family member or paesani, making the move both rational and strategic (c.f. Chapter Two). For the individuals and family groups who left, particularly for those leaving before the onset of World War One through to immediately after World War Two, their paesi (towns, villages or nation) were politically factious, economically impoverished, and socially and educationally disadvantaged.

What is explained in this chapter is that by comparison, across the three diaspora where they settled and participants themselves generally remain, communities have been unified and stable, building from perceptions and expectations of others, continually evolving, sometimes incorporating imagined or even fictitious elements (e.g. their understandings) of life in Italy. I argue in Chapter Five that all are the outcomes of the process of their family leaving, arriving and living overseas (see Phoenix 1998, Giampapa 2001, Berry 2003,

Phinney 2003, Brah 2005, Bolaria and Hier 2006, Ong 2006, Iuliano and Baldassar 2008,

Scully 2010).

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The chapter begins with addressing the reasons known or surmised for ancestors leaving

Italy, or other countries settled for work, that formed part of family migratory movements and narratives. In addressing their early years of settlement, participant discussions included descriptions of racism and racist stereotyping from the dominant Anglo or broader community, difficulties associated with separation from family who remained in Italy or elsewhere, loneliness, having to learn another language and the need to adapt to unskilled work, all markedly different to the life their forebears were living in their regional towns and villages in Abruzzo. A prominent feature across participant discourse was the representation of pride in their Italian cultural heritage; such declarations were emotional and unequivocal, evincing the importance of that heritage for them. The chapter also isolates the ways in which participants represent themselves as part of a plurality of diaspora, a distinctiveness that allows them to maintain ties to their region, towns and villages of origin by exploring the combination of factors that have enabled them as descendants, to transform, negotiate and elaborate on who they are and what they value, while reconciling plural or multiple identities. Throughout the thesis I only use hyphenated terms such as Italo-

Australian, Italo-Canadian, Italo-American to emphasise the historical context. This reflects my preference not to use them, but more importantly, it is because my participant cohort did not use them. Indeed, those who referenced them directly, did so to express their emphatic rejection of them.

Analyses of responses help me answers my three research questions. That is, what having a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità means for my participants; the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification across the generations; the significance or otherwise of the transmission of culture intergenerationally for this group of descendants of Italian migrants living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from

‘home’.

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5.2 Leaving Italy

The preceding chapter established that the people of what became Italy have been central to movements of ancient and early modern Mediterranean migratory waves, as well as a launch pad of global movements out of Southern Europe to the Americas and elsewhere in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Choate 2012, Gabaccia 2013). Identity for participants in this study has been shaped by their family mobility. It is helpful to understand how the process of leaving Italy transpired and to be aware of the factors involved in their emigration

(Orsi 2012). Having that knowledge and understanding of the past provides a context to draw conclusions on the formation of identity as Italian, and for descriptions of how Italian culture (thinking, feeling and performance) pervades participant day to day lives (Macintyre and Clark 2004). When discussing what participants understood to be the motives for their family member/s leaving Abruzzo and their choice of settlement location, a multifaceted story emerges of the varied reasons for leaving together with the early settlement and adaptation in their country of choice that has become a strong part of their life narrative. To clarify, I use the term emigrate to mean the act of individuals leaving their homeland (Italy) for permanent stay. It is different from migration which refers to individuals arriving in a new location to live and work or the from the term migrate which is about moving.

Throughout the hundred-year generation span for participants in this study, the economic turbulence of Italy can be separated into several significant segments. Firstly, the Italian people struggled through the post-Unification decades (1860-1880s) which were characterised by minimal benefit and improvement, especially for the peasant and working classes. Then more encouraging periods of economic prosperity were interrupted by two

World Wars, a fascist dictatorship and the period known as the great depression of the 1930s

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(Toniolo 2013). Each period in turn provided the impetus for the sequence of migratory waves from Italy. Being cognisant of this backdrop, respondents typically affirmed that their family member/s left Italy for economic reasons; employment and business opportunities for themselves and/or their children (the ones they had or the ones they may have). For example, one participant told me, using the Italian his father used, he [his father] left ‘perchè ti facevano lavora in Italia ma senza pagare’ [because they made you work in

Italy but without paying you]. Others spoke of women and children having to follow and support husbands and fathers in the hope of a better life, as voiced by one participant who recounted what her grandmother had said to her mother when she asked why she had come to America: ‘bisogna sequire tuo marito’ [you have to follow your husband]. Whatever the circumstances the movement was initiated mostly by men, while for the women and children cultural (and gendered) expectations ensured they would follow and support their husbands and fathers.

The extracts below highlight the mobility of participants predecessors; some describing travelling back and forth from Italy and one host country for several generations, others saying their family had worked in many countries before settling in their selected location.

Responses have been grouped to show the three most common reasons for leaving that were shared across all three cohorts. This being a ‘better life’ and includes greater prospects for employment, business opportunities, politics, or because family or other paesani were already there:

CAM76…my father came [to Canada] because he was eager to have better opportunities, [he] came for a better life…

AUF46…my parents were both born in Italy and came [to Australia] when they were young children…they both came with their parents from Abruzzo…they came to Australia because it was just after World War Two and there was no work over there…

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USM36…like a lot of the other immigrants who left at that time that, it was to find a new life in America…a better life than the country they were departing…

Several participants recounted extraordinary descriptions of circulatory migrations over generations before settling in the chosen location:

CAF57…I was born in Caracas, Venezuela; where my parents had migrated to initially…my dad went to work in Argentina, travelling back and forth from Venezuela to Argentina, then my mother fell pregnant and we went back to Italy when I was a baby…we were there until I was around five years old, then we moved to Toronto…we were definitely citizens of the world, it is quite a story…

USF36…my [maternal grandfather] was born on the boat on the way to the United States of America…my father emigrated when he was about eighteen or nineteen years old…his father had come to the United States to work in construction before him, but he returned to Italy…my father’s maternal grandfather had travelled back and forth to the United States to work in the wine business since around the 1920s…all of my father’s aunts and uncles made their way to the United States and to Canada…so my great grandfather was a circulatory migrant, that was continued by my grandfather with my father being the first to stay [to settle]...

AUM29…I know my great grandfather went to America for a while to work…I don’t know any of the details but I know he went, and then came back with the money he had earned and I guess maybe he bought you know those small plots of land that they have in Italy and maybe his house which is still in the family now…my dad’s parents came straight to Australia, but my mum’s went to Germany for a bit…my mum and her older sister were born in Italy…lived in Germany for about four or five years where another sibling was born and then they moved to Australia…

Others made it clear that their family had a predetermined purpose for emigrating that was formed before they left Abruzzo. For example, in the extract below, the participant explains that their family migrated to establish a pasticceria and pizzeria business in Toronto:

CAF82…we chose to come to Toronto because my mother’s brother was here [in Toronto], he came back to Italy on vacation during the winter and he was very enthusiastic of Toronto, he said there was lots of opportunity, that there was no pizzeria, no pasticceria and he said it would be very good if you want to come…so he sponsored my mother and she was able to bring the family…

In most instances, choice of location was driven by the fact that someone, usually a male

(brother, father, uncle) family member or a male paesani was already there, or they had been

126 facilitated or at least encouraged by someone already settled or intending to settle in the selected country, or by what they heard from returnees or what others in the hometown had heard. The following extracts are typical of many responses, affirming that migration was usually a strategic male centred decision:

AUF77…mum’s uncle […] came here to Australia in 1926 or 1927 and then he bought his family out not sure if it was 1936 or 1937…after the War ended, he returned to Sulmona…he visited all the family and all the relatives, and he asked if anyone wanted to come here [to Australia]…mum and dad put their hand up…mum had just had another baby, so dad had four children [to support]…

USF70…my grandmother came to America to visit her aunt and other paesani and family living on Murdock St, she met my grandfather, they got married in Pittsburgh in 1910…

CAM66b…members of our family had gone to England, the United States, Australia and elsewhere and they would write to us and tell us you need to come…[my dad] was a mechanic and they were looking for a lot of skilled people here in Canada…somebody here suggested that he should come, and he ended up coming…in Canada there was no shortage of work, you could pretty much pick the job you wanted…

After employment and business opportunities, the next most common response as to why family emigrated was politics. Many, especially participants from North America, explained that their elder left for various political reasons:

CAM55…my father fled Italy to avoid the national service…he went to France because he had someone there who had a connection to the wine industry and wine was considered an essential service at that time, so no one bothered them…also, my father was part of Mussolini’s camicie nere and many in his hometown were active partigiani [in the resistance], so he felt he needed to leave...

CAM63a…all my dad’s siblings were in Australia…my mum had a sister and brother-in-law here in Toronto…my father could not go to Australia because of politics, his family were members of the communist party in Italy and therefore denied entry into Australia…he came to Canada instead…

USF63…after World War One, Italy was horrible…both the socialist and the communists were growing in popularity…my great-grandfather was a socialist when the fascist movement began around 1919, one of the first groups they attacked was the socialists…

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It is helpful at this point to summarise the geotemporal differences in mobility that can be drawn from participant responses across the three locations. Firstly, responses from participants residing in North America featured a greater number of movements as part of their family’s narrative, more so than responses from Australian participants. In all probability, this difference can be accounted for in terms of the distance between Australia and Europe, and the cost, both in time and money, of travel between the two continents, making circulatory migration for the most part, impractical. Conversely, and related to this point, apart from business or cultural exchange type programs that began occurring much later, no participant in North America spoke of family or friends returning to Italy or Abruzzo to remain permanently, whereas this was part of the discussion among the Australian cohort

(c.f. the phenomena of returnees (or ritornati) Chapter Two). The impact of both World

Wars (in Italy), and the enlisting in host country defence forces was variously discussed by participants. Such references are cited throughout the thesis and in participant responses

(c.f. Chapter Eight, Section 8.7.1 Citizenship and Loyalty ). Interestingly there was no discussion on family members being placed in internment camps.

Combined, both generation and time spent in the new country, including differences relating to time of leaving Italy, whether that be as part of circulatory process for work or for permanent resettlement, are important considerations when analysing differences in how participants construct their identity and how they negotiate and present themselves to others.

For example, discussion with the American cohort mostly focussed on the last quarter of the nineteenth and first quarter of the twentieth centuries (1885-1925) whereas for Australian and Canadian participants, elders were part of migratory waves that occurred post World

War Two (1945-1975) meaning that American participants were predominantly third and

128 fourth generation whereas for Canada and Australia, most participants were second and third generation (see appendix five to seven).

Overall, the reasons for leaving Italy and the choice of location is consistent with published literature on Italian migration reflecting the sentiment implied by Iuliano and Baldassar

(2008) when they wrote that for millions of Italian emigrants at the peak periods of exodus, migration represented much more than a geographical location or a single national entity.

‘L’America was as much a state of mind as a place’ (Iuliano and Baldassar 2008: 1). It included all the countries that held out the promise of wealth, security and political freedom including Australia, Canada and the United States of America.

5.3 Arriving and Living in the Country of Choice

The physical act of relocation, although undoubtedly harrowing may not have been as challenging as the day to day interactions with the extensive host community as well as the effort of trying to maintain associations with the homeland, both for the migrant and then for their descendants. For many participants describing what they remembered or had been told of arriving and the early years in the country was very emotional, evinced through language used and physiological reaction (i.e. crying, becoming angry or frustrated) during their interviews. Through their reflections of specific events or incidents, participants pulled from their inner most feelings and their memories shaped by social or cultural expectations to describe performative manifestations of their Italian cultural heritage (Seymour 2020).

Drawing on the emotions displayed by participants can help understand how the family managed the dislocation of arriving, the early years living in an unfamiliar country, and the impact of these on the formation of identity for them. In this next section the extracts

129 underscore the emotion displayed by participants and the challenges to their culture and identity:

AUF77…it was a complete culture shock for us...[the family] were not able to find a house, so we had to live in a veranda, half was closed with louvre windows and half was closed with fly screen and so it was exposed to the elements…we had a kitchen, a double bed and a single bed, so we all slept together…our baule [trunk] was our table…packing boxes for chairs…

AUF62a…they were very painful years…very difficult for all…my grandfather had to work for about four years before he could bring the whole family [to Australia]…the work was not all that fantastic, you know working in factories, literally piece work…[living] in a place in Canning St Carlton, it was a boarding house…they had to come here, learn a new language, find work…it was terrible…

AUF46…on my mum’s side my grandfather came first, he came with his brother- in-law [to Australia] and they were here for two years before the family came…the boat arrived in Adelaide first and I think they had to nominate where they were getting off and they chose Melbourne…both sets of grandparents disembarked in Melbourne…they went to work, they worked, they did not talk to people because they could not speak to anyone…I think dad was about eleven when he came out and mum was eight…mum says that as soon as she got off the boat there was nothing at the port, nothing, she got off the boat and said I do not want to be here I want to go back…

In these first two extracts, both women draw from what they themselves remember and what they heard from family members. Both conversations were emotional; with the women using phrases and words such as ‘a complete culture shock’, ‘very painful’, and ‘very difficult’ to describe their family relocation and settlement. Both focussed on their immediate basic needs such as accommodation, detailing living on a veranda with cramped sleeping arrangements, in a boarding house, no privacy, the difficulties involved in finding work and learning a new language. Both women explained that the pressure on all members of the family was enormous, that the interaction between the adults became quite fractious at times leading to many symptoms that today would be considered precursors to the onset of serious mental health issues. The third participant, relying on what her parents and grandparents had shared with her, spoke of the desolation in their new environment, saying

130 that she remembered her mother becoming quite distressed when talking about it to her at different times during her childhood.

The extracts from Canadian participants expressed similar sentiments to the Australians, focussing on hard physical work and crowded accommodation. The extracts begin with an older participant who explained to me that for quite a while he questioned the value of migration process:

CAM76…life was pretty tough in those early years and many times I questioned why we were here…

CAF61…the early years in Canada were difficult...[they] came here knowing that they were going to work but not knowing where they were going to work…they accepted any kind of work that was available…my father [was] a barber but when he came here…he dealt with cement work…he went to work the day after he arrived…it was hard…manual work…[they] came in the month of April but even then, it was cold, he tells me there was still snow…and that it was cold working outside doing hard physical work…

CAM30…my father told me that the first house they lived in was in Downtown Toronto in areas with other Italian immigrants…the address of this house was like sixteen and a half because it was a garage in between two houses that had been made into a house…they lived there…family of six…they also had a renter who was also an immigrant…he was working as a lumberjack…when he was in Toronto he would be living with them…they also had another guy who is now my uncle, he was in his late teens, his family stayed in Italy, but he came with my family and he lived with them as well…they had eight people living in this half a house…my father and my grandfather also told me stories about trying get jobs…my grandfather worked at many different jobs and then one time he saw that there was an opening in Hamilton but he did not have any way to get there so he walked the sixty eight kilometres…he did not get the job, but he got a ride back with a truck driver…

Related to my earlier comment above on time of migratory wave and participant generation, when recounting what they knew of the early years, responses from American participants were somewhat different from those from Australian and Canadian. Many enthusiastically described the economic opportunities available in America when their family member arrived. Additionally, because they lived and worked amongst large populations of Italians,

131 many of whom were from the same regions or towns, these factors seemingly mitigated the difficulties associated with dislocation:

USF90…our family, all these men had skills and when they came here, they were not free a day…they had jobs…they were in the mill working…as soon as they got off the boat, they had jobs…

USF62…in Canonsburg they lived in Murdock Street very briefly and then they bought the house in Smith Street, a beautiful house…during the depression they had a boarder but other than that they did not share the house with any other families…they were very fortunate...they worked the whole time, during the depression and during World War One and Two, thus they had a beautiful home and they were able to maintain it too…

USM53…my father tells me, my grandfather came over when he was nineteen years old and he got a job in the steel mill immediately…he worked there until he had to retire because of illness…fortunately for Canonsburg they were not affected by the depression, the steel mill kept working…we were not affected by the depression at all, or by either of the Wars. America needed the steel; the world needed the steel, and those working in the mill kept their jobs and prospered…

The only exception to the general enthusiasm displayed by American participants was in the extract below, the respondent refers to the momentary ‘adjustment’, but largely, work remained the priority focus for the American cohort:

USF67…it was a somewhat easier adjustment for my parents than my grandparents…it was an adjustment, but they were happy to be working…

Overall responses focussing on arriving and the early years of living in the country of choice powerfully represented both the experiences of those involved and the emotion invoked in the participant recounting them. The discussion from both Australian and Canadian participants of what they knew, remembered themselves or remembered from stories told by parents and grandparents, or what they imagined their elders would have experienced in early years living in the country of choice, were most poignant. The portrayal of harshness was both blatant and consistent. Many provided descriptions of spending what might have been the last Christmas with family in Italy, and then arriving to either the unforgiving heat

132 of the Australian summer in January or February, or the extreme cold of North America, the despairing living conditions, and the hard physical labour. I was moved by the depictions of the current generation conveying what they imagined, thought or knew of the feelings of their forebears. They all spoke emphatically of the sadness of leaving people and the homes they had, albeit they were not alone because in most instances they were in the company of other Italians they knew or with whom they formed relationships with quickly. Still, many spoke of their family feeling lonely if not alone. The sentiments detailed of early years in

Canada and Australia were similarly visceral and dismal.

The time of relocation was significant. Post-World War Two migration coincided with growth and prosperity in the receiving country. Those arriving in Australia and Canada ostensibly relied on material positiveness to alleviate the emotional and psychological adversities. By contrast, the American participants were more positive, all referring to the prevailing economic opportunities that enabled individual family members to prosper financially because the factories where they worked were considered an essential service and therefore continued to operate during World War One, the depression and again during

World War Two.

5.4 How Participants Identify

Most of the participants were not born in Italy, generally not fluent in Italian, and few renewed or had acquired Italian citizenship, yet many of them used the term Italian to describe themselves. The extracts below, two from each research location, reflect the overwhelming responses to ‘how do you identify’; one of the few direct questions asked of participants:

USF73… I am Italian, born in America but I am Italian…

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USF63… I was born in America, but my heart is Italian…when someone asks…I automatically say Italian…I acknowledge that I am considered an Italian American by the general public, yet I answer Italian…

CAM63a…I am 100% Italian… CAF57… first and foremost, I am Italian…

AUF59… I am Italian! Italian! [her emphasis] That is what I say to people…all my ancestors are Italian… AUF53… I have always been Italian…

In the group that follows, again two from each country, the extracts are from younger participants:

CAF21a…I always identify myself as Italian CAM30… I identify as being Italian

USM36… I identify as an Italian American USF36… I identify as an Italian American

AUM23… I am an Australian with Italian heritage AUM29… I am an Australian with a very proud Italian heritage

Drawn across the three locations, to include both male and female participants, spanning fifty-two years over three generation, the above responses capture the essence of how participants identify. Collectively, they reveal the overall consistency in responses. The majority identified as Italian, or proudly presented themselves as having Italian heritage.

There was little variance in their pronouncements, younger participants from Canada and

America chose Italian as the first descriptor, while responses from Australian participants emphasised their Italian heritage.

As part of the discussion on identity, participants spoke of their national (country of birth) and/or their cultural (heritage) identity and, as with the responses above, generally participant comments centred on the cultural descriptor of Italian as the primary influence rather than their country of birth or their county of primary residency. Participant responses

134 expose an elevated awareness or consciousness of their Italian heritage (Bassetti 2003) that propels their choices in constructing their identity. In using words such as ‘automatically’

‘first and foremost’, asseverates the importance of Italian as their cultural identifier. This is known, understood, even obvious, without any need for further explanation or clarification.

Their words also reference the past i.e. ‘ancestors’ and something that has ‘always been’.

The statement that ‘I acknowledge that I am considered an Italian American by the general public, yet I answer Italian’ speaks from the ‘heart’, honouring the past, but also to being confident and strong in affirming a choice in how the participant identifies and denotes herself to others. Responses to questions of identity for this group did not suggest that participants saw it as fixed or static. Rather they confirmed that for them, identity and culture are inextricably linked, signalling the complex, multifaceted, and intricate interpretations of identity, though nearly all were unequivocal in asserting their identity as Italian.

The key point demonstrated above is perhaps not surprising. Given the overall perception

(and actual) success of the Italian migrants in all three communities, the enthusiasm displayed by participants, and the fact that across locations, age, gender and generation (even if less emotive language is noted in the younger respondents) all conveyed a similar message of self-assurance and confidence. What is significant in my participant cohort is the consistency in the messaging of the resilience of the sense of Italianness through to the youngest members. A sense of being or feeling Italian was both compelling and deep seated for my participants.

Another element clearly demonstrated in this section of how participants identify is that even where the regional voices or regional specific engagement were not part of the experiences of those in the later generation, each generation avowed their continued association with

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Abruzzo. Their love of Italy was conspicuous. They relished in being associated with Italy, they valued their Italian heritage, and they proudly proclaimed being Italian. For those in the younger cohort, their Italian story was one of heightened celebration. Their accounts being devoid of the burdens of poverty, political disunion, and the societal dysfunction that were part of older participant narrative directly or indirectly. They also savored having a broader ‘European identity’(AUM23), and in being associated with one of the romance countries that gave the world ‘the operas that everyone loves’ (CAF21). Their pride, as well as their foremost prominence of Italian as their culture, attests to the esteem placed on their heritage, which in turn is the consequence of deliberate decisions of elders to share stories, to teach specific skills, to maintain the importance of family traditions, to imbue a sense of what it is to be Italian and their perceptions of what separates Italians from other communities where they live. Lastly, the chapter so far has shown how the commentary of the younger participants is an exemplification of intergenerational cultural transmission.

There were those whose response to questions of identity were more contextual and situational, but these were few. For example, in the first group below, older participants who arrived in their adolescent years reference time. How they describe themselves reflects the time in the country as well as life’s milestones from arrival as migrants to citizens of their country of residence:

AUF77…I guess I should call myself Australian first…yes, I am Italian born, I am Italian, but we have been here that long now that I am seen as an Australian Italian not even Italian Australian, perhaps Australian first…

CAM76…it's a bit of a tricky question in that everyone has their own perception…upon arriving to Canada, we considered ourselves Italians, later as we gained citizenship, we called ourselves Italian Canadians and after many years and becoming part of the mainstream we are Canadians of Italian background…

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From a much younger participant, the next extract similarly signals the importance of time:

CAM18…when I was younger, I would say I am Italian, now I would say Canadian of Italian descent…I completely acknowledge my Italian heritage, but I would consider myself Canadian of Italian descent…

A second type of response signalled participant need to clarify responses depending on who is asking and where they are being asked the question. I have included two responses, both from Canada women to exemplify the point:

CAF52...my association is first with being Italian and then I preface it by affirming where my parents are from, more so if the person asking is Italian…if they know my first name, then they will assume of course that I am Italian and then they would ask if I am Calabrese or Abruzzese and so on…if I am speaking to Italians, I will say Abruzzese but if I speaking to Canadians, then I would just talk about being from Italy…

CAF22…in Canada I identify as Italian…when I am abroad I would say Italian Canadian especially if I am in Italy, I would say Italo Canadese…[they] know that you are not Italian Italian, they can just sense it, so I would say Italian Canadian…

For another group the emphasis was on ancestry and legacy:

USM86…I am an American with Italian heritage…my grandfather was Italian; my father was born there too but he came over as a young boy…I am Italian in the sense that my father and grandfather were Italian…I have their blood, but I am also a proud American…I am a proud Italian American…

Others emphasised their sense of separation while acknowledging their country of birth:

USF70…I have a strong connection to my Italian cultural heritage…it comes out in my thinking…I never think of myself as Anglo…I identify as an American with Italian heritage…

Most evident in the second set of responses above is the incremental growth in confidence, not only individually but also confidence in how participants represent themselves to others.

For example, when CAM76 says ‘it's a bit of a tricky question’, he is referring to the transitionary phases that migrants are subject to; on arrival they are Italian, then with citizenship they are able to call themselves Italian Canadians, finally having earned their place in the ‘mainstream’ they can stand as Canadians and have the confidence to acknowledge their Italian cultural background.

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The next response, from a participant working in the area of performing arts, goes to the issue of normative attitudes and behaviour where the focus is not on their nationality, but on ideas of race founded on degrees of likeness to people of Anglo heritage (c.f. Section 3.3.1

A Comment on Race and Ethnicity) that I addressed in Chapter Three. The participant spoke of ‘not being white enough to be white and not ethnic enough to be ethnic’. This was the only response of this type, perhaps attributed more to his professional role than any societal expectation. Nevertheless, it is notable because it was very significant to the participant:

AUM29…I am a performer, an entertainer…I have always been faced with this issue of not being white enough to be white and not ethnic enough to be ethnic, and for a while it definitely called me to question how much I should own my [cultural] heritage and ethnicity…however, in the last seven or eight years I have said no, this is not going to happen to me anymore…it is now more about owning it and knowing who I am, and where I come from…if it means that it limits the number of opportunities I have, then so be it, I am happy to wear the brunt of that rather than trying to diminish my history…we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go as well…

In the final example, a different response to the majority in the participant cohort was given.

This participant spoke of being Italian but asserted she was ‘the real’ Italian. As part of her interview discourse, she insisted on separating herself from what she perceived to be the usual representation of Italian migrants and their descendants promoted through various media both written and visual, and sometimes by the emigrant (and their descendants) themselves. The representation she referred to involved the image of the semi-illiterate contadini [peasant farmers] who arrived with a cardboard suitcase to escape poverty. Instead she argued that ‘real’ Italians consider themselves a reflection of what they know to be modern Italy (and thus modern Italians); cultured, fashionable, sophisticated, and well- educated people. These attributes are italianità for her. She questioned the authenticity

(Scully 2010) of the italianità of others of Italian descent, claiming it was outmoded and not representative of Italy or herself. Several times during her interview discussion, she

138 appeared to individualise and claim as her own, many of those qualities (other than those above) which are attributed as national traits (Stone 2017). She explained that she and her sister had ‘a different experience’, to other children of emigrants, describing her enrolment in a ‘very Anglo private girls school…very Irish Catholic in fact’, adding that her sister ‘cut a path for Italians at that school because she was not shy about being Italian and proudly so’.

She elaborated that her sister started the first Italian association at the school iterating that

‘we were not shy about being Italian, we were not ashamed of it’. She was insistent that ‘we did not have that you know coming here with the cardboard suitcase only story, that was not our story so were proud to be Italian because we had a different history’. She clarified that her grandparents and her mum went to Toronto for ‘different reasons, for an easier life as opposed to because they did not have anything to eat in Italy, you know what I mean’.

Related to this, the participant told me that by the time she arrived at her high school, her family were ‘quite comfortable economically’ and ‘there was a thing amongst Anglos that whenever they saw Italians with money, immediately you were a mobster, it took on some ugly insinuations and we certainly had lots of that’. What follows is a short extract from her interview transcript:

CAF53…the terminology Italian Canadian really denotes a certain type of my generation, second generation of Italian descent…I don’t associate at all with what that image is, that is why I never associate with the term Italian Canadian…typically they have not held onto the language at all, or they don’t speak the language well, they don’t really know, except for what they hear and see very recently through social media, or understand what it really means to be Italian, current reality of Italy today…I don’t associate at all with that story of my parents came with nothing and I only speak dialect…that is not me, it’s nothing that I want to be, that is not my story…I never actively sought to have [intimate] relationships with people of Italian descent…because there are not many who are true Italian, I don’t relate to those people…when I go to their house it is a completely different situation to what I grew up with…so, I never sought it out…I am a real Italian and a real Canadian…there are not many like me though…

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Questions of authenticity or notions of what may be referred to as elitist views on what it means to have a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità were not evident in any other participant data. One way of assessing elitism is through the application of a discourse of the Italian notions of figura and vergogna. This pair of terms refer to presenting yourself with honour and thus avoiding shame (on oneself or family). In listening to CAF53, my impression was that her comments underlined both figura and vergogna (honour and shame), in that her conversation appeared to imply there was shame in the ‘image of the semi-illiterate contadini [peasant farmers] who arrived with a cardboard suitcase to escape poverty’, and that the honour was in being ‘the real’ Italian. She went into some detail to explain that she and her sister had ‘a different experience’, to other children of emigrants.

That is, they attended a ‘very Anglo private girls school’ and her mother and grandmother migrated to start up a family business and were not part of the ‘working in factories story’.

Intriguingly, there was no suggestion from any other participant that honour or shame were implicated (deeply or otherwise) in what was shared on not shared in the recount of their family narrative. Equally, I had no indication that the public face (or story) that was presented to me by other participants was a curated version of lived experience or memory given some participants were known to each other, even related or friends, and lived in close proximity. Oppositely, in those discussions, deference towards migrating elders and to the legacy of their Italian cultural heritage emanated precisely from their purposeful recounting of the unvarnished and candid stories of work and living conditions, including the sometimes unpleasant interactions with others. For them, there was no vergogna in being poor. If anything, figura was amplified by what their elders had achieved and, in their determination to sustain what they valued in their Italian culture intergenerationally.

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Collectively, the extracts provide a comprehensive summary of the type of discussion generated by ‘how do you identify’ type questions. Reponses in the first cluster exemplify the strong emphasis in being or feeling Italian from participants overall. The next group reflect more nuanced responses by providing explanations that demonstrate changes in how participants identify themselves to others. Respondents were clear to include change, or at least a change in emphasis, as part of their process of negotiation between the past, the present and the future, supporting the idea that identity is fluid, in that how participants identify themselves or how they represent themselves to others is responsive to contextual and situational fluctuations.

The first three examples feature time as the major determinant of identity. Both participant

AUF77 and CAM76 arrived as children to Australia and Canada respectively. In the case of the Australian, her response is a simple numerical one; the majority of her time (life) has been in Australia and therefore she is Australian first. For the Canadian, the vacillations reflect pragmatic shifts in civic engagement (i.e. acquiring citizenship) but for both, decisions on how they identify are the outcome of time in location. The younger Canadian,

CAM18, also nominates time as driving change saying ‘when I was younger, I would say I am Italian, now I would say Canadian of Italian descent’ demonstrating that contextual and situational shifts are symptomatic across generations. Certainly, time is significant, but it is the political and social context that gives the time factor its influence. By this I mean, the older participants, close in age, lived in similarly aligned political systems whereby the mid-

1970s both countries had adopted multiculturalism initiated by their respective governments

(in Canada by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in Australia by Prime Minister Gough

Whitlam). Italian migrants were able to both protect and embrace their Italian heritage while simultaneously claiming full membership of their county of residence, both made possible only through the changed context of multiculturalism, aimed specifically at enhancing the

141 cultural heritage of migrants. Forty years from that focal shift, newer generations as in the third respondent, CAM18, benefited from growing up in a time when being Canadian born of Italian descent is not just accepted, it is also valued.

Differently, the next group of extracts have more of a space (location) and association perspective. For example, for CAF52 there is no doubting that her identity is Italian, but she clarifies that when talking with other Italians, her response is more intimate and familial. The response from CAF22 was typical of the younger participants who had travelled more regularly on university placements or as part of the Centro Scuola e Cultura

Italiana program. Mostly this cohort spoke of it not being necessary to declare they were

Italian when in Toronto because that was understood. However, when away from Canada, in particular when they were in Italy, the opposite applied, they were not ‘Italian’ thus they used Italian Canadian as their identifier. For USM86, his identity is unequivocally determined by biological ancestry; his grandfather and father were Italian and therefore so is he. This grounding within an ancestral template was maintained by many, but it was never presented in a dogmatic or jingoistic sense. Differently, AUM29, reveals a determination to own and acknowledge who he is, and where he comes from, a determination not evident in other responses.

In the final extract in this section, the participant presented herself as what she perceived to be ‘the real’ Italian. Her interview was a standout for me in that she met me at St Michael’s

College Library, University of Toronto; immaculately groomed, arriving in her red FIAT

500. Her particular attention to Italianesque accessorising was very much a part of her identity as a ‘a real Italian’ and how she wanted to present herself to others. How she presented herself also reflects the intersectionality of class and education. This participant

142 cogently argued that her positioning as a ‘real Italian’ reflected the fact that her parents were educated, already operating a successful business in their hometown of Popoli before leaving Italy. In Canada they enhanced that position to become successful and respected in the hospitality landscape of Toronto. For her the real Italian and ‘Brand Italia’ (discussed further in Chapter 8) itself is the outcome of class, education, socioeconomic status, style

(or of la bella figura). The critical point being that class and status enable performance of italianità through expensive objects (e.g. cars) and other middle-class sensibilities.

Working class migrants, on the other hand, may promote their ‘Brand Italia’ diversely and not just through expensive elements.

To conclude this section, while there was variation in language used and in physical presentation which reflected differences in socioeconomic status, education, age and generation, indisputably participants spoke in unison. All responses to the question: ‘how do you identify’, asserted both proudly and passionately a strong sense of being or feeling

Italian or of italianità. Likewise, most acknowledged and explained the transformations of their identity, differentiating emphasis by time and location.

5.4.1 Racism or Racist Stereotypes

While the issue of racism or the application of racist stereotypes were not raised directly by me with participants, most shared their experiences of it, particularly when discussing the arrival and early years of settlement for their family. However, conversely, the impact of

Italian migration on Indigenous peoples in all three counties and in the United States on the

African American peoples was not discussed nor was the idea of Italian migrant families prospering at the expense of these groups. Where racism and racist stereotypes were

143 discussed, it related to the formation of culture and identity for my participant cohort as descendants of their migrant forebears. This reflects the complicity that all migrant groups have in relation to First Nations people, where privilege is not visible to most.

Part of that discussion did include notions of solidarity among Italian migrant groups to mitigate against such behaviour and the idea of a perpetual fear of the African American and

Aboriginal people in Australia, sometimes initiated by parents or grandparents. Across all three locations, and consistently across age, gender and generation, participants spoke of

‘always being together with other Italians’, and ‘hanging out with cousins and siblings’. For this participant cohort, preserving group cohesion works to sustain pride; pride in Italian culture and pride in identifying as Italian. The fact that this behaviour has been maintained by younger Italians affirms intergenerational transmission and cultural continuity. It also indicates, the transgenerational transmission of racism or ideas of race difference.

References to racist notions that propelled policies and practices to dilute, if not eliminate

Italian culture and Italian identity (see Kage 1962, D’Agostino 2002, Moe 2006, Wong

2006, Choate 2012, Hickman and Cavaluzzo 2012, Marino 2019) from the lives of their migrant and early generation family members was shared as part of the interview discussion by most. The extracts in this section address what participants understood happened to their family elders, or their own lived experiences of the political expectations of their youth.

Combined, the responses suggest that those attitudes had a major impact, so much so that they have remained an important component of family narratives for respondents. In this first set, participants speak to what they remember directly:

AUF55a…I went to an all-girls very Anglo school…there were hardly any Italians…lots of Australians…there were four of us and we got picked on…it was hard, very hard…I remember walking to the tram, kids used to steal your bags, not

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steel it, just grab it and throw it down…like you’re here and they would throw it over there, not to scare you, just because you were the wogs…it was wog this, wog that…what can you do…it is done now...but I remember it…

USM57…there was a lot of covert racism while I was growing up…the drive to become Americanised was strong…

CAM73…Toronto was closed minded and harboured lingering bigotry…they called us wop, a pejorative racial slur which implied losers…I often experienced oppressive and intolerant attitudes from the Anglo Canadians…

Several Canadians referred to what they said was an official decree, directed specifically at

Italians, because of a fear amongst the community that groups of more than five men may incite social disorder:

CAM89…I remember the orders of the municipal police who screamed Move! Walk! Move! Walk! at us because it was prohibited to gather in small groups on the sidewalk…it is not easy to understand all the problems that the Italian community had during the 1950s…and I remember them all…

CAF82…there are two streets…St Clair Avenue and College Street…it was mainly Italian…and Italian men they used… you know in Italy they used to stay outside the Bar, four, five men just talking sport, family issues whatever but here a lot of them had trouble with the police because every time four or five would be outside the Bar in St Clair or College the police would say you have to leave, they did not want them to congregate like that, those were the things that were happening in the city, the police did not like that because they thought come si dice [how do you say], the police thought that they were getting together to make trouble…

Others spoke of what parents had reported to them:

USF76…my father told me a lot about racism and how badly Italians were treated by the Anglo American people…[he] was third generation but still he tells the story of when he started school he was put in the back of the room…all the English speaking kids were up the front of the room and all the Italians were at the back…he and the Polaks were always in the back…even in purchasing a home, he was given a hard time, what do you want to live up there for…that kind of thing…banks would not give them loans in this country…

AUF62a…the racism was terrible…my mother remembers that she was a young woman, just after she was married, she was working and there was an Australian lady who used to push her off the bus because she was a wog...there was a hell of a lot racism…

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AUF58…[Mum and dad] said their early years in Australia were hard, they did not know the language, they would get spat at, they would get those horrible, horrible names, our parents had it really hard when they came out…

The most prolific commentary on racism or racist stereotypes was initiated by an 86-year- old man born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. This participant was third generation and identified as an American with Italian heritage. His identity and the person he became, evolved decades after the childhood instances of racism, but still those memories were entwined with pain and remained with him. He told me he had spent some time thinking about what he wanted to say to me and considered it was important to include his comments on racism and racist stereotyping as part of his interview transcript. His reflections on his experiences spanned over twenty years, explicating specific transitions (elementary school to high school to college and to early career). His experiences may not have been uncommon among other participants, but none were so vehement as to include faking an illness to avoid school attendance. Although lengthy, I have included an abridged version because his determination to share his experiences, indeed his insistence, remained with me. I formed the view that the racist behaviour he experienced drove him; he was unyielding in striving to succeed in business and in politics despite it:

USM86…in my fifth grade I did not like the kids’ attitude towards me, so I faked I had appendicitis…out of 185 days of school, I missed 110. I went back to school, [my teacher] had to fail me…but that was the best thing that ever happened because I got away from that gang and I got in with a nice gang…that first group was negative toward me because I was Italian, they thought we were dummies…there were a few more Italians in my second group…I became one of them and I learnt how to talk real good and everything else…. …I was about fifteen or sixteen…I went to West Penn Power to ask for work…I knew Mr McKerracher, and I told him I wanted to work for the summer…he says […] we are not hiring…I said thank you and walked out…on my way out, I met […] coming in, I said no use going in, they are not hiring for the summer, he says, I am going in anyway…he went in and he got a job…I was Italian…he was American… …before I got my insurance job my college professor said American Bridge is looking for a guy and I have recommended you very highly…he set up an appointment…I was fifteen minutes early, and the only one there…about five minutes later this other fellow came in…he was from Pitt [University of Pittsburgh]

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and we started comparing transcripts…my transcript was As all the way through, his was Bs and Cs…even though I was first [to arrive] they called him in first, and when I went in the job was gone…it was blatant discrimination towards me because I was an Italian…. …. while I was a tax collector, I experienced racism from Americans who said they were not going to give their money to a dago…they would not let me into their houses, slammed doors on me and stuff like that…

Sadly, this participant died in January 2019. My first impressions of him as a loving family man, financially prosperous, successful in business, long career as a politician, well- respected individual, content with his contributions to his community through his business and as a representative in state legislature and as mayor of his town were corroborated by those who knew him. I received multiple notifications of his death from many in the

American participant cohort. I was also forwarded copies of obituaries published in newspapers including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Observer-Reporter (Anderson

2019, Crompton 2019). Clearly, he loved his community and was much loved and admired by them, and his early experiences growing up had a profound and lasting effect.

Other participants also spoke, many emotionally, of their disappointment in the negative attitudes, mostly without foundation, that worked to tarnish the group as a whole. Several recounted mafia type stereotypes, their language however suggest much more than disappointment. In the example below, the participant explains that what people said about

Italians made her feel angry, she did not like it and these stories were very disappointing because they reflect badly on all Italians:

USF73…sometimes in the past, when I heard stories of the black hand [mafia] I got angry because those stories damaged all the good things about Italian families…I don’t like the way American movies always portray Italians as the bad guys, especially old movies…even on TV, Everybody Loves Raymond, they are all crazy in that family…

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Some younger participants said that racism was the reason their family kept to themselves:

CAF22…my grandfather often talks to me about his childhood…his parents encouraged him to speak English…because there were a lot of prejudices…against Italians especially after World War Two…he spoke about how he was penalised in class, how his teachers would basically ignore him, give him detention for no reason, call him derogatory terms because he was Italian… they [his family] very much kept to themselves and did not draw attention…

Past racism is not only acknowledged, it is remembered (Hua 2016); for participants the impact clearly persists. While most did not individually suffer the level of racism earlier generations did, the memory of those encounters has become part of their own narrative.

The sharing of the experience by family elders telling their stories, made it difficult to separate those experiences from personal ones (Bennett 2016: 190). Responses featuring racist undertones came from all the three locations, were forcefully articulated and were transgenerational. Children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, still feeling the sadness and hurt directed at their family members and the Italian community more broadly.

Responses exposed the strategies used to counteract racism or racist stereotypes imposed by others, such as staying away from school, withdrawing from interaction within the wider community, and keeping within the parameters of the immediate family, thus mitigating the impact on individuals and the community. References were not made from a debilitating sense of anger or hostility, nor were respondents fixated on those past events. However, they did expose a strong need for their reflections to be noted, acknowledged, and remembered. Participants were united in their desire to honour and respect family elders and the need to remember the lived experience of many of them. Construction of participant identity was a process that very often included the intersection of historical pain associated with the migration, settlement and adaptation processes and all that it entailed.

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5.4.2 Pride in Being Italian

In the previous section racism and racist stereotypes were discussed in relation to the formation of identity. In this next section I explore the response to ideas of pride in being

Italian and conversely, building on my previous comments on vergogna, if there was a time when participants felt embarrassed or ashamed to be Italian. Pride in being Italian was both expressed and experienced by both genders, older and younger participants, in all three locations. The following extracts demonstrate the universality of participant responses:

USF90…I am very proud to be Italian and I cannot remember an occasion when I was embarrassed or diminished my Italianness in any way…I adore all my Italian family…

CAM63b…I feel proud to be Italian every day, there is really no limit to that…not hiding it, just live it…it is who I am…

AUF59…I am proud to be Italian…there was no point in my life where I denied or dismissed my Italianness, ever, because everywhere I went, I had Italians around me, school, work, I am really immersed in the Italian community…

USM36…I have always felt proud to be Italian…I have never downplayed being Italian…I have always felt pride in being Italian…I always felt our family had traditions that a lot of the other kids in school did not have…it is a sense of pride for me and always was, definitely…

AUM29…I can say that I am absolutely proud to be Italian…

CAF21…I acknowledge [and] I am very proud of my Italian heritage…I am happy to talk about it as much as anyone will let me…I have never hid or diminished my Italian heritage in any way…never…I never felt out of place and always felt proud of being Italian…for me and my siblings we have never been ashamed of it or tried to hide it or anything like that…a lot of third generation Italians who are friends of mine, they feel the same way…

Pride in being Italian was unambiguous. There was no doubt in their responses, participants were steadfast, the language was explicit. Participants across all ages were emphatic, emotional and passionate. Words such as ‘adore’, ‘always’ and ‘absolutely’, projecting seemingly limitless esteem, admiration, even reverence, directed at their migrant forebears.

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Each generational cohort shared memories; all an embodiment of past experiences that have become a part of family folklore, used to invoke, share, preserve and transmit Italian culture and identity intergenerationally. This group of descendants also feel enormous pride in the courage displayed by family members in migrating and against racism in the first instance, then in the achievements and success of their relocation and the resultant life they are able to live today; a direct consequence of that decision. Being immersed in cultural traditions and surrounded by likeminded people who share a similar heritage has been significant for them. Universally, participants were able to feel great pride because their social interactions were self-affirming. Their sense of pride was continually reinforced by those with similar cultural and social norms and thus the integrity of that pride was never questioned, enabling them to confidently maintain social interactions both privately and publicly, patterned to reproduce cultural practices that were transmitted intergenerationally. This point is underscored through the consistently repeated words and phrases such as ‘always’, ‘never downplayed’, ‘just live it’ and ‘it is who I am’.

Participants did separate place of birth and culture in answers to questions on identity. For example:

CAM73…I believe strongly in maintaining culture: language, food and tradition…I separate what I call nationalism and citizenship…I believe in creating our identity as Italian Canadian, Italian Australian or whatever…as a citizen I am Canadian first, culturally I am Italian first…

CAM63a…my culture is Italian, my genes, my blood is 100%...Italia è la mamma [Italy is the mother], Canada è la matrigna [Canada is the stepmother]…you can love both deeply and equally…I am grateful to Canada, but I am Italian by culture…

CAM55… I am Canadian with Italian culture…I have a strong connection with Italian culture, and I made deliberate decisions to continue it…I am strongly connected to Italy the country, and to my Italian culture…it is a hobby of mine to understand culture, especially our culture. I enjoy it…I have been back many times…I have watched the evolution of Italy with great interest…we have Italian studies at the University of Toronto, and they publish newsletters regularly…I keep

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an eye out for those, and I read them with interest…that is why I say I am Canadian with Italian culture…

The idea that ‘I am a national of my host country, but I am culturally Italian’ was strong.

This was most evident in responses from North American participants, with several reinforcing that nationality is about place of birth; but culture and heritage is what differentiates, and thus is of interest to those who ask the question, unanimously concluding that this distinction was what drove how they identify themselves to others. As with the section before, the responses were constructed around pride; pride in being Italian and pride in their cultural heritage. Pride in their Italian culture usurped their acknowledgement and gratitude of being citizens of their country of birth or residence. Culturally they were categorically Italian. Identity for these respondents is personified through their lived culture, incorporating the overall totality of their thinking, feeling and performance of their italianità.

5.4.3 Hybrid or Plural Cultural Identity

Although descendants of migrants may be in the same phase of identity development, Zubida et.al.(2013) argue that different generational cohorts employ and combine self-identification labels differently, thus for some, identity can be a multiple descriptive concept (Giampapa

2001, 2007) while others choose a single descriptor. Studies that have analysed hyphenated identities as a concept are foremost in critiques of culture as being homogenous and contained. They contend that descendants may shape their behaviours and create an ethnic character that is more transitional in disposition rather than becoming hyphenated, hybrid or inbetweeners. Whatever the circumstances, in a world that increasingly signals transnationally connected communities, hyphenated, dual, hybrid or multiple cultural

151 identities reflect the reality of lives lived for many migrants and their descendants (see

Marotta 2008). This is a reality of lived cultural variance that perhaps includes experiences of social, economic and vocational prejudice, all whilst negotiating and forming identity

(Diminescu 2008, Wirth 2016). During their interview discussions, many of the younger participants spoke of their hybrid parentage:

CAF35…my dad is Italian, and my mum is British…

AUM23…of my four grandparents three of them are Italian…and one is from London…

CAM19…dad was born in Canada [of Italian parents], my mother was born in Brazil of Italian and Brazilian parents...

CAM18…my [paternal] grandparents emigrated from Abruzzo…my mother is Hispanic…

USF18…my grandmother is Polish, my grandfather is Italian, my mother is of Irish heritage.

Collectively participants recognised their hybridity, but none highlighted it in any way other than as part of their demographic data. The focus was on the discussion of their Italian culture and identity. This applied to each generational cohort and across the three research sites. Those of mixed heritage downplayed their ‘other’ as in the Assyrian/Italian and

Scottish/Italian. The only exception was the Canadian who said he was ‘the outcome of an

Irish mother and Italian father’. Thus, plurality reflected parentage and not identity and culture. Multiple cultures were represented in the participants cohort. For example: participants mentioned eleven other cultures (German, Austrian, Polish, Armenian,

Lithuanian, Czechoslovakian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Scottish, Irish, and Portuguese) but none announced themselves as Croatian/American, or a person of Ukrainian heritage. But again, the focus of my work was on Italian culture and identity. My conclusion was that attachment was more to their Italianness. I attribute that to the high value and appreciation that they (and the wider community) placed on Italian culture and identity.

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5.4.4 Not so Hybrid or Plural in Identity

Several older participants also talked of mixed cultural heritage, but only when referring to parentage, they did not speak of having mixed cultural identity as such. Those who spoke of mixed parentage maintained that their Italian cultural heritage was dominant in their life:

USF57…my father is Scottish, and my mother is a child of Italian parents…I sometimes feel bad because my father, in fairness, has quite an interesting background, we go back to the Mayflower, but I feel no connection to it, zero, and I have no desire to be part of it…I have been to Scotland and I would like to go back…when I go…I enjoy it, but I do not feel the emotional connection, I guess it is because we were raised as Italians…

USF62…when people ask [] I do not say I am Italian and Assyrian, I just say I am Italian because I do not feel any kinship to the other half of me…

In their responses, participants used emotional terms, not political or civic, to describe their mixed parentage i.e. ‘sometimes I feel bad’. Participants said they had no desire to be part of the other part of their mixed ancestry mainly because they had no connection to that part of them. The one exception was a Canadian who acknowledged his Italian and Irish parentage equally:

CAM38…we are all part Italian…all of us [siblings] would agree but I am who I am because I grew up in Canada with an Irish mum…

However, he added ‘except during the World Cup and then I become Italian’. Clearly descendants of migrants who live in more than one, sometimes multiple cultural worlds can define themselves separately by relying on reference points that are different from that of the dominant culture (Wirth 2016). Within this context, the reality of day to day life is managing mixed cultural heritage. For this participant cohort, plurality reflected parentage and not identity or culture, with no recognition of hyphenated identity in a formal sense.

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CAM55…intellectually I don’t feel I can say that I am a hyphenated person…you are a fully developed person that has a particular life experience… that is why I say I am Canadian with Italian culture…

They acknowledged host country association, that is, their place of birth, but for most the primary marker of their identity was Italian, with notions of hybridity being rejected for an assertion of Italian culture. For them Italian culture constructed their identity, it was their way of life, ‘we were raised as Italians’ that was the way they represented themselves and the way they wanted to be seen by others. This outcome is not difficult to understand, given that hyphen or hybrid identity may (or may not) be positive (Hirsch 2018).

Questions of motivation and application need to be considered. That is, are those that hyphenate their identity doing so to minimise (do not feel a strong sense of attachment or belonging) or are they exaggerating an aspect of their identity (to claim citizenship in the broadest sense) of the host country? The hyphenated identity is a creation of the dominant society paradigm that regarded migrants as being apart from themselves (Gallo 1981), they offer a binary but not equal solution. However, the realities of twenty first century life are complex, requiring an intricate and inclusive discussion. For some the term hyphenated identity is dated and similarly to notions of assimilation and acculturation has limited (if any) authority for them; it does not represent the globalised and interconnected world that they and most people live in. Unlike such multicultural discourses, in the United States of

America, Canada and Australia where a hyphenated identity can be seen by the government and some scholars as connoting a sense of belonging, my cohort across each of the three diaspora communities rejects this mode of identity.

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In concluding this section on how participants identify, thirty per cent said they were Italian solely. The overwhelming majority of the remaining seventy per cent used the label ‘Italian’ in combination with their place of birth, to acknowledge Italian parentage, Italian descent, heritage or Italian culture. Several also enthused a focus on their region rather than national identity by identifying as Abruzzese. Contrariwise, no participant from Australia or America identified as only Australian or American, while two from Canada described themselves as

Canadian (see appendix ten for a tabulated summary).

Another finding that strengthens this study and differentiates this study from earlier research is that participants separated national identity (read place of birth) and cultural identity (read association and belonging).Ninety-three per cent of all participants used the term Italian,

Italian parentage, Italian descent, heritage, culture, or Abruzzese to describe themselves.

Participant’s answers isolate differences and similarities across the three locations, mostly reflecting different migratory waves (i.e. 1890s, 1950s), in response to a direct question on how they identify themselves to others. This was particularly so for those from the United

States of America. Even so, the answer as such did not change across the generations.

As a group, they highlight that for them, culture and identity are inseparable. In fact, intergenerational transmission about this position from my perspective keeps this distinction alive. Overwhelmingly their identity is derived from Italian cultural heritage; their sense of who they are, their belonging, their attachment and how they want to present themselves to others is through Italian culture. This applies regardless of parental place of birth or cultural origin, or their own place of birth, nationality or citizenship. Their Italian culture encapsulates their life. It forms the basis of their social circles within their home, with peers, and their workplaces, reflecting both the reality of their lived circumstances and what is

155 important to them. Their identity is shaped by what they value and the emotional significance of attachment, be that in individual relationship or group membership attachment.

While participants did not situate themselves in the past, they did recognise that who they are in the present, builds on what it is they value, maintain and choose to continue from their past. Thus, their identity is constructed over time (within their own lifetime and intergenerationally) and is inclusive of experiences and life stories, deliberate actions from significant people, and choices made by individuals in response to changing circumstances

(Hall 1990, Romero and Roberts 2003, Ashmore et.al. 2004). For some it did include mixed cultural parentage, however participants were not conflicted by this factor. In and of itself mixed ancestry was not incompatible with promoting Italian as their primary marker. They lived within plural cultures including the dominant Anglo culture but were clear on having a sense of being and feeling Italian and of their italianità. Equally they were able to explain ongoing transformations of cultural and national identification intergenerationally and the importance of intergenerational transmission of Italian culture and identity for them.

5.5 Concluding Comments

Chapter Five, the first of five chapters analysing participant responses, addressed memories, reflections, and recounts of direct experiences of family migration, settlement and adaptation narratives. Reasons for leaving Italy, including gendered reasons (i.e. participants recounting that migration in their family was mostly initiated by men, while for the women cultural expectations ensured they would follow in support of their husbands and fathers) arriving and living in their host country of choice were discussed. In addressing the arrival

156 and early years of settlement for their family, racism and racist stereotyping was discussed.

The impact on Indigenous peoples in all three counties and in the United States on the

African American peoples was not discussed nor was the idea of complicity or benefit to

Italian migrant families at the expense of these groups.

Where racism and racist stereotypes were discussed, it related to the formation of culture and identity for participants as descendants of their migrant forebears. However I remain hopeful that alongside the attitudes of Anglo colonisers, this omission changes. Within this context, notions of solidarity among Italian migrant groups to mitigate against such behaviour, mention was made of the idea of a ‘perpetual fear’ of the African American and

Aboriginal people in Australia. While the lack of insight by my participants was as expected, it is disappointing that such expectation remains.

Differences separating generational groups aligned with time of migration. For example,

American participants spoke at length about their family being able to maintain a good standard of living, even prospering, in the years between the wars and during the time of the

Great Depression because they had secured employment in the steel mills which provided an essential service to ‘America and the world’( USM53, USF62). In Canada and Australia, economic prosperity of the 1950s was part of a post war economic boom but Italian migrants for the most part could still be considered early arrivals in both locations. That said, participant responses did not change across the generations or locations. As a group, participants maintained a strong sense of being Italian, or feeling Italian or of italianità.

Overwhelmingly participant identity is derived from Italian cultural heritage. Their sense of who they are, their belonging, their attachment and how they want to present themselves to

157 others is through Italian culture. This applies regardless of parental place of birth or cultural origin, or their own place of birth, nationality or citizenship. Their Italian culture encapsulates their life. Ongoing transformations reflected life’s realities but unmistakably their identity is constructed from and shaped by what they value in their Italian cultural heritage. The emotional significance of that heritage was high, based primarily on strength of individual relationship or group membership attachment. These findings were consistent across the cohort and the three locations. Though as explained earlier always in relation to a blindness to the fact that their success and love of Italianness in settler spaces is built on

First Nations dispossession and invisibility.

In the next chapter ideas on food, language and on the Catholic church in relation to culture and identity will be discussed.

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CHAPTER SIX

Food, Language and the Catholic Church in Relation to Culture and Identity

6.1 Introduction

During their interview discussion, participants were asked to think about the behaviours that they considered were indicators of their Italian culture as part of their day to day lives.

This chapter focuses on the broad discussion of the key markers recalled by participants.

The three: food, language and the Catholic church, have been grouped together and will be discussed with reference to how they relate to participants’ understanding of their Italian culture and identity. For each participant cohort across the three diaspora communities, it is important to consider these key markers. For example, language and the church in Canada are heavily influenced by both French language and Catholicism. The nation has been and remains predominantly Catholic (Dixon 2009) and has been officially bilingual since 1969

(History of Languages, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for New

Brunswick). In the province of Ontario, Catholic schools gained equal funding from the government in 1984, making them free and open to the general public (Dixon 2009).

Additionally, all three countries maintained assimilation and acculturation policies and practices as well as prioitising ‘white immigration’ as in the White Australia Policy (see

Jayasuriya et.al. 2003, Tavan 2005). And then, to varying degrees each country adopted multiculturalism post the 1970s.

Catholicism, bilingualism, the currency of Italian migration and all things Italian within the wider community, work in concert, embracing, even heightening multiculturalism. The national context therefore impacted directly on the responses given to my research questions to hone in on: a) what does it mean to participants to have a sense of being or feeling Italian

159 or of italianità? b) what is the process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification for them across the three diasporic communities?, and c) what is the significance or otherwise of the transmission of culture intergenerationally? As the chapter progresses, I draw on the notion of nostalgia as a means of explaining some of the ways in which food, language and religion were remembered by the participants.

Without hesitation, participants nominated many behaviours or markers that for them were indicators of their Italian culture as part of their day to day lives. By far the most talked about was food, not just Italian cuisine as such, although many did talk about that.

Participants spoke about food as an instrument used to build relationships with parents and grandparents. Food was the means through which they broadly learnt about their culture, particularly when joining with parents, grandparents, and other significant elders or paesani for preparation of meals during get-togethers. Likewise participants spoke at length on the role of food during the festive seasons of Easter and Christmas, as well as family milestones and celebrations more generally. Related to this, many respondents recounted that cultural memories were activated later in life through their senses (i.e. taste, smells) and that those memories became part of family narratives that they imparted onto their children and grandchildren. The other important markers for them were language including Abruzzese dialects, and the institution of the Catholic Church. My two concepts, culture and identity, will be used to provide an explanation on the impact of food, language and the Catholic

Church on having a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità, and on the process of ongoing transformations of cultural and national identification, including on regional or national association through language, and the significance of the transmission of these markers of Italian culture intergenerationally for the participant group.

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6.2 Food, Poverty and Resourcefulness

As noted, food was discussed in many different ways. In this section I explore participant reflections on food in relation to poverty. Markedly different to the abbondanza

[abundance] of pasta, meat and cheese in Italian food culture today, for Italian emigrants of the late 1890s to the mid-1960s, food was a relatively scarce commodity (Di Giovine 2016).

Two themes common within the Italian migration literature were also reflected in responses from participants in this study. The first was poverty and miseria14 especially when discussed within the context of the devastation of World Wars, and numerous recessions that affected the Italian people at various times in their history. The second is the resourcefulness of Italian families in that basic and seemingly ordinary vegetables are transformed into plentiful and flavoursome meals for family and guests.

These related themes of poverty and lack of food were strongly featured as part of the respondent’s family narratives:

USF36…strength of family is one thing, but more than that I feel is the skills in the home; cooking, surviving on little…I did not grow up with much money…we had very limited resources…I feel that I can survive with very little…I know how to do a lot of things for myself and you know that maybe more to do with my peasant heritage…

CAM65…our parents showed us how to balance ourselves in various places…happy to be able to eat the vegetables they grow in their garden during the couple of summer months…

Descriptions of what participants learnt from their parents and grandparents were at the vanguard of the discussion on food. They spoke emotionally, consistently paying deference to the elders in their family. Moreover, they also spoke of a resilience they learnt from them.

14 Italian word meaning to live in extreme poverty, to be destitute.

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A resilience which was derived from the combined values of providing for the family and making do with what was available, both arising from the central position of food (Du

Chesne 2016). Participants well understood that the various stages of their lived experience were vastly different to that of their non-migrant peers. For them, adapting to living in

Italian families within Anglo dominant communities sometimes meant different priorities, but this was not always viewed as negative; for some it meant that ‘I felt that it [my Italian heritage] made me better than them’ (USF36). This type of comment did not stem from a position of hubris or arrogance. Rather it came from an appreciation that the skills, the values and the attitudes they learnt in the home, grew incrementally from the migrant generation and beyond, enabling them to build a stronger sense of themselves. They embraced being or feeling Italian or of their italianità. The point that food was fundamental to how participants saw themselves as Italians was consistently made regardless of age, generation or location. The extracts below demonstrate that time has not moderated the juncture between food and the formation of an Italian identity:

USF73…family and keeping up the traditions, especially of food, is what I love about being Italian…my father bought a movie camera when they [the camera] first came out…there was always pictures of spaghetti coming out of the mouths of the people being filmed or photographed…always eating…it was all about the food…my grandmother had a friend who would come to the house and they would bake together…we all made things together, that is what they knew…that is what I remember most…look what we did today…I said I would do the interview, so I invited other people of Abruzzese heritage to my home, they have all helped prepare and cook the food and now we are eating the food...that is what it is about…I love cooking, mostly I love how cooking and eating brings people together and keeps them close….that is what it means to be Italian…

CAF21…in this house, we always had food…even now when my friends have issues, [I say] come over, we have food, let’s talk about it, the door was always open…we always had that sentiment, even in St Clair nonno would always have that sentiment…that’s Italian…

Few would dispute the position that food is integral to the structure and worldview of Italian migrants and that for them and their families, food is much more than just sustenance and

162 eating (Barr 1990). Despite the fact that migration is life changing, the identity of Italians living outside of Italy has remained intact because of the interconnectivity around food, where food provides the cohesion of family, values, and heritage (Orsi 2012). The extracts above from women several generations apart similarly assert that for them being Italian is about food. They explain that food was the medium, and through interacting around food, their families built relationships, love and respect within their immediate circles and the wider paesani network. The older of the respondents amplified the point to me when she added ‘I am called Cookie, that is what my friends call me. I was a hairdresser, not a cook, but they don’t call me Hairdresser as my nickname’ (USF73).

Additionally, both respondents (and others) spoke of friendships being maintained or new ones initiated through interaction around food, with USF73 most effusive in proclaiming that ‘look at what we did today, preparing, eating food’ brings people together to achieve a mutual outcome and that is what it means to be Italian for her. The younger respondent was equally voluble when explaining that food enabled her home to become a safe refuge to resolve umpteen dilemmas but more significantly, the ability to achieve this, she attributed to closeness and openness of her family and food, which in turn were attributable to being

Italian. The extracts characterise heightened pride in the foundations that were formed by those who emigrated. Maintained and built on by their descendants, nostalgically drawing on cultural traditions, unity and solidarity around food, both in the past and now in their daily lives, to confirm ‘what it means to be an Italian’ and the world view of ‘that’s Italian’.

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6.3 Honouring the Legacy and Memories of the Past through Food

Memories are a personification of past experiences, triggered by contact with people, specific senses or locations. Sociocultural relationships created by memory and the senses are a powerful tool that can be implemented in the transmission of cultural knowledge across generations (Du Chesne 2016: 16). Many participants spoke of the significance they placed on honouring the legacy of elders, especially their role in transmitting Italian culture through conversations while sharing meals around the dining table:

USF57…we [the family] cook Italian, we eat Italian…we have tried as the heirs of our Italian mother to carry on the traditions instilled in us and most of it is food oriented…most of it is through food…we do the best we can with what they left us…we also have physical things in our homes which give us great comfort, the table you are sitting at has been in our family for over one hundred years, it has been the heart of our family, the table and the food upon it are what makes us Italian…

USM53….everyone was related, even if they were not direct family…everyone got together during holidays and made salsicce [sausages]…vino…prosciutto and salami…all worked together on these traditions and celebrated the holidays together…my mother’s uncle…would have beer parties at his house…in the summer there was always a beer party…they ate the salsicce, salami, vegetables and cut big cheeses and prosciutto, and everybody would sit around and sing Italian songs…the memories are fantastic, truly…you cannot forget that sort of childhood, great homemade or homegrown Italian food, homemade wine and Italian folk songs, magic, just magic…

As alluded to elsewhere, minimal, if any, generational differences were noted. All participant responses reflected the common understanding that food was the focal point for them. In their homes, food represented Italian culture and identity for them as Italians. Older participants may have spoken of eating at home as the only option in the past, however this remained the preferred option for younger respondents, who despite having choice and the necessary resources, still said that eating at home with relatives and close friends was their preference:

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CAF57…I am very good at making gnocchi and various pasta because I spent so much time in the kitchen with my mum, for me that is very special. Christmas, Easter and treating guests…that is what my mum taught me…make people feel comfortable…we focus with friends and family around food and coffee, being Italian is all about that…that is what it was like when I was growing up and that is how I treat people if they come to my house now, good cappuccino, good nibbles and good food…I have tried to pass that onto my girls as well….

Food and its role in family celebrations or at Christmas and Easter were a repeated theme, particularly prominent from North American responses:

CAM63b…life is always about food, friends and relatives…Christmas, Easter are very traditional…Christmas Eve is our feast…

USF67…we maintain all our traditions…the tradition of Christmas Eve the meal with the seven fishes is a big one…

While eating seven fishes on Christmas Eve is a tradition emanating from the southern regions of Italy, making and eating ceciripieni and scarponi (see photo one) is quintessentially Abruzzese, more specifically from the regional town of Sulmona (The extracts that follow demonstrate that for many, the making and sharing of these simple but labour-intensive sweets is ‘even more important’ than eating fish on Christmas Eve, and remains an essential part of Christmas celebrations both in and away from Italy:

USF90…making ceciripieni and scarponi at Christmas…these are even more important than eating the seven fishes meal on Christmas Eve…

USF76…being Abruzzese is ceciripieni and scarponi at Christmas…a real favourite…

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Photo One: Traditional Christmas Pastries

Depicts ceciripieni (outer) scarponi (inner).

An American participant elaborated during a long discussion in his interview not only on the significance of these Christmas treats (ceciripieni and scarponi), but also the ingredients required, saying: ‘mustocotto is used to make scarponi…this ingredient is made from the juice of grapes, traditionally collected on the day you squash the grapes for making homemade vino…without mustocotto there are no scarponi…’(USM58). For him sourcing the ingredient, making and eating the scarponi were all equally important components in the formation and application of his identity as a descendant of Italian migrants and the outward facing exposure of the lived epithet of his culture.

These Christmas biscuits also embody the transnational connection between Italians living in Italy and Italians living as part of diasporic communities abroad. Below I have included three photos forwarded to me by an acquaintance, who while not involved in the study directly, has displayed an ongoing interest in it whenever I am in Abruzzo. The photos show ceciripieni in full production in the home of 84-year-old Maria Cipriani in Sulmona (the ancestral home of many participants across all three countries) in preparation for Christmas.

In the first photo Maria is keeping a watchful eye on her 20-year-old neighbour using a

166 traditional pasta maker to produce the pastry that will be used to make the parcels. In the second photo Maria is forming and filling the parcels with the bottom photo displaying the bounty of the completed ceciripieni. The making of both ceciripieni and scarponi are annual events reoccurring in the homes of Abruzzese, or descendants thereof, in Italy and anywhere else across the world wherever they may live. In and of itself the task is innocuous; the importance lies in teaching the skills and maintaining traditions, epitomising the potency of food in the significance of the transmission of culture intergenerationally and what it means to be Italian, to feel Italian and of italianità for this group of descendants.

Photos Two to Four: The Three Stages in Making Ceciripieni

Photos supplied by Carmelina Cipriani: 18/12/18

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Vegetable plots and gardens were also a significant part of childhood recall for many participants. Several referenced sharing and learning through the garden at their grandparents’ home:

USM57…we would go down to my father’s father regularly…and the requirement from my grandparents was no parents were allowed…we had only grandchildren and we would stay one day…we would work, play and eat…it had an agenda…[grandfather] would pick me up and put me on the roof of the garage to pick cherries from the cherry tree or go work in the garden…there were all toys that he made, wooden Italian toys on the whole…my grandmother spent a lot of time, the majority of her time in the kitchen cooking…the egg man delivered a live chicken, we killed the chicken, my grandfather showed me how to do that…I made wine with my grandfather…there was a lot of that stuff going on when I was young, and it was good…

Others spoke of their family maintaining considerable gardens:

CAM30…both my parents and grandparents have maintained traditions…they have a big garden that they keep, and they grow all their vegetables…they do all the vegetables like the giardiniera [preserved/pickled vegetables]…they grow and do a lot of stuff like they used to…my dad makes wine every year as well as cheese and all sorts of things…the wine is actually pretty good, it’s better than it used to be, he got better at it….

Sharing food from the vegetable plot with other family and friends was also prominent :

USM65….he [my grandfather] had a huge vegetable garden…people, other Italians would come from everywhere, all over the suburbs, to get all sorts of plants…it was almost like a mini farm his garden…

As a set, food and food related activities enable the exploration of knowledge and memory, and provide an explanation for adaptation and changes across generations, and the transmission of traditions and cultural knowledge:

USM58…for me growing up…it was like being in Italy, different foods, jobs for different times of the year, that was always big…in the fall it was time to put the garlic in…some guys had chickens…one guy had a goat…milk for cheese maybe, I am not sure…when I was growing up there was a lot of what I would call raw farming type activities, everyone had market gardens…

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The final extract in this section is from a participant who had travelled and worked in Italy as part of his gap year marking the end of his schooling and the beginning of his working life. He recounted to me that his experiences mainly based around food, become a life changing:

AUM23…I definitely love Italian food; the biggest thing [since going to Italy] is my diet has changed…when I lived in Italy, I lost six kilos. I do not eat processed food anymore…most of the food I ate in Italy came from a family member’s garden and I felt I had so much more energy…

Perhaps the interest in and the knowledge of growing fruit and vegetables is not difficult to fathom given that many Italian migrants were contadini [peasant farmers] whose families had worked the land for generations; where intersections of teaching and learning of techniques used in cultivation, sharing excess fruit and vegetables (bartered perhaps), preparing, cooking and eating food with family and friends may have been the norm.

Obviously, the knowledge and skills were subject to revision through generations, however the point is significant because it adds to the explanation of the continuity of a marker of culture that was important for this participant cohort.

As an aside, in the American context at least, it is interesting to note that the proliferation of vegetable plots by Italian migrants may have been the counterintuitive outcome of government intervention. It seems that following World War One, the United States

Government imposed a tariff which taxed imports of foodstuffs from Italy by fifty per cent.

Initially it was thought that the effect of the tax may have been to minimise Italianised food, however Italians began growing (in their back yard as well as farms) and developing food processing businesses. Likewise, the Volstead Act of 1919 which began the era of alcoholic prohibition allowed individual production of up to two hundred gallons of wine per annum.

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Both these pieces of ‘protectionist legislation’ may have facilitated the growth of home fruit and vegetable gardens and homemade wine production for Italian families (Di Giovine

2016) that continue today.

Whatever the case, home gardens and vegetable plots are a place where culture evolves

(Morgan et.al. 2005, Graham and Connell 2006) and the associated activities of food preparation and cooking, are all means through which migrants are able to maintain or (re) establish a sense of culture and identity. The physical reality of the garden may not be a significant set of skills to be passed on generationally, but the values and traditions that flow through working in the garden, provide and inform a sense of belonging grounded in memory and nostalgia, framed to project a sense of ‘home’ in the host country (Brook 2003).

6.4 School Lunch Boxes and other Lunch Time Experiences

The seemingly symbiotic relationship between Italian food and Italian culture has not always been positive. Most discussions with children of migrants who grew up and were schooled in dominant cultures other than their own will include stories of racist taunts directly associated with the visual or the aroma (read smell) of their culturally specific food. This was the case for my participants as well. They spoke of feeling ashamed, embarrassed and angry, but consistent with other anecdotes, experiences relating to food were retold using humour which to some degree enabled them to come to terms with memories of bad experiences. Many older participants freely disclosed the at times traumatic experiences associated with the discomfort of school lunch boxes or the lunch time experiences from their childhood. For example:

AUF64…my mother would come to visit me at school on her half hour breaks from the factory which was not far from the school…she would come with a basket and

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face washer…to make sure we ate and wash our face and hands…can you imagine…I would be mortified…my brother would disappear, his friends would say your mum is at the gate, he would go to the handball courts…my mother would say: I can never find [your brother] does anyone know where [he] is…I nearly died with my frittata sandwich, everyone would say the same thing, you know with the oil and my brown paper bags, what’s that smell…

However, time can be a significant neutraliser. A generation later, the experiences were completely different:

CAF30…my parents lived down the street from both of my grandparents and still do, literally just across the road from the elementary school I went to…my mum’s side lived one house away…at lunch time me and my two brothers would go to either nonna Maria or nonna Pierina for lunch…my friends always thought it was amazing because they would feed us and give us candy…they even called one nonna the candy nonna, it was like Everyone Loves Raymond, but we liked each other, we were nicer families…it was amazing…

The shift in school lunch boxes and other lunch time experiences cannot be overstated. The extracts above show that in one generation, school lunch boxes and other lunch time experiences have swung from embarrassing and humiliating experiences to be avoided to become those coveted by others. The proliferation of Italian eateries, including delicatessens, the popularity of Italian cuisine, and the generally positive traits attributed to those of Italian heritage, have all facilitated that shift, but for those of Italian heritage who were attending school anywhere from the 1930s to the 1970s, the memory of school lunch boxes and other lunch time experiences remains vivid.

6.5 Nostalgia and its Relationship to Food

Many respondents recounted that cultural memories were activated through their senses (i.e. taste, smells) and that those memories became part of family narratives that they imparted onto their children and grandchildren. In this section I am exploring nostalgia and memory and their relationship to culture and identity. Memory preserves and stores knowledge of

171 lived and learnt experiences. It has a spatial dimension that melds emotional, psychological, and physical experiences, to form a mental picture of the past. Memory is also a sensual experience that can be activated by anyone of the five basic human senses at any time. For example, childhood encounters embedded in memory can be brought forward through a combination of our sense of smell, taste and touch, the medium to remember something significant could be an entity as unremarkable as the taste of a peach:

USF73…my grandmother used to can [bottle]peaches, remembering makes my cry [participant cries, is very emotional] I can remember how sweet the peaches were, I can still taste that today and I am 73 years old…but they were so good…in the winter time [my grandmother] would say go down to the cellar and get a can [bottle] of peaches and we would eat them, they were so good…at the time I thought they were good but as I got older, I realised how good they really were…

In this way memories are representative of nostalgic reminiscences, triggered by contact with specific sounds, tastes and scents. The sociocultural relationship forged between memory and the senses is a powerful tool implemented in the transmission of knowledge across generations (Seremetakis 1996, Holtzman 2006). Memory can also adapt, modify or generate new traditions, values and customs as well maintaining the old ones. For instance, to the extract above, I can append that the respondent explained that now that she has grandchildren of her own, she tells them ‘when Granna is gone you are going to know each other’. She added that she has nine grandchildren ‘here [at her home] at a time and I don’t care about that…I make them what they want because that is what my grandmother did for us…I want them to share similar experiences to the ones that I had, because that is what my grandmother did for us’. She does not bottle peaches as such, but she does have cooking and eating days where the grandchildren decide what they want to eat, and they cook and eat that together. The explicit orchestrating of events is in the hope that the grandchildren will all have the opportunity to know each other and to have memories of growing up together and eating Italian food at Granna’s place.

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Collectively, the comments made in the preceding section were extremely evocative.

Participant recounts were emotional to the point where several interviews had to be paused to allow interviewees time to compose themselves. Participant mood was reflective, warm and nostalgic, even when recalling the at times embarrassing lunch experiences at school.

Nostalgia provided meaning and maintained relevance. Nostalgia mobilised memories in everyday activities and built connections across time and generations. Participants were propelled to respond emotionally (Campbell et.al. 2017). Nostalgic experiences provoke and inspire, providing an opportunity for family and friends from multiple generations to work, teach and play together. These days provide newer generations with an opportunity to pay homage to the memory of elders and to cultural heritage while living as part of diasporic communities away from Italy. In summing up this section, I defer to Cinotto

(2013) who offers a model for understanding the ways in which Italians have constructed and transformed their identity through food. He argues that to mitigate against the adjustments of migration, settlement and adaptation, parents insisted that their children remained committed to their Italian culture and identity by participating in ‘gatherings centred on ritual food consumption that brought families together’(Cinotto 2013: 4). These gatherings promoted and enhanced intergenerational communication and strength, concluding that food and nostalgic narratives from parents and grandparents around food provided Italian migrants and their descendants with ‘an enduring sense of themselves as a group with its own history and identity’ (Cinotto 2013: 71).

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6.6 Italian Languages

As noted earlier, language can also be considered as an indicator of Italian culture. Italy has been a multilingual country in that various languages, including dialects, have always functioned within the Italian peninsula. Like all other dialects in Italy, Abruzzo has a distinct linguistic difference from standard Italian influenced by the history, culture and geography of the Abruzzo region. The many years of invasion and occupation created individual city states and the regional dialects influenced the language of the Abruzzese people (Bruno

2017). To some extent, language contributed to the fragmentation of Italian national identity. This was because local dialects were the ‘native’ language for most migrants (and subsequently for their descendants), making communication and cohesion between and within the diaspora difficult (Tirabassi 2002). Fragmentation ensured attachment to regions as well as the shift to English, when communicating with people other than those who understood your regional language. At the onset of the migratory waves, barely 2.5% of the population of Italy spoke standard Italian (Edwards 2017), meaning Italians most likely arrived as monolingual speakers of their respective hometown dialect.

Loss of language is a significant consequence for those living in diasporic communities away from their homeland. Language use for descendants of Italian migrants evolves from social interactions with other Italians, and through education. For some researchers, knowledge and use of a home language is considered to be a key component of culture and identity, but there are others who argue that both are an internal configuration that can exist without external behaviour, and thus language should be not be considered essential to identity and cultural maintenance (Berry et.al. 2006, Phinney and Ong 2007).

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Participants in this study were asked about language use within the context of identity and culture. The discussion sought to explore how participants position themselves (or how others may position them), how they negotiate their identities (or not) through language, if they were comfortable speaking an Italian language as part of their day to day activities, and if language was a means by which they constructed what it meant to be a descendant of an

Italian migrant living within a dominant Anglo community (Giampapa 2001). Additionally, participants were asked about language use across discourse sites (e.g. in the home while growing up, at school, at university, with colleagues in the workplace, or when in Italy).

They were also asked to clarify what speaking Italian meant. That is, were they speaking standard Italian or an Abruzzese dialect.

Generally, descendants of Italian migrants learn to speak their family dialect first before they learned to speak English, thus their first language in a chronological sense is a dialect

(Rubino 2014). Many respondents affirmed that they spoke some dialect clarifying that it was the only Italian their parents (or grandparents) knew. Overall, those who only spoke a dialect, added that both at home and in Italy they spoke minimally because they felt that people made a judgment if they knew they only spoke a dialect. In the general process of the shift to English, standard Italian appeared to survive more than an Abruzzese dialect

(although some did say they could speak both). Early years at school were similarly difficult because as children, many reported they could not speak either Italian or English well. This is consistent with Rubino (2017b) who writes that even though in most instances dialect was the dominant language for children, they soon became acutely aware of the need not only to acquire a functioning knowledge of the English language, but also to improve their Italian, which was the language used within the broader Italian community where they lived. This is not only due to the ‘higher prestige and visibility’ of standard Italian (Rubino 2014: 42),

175 but also because many participants, especially those from Canada had completed Italian language courses in schools, community colleges and at university:

CAF22…I learned Italian from my mother and from my maternal grandmother…my maternal grandmother speaks Sicilian to me, she does not speak proper Italian to me…I went to Italian school growing up, I learned formal Italian there…I can speak it…it is not my native tongue, so I don’t have that level of fluency but definitely I am able to converse in Italian for sure…

The personal recounts varied. The reoccurring theme from the early years for many was the belief that economic advancement and success relied on the wider community ‘seeing you as a good citizen’ and part of that meant speaking only English. Notions of bilingualism were discouraged because of a need to be integrated. However, recounts also included stories of households which had strong motivation to maintain language. Mostly this was in response to a desire for children to be able to communicate with family members not only in their own home, but also with family who remained in Italy. For others, the motivation to maintain language was driven by raw emotion, as represented in the words of CAM65 who grew up with ‘this incredible love of being Italian’ which he said meant his family did not speak English, adding ‘they will not…tu parla come mamma ta fatte’ [spoken in dialect and loosely translated to: you speak like your mother made you], being the mantra in his home. Others who spoke of growing up in families who maintained their language were a little more circumspect but still very appreciative of the decision their family had made, as in the words of CAM57, who said ‘I speak Italian thanks to my father…I am glad all three of us speak fluently…I can write, read and speak’.

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A point separating participants in the different national locations was that those from Canada who had the opportunity to do so, spoke of being motivated to bring Italian language into schools, universities and community colleges. The following extracts accentuate the point:

CAM76…my daughter is fluent in Italian…we speak Italian at home…when I was a teacher, I worked to get Italian into public schools, and I taught Italian at the schools I worked in…

CAM73…the Italian community here in Canada is extremely supportive…100%…not one person disagreed that it was a good thing to retain the language and culture…numbers in our classes at the Centro Scuola e Cultura [the name of the community college] have been stable since 1976 when the program was started…we still have about three thousand students, the summer program is growing every year…fluency [may be] decreasing because in earlier years, what was learnt in the classes was reinforced at home…however, I must say that the aim is not really fluency but pride…pride in their heritage…that is the main objective…an awareness of our identity…language and culture are enhanced through travel, so what we have lost [by not speaking Italian at home] we pick up elsewhere, yesterday the language was more fluent but now people travel more so they can build language and they learn a lot of their culture through travel…

Both participants spoke with deep emotion, displaying the love and pride they had in their culture and identity as Italians, stressing the importance they felt in ensuring newer generations were cognisant of their Italian culture. They spoke at length not only of working to maintain the language within their own homes but also of the need to maintain the language in state schools, in universities, but also as part of community programs. For them, pride in heritage was displayed through language maintenance, and their identity and culture are enhanced through language. There were other Canadians who were insistent that there was much interest in studying and maintaining the language (appendix fourteen provides a summary of participants who undertook to study Italian language). This type of discussion was not replicated amongst Australian or American participants. Mostly participants spoke of acquiring Italian though the family. It was the outcome of time spent with grandparents, parents and other family members. Notably for many, speaking an Italian language

(standard or dialect) was not considered an indicator of Italian identity. Equally, not having

177 an Italian language as part of day to day communication was not deemed to be a weakening or waning of interest in cultural continuity. This applied to American participants in particular where overwhelmingly their language use is English:

USM53…people may not speak Italian…but still they are American citizens with a strong association to their cultural history, for me I am an American with a strong attachment to my Italian cultural heritage…

Several participants indicated that at times they spoke what can be best referred to as a fusion of the dialect word, the Italian word with the English equivalent, or an English descriptor. I have included an excerpt below as an exemplar of this point. The extract is part of the participant’s recount of his travel to the town of Palena in Abruzzo to present the Mayor with a miniature replica of a statue of Perry Como, whose family originated from the town and who himself grew up in Canonsburg. When asked to speak to the assembled crowd for the presentation the participant responded:

His words…. English translation…. Io non parla la vera lingua Italiana I don’t speak the real Italian language

Io no parla il dialeto di Abruzzo I don’t speak the dialect of Abruzzo

Io non parla il dialeto di Palena I don’t speak the dialect of Palena

Io parla il dialeto di Canonsburgo, I speak the dialect of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania

USM86 September 9, 2016

The increasing use of standard Italian is a reflection of higher education levels and a general elevation in socioeconomic status, resulting in improved access to financial resources.

Standard Italian is socially more prestigious than dialect, but more than this, the language is

178 needed for communication amongst the multilingual Italian diasporic community wherever they reside (Rubino 2014). Progressively though, use of standard Italian is enhanced through the growth in transnational engagement, interaction with more recent Italian migrants within the diasporic communities, more regular travel to Italy, use of social media, and subscription to both Italian television and other Italian social media including magazines

(Gallina 2011). These points are exemplified in two extracts below, the first from an artist and the second and opera singer:

USM92…I have been back to Italy many a time…I have just finished my forty- seventh year [of annual travel]…I go in the summertime; we use the institute of art there, the Mayor of the town invited me to start a school in his town…he gave accommodation for the students, bicycles…I speak Italian now…I am very proud to be Italian, my word yes…I started a school for the pursuit of Italian cultural studies…

USM53…I go to Italy regularly…I have been there more than my father and he has been there a lot, maybe not as much as my brother [] but almost as much…we are all interested in our Italian heritage, all my brothers and sisters, I am one of six…I maybe took an extra interest because I became an opera singer, perhaps I had a vested interest in making sure I learnt the Italian language…I believe I have an added appreciation of Italian culture because of my work…I am literate in Italian; I speak Italian well…

Use of the Abruzzese dialect and standard Italian for the participant cohort across the three locations reflects and demonstrates the shift from Italian languages to English. In the

Australian cohort for example, 40% of second-generation participants indicated they spoke an Abruzzese dialect and 4% said they could speak standard Italian. That number was halved for third generation where 20% said they could speak an Abruzzese dialect while the percentage of those able to speak standard Italian remained at 4%. Responses were similar for Canadian participants with 40% of second generation saying they spoke an Abruzzese dialect and 11% indicating they spoke standard Italian. The American cohort were the least likely to speak either an Abruzzese dialect or standard Italian (tabularised summaries of participant discussions on language use are included as appendices eleven to fifteen).

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Across the participant cohort, language maintenance was moderate although slightly higher in Canada. An Abruzzese dialect was the most commonly spoken language by participants as children, especially when talking with elderly relatives or grandparents. From the second generation, the dominant language is English, although dialect was their first language, usually until beginning school. Most participants indicated they understood Italian, but there is great variability in their speaking competence. Older participants indicated they can still speak dialect, and when they do, it is with family or friends from the same region. Later generations usually spoke English, but they could revert to the heritage language and did at times when they felt confident in doing so, such as at family functions, Italian celebrations or in Italian shops or restaurants with family and friends. These outcomes are consistent with what is generally concluded in the research (see Rubino, 2014, 2017b).

Of more interest for this study is that for participants, loss of language did not equate to a loss of Italian culture or a weakening of Italian identity. This is consistent with the finding of multiple researchers who have concluded that for descendants of Italian migrants, language does not represent a core component to being Italian or vital to cultural identity

(e.g. Thompson 2000, Smolicz et. al. 2001, Fellin 2007). The exception to the expected shift to English and loss of Italian languages by the third generation were the Canadian cohort whose participation rates in Italian language courses at university and community programs was exceptional. Significantly, across the three locations, language was less about who participants were, and more about where they were. Their language was situational, it was about place.

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6.7 The Influence of the Catholic Church

For most participants when thinking about the Catholic church, the public performances of italianità were substantial. The emotion (mostly nostalgic) associated with religious feste and other rituals, provided a sense of belonging and association and overall, the influence of the church in the lives of participants noteworthy. During the interview discussion, I focused on the level of engagement and interaction between the participant and the church as adults or while they were growing up. I made a deliberate distinction between religion (faith, spirituality and religiosity) and the Church (the institution). Questions about the former were not pursued.

The literature on the Catholic church, with few exceptions, assumes that Italian migrants, whether they were regular churches attenders or otherwise, came from Roman Catholic origins (Sanfilippo 2001). Likewise, religion and the church pervaded most areas of their lives. It was integral to their identity as Italians, a deeply embedded part of their Italian culture, and part of everyday life for them and the wider diasporic community (see Destro

2003, Moreno 2003a, b, James 2006, Ballinger 2016).

However, the reality is that little scholarly attention has been given to the influence of the

Church. Much of the published writing is dated and generated by the Catholic church itself, making these types of conclusions imprudent. The available literature suggests the church did play a role in facilitating the mobility of Italian people mainly in assisting them to settle into and adapt to the host country and their integration into the wider community (Alcorso et.al. 1992). Several researchers argue that the church would have provided a familiar setting, practical assistance and guidance, in the face of cultural displacement not only for

181 the migrants but also to the family members who remained in Italy dealing with the separation and loss of emigration (see also Gallo 1981 and D’Agostino 1997). Others suggest that the church contributed to the resilience not only of Catholicism (Vecoli 1969,

La Gumina 1975 cited in Tomasi 1975b), but also to the preservation of Italian culture as well as helping to maintain an attachment to Italy and to Italian identity that they say would otherwise have been lost for the migrant (Bacigalupo 1975 cited in Tomasi 1975b).

Nonetheless, assumptions on impacts (positive or otherwise) on Italian migrants by the

Church remain largely untested (Vecoli 1969). Where there is evidence that the church supported Italians migrants, for example in the process of adjustment to the United States of

America, the strategy appeared to be driven by a vested interest in Italians becoming

Americans, similar to that adopted for the Irish community. The Irish had to become

American in order to preserve their Catholicism and the Italians had to become Catholic in order to become American (Varbero 1975). In both instances, it was seen as fundamentally important that the migrant was actively guided through the process of acculturation (read

Americanisation) as soon as possible through the local parish, their schools, employment, and politics, by them adopting Catholicism, and thus protecting Catholic American political interests all under the guise of meeting the spiritual needs of the group (Tomasi 1975a,

Gleeson 1995). There are those who assert that the influence of Catholic church increased after both World Wars due to rehabilitation and general wellbeing services provided to veterans, as well as welfare services offered to children of veterans, particularly in America.

On their return, soldiers were encouraged to join the Salesian section of the American

Legion, while their brothers and sons were able to joined the Salesian Boys Club (Caiazza

2015). In Australia too, it is said the Catholic church had a role uniting Italians from

182 different regions by creating Italian parishes with the arrival of Italian priests after World

War Two (Cahill 2000, Paganoni 2007).

6.7.1 The Influence of the Church in Settlement and Adaptation of Italian Migrants and their Families

In this section I focus on participant understandings of interactions between family members and the Catholic church immediately after their arrival and in the early years of settlement and adaptation into their new communities. Several participants spoke of the church as the key cultural institution, with Italian parishes as focal points of migrant community life: a social connector. They spoke of attending church, and participating in activities, not necessarily religious but some were, all organised through their local church. The main points are underlined in the extracts below:

CAM73…during the mass migratory periods, the church had been a point of reference of the utmost importance to Italians who suffered from disorientation and had difficulty integrating into a society, not only very different from their homeland but also often hostile…the church undertook welfare projects designed to mitigate the fundamental hardships, offering comfort of devotional practices and a loving atmosphere…

These comments affirm much of the material in the preceding section. From this perspective the church was a focal point used to mitigate against the dislocation of migration, hostility and racism. The church also assisted in the emotional wellbeing of Italians by offering comfort through faith in a loving and safe atmosphere. But more than this, given the immense exposure and power behind the institution, the Catholic church would have had sway in shaping the identity of Italians through defining the parameters of family as well as exerting influence on politics and thus government (Ballinger 2016). Using the utility of family, the church was able to tap into the broad aspects of culture to affect faith and

Catholicism through Mass and parish schools (see Gallo 1981, Barbaro 2000, Destro 2003,

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Moreno 2003b). Family and schools were also used to promote morality and marriage, and to transmit conservative values promoting duty and responsibility to the broader Italian community through the pretext of facilitating transition and good social and economic outcomes (Ricatti 2011). These points are attested to in the following extracts:

USM58…the church had a big role, still has a big role in my life…I have just come from church now to sit with you to do this interview…aside from going to a public kindergarten, I have been in Catholic education throughout my education years…I was an altar boy since probably third grade…the people I grew up with were all Italian Catholics, the current monsignor is a close friend…two other close friends of the family became bishops…one of those bishops brokered a peace deal between my parents when they were having marital problems, the other bishop took my brother and I under his wing, we worked at his farm, I would say that he was a major part of our lives for at least ten years in primary school, high school and even early college, we interacted with him at different levels…the church and Catholicism was an identity for us…basically everything I did outside of school was in and around the church…that stuff [feste and other Catholic rituals], brought families together…priests would join us at home for various meals…the church, on both sides of the family, was a major part of my upbringing…

CAF22...religion has played a big part; it is kind of integral to what I view the Italian culture as especially…through my nonna…it still plays a big part at Christmas and all the other festive holidays that we celebrate around our faith...

As a slightly satirical aside, the extract below explains the church having an impact on my ability to complete my interviews:

USF67…my mother is a devout Catholic as was my grandmother…my mother is not here to meet you [and be interviewed] today because she has a Legion of Mary meeting…

Together, the extracts, all from north America, across several generations, detail the central role the church had (still has) in participant lives and in that of their families. They affirm the supposition that identity as Italians and Italian culture is constructed and performed through the family and the church. Most notable was the role of the priest in the life of the

USM58 and the assertions that the church remains fundamental in the lives of all three families today. That speaks powerfully to the influence of the church on participant sense of

184 being Italian, feeling Italian and performance of italianità, as well as to the significance of the transmission of Italian culture intergenerationally for them.

The next extract highlights a response that suggests one’s gender had an influence on one’s memory of the Church:

CAM18…religion played a big role in our grandparent’s life, especially for the women…it was a place to go and to congregate, men could go to bars and other places on College Street, and the women would go to church and would participate in church related activities…it was the place to meet or catch up with other Italian women and really get to talk…

While for others the focus was about sport and other social interactions:

AUF62b…the church did play a role in getting families socialising…we all went to church on Sunday and then after church all the Italian teenagers would hang out together…there was a soccer club that was ran by the church…we took advantage of socialising on a Sunday after church or at the soccer match, which was usually played on the Catholic school oval…attached to the parish church...

CAM66b…I liked going [to church] because I used to play soccer with the kids…in the church grounds [when they] came out...I also liked going to church because I saw lots of nicely dressed girls, so it was a pleasing place to go…

Notably in the next extract the respondent adds that she got to know the people in her grandmother’s life, and better understood her interactions with the wider Italian community through going to church:

AU38b…we spent a lot of time on the weekend with our grandmother, which included going to church together…we used to get dressed for church and through going to church we got to see family like aunties and uncles and other Italians who were friends or acquaintances of our grandmother…we would talk to these older people if we bumped into them in the shops or wherever…nonna would introduce us to people and explain who they were and where they fitted into her friendship group…I remember she introduced us to people and said he was here when we first arrived and he did this for us, or she came from a village near mine and we did such and such…it was great really, we got to know our grandmother more and we got to know who the people in her life were and we better understood their interactions…it was really great…after church we would go back to our grandmother’s house and hang out there for a bit…

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From the extracts above, it is clear the church was a conduit for meeting people, to socialise, and partake in activities including sport (perhaps in the hope that Italian youngsters would meet potential marriage partners of the same culture and faith). Mostly however, participants said that the Catholic church maintained its relevance through the provision of practical support and opportunities to celebrate all family milestones (e.g. baptisms, communion, confirmations, wedding and funerals), as well as the annual festivities.

This point is succinctly made in the following:

AUM52b…Christmas, Easter, weddings, baptisms…it was one of those things you identified with quite quickly…it was just part of growing up and going to a Catholic school… all of my education was at a Catholic school bar the last two years…it’s like living in a culture where you take it as normal…it’s something that could be quite foreign to others, but you sort of saw it as a norm and you sort of hung around those people that understood all that, so it was quite normal, you did not think anything of it…it was only when you were confronted with others who did not have that sort of experience…then you started to identify with what you actually grew up with and what you understood…

CAM49…I have a strong connection to my culture…it is very strong…it comes out in our day to day lives…our traditions, like family traditions around Easter, around Thanksgiving and around Christmas. The kids see it every day. We are Catholic, the kids go to a Catholic school, it is part of our history as Italians being Roman Catholic…

Italian culture and identity are highly visible and demonstrable through Catholic rituals, especially feste that usually involve a procession and carrying of religious icons and statues

(Paganoni and O’Connor 1999), many still practiced in parishes. Cleary performance of

Catholicism for Italian migrants changed and was probably profoundly different from what was known or imagined from Italy (Paganoni 2007, Ricatti 2018). Over time, some religious celebrations may have lost their potency, gradually becoming more akin to mild celebrations of multiculturalism, however they remain good examples of adaptation, renovation and

186 adjustments of cultural traditions through the processes of transculturation. These adaptations were noted in the responses from participants:

CAF61…the Italian community were into keeping their heritage…in Italy le feste sono importante so you got people from Roccamorice or from Manopello, that brought that tradition of the patron saint of their home town…eventually they bought a statue [from Italy] and they started having these festicione…for example St Gabriel from the Gran Sasso, that festa was one on the biggest ones and it used to bring busloads of people from all over Canada and the United States…my father used to go to as many feste as he could…my father and his brother started la festa del Volto Santo Manopello…we are up to I think our fortieth year now…we have the mass, we have la banda just like the traditional band in Italy, then we have our outdoor festivities…we were probably the first club in all of Canada that introduced spiedini, [skewered meat, an Abruzzese speciality]…people use to come to our festa just to eat spiedini…we have carried all those traditions…my father passed always seven years ago, as have several other of the committee but we, the next generation, we keep carrying on the traditions…my father told me [] whatever you do make sure you do not abandon our festa…so, they elected me president of the committee…we are eighteen cousins, second/third generation, we had a dinner dance just last Friday…we are into it and we are very proud, we want to continue it as much as we can…

As was the case with food, for the Italian diasporic community feste are a public performance of nostalgia (Bennett 2016). Emotion, nostalgia and determination are demonstrated in the words of the above extract. Together with other paesani, the participant spoke of maintaining Italian culture through community celebrations of feste, more accurately through food, language and the church. She was determined to honour her father and his legacy, to work to ensure that the festa was not only not forgotten but passed on generationally. The obligation was enthusiastically seized, the pride she displayed in working to maintain her community’s culture and identity was palpable and goes directly to the third question in my study. That being, the significance of intergenerational transmission of culture for this group of descendants living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from ‘home’.

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Overall, responses suggest that whether their families attended church on a regular basis or not, the church influenced interpersonal relationships, self-image and underpinned a support system in the face of cultural shock and loss for their family and community elders. It was evident that the influence, particularly in public representations of emotional attachment and belonging to centuries of tradition of Italian culture and identity, has been sustained for this participant cohort. The church was the focus of ceremonies and celebrations, and the regular

Sunday lunch that occurred after attending church. Important ceremonies whether they be festive (e.g. weddings) or solemn (e.g. funerals), provided opportunities for large family reunions within the known environs of the church. Religion remained important for some, for others it was the rituals through the church that were more important. The influence of the church in celebrations and feste, a major part of which is food (Moreno 2003a, James

2006, Ricatti 2018) remains. They provide an opportunity to maintain the link to ‘home’, as summarised in the extract below:

CAM73…with the passing of time, the church is a connotation of the motherland…the external aspect largely prevails. Sunday mass, baptism, weddings, funerals, Christmas, Easter and the feast of the patron saints of villages, and towns of origin, all occasions much revered and honoured with widespread participation…but the sincere emotion that is put forth is related more to ceremonial and social decorum than with any intimate spiritual outpouring…

Religious rites of passage are important more for the opportunity to get together than for their religiosity although this is important for some as well. The associated symbolism of

Catholicism, rather than the Catholic faith, are an enduring characteristic of my participant cohort. It is apparent that Catholicism stays with you (Dux 2021). This symbolism provides the relationship between identity and religion (see Conzen et al. 1992, Gans 1994, Juliani

2017, Stone and Harris 2017). Religion is a means of retaining a connection to culture and thus assists in the development of identity. It is also a way of externally expressing italianità, even if just for a day or an event.

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6.7.2 The Influence of the Church was not always Recounted as Positive

An interesting outcome from the general discussion on the influence of the church came from those participants whose family experiences led to a more cynical association with the church. More recent literature on the role of the Catholic church in the lives of Italian emigrants is partly enmeshed in the process towards unification, in particular in the triumph of the forces of unity over the Papal States, which was immediately followed with the imposition of sanctions by the Holy See to ban participation in the politics of Italy, fuelling the hostility many Italians felt towards the church (Juliani 2017). Barone (2016) is one scholar who challenges the notion that all Italians were uniformly Roman Catholic, writing that many, especially those to the United States towards the end of the 1890s and the beginning of the 1900s, were shaped by the anticlericalism policy of the leaders in the

Kingdom of Italy and the general distrust of the Church around that time, suggesting that in instances where Catholicism did prevail, he agreed with others (see Conzen et al. 1992, Gans

1994, Juliani 2017, Stone and Harris 2017), to say it was more about nostalgic memories involving the traditions of home village or town saints rather than the doctrine of the church.

Certainly, not all respondents were devotees of the church. For some, the anticlericalism stemmed from the church’s political associations:

USF57…my father and grandfather were estranged from the church because Mussolini had the backing of the Catholic church in Italy…I do not ever remember either of them going to church…

Differently, but related, an older Canadian participants reflected on her memory of the church having a direct influence on the mobility of Italians and the maintenance of

Catholicism in receiving nations:

CAF82…I must tell you one important thing about the role the church had…in order to come into Canada you had to have a recommendation from a priest…saying that you were Catholic…I remember there were people who were iscrtitto al partito

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Comunista [registered member of the Communist party] they were not allowed to leave the country, that I remember very well…it was a requirement of the Canadian government at the time of the mass migrations, when you went to Rome to get a visa to travel to Canada if you did not have that recommendation from the priest you would not get your visa…it was a political thing because the Catholic church was always anti Communist, and they knew the people in their parish who may have been communist, they knew who they were…

For others it was the indulgence of the clerics that they rejected:

USM53…my grandfather was vehemently anti cleric and that brushed onto my father..[he] often brings this up and he has made me promise that he is not to have a Christian service…[he] was not even baptised…the main reason for this attitude, my father would say, was that while the populace was starving the priests were always fat…the example he would give was the parable of il dolce del Vescovo [the Bishop’s cake], a sweet loaf made at Christmas time…a tradition of the Abruzzo region that goes to explaining the sentiment felt at times…the story is that the peasant’s wife would save money or not use whatever she had of her own nuts or dried fruits to make a rich Christmas biscuit for the local Bishop to enjoy, the family would go without in order to thank or to carry favour with the bishop, full of nuts and fruits, it was only offered to visiting clerics who would come to give their blessings around this time…it was never something the family ate…my grandfather would also tell me that the priests would come by your house if you missed mass to ask for the family’s donation...[he said] that they had money thrown back at times, with the priest saying this is not enough…

A Canadian participant reflected similar anecdotes, the forebears of both men were from the same town in Abruzzo, however the families were not (are not) known to each other:

CAM66b…the church never really played a major role in our lives despite the fact that my grandparents were typical of old people like when the thunder came [they] made the sign of the cross…religion was never pushed or given a high priority…my grandfather hated priests, my dad’s side are pretty much atheists, my mum was indifferent…but she would get mad when she heard that the church had money and we had to run out of the country and all that sort of stuff…she was very resentful of the church in Italy...I am sure you know the story of il dolce del Vescovo…she also told another story of making strozzapreti [loosely translated as priest-choker or priest-strangler], a pasta that was made especially if the priest was visiting…

It is important to include the extracts above as part of the overall discussion of the influence of the Catholic church in their lives to reveal a different perspective. Compared to the positive emotions of the previous section, these comments expose long held negative associations related to the wealth of the church, more specifically that the peasant population

190 saw no benefit of the extreme wealth of the church, arguably some saw the church adding to the miseria of the populace due to their obligation to make donations and their duty to feed visiting cleric. Participant comments in this section expose the intersection of church and politics with culture for this group. Experiences and feelings dating several generations back have allowed them to create their identity in opposition to the church, an opportunity easily afforded in a society more secular than Italy where the Catholic church dominates and pervades most aspects of life. For these participants, in their host community, their Italian identity was constructed free of those constraints choreographed by Catholicism. Yet I would argue that in some ways representations and performance of italianità are more complex without this scripted religious component.

6.7.3 Maintaining Language, Customs and Traditions through Italian Parishes

Many participants suggested that Italian parishes may have helped unite Italians through the bonds of common faith, religious practices and language. Regardless of their personal perspective, most suggested that formation of Italian parishes in their communities with high numbers of Italians offered (and still do) masses in Italian, helping to link descendants of migrants with other Italians. Additionally, apart from providing masses in Italian, they also promoted Italian culture and distributed printed material strengthening Italian heritage through the church. In support of this idea, La Gumina (2016) writes that in the first half of the twentieth century parishioners tended to identify themselves as members of a parish rather than a neighbourhood and that the parishes provided a means for Italians who wanted to maintain their language, customs and traditions through their church. Some of these points are attested to in the following extract:

USM70…the church is very important to me…I believe it had a role in uniting the Italians in Canonsburg…when we got the Italian priest, every Italian family came to church…there they met people, they chatted and made friends…thirty-eight years

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ago, an Abruzzese priest from St Patrick’s church started a little eating group because he wanted to eat pasta and talk Italian, thinking we should eat and talk about our culture…that little dinner group grew into a three hundred member Italian American Association…an Abruzzese man put this together, it was magnificent…it was all about understanding Italian and most importantly Abruzzese culture…the group still meets every month…it now awards ten scholarships a year to Italian American kids…we send them onto school…the association was a good bonding experience for first [and subsequent] generation Italian American men primarily…many trips to Italy were agreed to via this organisation and many of these people went to Italy in search of their identity…its magic…

Other participants saw the conjunction of Italian identity and culture including language, customs and traditions, promoted or at least facilitated through the church:

USM65…as an adult…we [my wife and me] found a church with a cultural centre attached… Holy Rosary Church, they got funding from the Italian Embassy, so they were able to do major stuff…they always had an Italian priest there…I would not say you had to prove you were Italian or anything, but it was a definite group…the cultural centre…ran an excellent language school…that church became our focus for religion but also the cultural things…you know how Italians are, you might be going to church, but the parties were great too…I mean every holiday after mass everyone went into the hall…they had wine, prosciutto, they had a cappuccino bar, there were so many events in that church hall…musical events, opera, this was basically every Sunday people would congregate in that hall…feast days and holidays, it was a bit grander, but every Sunday people socialised after mass…there were lots of conversations and lots of people sharing their stories, there were different societies that held their functions within the church, like the Abruzzo Molise Society who had dinners and stuff…I remember too, they had a linguist who came to do a study on the different dialects of the parishioners that were still spoken in the United States but had basically died out in Italy…another time a cousin (but everyone was a cousin, it was either zia , zio or cousin), from Italy called to say Francesco, one of the cousins, who was in a chamber type orchestra is coming to Casa Italiana [the cultural centre attached to the church]…we all went to the concert…we got to meet Francesco from our town, and we showed him around…it was beautiful…that church was kind of our anchor…our children, our oldest son he went to the language school, he seemed to really take to it, and he has made many trips to Italy and made friends in Italy too as a result…

For others, their parishes had a role in validating their position in their communities. The premise being that it is not intrinsically about religiosity, rather it is about the institution of the Catholic church and its associated traditions being a vehicle for identity, culture and a sense of belonging. The net effect was that the Italian parishes (whether in Australia,

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Canada or the United States of America) enhanced social, recreational, cultural and business interests of the Italian community. The examples below summarise some of these components:

USF90…we had an Irish Catholic priest in an Irish Catholic parish in the beginning and he was very prejudiced against the Italian Catholics…he did not like Italians…so, the Italians built St Patricks…the church facilitated bonding and provided a networking for the immigrants…each Sunday after church the Italians would gather and chat for quite a while…

USM86…being Catholic in Canonsburg didn’t hurt because it was predominately Catholic…the Catholics did not control everything…the Johnny Bulls [the Anglicans] and the Masons they held everything important and every political position…then Italians started getting into things, we gained control of the council we became the mayor and that broke the ice…

Collectively, participant extracts in this last section, demonstrate that the church through their local parishes, had an important influence in maintaining language, customs and traditions, as well as enhancing business and political opportunities. In the case of the

United States of America, staying in their Italian parishes validated their insider position in the wider community where church affiliation was the norm and provided a process through which they could remain connected to ‘home’ and enhance their identity and culture as

Italians.

6.8 Concluding Comments

This chapter has explored the place of food, language and the influence of the Catholic church in the production of Italian culture and identity for participants. In particular, the idea of nostalgia was used to interpret the interviews. The chapter has demonstrated how food, language and the church were used by families or communities to reinforce and affirm

Italian identity and culture, each enabled the teaching and transmission of aspects of Italian culture, helping participants to negotiate and promote italianità day to day. The outcome of

193 which is that their italianità remains important as an identifier and a separator to socially define and locate them as descendants of migrants, through culture. From what participants detailed, I conclude that participants valued being free to promote and differentiate themselves from others, particularly those in the dominant Anglo culture and that they cherished being recognised by others as being different. Additionally, it was clear that the people, places, events, traditions, customs, indeed most interactions in life that are significant to participants, are remembered because they activate an emotion and a nostalgic memory.

Across all three locations, emotion, nostalgia, and pride in their culture and identity keeps descendants connected to people, to relationships, and to events; both locally and at ‘home’.

Nostalgic memory is an important concept that drives my analysis. It is also what inspires descendants to foster intergenerational continuity of Italian culture and identity. Participant responses are consistent with the work of other scholars (e.g. Orsi 2012, Rubino, 2014,

2017b, Di Giovine 2016, Juliani 2017, Stone and Harris 2017) who have analysed the concurrence of food, language and the Catholic church and the way these three main aspects of Italian culture shape identity. These three aspects of culture are displayed inside homes, around kitchen tables, in gardens, vegetable plots, through speaking their languages

(particularly localised dialects), and through the rituals and traditions of the church including the various feste. These are all places and activities where culture and identity evolves

(Morgan et.al. 2005, Graham and Connell 2006). The practical skills being taught are important, but the values and traditions that are passed on generationally are vital in that they provide and inform a sense of belonging grounded in memory and nostalgia, framed to project and maintain a continued sense of ‘home’ wherever the diasporic community may reside (Brook 2003).

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What is novel in my study because it is underpinned by an exploration of intergenerational cultural continuity is that I found younger participants showed heightened levels of awareness and interest in maintaining traditions, behaviours and practices generally, as well as the more celebratory traditions for feast days, including Christmas and Easter (Schenone

2008, Di Giovine 2010). Identifying as being Italian remains important to younger participants, it provides a point of difference and meaning to their lives. The expression of their identity includes the various components that form their life narrative. Their cultural heritage is about the past (beginning with the movement from Italy), and the future concurrently and thus is a production that is never complete. What is clear is that identity is expressed through an attachment to Italian culture, especially through food, language and the institution of the Catholic church. That attachment to Italian culture may have changed over generations but it has not weakened. Apart from the anger sometimes provoked by the socially restrictive and financially cumbersome expectations of Catholicism, mostly nostalgia underpins the significance food and food related activities, language and the

Church.

For all participants, but particularly for the younger ones, Italian culture and Italian identity are displayed in the traditions and customs that are continually negotiated and renewed to reflect an identity that assumes a cultural reality of living in any and all three locations in the twenty-first century. Food, language and the church provided a means of having a sense being Italian or feeling Italian for my participants. Likewise, they performed aspects of their italianità through all three markers. Their narratives exposed ongoing processes of transformations of culture reflected in their lives and those of their own children and grandchildren. Food and food related activities, language and the traditions associated with

195 the institution of the Catholic church have not waned. They not only remain significant and valued as evidenced by their maintenance within participant lives and those of their families, but what is most significant, is that this study reveals the ongoing strength of cultural transmission in later generations demonstrated through their determination to transmit their

Italian culture and Italian identity intergenerationally.

Younger participants do not have the burden of Fascism, poverty, nor of the continuous flow of new arrivals and the associated responsibilities. Whereas earlier generations were encumbered with lack of financial resources, limited education and skills and the accompanying shame. Having said that, as a group, younger participants did acknowledge these historical factors as part of their family narratives across each research location. In doing so, it did not lead them to shy away from their italianità, rather they embrace it, but they could do so without the reality of being poor, unskilled, and dogged by politics.

Festivities (Easter and Christmas) and other activities such as making wine, salsicce, and salami may have been easier for those arriving in the northern hemisphere because the seasons were aligned and for all three countries the need may have still been there. However, this study affirms that younger generations continue culturally based activities, in all their forms, because they are valued. The shift in attitudes to what was carried in school lunch boxes and other lunch time experiences (c.f. section 6.4 of this chapter) confirms the ongoing strength of cultural transmission. I have demonstrated that the loss of language did not equate to a loss of culture or a weakening of Italian identity. Many of the younger participants were committed to either learning Italian or reengaging with its use. When some younger people spoke of Catholicism, they said that while their interest in practicing

Catholicism may have faded, the institution remained significant as part as their identity as

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Italians and they expressed an appreciation of the role the church played in unifying and comforting their migrant elders.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

The Family, Identity and Culture

7.1 Introduction

The influence of family in the lives of participants was a significant feature of their narratives of diasporic life across the three locations. In order to best understand culture and identity,

I explore key aspects of family, in particular growing up in multigenerational homes with a focus on the influence of grandparents and others, families and education including schooling, families and the choice of partners, and naming practices in families. I did not foreground sexual identity, and this may have kept the discussion in a space where heterosexuality was assumed to be the norm. I made this decision based on the information evolving from the interview discussions. I concede that in all probability this presumption of a heterosexual family as the only one among my participant group at the exclusion of all others does not embrace the complete spectrum of accepted definitions for family. Indeed, we know from the work of several scholars that heterosexuality is not the only family dynamic reflected in the broader Italian community in the three cities at the centre of this study. For example, Maria Palotta-Chiarolli on her own and in collaboration with others, has been prolific in researching the area of family diversity, sex and gender diversity and gay individuals of Italian origin since the late 1980s (see Palotta-Chiarolli 1989, 1992, 1995 and Bertone and Palotta-Chiarolli 2016).

While bearing this understanding in mind, there remains an extensive scope of family life, including gatherings and celebrations, that have been central to the scholarship focusing on

Italian diasporic communities. Family is cited as core to transmitting cultural knowledge and practice, just as food, language and the institution of the Catholic church, are also crucial to maintaining culture and identity for Italian migrant families and their descendants living

198 abroad (Cinotto 2013, Du Chesne 2016, Ricatti 2018).This chapter draws on some of this scholarship to assist in my analysis. Family is used in the broadest sense possible, acknowledging that family may include diverse forms, sex and gender diversity and gay family members even if not specifically referenced by participants.

The family is the fundamental component of socialisation and therefore memory. Family members are the first social context and ‘the people in whose company we make and remember life experiences’ (Erll 2010b: 308). Moreover, thinking about family and stories generated through them is what helps us to understand, explain and remember milestones and significant events as part of life’s phases (Erll 2010b). Family normalises the practices and performances of the diasporic community, the importance of kin and paesani networks, our emotional allegiances and cultural experiences, because they are our earliest encounters.

Family, both in Italy and in the country of residence, remains stable and dominant through the disruption of mobility, and the affective component of their lives. That is, emotional attachment and sense of belonging, is sustained though family, ensuring maintenance and transmission of culture and identity.

Similarly, and this aligns with the findings of Sala and Baldassar (2017), the most powerful symbol for the participant cohort in this study is the shared understanding of the importance of family. For them family was at the centre of their Italian culture and identity. Knowledge of customs and traditions was learnt and performed through family, and families are seen as critical to intergenerational maintenance and transmission of culture and identity. Other researchers (e.g. Baldassar 2011a, Ricatti 2011, 2018) present the family as a site of continual negotiation where members strategically manage the exigencies of day to day life

199 within their wider Anglo communities, while maintaining (and transmitting) their Italian culture and identity as descendants of Italians living away from Italy.

Smolicz and his co-authors argue the centrality of families lies in their cohesion (Smolicz et.al. 2001) and the strength of bonds and connectivity across generations (Moreno 2003b).

That said, most researchers would concede that the family represents a primary focus to be found among all cultures. However in the Italian community, families and the personal value systems constructed within them are key identifiers of the group that transcends all others in the maintenance of culture and identity for them as well as playing a significant role in how Italians and their extended families present themselves as a group to the wider society (see Chiro and Smolicz 2002). The pragmatic reality of more recent discussion extends the thinking around family beyond the predictable and at times stereotypical notions of ‘parochialism and traditionalism’ (Ricatti 2018: 76), to view Italian family values more as ‘tools to perform, negotiate, and justify certain practices, according to their individual, family, and community needs, and within the complex and constantly changing contexts of migration, settlement and transculturation’ (Ricatti 2018: 76).

This chapter provides a clear and decisive picture that analyses how family (in all its miscellany), including extended family and paesani networks operate as the focus of participant life, affirming the centrality of family as a means of cultural reproduction.

Significantly, participants say that crucial to all celebrations, at home and in the community, was family. Family allowed the performance of italianità and all that it entailed for them, and family was where their personal value system was taught, negotiated and performed.

Participants’ primary identifier as an Italian was through family. They identified themselves to others through family, spoke of Italians as a group who identified through their strength

200 of family, and stressed that they maintained their culture and identity through family.

Responses embody the complexities of twenty-first century transcultural families in that many spoke to friendships and intimate relationships with migrants other than Italians, and many of their own families included parents and grandparents from different cultures, reflecting the realities of settler countries.

7.2 Growing Up in an Italian Family

Participants speaking tenaciously about the strength of their Italian cultural heritage in terms of their family cannot be overstated. Participants were profoundly emotional when speaking of their family and the close relationships within them, the activities they participated in, and the people they shared these with. Several points stood out from the commentary.

Firstly, while discussion involved various contexts, family was always at the centre of their lives. Secondly, their inner social circles were made up of other Italian migrant families or descendants thereof. The other families remained primarily from the same or close to the village or town of their own families, and mostly known to them prior to leaving Italy.

Where this was not the case, families were introduced via other paesani or through social activities within the diasporic community. Thirdly, comments demonstrated that family and family related activities consumed most of the hours outside of work and school. When describing growing up in an Italian family participants typically said:

USF63b…the biggest thing I remember growing up is that my family was very family orientated…the family has continued to be like that…we spent Sundays driving to aunts, uncles, compares…that was standard…every Friday…together with another Italian family in town, visit, play cards…have wine and socialise…

AUM50…from what I remember…we got to know our cousins…other people’s kids…there was always people over at our place for a weekend or we used always go to other people’s places… picnics, things like that…it was always a social feeling…I have tried to keep that going with my family and friends now as an adult…

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Participants also spent considerable time explaining that family for them was more than just the immediate members. It included extended family, close friends and paesani who were not blood relatives. The next extracts from women growing up in Melbourne exemplify this point:

AUF55a…we were very lucky we lived in one street and my mum’s two sisters lived at the cross road…I remember as kids, mum would ring up her sister and say: she [me] is coming to play, or if she needed something…my aunt would come out the corner and wait for me…I can visualise my mum outside the door and my aunt waiting at the corner…as soon as I turned the corner she knew her sister had eye contact and she would go back in and I would walk to my aunts or the vice versa…

AUF38a…the people I feel most comfortable with are my family and relatives, even the extended family ones…you can be related without being blood relatives…you can all be part of the same one family…we grew up not only knowing our great uncles and aunties, but they were very much part of our family…we grew up with my mum and my dad’s uncles and aunties and all their cousins too…they were not people who we mixed with once or twice a year, they were people we mixed with regularly, in each other’s houses, at family celebrations…there was a great deal of love and affection for these people…I recognise all my nonna’s sisters’ voices on the telephone when they call me…they don’t have to say I am zia so and so, I know who they are…when I am out with them or I meet them, one actually came to a conference with me recently, it does not feel weird or anything, it is normal…

AUF38b…I grew up with an understanding of family…that village like concept…Italians support and help each other, even if the person is a distant relative, he/she is still family…I know all my cousins and other distant family…more than family they are friends…they are all family and they are all part of our network…they are all part of our friendship groups…

Each woman speaks of her deep appreciation of family, and how well cared for they were within their family, iterating the point that these are the people they ‘feel most comfortable with’; ‘blood relatives’ or otherwise, and these people form their inner circles. Throughout their interview discussion, all three highlighted that their culture and identity as Italians comes forth through their extensive family and paesani networks, introducing the ‘village like concept’ to describe how Italians are supportive or each other, all are regarded as family, and interactions are ongoing and regular. As with the preceding comments, emotion

202 propelled the sentiments, a heightened love, affection and respect for their elders was obvious, people that in other cultures may have been considered distant. These older people were revered, corroborated by the comment ‘one actually came to a conference with me recently’.

Similarly, participants from America, spoke of the extended family, also invoking ‘that village like concept’. In the extracts below, USM65 incorporated the notion across space, speaking at length about growing up with cousins who at holiday times shared the same house, and about paesani he encountered in the ‘home’ country who treated him ‘like family’ when he first met them, making the ‘village’ local and transnational:

USM65…I really grew up in [a] big extended family…we were mainly mixing with family…our first cousins were our friends, even the ones who lived far away…would come and spend a month in the summer with grandfather…so you grew up very close, we are still very close…we are best friends…we help each other get jobs and all that stuff…my son [] his godfather…is Abruzzese…when my cousin [] and I went to Italy [] he said go to Lanciano and look up my family there, and we did…they were so nice to us, we had an aperitivo at the man’s office and then we went to their house for dinner, they did not know us from Adam, but we were treated like family…

USF70…I remember feeling loved and valued… I felt that there was always someone looking after me…everybody was your cousin, my grandmother was across the street, it just felt that the village helped raise me…

When explaining their Italian identity and Italian culture in relation to family and growing up, participants draw on motifs of the ‘village’ or more specifically something ‘village like’, thus acknowledging it was not the original village, although many of the older respondents did say that the people in their street or neighbourhood, mostly originated from the same town or village. Still, emotions expressed through phrases such as ‘feeling loved and valued’ and ‘always someone looking after me’ suggest broad notions of regionalism particularly parochialism and provincialism (c.f. Chapter Three) where transgenerationally the ‘village’

203 is key to Italian identity. It reinforced their sense of italianità and lets others in the wider community know they value being Italian. For them, community extends across space, it is not just the cousins and paesani they grew up with. It is also those who settled in other countries across the globe and especially those who remained at ‘home’ in Italy with family.

Extended family, wherever it was located, being the place that allowed them the freedom to negotiate and perform culture and identity. Mostly, responses projected hopes and aspirations that children and grandchildren would maintain those features of Italian identity and culture that the participant most valued:

CAM55...we keep the tradition of events through the family, the holidays, the food we prepare…like our cakes are Italian, our wine [purchased] is Italian, Christmas Eve is Italian, Christmas day that kind of stuff…I think my children will continue that, they like the traditions, they respect their traditions…you get together, you are loud, you are rambunctious, you have good food, what’s there not to like, right?...

Some responses also revealed a level of fragility:

USF73…what I am most proud of is how Italians appreciate family…I am not sure my children understand that, my husband doesn’t understand that, but he is German…I want my children and grandchildren to be close…I want them to know each other and help each other…family and keeping up the traditions…is what I love about being Italian…that is what it means to be Italian…

While CAM55 describes his close supportive family where members keep traditions and customs that allow them to perform their Italian culture and identity as part of their day to day life, USF73 speaks of her fears for her grandchildren. She is not confident her children understand the importance of family, partly she attributes this to the fact that her husband is

German and does not understand or appreciate the centrality of family himself. Presumably she thinks somehow this lack of appreciation was passed onto their children. However, she was adamant that she wanted her grandchildren to experience the joy of closeness of family that she experienced growing up. She explained that she would do all she could to maintain a close family environment and work to ensure ‘what I love about being Italian…what it

204 means to be Italian’ is passed onto her grandchildren. Most notably, her comments directly attribute her own Italian identity and what she most valued of Italian culture as stemming and being constructed from family. She was determined that her grandchildren would have a similar opportunity to learn, construct and display theirs through family as well.

To conclude this section on family and growing up, respondents affirmed the centrality of family by speaking emphatically of their appreciation of growing up as part of extended families, especially the idea of closeness to cousins as siblings. They invoked the notion of a village (aunt, uncles, compares and other paesani), helping to bring them up as children, of having a plethora of people who they could turn to, who looked out for them, and they spoke of a childhood where they felt loved and valued. Additionally, participants affirmed that the focal point of all gatherings and celebrations in their lives was family. Their sense of being part of a strong family was enhanced because all in their inner circle and closest friendship groups shared, or at least were familiar with the migrant narrative, and thus understood the values of unity and solidarity. All were decisive in explaining that their own identity as Italians was embedded in family, albeit one did express her uncertainly that this would continue into the future for her family. Still, this participant was determined to build her relationships with her grandchildren through family. Additionally, respondents said they valued the passing on of family stories, the ones set in Italy, or those of the early years post migration.

Teacher and journalist Elizabeth Stone (2017), herself a person of Italian heritage, writes of family having a force and power that never quite leaves the individual, arguing that the information shared within families provides ‘values, inspirations, warnings, and incentives’, that are the foundation onto which individuals later add their own perceptions and

205 modifications (Stone 2017: 16). For her, families offer a context to interpret traditions and facilitate understanding of behaviour for newest family members, providing them with strategies to enable membership of family groupings, comfortably or otherwise, underscoring the idea that family and how to be a family member is self-perpetuated through families (Stone 2017: 50). By way of foregrounding the next section, I defer to Euler et.al.

(2001) who wrote that for children growing up in Italian families, aside from the obvious involvement of parents, their rearing and caring can also be seen as an ‘extra parental nepotistic effort’. An investment in the next generation, where in Italian families these young kin are collectively called nipote, being their grandchildren, nephews and nieces

(Euler et.al. 2001: 149).

7.3 The Family, Multigenerational Homes and the Influence of Elders

This next section discusses responses in relation to multigenerationality and the impact of elders on ideas of Italian culture and identity for newer generations. Participants in this study have forebears who have migrated at different times spanning five generations, making multigenerational households and time spent with grandparents a common phenomenon. For many, their home was the space in which family members and their friends developed close relationships, especially important relationships between grandchildren and grandparents or those with other significant older people. Throughout the interview discourse, family elders were acknowledged as ‘guardians of cultural practices and traditions’ (USF62). Movingly adding ‘we have tried as the heirs of our Italian mothers to carry on the traditions that they have instilled in us’ (USF57). Commentary focussed on doing the best they could with what their elders left them to celebrate and maintain that which was embedded in day to day behaviours (Danticat 1994, Ricatti 2018).

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Participants from each research site described sharing houses with family of all generations, and grandparents living next door or in the same street:

USF70…I had a great uncle across the road from me, my grandfather’s house next door to me, and my other grandmother was across the street…

USM65…I grew up in a big house that was connected via the basement…on one side of the house were my parents, me and my two sisters. On the other side of the house was my grandfather and his brother who never married…by the time I was five or six years old, my grandfather had retired, my aunt [her] son, [had] moved in…we had a whole extended family living together in this big house, two sides connected via a basement…

AUF46 …my grandparents [both sets] lived in the same street…

CAF30…my parents lived down the street from both of my grandparents and still do…

Others spoke of grandparents coming to join them in the early years:

CAF61…my father brought [to Canada] his mother and my mother’s parents came as well, they came together…by then my parents had bought a small house and my grandparents lived with us…up till the day they died, both sets of grandparents lived with us…my father’s mother and my mother’s parents…

Living in multigenerational homes or in close proximity to grandparents was a common feature of participant narratives. The reasons provided for this were pragmatic and economic, the most obvious was sharing the cost of housing. Several also said that grandparents living with them meant that mum could go to work. The outcome of which was that these arrangements were normalised, family cohesion was strengthened, bonds between grandparents and children were reinforced and their influence enhanced. Time spent with significant elders, the narratives that evolved from them, the traditions learnt and passed on through them, helped shape participant Italian identity. It provided a sense of place and belonging to family in the first instance, and then more broadly, to Italian culture and to Italy.

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7.4 Gender in the Construction of Identity within the Context of Family, Multigenerational Homes and the Influence of Elders

Throughout this thesis I discuss the role of gender in the construction of identity. For example, in Chapter 6 participants elaborate on different roles grandmother and grandfather had in teaching culturally specific skills and traditions (for example USM57). In the preceding sections of this chapter several participants acknowledge the role of mothers and daughters as ‘carriers of traditions’ (USF57) and elders, especially woman are cited as the

‘guardians of cultural practices and traditions’ (USF62). In the extracts that follow participants highlight the important influence of women, particularly grandmothers within the context of living in multigenerational homes or in close proximity of parents and grandparents:

CAF21…I have lived in a multigenerational household which has meant I have had the [Italian] culture infused in me…it has been a very big issue…I am an only child and I grew up with my nonna in the house…I have had nonna in my life every day…I had 100% of my mum and dad’s attention and 100 % of my nonna’s… she had a huge influence in my life…

CAF22…I have viewed my life through Italian Canadian eyes…I was raised by my maternal grandmother…she has always been a huge promoter [of Italian values]…I feel very Italian…we have always been really Italian…through our traditions…we have always been really Italian…

The theme of mothers and grandmothers as those who were chiefly the ones who passed stories, customs, traditions and values, through the generations was strong, reflecting what other scholars have written, among them, Macintyre and Clark (2004) who said, ‘women are the principal custodians of the intimate and domestic past’ (Macintyre and Clark 2004:

24). This point goes directly to the intersections of the role of women in Italian households in the construction of Italian identity, in the teaching and transmission of Italian cultural traditions and skills, and to the authority and influence woman have, particularly grandmothers. Even so, it was apparent from participant discourse that the women in their lives (mothers and grandmothers) though having significant power in the domestic sphere

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(and this was significant), still existed in a culture that was patriarchal and so had more limited power and/or resources in the public sphere and in big decisions (such as migration).

The veneration for elders more broadly, but especially for grandparents emanates from the position that as children and throughout their lives, participants have lived in mutigenerational households or in close proximity to grandparents. This in turn goes to my third research question, that being the significance or otherwise of transmission of culture intergenerationally for my participants living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from ‘home’. Participants consistently affirmed that the transmission of culture and identity intergenerationally is significant, the substance of which stemmed from the strength of their relationship with grandparents and other elders but predominantly the relationships with mothers and grandmothers.

Accepting what is understood from research across multiple fields that childhood, especially early childhood, is a period of heightened learning (see Fox et.al. 2010, Mustard 2010,Center on the Developing Child 2014), time spent in multigenerational homes with close interaction with grandparents works to facilitate the opportunities to form and maintain Italian identity and culture. Add to this the probability that much of the transmission of knowledge and skills to children is implicit in that parties may not be aware that they are in fact passing on cultural knowledge across generations irrespective of the attentiveness of the receiver at the time (Crumley 2002). Overall, participants spoke emotionally about the importance of their grandmothers in their lives. They referenced the attention they had from them, the amount of time they spent in their company, and the infusion and promotion of Italian culture through them. These factors not only work to heighten awareness of family, they also elevate the influence of grandparents and other significant elders living within

209 multigenerational homes. Most agreed that grandparents more so than parents were the overseers of cultural practices and traditions. This point was lovingly affirmed by a young

Canadian participant who told me ‘who I am today is because of my grandmothers’. A lawyer working for the provincial government, identified as being Italian explaining that he needed to stay with both grandmothers at different stages of his education but now he has remained with one (for twelve years) out of choice:

CAM30…I did not go to day care, I stayed with my grandparents before I started school…then when I started school…I remained with my grandparents…when I started at University in Downtown Toronto, my other grandmother lives close, so I went to live with her…I still live there now…I have lived there for twelve years or so…both grandmothers filled me with all sorts of stories, and these stories have stayed with me…who I am today is because of my grandmothers…

After his interview, another Canadian participant forwarded a photo, which I have included in this section to highlight multigenerationality and the influence of significant elders for him. We see him as a young lad (centre of photo). He told me he lived with his nonni

(grandparents) and ‘pretty much was raised by my nonni and zii (grandparents aunts and uncles) on my mother’s side, I had it pretty good, my uncles, aunts and grandparents they spoiled me’.

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Photo Five: Three Generations Ready for Easter Sunday Mass

Photo forwarded by CAM66b, October 2018

This photo was taken before attending Easter Sunday Mass. As highlighted in Chapter Six, all are smartly dressed reflecting the significance of the occasion. Apart from noting that

Easter is important for all of the Christian faith, Sulmona, where this family is from, hosts a very solemn procession on Good Friday evening followed on Sunday with La Madonna che

Scappa in Piazza (Our Lady running in the Square), where the city, re-enacts that moment when Mary sees her resurrected son Jesus for the first time. It has been a tradition that this town has celebrated since the eighteenth century (Parente 2019), drawing thousands to view the spectacle from all over Italy and beyond (Marcone 2019). The young man is surrounded by women. His two grandmothers (nonni) are standing close to him and have their hands on his shoulders, his aunt (zia) is also close, her body turns into him but behind her mother.

The photo suggests both patriarchal structure as well as deference due to elders. His

211 grandfather (nonno, gentleman in uniform positioned behind the lad) has the central post as the eldest male and head of the family, with boy’s grandmothers on either side. His uncle

(zio) is close, standing imperturbably with his hands in his pocket; his stance and physical stature imply his position after the older man and separate from the women (and boy). Each of the adults project a sense of pride, love and strength as a family but more importantly pride in and love for the boy, exhibited through their protective encircling of him for the photo. The participant proudly declared that the influence of his grandparents, uncles and aunts, had made him what he is today, ‘an Abruzzese’. He stressed, as did several other participants in the previous section, the notion of feeling loved and being spoilt.

Collectively they all suggested that this was the outcome of growing up as part of large and close families and of spending time in multigenerational homes. Emotion; particularly feelings of love and of being special, memories of adoring grandparents, aunts and uncles, as well as the having the availability of any number of family or paesani at hand, from whom participants received care and guidance, was a feature across many responses.

Together, all responses in this section focussing on the family within multigenerational homes and the influence of grandparents and other significant elders (with an emphasis on women and grandmothers), go to explaining that for participants, their identity as Italians; their values, cultural traditions and customs, are embedded in family, where the family is a safe site that enables the performance of specific behaviour(s) (Ricatti 2018) to justify culture and identity for them. Those not acquainted with the types exemplars presented may consider them somewhat idyllic, however the consistent recurrence of similar thoughts, feelings and experiences from participants recounts across all ages and locations was decisive, poignant and all pervading.

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As mentioned in my methodology (cf. Chapter Four) and throughout this thesis, I acknowledge that those who may have found family intrusive, too much or those for whom family was not embracing of the own sexual or family diversity may not have responded to my call for participants.

7.5 Family and Education including Schooling

For Italians leaving their homeland to settle and live elsewhere, mobility has been as much a response to illiteracy as a response to poverty (Ricatti 2018). This is pointedly demonstrated through an analysis of education attainment across generations of my participants (appendix five to seven includes education as part of the participant profile while appendix sixteen provides a tabulated summary of education attainment of all participants across the three locations). The trajectory from semi-illiterate contadini migrants to children with graduate and postgraduate degrees, in some cases in one or two generations, is powerful. This sharpness in trajectory is expressed most eloquently by

Rebecca Huntley, an Australian social researcher and journalist with Italian ancestry who writes:

…in four generations…so much has changed that it can accurately be described as a transformation…my great grandmother, Marietta, could not read or write and signed her name with a cross…her granddaughter went to university and her great granddaughter teaches in one (Huntley 2012: 243).

Many participants similarly spoke of the ‘transformations’ in their own families. The quantum change is evident across all three research locations. Comments personify the generational progression. For example ‘my parents had no education as far as I know, I have a diploma…my children are both graduates’ (AUM57) or ‘my mum arrived in

Australia as a small child and got to Year 9, I am a PhD student’ (AUM52b). Most

213 participants told me that education was valued but not afforded. For example, from Canada:

‘in my whole family the older ones were not educated…they all valued education, but they did not have access to the education…I am a graduate…my siblings are all graduates and my brother has post graduate’ (CAM66b).

Consistent messaging from all respondents was that for the most part, their migrant elders were not educated but not unintelligent, education was valued, and families had an expectation that children would remain in school with each generation building on the attainments of the previous. This outcome reflects other research on the educational attainments of children of migrants and adds to the understanding of the steep trajectory in education (see Orupabo et.al. 2019). Migrant children are often highly motivated and have ambitious parents (Schleicher 2016). For many groups the story is similar; migrants have a determination towards achievement which they pass onto their children by stressing educational attainment (Portes and Rumbaut 2001).

The question for this study is whether for children of Italian migrants, education forms part of their identity. Identity as Italians for their migrant elders was demonstrated through their adaptation in the host country and their wish to ensure that the next generation received an education. Both can be said to be markers of Italian cultural identity. There are locational differences (e.g. the United States has the most postgraduates), however this outcomes aligns with generational spans. Italians have been in America longer, making comparisons inappropriate. Australia and Canada are more closely aligned, however many of the

Canadian cohort were recruited from the alumni network of St Michael’s College,

University of Toronto. Even so, the information provided is important because firstly it confirms the shift for each location cohort; secondly it signals the value placed on education

214 by the individuals and their families; and thirdly, education provides higher incomes which in turn enabled participants to live comfortably and confidently as descendants of migrants.

From this position they are more likely to reflect well on their Italian culture and identity.

Photo Six: Photo Shared by Participant of her Father at School

The young boy in the school photo opposite is the father of one of the American participants. She forwarded the photo to me following our interview. During the interview she explained that as part of her own doctoral research, she found that many school photos of the 1940s and 1950s in Italy commonly depicted the wall map and basic desk. She found that it was both iconic and evocative and asked if I might consider including the photo in the section on education

Photo forwarded by USF36 on 24/06/2019.

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7.6 Family and Choice of Partners

Choice of partners from the same cultural group is also considered a marker of cultural resilience (Roy 2000). It is explored here to determine if family had any bearing on choice of partner, and what impact the choice of partners had on the production of Italian culture and identity for participants. The literature suggests that prior to mass migratory waves, when Italian migrants did marry, they married outside their cultural group, essentially due to relatively low numbers of other Italians. At this time, rates of endogamy were higher for women given there were many Italian men but fewer Italian women (Pascoe 1992), thus men who wanted to marry and did not have fiancés in Italy, would have had to marry outside their cultural group. This changed as numbers increased, and of course chain migration meant the influx of many from the home regions or towns and thus more opportunity to marry not only other Italians but also within the regional group (Iuliano 1999).

Some studies show different reasons for their prevalence in specific contexts. For example,

Stefanoni (1989) found that men from northern Italy tended to marry women from their town of origin due to the importance of maintaining transnational links with that location in Italy, while some Sicilians preference marriages with children of Sicilians migrants in order to encourage and secure new relationships with Sicilians who had settled in the chosen country.

Differently, but related to the previous section, Penny and Khoo (1996) found that one of the consequence of descendants remaining longer in education, and the subsequent increase in opportunity for employment and interaction outside the Italian community, was to increase partner choice from outside the Italian cultural group. More than differentials in marital status, I was interested in pursuing participant deliberations on choice of partners, i.e. was being Italian or of Italian descent a consideration, and what influence (if any) family

216 had on that choice. Applying the concepts of identity and culture, I explored what values drove participants to choose or not to choose Italian partners.

There were more partnered than single participants and coupling rates with the wider Anglo community were consistently low across locations and generations. This is particularly so when the term descendant is extended to include ‘other’ Europeans more generally

(appendix seventeen to nineteen provide summaries of participant partner status and choices). While we cannot extrapolate from the data, the tabulated summaries help visualise not only the level of endogamy, but also the regional specific (Abruzzese) choice from the total number of marriages. As will be demonstrated, I included a representation of second and third marriage choices because those who chose Abruzzese or other Italian partners repeatedly made the point in their interview discussion that their choice simplified their marriage and emphasised the cultural differences between first and subsequent choices. Of course there are other possible explanations for simpler transition to second and third marriages (e.g. maturity, experience) other than the implied cultural symmetry, still it is a consideration. Overall the summary of marriage choices suggest that participants echoed older family members by partnering with children of Italian descent or people of other

European descent. High endogamy rates were maintained; rates between other Europeans and Anglos were evenly spread, except in second and third generation descendants from the

United States who maintained high rates of marriage with Italian or other Europeans. The extracts that follow highlight the spectrum of variance in responses. Some spoke of always intending to marry an Italian, while others said they tried hard to avoid it. Mostly however, participants suggested that even if their choice to marry an Italian was not planned, because their social and other activities remained centred within Italian cultural groups, it was all but inevitable:

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USM86…I met my wife in church…we had a committee for the Easter Monday dance…but I probably would have met an Italian because I mixed mainly with Italians and the church

AU59…I never went out with Aussies to meet them, my husband and I met at the Casa Abruzzo picnic…

CA51…I married an Italian, it was not a deliberate thing on my part…but you know you stick to your own…I was in my twenties at St Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, most of the Italians attended St Michael’s College, I met my husband there…my cohort was Italian, and chances are I was going to meet an Italian…

Other responses focussed on being more comfortable interacting with Italians or other

Europeans:

USF36…my husband [is European]…both of his parents were born here in the United States, but his grandparents were both immigrants…my choice of marriage partner was always going to be ethnic…I feel more comfortable [with ethnics] than with non-ethnics…

When asked about the influence of family on choice of partner, responses focussed on positive reception from family and on how helpful and easy marrying an Italian was for them:

USF63a…when my sister and I first bought our boyfriends home, our parents/grandparents were thrilled [they were sons of Italians]...I did not marry him just because he is Italian, but it does make a difference…he had the same background, we have the same values, we both had a nonno, his mum and dad are called nonno and nonna by all the nipote, he has the same food, we share the same religion, he sees his family the way I see my family…I think that is an important part of our marriage now…I do think marrying an Italian helped because we have that connection and understanding…

AUM57…my wife is Italian…it was not in the front of my mind, but probably in the back of my mind I knew that it was probably a lot easier on me and my family if I married an Italian…life would have been a lot easier in that respect…

CAF52…I often think whether I was driven towards my husband because he was Italian…I met him in high school, he was a friend of a friend, there were so many other Italian boys…I was taking an Italian class, that is where I met him…because he was a friend of a friend, I trusted him…it would have been a lot more difficult to bring home a non-Italian…

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These responses were typical of many and significant because implicit within their answers was family expectations and reception; ‘our parents/grandparents were thrilled’ (USF63a) or ‘it would have been a lot more difficult to bring home a non-Italian’ (CAF52), suggesting that potential partners were better received and the transition into their families smoother because they were Italian. Related to this, several other participants made the point that life would not have been as easy or straightforward if they had chosen a non-Italian, not just in terms of parental expectation, but also their own, because their Italian partner shared the same values. Others detailed how they tried hard not to marry an Italian, but still they did:

AU55b…my decision was not to be with an Italian, I did not want an Italian that was traditional, like old fashioned but my partner is not that…he is a with-it Italian…

Some decisions were more premeditated and strategic; participants placing themselves in situations where they were more likely to meet and marry Italians:

CAF57...I married the son of Italian immigrants…my parents never pushed me into marrying an Italian, but I wanted to…and sought to do that…I preferred to marry an Italian, I decided early that if I could, I would marry an Italian…I was attracted to the values, culture and I wanted to raise my children with somebody from an Italian background…it was mostly about the values and culture that were common to me…it was a deliberate decision…I was surrounding myself with Italians…I went out with groups of Italians and we met other Italians…I was comforted by the familiarity, I understood the nuances, the history, the culture, the families, and the cuisine…

AUF55a…I would never have married an Anglo…I was not into going with Aussies…I would not have got married, the way I was thinking in those days it was Italian or nothing…one of my sons is living with his Aussie girlfriend…I worry a little bit about her fitting in, I hope she doesn’t think we are too odd…

Responses are compatible with evidence cited earlier, that signals the Italian community has maintained high rates of marriage between Italian born migrants and/or descendants of

Italian migrants. Participant choices were sometimes driven by deliberate strategy, other times more subliminal. Responses suggest endogamy remained central for them in terms of the development of their Italian families and communities more broadly, through the

219 maintenance of Italian culture and identity. Words used accentuate the emotion involved and the drive to maintain Italian culture and identity for them and for the children they planned to have. Family intervention intended to influence choice was not evident in responses, however the implied underlier in all responses was that it was a consideration.

That said, most participants situated themselves (and remain so) within friendship groups dominated by descendants of Italians or other Europeans; these groups being likely sources of prospective partners.

When participants did marry non-Italian or other Europeans, none reported a waning in

Italian culture or identity for them. Most stated that it made no difference to their identity or to representations of their culture within or outside the family:

CAM73…my wife is American from Philadelphia…we have three children…each have a strong association with their Italian cultural heritage…they are very proud of their Italian heritage…after they graduated from the University of Toronto, they each spent some time studying in Italy…they are very strongly rooted in the Italian culture…

Further to this, many commented that not only did their attachment to Italian culture remain strong, their partner enhanced their Italian identity because the appeal of Italian customs, values and traditions was sharpened:

USM36…my wife appreciates my love for Abruzzo and my family background…I think she wishes her family had more of it…that they had the same traditions that my family has maintained over the years, so I think it has enhanced my being Italian…

AUM50…my first wife was Italian…my second wife is Australian…the difference between my current wife and my ex-wife is miles apart, from the closeness you get from the Italian community, from the Italian way…I do not think marrying an Australian has diminished my Italianness….it is showing a lot…in the child that we conceived together, who is lot different to my older stepson who has their nature…if anything I think it has highlighted what I love about Italians and being Italian….when you see a different way you appreciate the difference more, I think…

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USM36 told me ‘my wife is 25%, she does not speak Italian…I think the fact that my wife has European heritage, 25% of which is Italian has had an impact’. Her appreciation and valuing of Italian culture is external but intimate. She values him as Italian and that reinforces and elevates his Italianness, he loves that she loves his Italianness. Oppositely,

AUM50 references the differences between his first and second wife (Italian, Anglo) suggesting his Australian wife finds his Italianness difficult. However he too suggests that this factor enhances his own Italianness through highlighting the differences he sees between the two cultures. The comments from both men stem from a strong emotional base beginning with the love they have for their respective wives, then an assertion that their marriage has enriched their own Italianness.

To summarise this section, discussion on choice of partners revealed high rates of endogamy for this participant group. For some, this outcome was achieved through deliberate decisions to place themselves in situations where they would meet Italians, for others it was felt to be inevitable because they only mixed with Italians. Whatever the circumstances, participant sense of their own Italian culture and identity was strengthened through choice of Italian (or descendants thereof) partners because of what they expressed as a shared sense of values, traditions and a wish to maintain their culture though continued customs and traditions. Where participants chose partners who were not Italian, their Italian identity was enhanced through a stronger appreciation of their Italian culture. All described their circumstances emotionally. Some were more strategic in their decisions, but whatever decision they made, all worked to maintain Italian culture and identity. Participants insisting that their choice of partner either made no difference to their level of Italianness or it had increased it by highlighting what they loved and valued in their Italian culture. Apart from references to family being happy with their choice of partner, or that that life was easier

221 because they were Italian, no participant suggested that their choice of partner was overtly influenced by their family. But again, this may also reflect a level of selection bias in my participant cohort.

7.6.1 The Phenomenon of Proxy Marriages

I have included a brief commentary on the phenomenon of proxy marriages in this analysis because some participants spoke about this type of marriage when referencing what they knew about their parents’ and grandparents’ migration narrative. Additionally, proxy marriages have been a feature of Italian migrant life patterns since at least the 1920s (Simic

2014), especially in Australia where in 1952, the Sydney-based Italian-Australian newspaper La Fiamma described the shortage of single Italian women as ‘the worst problem affecting our community’ (Iuliano 1999). Proxy marriages have contributed to the maintenance of endogamy amongst Italian migrants, and they help to understand transculturality, another important feature of Italian migration (Ricatti 2018). Proxy marriages supported traditional notions of marriage in rural Italy (Scarparo 2009), with

Iuliano (1999) finding that for many women migration was the main reason for the marriage.

Hence, the phenomenon was both cultural and a reflection of Italian mobility of the first half of the twentieth century. Many women, or at least their family in Italy, would have family members or others from their village or town in whatever location they were destined for, therefore they were confident in finding an Italian community there.

Ultimately proxy marriages mitigated against the upheaval of dislocation and distance from

‘home’, especially for those migrating to Australia. Several participants referenced proxy marriages more generally, but one American invoked considerable emotion when describing

222 the actuality for many women and in particular, the circumstances that led to her grandparents’ marriage. She explained that her grandmother had been asked to stand in

[literally stand next to the groom in America] for a bride in Italy, and this led to her marrying on the same day:

USF73…my grandfather and grandmother got married at fifteen years of age…she [my grandmother] went to stand for another couple, a proxy marriage, the groom was here in the United States and the bride was in Italy. Her [the bride’s] father would not let her travel to meet up with her fiancé unless she was married, that is how it was then…for some it was the only way they could be with the people they loved…so, they [my grandparents] said while we are here, we are dressed, let’s get married too…

The distance from Italy worked to ensure that many more Australians were married by proxy, thus many more spoke of their family’s experience with proxy marriages:

AUM60…my father arrived in 1953 and my mother in 1954…she had to do the proxy marriage in order to be allowed to be united with my father…once he [my father] got to Melbourne and was able to get work as a manual labourer, he was able to say to my mum, OK you come across, but we have to do the papers for the procura [to marry by proxy]…

AUF59…in 1959 my dad wanted an Italian wife; saw a photo of a beautiful young woman sent from Italy to his cugino [cousin] and said he would like her to be sent to Australia…my mum []was eighteen years old, living in Pescara with her father, step mother and five brothers and sisters…they put together her baule [trunk], including the fabric to make her wedding dress and sent her to Australia on a ship from Genova…the first time my parents saw each was at Station Pier in 1959…they have both spoken about the attraction and excitement at seeing each other, but it was a very difficult marriage, filled with violence and oppression…my mother died in 1990, aged fifty from breast cancer…

AUF38b…my nonna and nonno were not married in Italy, my nonno came out in 1952 then sometime later, he married my nonna by proxy and then in 1954 she came to Australia…

Clearly, seeking brides from Italy was costly, both in terms of money and time, especially for migrants who needed to or decided to settle in Australia. Proxy marriage was a pragmatic response that allowed men (evidence of women marrying by proxy has not been

223 cited), living away from Italy to marry women from their homeland. Typically, participants who spoke of this type of marriage said the couple were from the same village or town, and the proxy marriage enabled the union without the expense in time and money of having to travel back to Italy. Proxy marriages became legal through an accord between the Catholic church and the Italian government in 1929; the practice was revised (and maintained) as part of Italian civil code in 1942. While the church was keen to limit the number of proxy marriages, they accepted that these marriages were an effective way to reduce the risk of

Italian men marrying non-Catholic women or marrying outside the church.

There is evidence that governments in receiving countries, especially during post-World

War Two entries, felt a need to address the gender imbalance within the Italian migrant community, and to reduce the number of single Italians, who were perceived as a social danger (Vasta 1993) and a direct threat to women. Both the Catholic church and various governments viewed proxy marriages as convenient, explaining why marriages by proxy became a common occurrence and essentially overlooked between the 1930s through to the

1970s ( Pascoe 1992, Iuliano 1999, Ricatti 2018). By condoning proxy marriages, government and the Catholic church, assisted in strengthening home-town allegiances, – parochial and provincial ties amongst Italian migrant communities and promoted stable, family oriented Italian migrant communities. Proxy marriages had a big influence in the construction and maintenance of Italian identity, especially in post-war Australia where they were most prolific (Iuliano 1999). The outcome of the practice wherever it occurred, ensured that Italian migrants maintained high rates of endogamy and it contributed to affirming Italian culture and Italian identity for Italian migrants.

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7.7 Family and Naming Practices

This section reflects on the role of choosing names for children as a key activity that reinforces feelings of italianità. Research into naming practices addresses how parents, and perhaps extended family members, make decisions about the name or names they will give their children, and includes the names parents choose or maintain for themselves. This research clarifies that parental choices are not purely idiosyncratic, arbitrary or random labelling acts or decisions but rather a deliberate and meaningful action situated in a specific geographic or temporal context (Miller and Goodnow 1995, Becker 2009). Ralph Ellison

(cited in London and Morgan 1994) was one of the earliest researchers (early 1950s) to highlight the role of names in the formation of identity, and their significance in the discourse of intergenerational transmission of culture. Later Goffman (1963) added that of all the identity markers, a given name was the most generally employed but also the one that is easiest to alter (Goffman cited in Pina Cabral and Lourenço1994).

Names can be descriptive identifiers, they provide specific information such as familial background and kinship, community, socioeconomic status, religion or education as well as reflecting, paralleling or prevailing social, political and cultural trends. Despite the significance of naming practices, it has received minimal research attention. Informed by my two concepts, culture and identity, naming practices have been included in this chapter because: a) they can be an indicator of italianità; family naming practices speak directly to having a sense of being or feeling Italian, b) changing names, developments in expectations of how names are pronounced by both those who own them and by those who use them, and maintaining Italian names or reverting to Italian names are all part of a process of ongoing transformations of cultural and national identification across the generations of descendants who participated in this study, and c) family naming practices provide insight into the

225 significance or otherwise of intergenerational transmission of Italian identity and culture for this group living as part of an Italian diaspora away from ‘home’. Additionally, including naming practises as part of the analysis will highlight differences in geographical and temporal factors of the study, to explore if these differences may (or may not) have impacted on construction of identity and intergenerational transmission of culture for participants.

As part of their interview, participants were asked about not only their own names but also those of their parents and grandparents, and the names they chose for their own children.

Discussion with participants from the United States were the most intricate, and included instances of complete name changes, most suggesting that this probably occurred at the point of entry or soon after. For example, two sisters both said:

USF78 and USF58…grandparents emigrated in the late 1890s…grandfather’s name was anglicised…we assumed it was because that is what they did when they came through Ellis Island…

The anglicised family name was Smoke. Neither women was sure what their Italian family name was, both saying that there was much confusion. They offered several possibilities saying the name may have been Affumicato (Smoked), more probably it was Fumo (Smoke), a more common surname in Italy, but could also have been Fumoso (Smoky).

The impression that names were changed, either by the migrant or by officials, is well embedded into emigrant folklore in the United States, but in recent years the idea has been challenged. Most of what is written about Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, suggests that the primary difficulty in establishing with any certainty what happened is due to the numbers involved given that over twelve million migrants entered the United States through that inspection station, and by the 1970s it was twenty million; five million being Italian

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(Santucci 2010). Amy Bernardy’s eyewitness account of her visit to Ellis Island in 1910 suggests that the migrant may have acquiesced to action taken by others (cited in La Sorte

1985: 44). For example, Ms Maria Chiappone Sandroni arriving at Ellis Island in 1912, says her name was changed to Clibone since it was easier to spell (cited in Guarnieri 2019).

However, La Sorte (1985) all but dismisses the claim that inspectors were responsible for name changes at point of entry and concludes instead that most of the minor orthographic changes were simply the outcome of the ‘wear and tear of the emigration process and the everyday abrasions of common speech’ making name changing an adaptive concession that some chose to make (La Sorte 1985: 152-154). These findings echo what Baring-Gould

(1924) had written years earlier, when she said that the English language, ‘is impatient of foreign sounds, and insists on rounding and or roughing them into some semblance to the known English word’ (cited in Adamic 1985: 27).

Whatever the circumstances, older participants from the United States oft repeated the assertion that parents anglicised their first or their family name (or both) either at point of entry or soon afterwards or that they were ‘given American names’. Noting the numbers involved, the fact that very few of the migrants would have been literate in their own language let alone English, it is reasonable to conclude that changes may have been made or agreed to (by equally overwhelmed migrants and/or officials) simply to facilitate the entry process. Alternatively, their own observation or the experiences of others may have led some migrants to initiate name changes or that those registering incoming personnel either wittingly or unwitting wrote names that were different to actual name to make things easier.

This point was acknowledged by several participants who spoke of the migrating family member changing names to facilitate settlement and opportunity:

USM58…in the immigration process, to become more American, to remove some of the discrimination towards Italians they switched the name from Tirimacco to Marc…it was a condensing of the Italian pronunciation of Tirimacco – macco – we

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got Marc…we are now Marc…we have my father’s birth certificate where it is Marc…

Others were not as definitive in their explanation:

USM65…my grandfather was Agapito Romano…he changed his name to Albert Roman…we always thought the name was changed at Ellis Island but really, I don’t know…I have no documentation of when and how the name change occurred…his Italian passport says Agapito Romano…he got married in Pennsylvania and his marriage certificate has Albert Roman…he became an American citizen, but I don’t have a copy of his naturalisation documents for United States citizenship…there is no other paperwork as to the formal name change…

This commentary is consistent with what other researchers (see Lagonikos 2004, Edwards

2006, de Klerk and Souto-Manning 2007) have found. That is, at times anglicising or changing names was deliberate, other times the name ‘evolved’ by accident or circumstance, and when changes occurred, in most instances it was ‘out of expediency’, essentially to enhance education and employment opportunities. Mostly Italian migrants retained their given names on official documents even if they had an anglicised name as part of day to day usage. Ultimately most of the literature emanating from the United States, views name changing as an adaptive concession that some Italian migrants either chose or needed to make. These adaptive practices were problematic at times, as evidenced by the comment below:

USM86…when I went to school, they asked me what my name was? I said it is Antonio Luciano Colaizzo…then when I was 16, I needed to apply for my working papers, so I went to the school office and they asked me my name and I said Anthony Louis Colaizzo. The women went out and after ten minutes came back and asked, ‘what’s your name again?’ I said Anthony Louis Colaizzo. Another five minutes and she said you are not registered here. I said what do you mean I am not registered…I have been here since third grade. She said the only thing I have here Antonio Luciano Colaizzo and I said that’s me, that’s me and that is how I got my papers…

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Others also spoke of confusion and problems created when various versions of anglicised names appeared on personal, employment and/or business documentation, that differed to the name that appeared on official documents. Additionally, some recounted that it was only when they were needing to access their birth certificates, that they discovered the ‘strange’ spelling of their names, or that the name that had been registered on the birth certificate was a completely different name to the one that was in regular usage. Some explained that a consequence of living in a more security driven post 9/11 world, was the need to have consistency of names in documentation and everyday use. No participant indicated that they formalised the anglicised version of their name.

As an interesting aside, whilst completing fieldwork in the Abruzzo region in 2017, I was provided with an example of lack of scrutiny of personal documentation in the past through a family story that was recounted to me by Domenico De Nellis, a resident of Milano but a regular visitor to his familial home in Sulmona. Having heard about my research through a mutual paesani, Sig. De Nellis was keen to tell me the story of his mother’s brothers dating to the turn of the century. He invited me to view a photograph he has in his home of one uncle, explaining that he had two uncles, both very similar in appearance who travelled to and from the United States on one passport for many years. That is, one brother stayed in

Sulmona to work the family land while the other went to the United States to work. On returning one or two years later, the other brother, using the same passport travelled to

America. Eventually, the brother who was last in the United States wrote to the brother in

Sulmona to advise that he would not be returning and that he had assumed his brother’s name for all required documents needed to remain in the United States.

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7.7.1 Names Parents Choose for their Children

Communities provide children with their membership and social identities through naming practices. A child’s first name signifies the identity that parents want or expect for their child. They are an important cultural decision that is shaped by social and cultural influence, and also by institutional constraints, and responses to strong push factors (Alba and Nee

1997, Lieberson 2000, Becker 2009). Name choices are also significant because they can have long-term consequences as labels that influence the socialisation of children and contribute to the development of group and personal identity. In the first extract the participant took some time to explain that his wife was an Anglo Australian and for the most part he lived an Anglo life; he had never been to Italy, had limited contact with family and could not speak Italian. However, his son bore his grandfather’s name:

AUM52…my son Luca, his second name is Fiore after my father…Luca is aware that he is carrying a name that is Italian and that his middle name is that of his nonno, that was deliberate…he knows [of his heritage], we actually talk a lot…as he gets older, I would like to let him know a little bit more, as much as I know about my own father…I would like to take Luca to Italy….

For this participant, passing his father’s name onto his son was important even when no other part of his life appeared to display or maintain his cultural heritage. His decision came from a position of imparting cultural awareness and consciousness which otherwise may not have arisen, but it also validated cultural group identity for him. The next extract demonstrates how a name choice can disclose much about parental experiences and expectations:

AUM65…our children are Jason and Stefanie…we did not want them to be stuck with a name that may have been a burden for them…Italian names are in fashion now but back twenty years ago they were not in fashion…their middle names are Italian, my father’s first and my father-in-law the second name, Geramino, Santino, for my son and the same with my daughter, Concetina, Santina….

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In both extracts above, naming practices were driven by emotion, i.e. respect and reverence for parents, particularly in the case of AUM52, who lost his father at a very young age. He adhered to tradition, but not in an obligatory sense, rather from a position of nostalgia. Both parents were keen that their children’s names maintain a link to their Italian culture, but their decisions also reflected a level of pragmatic realism. Nevertheless, immersion into the urban

Australian community where both sets of parents live is never the result of a single decision, but rather the cumulative effect of a thousand small decisions, naming practices among them, which may be the outcome of family stories and experiences that have included racist consequences from bearing a name that reflected a different cultural heritage than the dominant one (Kasinitz et.al. 2002). Accordingly, naming processes for the two Australians also reveal a transnational subjectivity (Stone et.al. 2005) that reflects parental experiences, fears, and hopes for their children.

Related to this point, and staying within the Australian context, during the process of my research on naming practices, I came across Rebecca Huntley’s (2012) description of her choice of surname. Reading about her experience was both interesting and infuriating. It was very discouraging for me that a woman of Huntley’s profile; a successful and well- respected researcher and journalist, felt she needed to acquiesce to an outcome she did not totally agree with. She writes that HUNTLEY was a name she chose randomly from the A-

K telephone book after telling her mother that she was thinking of taking Ballini (her maternal family name) as her surname. Her mother was strongly against the idea, in fact, she says her mother ‘made me promise not to do it’. When she asked her mother why she was so against her taking her maiden name, her mother replied that she was worried that her daughter would not succeed in life, in her career, if she had an Italian surname, insisting that

231 her daughter would face ‘too much racism and discrimination’. Rebecca writes that she told her mother that Italians were fully accepted, even cool, but her mother maintained that it was not so. For her mother, Huntley was a better choice than her Italian family name

(Huntley 2012: 30). Her mother’s perceptions, perhaps based on experiences, were persuasive enough, the pain of discrimination, or the possibility of it drove the naming outcome.

There were participants who recounted giving their children Anglo or anglicised names that maintained a link to Italian culture and identity (Joseph 2004). For example, Francis, John,

Robert, Michael, Elizabeth and Joseph, names that can be spoken as Francesco, Giovanni,

Roberto, Michele, Elizabetta e Giuseppe (USM90), or Paul and Michael because ‘we said you are in Australia, but if you go overseas you can call yourselves Paolo e Michele’. The participant explaining that she and her husband had difficult names, so they wanted their children to have names ‘that no matter where they are in the world everybody can say Paul and Michael and if they want them Italianised, they can be’ (AUF55). Some wanted a connection to parents/grandparents, Francesco/ Frank, Rosario /Ross (USF67).

Others spoke of having their name anglicised by others (i.e. teachers and friends) and going along with it at the time because it seemed convenient or simpler but later as adults they have reverted to the Italian name and announce themselves in ‘the Italian way’:

USF36…my name was anglicised…it was not by choice…the teacher said to me: oh, that is too long, we will call you []. That stuck, now I teach in the school district I attended school in…when people ask me my name, I tell them [my full Italian name] …

AUF61…my name is [] and [] it is! I introduce myself by that name, not abbreviated, not shortened and not anglicised…when I was at school, my teachers

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called me [] because they could not pronounce my name but in my adult years, I insist that people pronounce my name correctly…

How a person’s name is pronounced, can be as important as how a person is named in terms of identity formation. A name pronounced correctly is an affirmation of belonging.

Participant recounts of parental and their own experience in terms of the pronunciation of any or all their names exposed their frustrations:

USF63…I am proud to be an Italian and always been proud to be Italian…the biggest issue I ever had is people could never say my name and they would try and give me nicknames; my father would have a fight and correct them and say no her name is []…

CAM65…my names have never been changed…my parents have never anglicised their names, any of them…my father’s name is Abruzzese…but to this day, rarely does a person pronounce my family name as it really is…

This insistence on correct pronunciation of either given or family names is central in demonstrating individual determination to retain culture and identity and declares the intention to remain connected with ‘home’ (Finizio and Di Pietro 1986). Many spoke of their experience when in Italy; the delight they felt when they heard, some for the first time, their name pronounced in the culturally correct way:

CA21b…my name has been the biggest thing in my life…I do not remember at point in my life when anybody pronounced it correctly...I have never felt comfortable to correct people…but it bugs me when I have to introduce myself the Anglo way…the only exception…when I went to Italy in 2015…everyone pronounced my name correctly…it was joy to my ears…

7.7.2 Maintaining Italian Names

Several participants did speak at length of maintaining Italian names. For American participants, their comments almost implied an apology, suggesting that despite maintaining the Italian name ‘we still loved America’:

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USM92…my dad came with the name [] and it stayed that way, but he gave, he gave of himself…he loved the United States, he really loved it…we had the biggest flag on our street…it had to have been about seven or eight feet and we always put that up…we still have it…but he did not change his surname…

An Australian participant explained that maintaining his Italian names may have been costly: AUM61…my name is a very Italian name…I have never had any inclination to anglicise it, either my first or second name…no one in my extended family either…my brother had a more difficult name than me…but still [he did not anglicise]…my name and surname has been a problem in Australia since day one…anecdotally I know that my name has not helped…

Literature focussing on decisions to give Italian names to children reports that this usually occurs in third generation descendants of Italian migrants who have no difficulty interacting in the dominant Anglo society. They have become what Finizio and De Pietro call

‘legitimate’ members of the wider Anglo community, able to take what they value from their family narratives and to ‘rediscover and reappraise’ Italian culture and sense of belonging that may have been subdued in earlier generations (Finizio and De Pietro 1986: 126). For participants, choice of names, both given and family for their children, reflected careful and deliberate decisions to maintain a sense of being Italian, as well as an outward presentation of continued italianità:

AUF46…my husband and I wanted to maintain a feeling of Italian…it was a deliberate decision on our part to maintain a connection to our Italian heritage…

AUF63…our children all have Italians names…the decision to give them Italian names was deliberate…I believe the name is critical…I think my children all have a connection to their Italian heritage and if and when they have children, I believe those children will have Italian names too….

Responses on naming practices in families align with the overall premise in the literature.

Choices for participants and for their children were not indifferent. They were situated in a specific geographic or temporal context, carefully, considered and meaningful, sometimes emotional or nostalgic, usually reflecting attitudes (of self or others), perceptions or actual

234 experiences and pragmatic behaviours and intentions (Becker 2009). They also suggest that maintenance or reverting to Italian names generated both freedoms and restraints (Lee

2003). Some chose Anglo names for their children because they were apprehensive of the consequences of Italian names, while others used anglicised names according to contexts

(e.g. school or work) but at home remained true to their cultural heritage. Participants were clear that their practices were a serious undertaking, providing extensive clarification for their naming choices as well as the related issues of name pronunciation and anglicising names for themselves, their children, and extended family members.

Where naming practices maintained or revealed a renascence of an Italian identity and culture, this may be the outcome of a renewed confidence, pride, or a deliberate decision on cultural continuity. Participants did not speak about names as an indication of a diminishing sense of culture or identity. Changes were more a practical requirement to aid integration and/or to enhance employment and social opportunities. A better knowledge of naming practices will add to the understanding of how children and young people make sense and negotiate difference, and perhaps at times conflicting perceptions and development of self within a cultural context and their expectations of who they are and who they should be

(Kim and Lee 2011). More Americans bore anglicised names, however these reflected historical changes that occurred at point of entry or soon after. No American participant had initiated the change themselves, oppositely, one had reverted to using the Italian version of his name, but not formally. Canadian and Australian participants similarly reflect later migration waves (appendix twenty provides a summary of participant name choices).

Participants understood that naming practices are responsive to context, reflecting ongoing transformations of cultural and national identity. Those who had Italian names, made those

235 decisions for themselves and their children to maintain their sense of being or feeling Italian.

For them, it was an expression of their italianità. Using Italian names (and insisting on correct pronunciation of them) are another indicator that transmission of culture intergenerationally was significant for those participants.

7.8 Concluding Comments

This chapter has highlighted the influence of family at various stages of life on the formation of Italian identity and the transmission of some form of Italian culture for participants.

Different aspects of family have been described, with participant responses robustly affirming the importance of family in their life. Family also normalised the practice and performance of their italianità. Emotional attachment and sense of belonging, is sustained though family, ensuring maintenance and transmission of culture and identity. Participants specifically acknowledged the influence of elders as well as the cohesion and connectivity of the wider paesani network, stressing that for them, the associated emotions and strength of bonds across generations lay in the closeness of family.

Key emotions such as love, honour and pride, were constantly used to express feelings related to their family and other paesani. Unequivocally, each participant affirmed the centrality of family in their life, including the pivotal role of family gatherings and celebrations. For this participant cohort, across the three locations, gender, ages, generations, socioeconomic status, love of family and its associated practices is foundational to sustaining italianità intergenerationally. Several points stood out from the commentary.

Firstly, family was always at the centre of participant lives. Secondly, their inner social circles was made up of other Italian migrant families or descendants thereof. Thirdly, family and family related activities consumed most of the hours outside of work and school. This

236 affirms that culture and identity as Italians comes forth through their extensive family and paesani networks. Recounting of narratives verifies that the strength of family was intensified through inner circles and close friendship groups sharing, or at least being familiar with the migration narrative. All the significant people in the lives of participants were aware of and understood the sadness of past dislocation, racism and harshness of early years after arrival, and the importance of and strength gained from unity and solidarity, all decisive in explaining their identity as Italians. Responses also featured family as the enabler that taught and passed on their Italian culture and helped them and other individual members to negotiate, appreciate and construct their Italian identity. Components of the acquisition of culturally specific skills and traditions and the construction of identity were shaped by gender. Women were the primary custodians of culture and identity and women were the leaders in its transmission intergenerationally. But then again, in a patriarchal society (which participants are all living in) the domestic space is dominated by women and food. Stories and feelings are created in this space. Family was also predominantly experienced as a safe site that validated Italian culture and enabled representations of their italianità.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Italians Think, Feel and Behave Differently to the Dominant Anglo Community

8.1 Introduction

The focus of this chapter is on interactions between Italians and the dominant Anglo community, within the context of the currency or the strength of ‘Brand Italia’. I draw from the concepts of culture and identity, to consider both interactions with and separation from

(felt or imposed) the dominant Anglo community. I am particularly interested in explaining actual or sense of belonging and being part of the broader society or inversely the actual or sense of separation from those of the dominant Anglo culture. That is, who the participant’s family mixed with as they were growing up, and who they themselves mixed with as adults.

My reference to ‘Brand Italia’ is more than a descriptor for the commodification of goods designed and made in Italy (see Bassetti 2003, Sassatelli 2006, Faist 2010). It is an overarching notion of the perceived (or actual) value attached to Italian culture both by my participants and by non-Italians more broadly (Faist 2010, Temperini et.al. 2016, Choate

2017). These perceptions of the high value of Italian culture, whether held by Italians or others, have a direct bearing on beliefs that Italians have of themselves and lead to their conclusions of thinking, feeling or behaving differently to the dominant Anglo community.

As part of the analysis, I deal with the sense of separation between Italians and Anglos, and the associated emotions, as they are at the core of participant responses. I also revisit racism and feeling excluded, identified in preceding chapters (e.g. school lunch box experiences) to consider how it may have impacted on participant sense or their actual separation from the dominant Anglo culture.

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8.2 Settlement Patterns

From participant narratives, we know that families of American participants began arriving around the late 1890s, and that most families of Canadian and Australian respondents were post World War Two arrivals. Whenever they arrived during that sixty year span, they tended to settle in clusters with relatives or other paesani from the same town or village, with some, grouping themselves on one block, or a side of the street; staying or at least maintaining their association there in many instances for at least two generations. Several participants recounted that they have remained working in those same locations because that is where their businesses are, even if they have relocated their families elsewhere. The responses below attest to group settlement patterns beginning with American responses where many Abruzzese families congregated on or close to Murdock and Smith Streets

Canonsburg:

Photo Seven: Murdock St Canonsburg

USF58…my grandparents came in the late 1890s…to Murdock Street…I have not heard of any other place before that…all of the people on that street either came out together or were from the same region or town, in many cases they all knew each other, either directly or were known as coming from the same area… USF63a…they lived in Murdock Street very briefly and then they bought the house in Smith Street…and that is where they stayed… USF70…all of the people in Murdock Street were Italian… USF90…when my parents first came to America they came to Murdock St Canonsburg; my grandfather was already here…we all grew up in that one street…

Photo forwarded by USM58 17/07/2019

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For Melbourne it was primarily the suburbs of Collingwood, Carlton, Fitzroy and

Brunswick:

AUM29…dad spent the first eighteen years of his life in Carlton and then Fitzroy… AUF58…we lived in North Carlton… AUM60…my parents lived in a shared house with another family in Brunswick…

While in Toronto it was the Downtown area around St Clair Avenue and College Street:

CAM18…my grandparents told me of being in shared housing with up to thirteen other people, not necessarily related, in College Street, not far from here in Downtown Toronto… CAF21b…my family lived, like many Italians who were emigrating at that time, in College Street or St Clair Avenue, those areas were really popular to the Italians and that is where they lived…me and my family we all still live in Downtown Toronto… CAM55…they came straight to Toronto, an Italian immigrant group settlement in the city’s south, about ten minutes south of College Street…we have been in Toronto our whole life, I am still in Toronto…

Italian migrant settlement patterns reflected the usual status of migrants in colonised and then migrant settler countries, except the case of those known as the ‘founding fathers’.

These patterns are directly equated with order of arrival. That is, later groups had to enter on terms acceptable to their predecessors, who owned the land, offered the jobs, provided the credit, and controlled the sources of power and prestige (Higham 1958: 154). Of course

Italians and other migrant groups were part of the phenomenon that displaced communities of First Nations and African American peoples, driving them even further towards the

240 fringes of the city centres and away from the factories and other nation building related employment.

That said, Gabaccia (2006) writes that these understandings of race, combined with the anti-

Catholic history of the wider Anglo community facilitated the creation of these separate enclaves occupied by migrants who were deemed racially different and inferior to the Anglo

Celtic and northern European founding settlers (Gabaccia 2006: 9). Thus, group settlements were constructed within the context of hostility from the host society, a form of racialisation, that marginalised and located them within observable, territorial places in cities (Gabaccia

2006). She writes that comparative analyses between areas where Italian migrants settled in numbers, finds these neighbourhoods with large concentrations, sometimes labelled Little

Italies by communities and in the literature were a phenomenon ‘almost exclusively’ of the

United States, Canada, and Australia (Gabaccia 2006: 9). They were the outcome of what

Robert F. Harney (1985) labelled as ‘the Italo-phobia’, specifying it as a particular ‘malady of the English speaking world’ (cited in Gabaccia 2006: 9).

Related to this, Italians were aware that they were only welcomed into their wider communities of Australia, Canada and the United States of America when economic and security interests surpassed race-based prejudices and then, only when those from preferred locations had dropped. Italians were always placed third in a desirability hierarchy after migrants from British and northern European stock. They were subjected not only to the usual ‘labour force fears’ but also to notions of ‘moral degeneracy’ both of which threatened the dominance of the early white colonisers and early founding settlers (Dewhirst 2008: 34).

The issue for Italians did not centre on whiteness as a physical descriptor alone, but as a social construction that provided ‘power, privilege, and property’ and thus social mobility

(Goldberg 2002: 12).

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The overtly racialised policies preferencing others ensured that Italian workers were neither wanted nor welcomed for a long time; setting the tone and mood across all three nations, and in Australia and Canada later waves ensured it remained for Italians and their descendants probably well into the 1970s. Combined, the impact wrought by government policies and the prevailing public attitudes, encouraged by legislation and practices in each country cannot be underestimated. These factors provide a context to understand the different and often contradictory experiences of inclusion and exclusion, the professed affiliation with other marginalised communities, as well as an explanation as to why some participants maintained a perception of separation (or did separate themselves) from the dominant Anglo community. The idea of separation, be it implied or explicitly enacted in thoughts or deeds, was evident in participant discussion providing a plausible explanation and is used to interpret and analyse participant discussion.

Historical representation of migrant behaviours portrays migrants adapting to a new country in one of four ways: integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation. That is, either migrants integrated into their host environment by assimilating and immersing themselves into it or they separated themselves, thus becoming marginalised members of their community. During the early to late twentieth century, immersion was considered the appropriate model for migrant adaptation, with acculturation positively valued, and migrants encouraged to proceed rapidly to acquire the various habits ( including citizenship) of the host community resulting in what Hartmann (1948) saw as a complete loss of cultural identity. Principally, host countries were reacting to the mass migration by insisting that migrants must assimilate so as to prevent each different cultural group from forming its own

‘separate society with distinct institutions, values and behaviour’ (Gordon 1964: 88, Cronin

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1970). However, the magnitude of Italian migration to the United States of America up to the mid-1920s and then post 1945 to Australia and Canada, required a shift in attitudes and expectations among the host nations that would lead them to accepting more variations in life style adaption than those identified above.

Current scholarship simultaneously scorns the principle and processes of assimilation and acculturation while acknowledging their relative success in absorbing millions of migrants in the countries at the core of this study (Kokegei 2012). Several north American participants were very keen to explain the potency of the drive to assimilate for their migrant family member and of the impact it has had on their family in terms where they lived (i.e. relocating to more Anglo suburbs) and the reason for loss of Italian language in their families. For example:

USM36…my grandfather was very keen to assimilate…I am told that is why he joined the services fairly soon after he arrived in America…he was really keen to show that he was a good American…he learnt to speak English and only spoke English…my father understands some Italian and speaks some Italian…but he pursued that himself, it did not come from my grandfather…he wanted to raise his children as Americans and he did not want them to speak any Italian…

For all people living anywhere other than their ‘homeland’, feelings of belonging and separation are multifaceted and involve dealing with the affective and the practical.

Importantly they are interrelated because the processes of belonging or separating may be the direct outcome of each other i.e. ‘the notion of belonging becomes activated when there is a sense of exclusion’ (Anthias 2008: 8). Belonging is more than enacting an individual right of access, for example citizenship, or the ability to identify as a member of a particular group. The strength of Italian communities lies in their perceived ability to be able to transfer culture, values and traditions to second and subsequent generations (O’Connor

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2004, Marino 2020b), even if some may be transitioning to ‘feeling Italian’ more than ‘being

Italian’ (Wilson 2007).

Drawing from participant responses, the sense of separation between Italians and those of the dominant Anglo culture does not necessarily derive just from dated models of acculturation and assimilation. They have also been influenced by perceptions and the understandings that accrue from them. Participant responses focus on the cognitive, affective and behavioural patterns of separation; deliberate, considered, or simply the outcome of the realities of living within Italian diasporic communities from the descendant’s perspective. Despite the plethora of qualitative studies of Italian migrant life experiences, emotional dimensions remain understudied, particularly the continuities and discontinuities emerging from individual and group emotional experiences and dynamics (Marino 2020b).

There are some exceptions (e.g. Barbalet 2002, Svašek and Skrbis 2007, Skrbis 2008, Svašek

2008, 2010, Boiger and Mesquita 2012, Boccagni and Baldassar 2015), which tend to consider emotions as social and intersubjective, or broadly, as physiological and biologically driven phenomena.

8.3 A Sense of Separation between Italians and those of the Dominant Culture

Part of the discussion with participants included ideas of belonging and separation. I was interested in pursuing their sense of belonging and being part of their wider community or inversely their sense of separation from those of the dominant Anglo culture. Accordingly,

I asked participants who their family mixed with as they were growing up, and who their friends were as adults.

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Identity and belonging have an interconnectivity but they remain different (see Giampapa

2001, 2007, Marino 2019, 2020b). Identity provides both a personal and a collective narrative about oneself and about relationships with others, whereas belonging can also be about social interactions including experiences of inclusion as well as exclusion, involving shared networks, cultural values and traditions. It is not just an issue of identification, such as in the distinction between being a citizen of a nation through birth, but maintaining a heritage through culture (Zubida et.al. 2013). Ultimately, identity and belonging are part of a process of negotiation and the interactions with individuals and other social interactive happenings (Ryan 1997). Identity is also shaped by the value and emotional significance of attachment, be that individual relationships or group membership attachment, the emotional strength of which is built over time and space and relies on how people understand the possibilities for their future (see Hall 1990, Romero and Roberts 2003, Ashmore et.al. 2004,

Svašek and Skrbis 2007, Skrbis 2008, Svašek 2008, 2010). Emotion anchors the ‘experience of involvement’: it is what ‘registers physical and dispositional being’, that results ‘in the social relationship’ (Barbalet 2002: 1).

The interconnections or equally a sense of separation between Italians and those of the dominant Anglo culture, were evident in rates of engagement (or not) between members in the Italian community and others. As has been the case across the chapters, participants spoke from their own recollections or experiences relayed by elders, however the memory of those stories have become part of their own (Bennett 2016). In the extract below, the participant speaks of never really feeling part of where she lived, even though she has lived there her whole life:

AUF55a…we grew up here…I feel we were always apologising for being Italian, it is a weird thing…starting from the simplest, your name, or the where do you come from question…oh we’re Italian…it feels like your whole life you have been

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apologising for being who you are…that’s what we have been doing all our lives…you lived it…we never felt we were really part of where we lived…you knew this was it and that’s it…

Mostly participants grew up in communities with large numbers of Italians, the overwhelming consensus was that their family mixed only (or predominately) with paesani, other Italians or European migrants. The three extracts below are typical of these responses:

USF62…the people my family mixed with, who came to our house or whose house we visited were Italians…they were all Italian, I don’t remember anybody who was not an Italian…

CAF57…the people who came to our house, or that we may have visited were always…paesani or other Abruzzese who had migrated to Toronto and whose names were given my parents…

AUM23…mainly mixing with Italians…everyone they had connections with were Italian…even when I meet nonna’s [grandmother’s] friends now they are all from Abruzzo…

These responses were representative, affirming that participant families encircled their lives with people from the same regions (or paesi), paesani and other Abruzzese. These were people whose family narrative was similar to theirs and people with whom they were most comfortable. They were considered a constant support during challenging times in the past, and remain so to the present. Minimal interaction with Anglos remained the outcome for most participants while they were at school and into their adult life:

AUF62b…we were not mixing with Anglo Australians…our friends now are still mainly family, not all Italians, other nationalities, Greek, but not [Anglo] Australian…

USF36…we had minimal contact with the Anglo community…me personally and for us as a family…that has not changed for me…my friends were and have remained Italians, either relatives or paesani, mainly paesani…my two closest friends when I was growing up…their grandparents were both immigrants from Introdaqua [a small town in Abruzzo] …all my closest friends now…their grandparents were immigrants from Calabria and Campania [two regions of southern Italy]

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The emphasis on solidarity, the strength of ‘close knit’ extended families and on not having, or indeed not needing friends other than family persisted. Mostly participants explained that they remain drawn to people with similar experiences because ‘it is easier and more comfortable’. Another strong theme was understandings of a shared culture and knowing your ‘roots’:

CAM30…. when I was growing up…I was drawn more to immigrants, even if they were not Italians, than to Anglos…most of the people that I know and mix with now are Italian, those who are not would still be from somewhere else…

AUF55a…my family’s friends were mainly Italian…there was a really tight knit Italian community…we were always together….we really did not have to have friends…I had my cousins…twenty of them waiting for me outside my house or at school…I did not have time to do the rounds…you have not got time for friends other than family…you have got them [friends that is] looking back we had a wonderful childhood…

USM65…even today I feel more comfortable with Italians, you feel you have an understanding of that culture…it is your roots no matter what, it is your roots…I am sixty-five years old and I feel more comfortable with my own kind, those of my roots, no matter what, it’s your roots…

Others explained that being surrounded by Italians enhanced their sense of belonging and of being Italian:

AUM52b…I went to the school not far from here, a fairly WASP area and then in Grade Five, I ended up going to a school in Clifton Hill, inner city Melbourne, twenty-three out of the thirty people in the class were Italian…that’s when it really came home to me what the culture was like and what it was like to be an Italian….that was where I identified a lot quicker, some of those people there, [the Italians at Clifton Hill School] I keep in contact with now…now as an adult I am closer to Italians than Anglo Australians…

AUF59…I wanted to be part of the Italian community…not because I don’t like Aussies, I just did not feel like I belonged…

Regardless of age, gender, generation, socioeconomic status, or location, participants consistently reported that they were ‘more drawn’ to people of similar experiences, Italian or otherwise, whose families empathised with the turmoil and disruption of moving from one country to another. When thinking about this in terms of identity and culture, I conclude

247 that participants were ‘drawn’ to those who understood their italianità Participants consistently emphasised that they were more comfortable with people of similar cultural values, people to whom they ‘did not need to explain things’, people who understood and were appreciative of extended families; the cousins, aunts and uncles, who were all at the epicentre of their lives. When participants did refer to friendships in the dominant Anglo society, they spoke of meeting those people at work, in their neighborhoods or in activities such as sport, mostly however, they suggested that these people were acquaintances, and usually not close friends.

The lack of deeper interaction with their Anglo counterparts is a notable facet of this study.

Two related issues were a reoccurring feature in responses. The first being that Anglos and

Italians rarely (if ever) visited each other’s houses and the second was participants (or their families) never being invited:

AUF58…we had Anglo Australians around us of course and we would greet them in the street if we ran into them but there were no friendships as such or interactions other than the greetings…we were not in each other’s houses or anything like that...

USM86…I don’t remember ever visiting [Anglo] Americans in their homes…even the ones who were my friends at school, I was never invited and never went to their houses…

An explanation for the not receiving (or giving) invitations may have been the lack of trust or suspicion between the Anglo and Italian communities more generally, as expressed in the examples below:

AUF62a…at home we were mainly mixing with Italians because we were all a bit suspicious of the Anglo Australians who lived around us…some of them were better than others…

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The lack of trust and suspicion may have been mutual and most probably based on a perceived threat, as in the comment from AUM60 who said ‘there was an attempt to interact with the Anglo Australian community, but I would not say that it was not particularly successful…they were not very friendly, not very warm, let’s say that’…adding that ‘the

Anglo Australians…felt under siege, all these migrants coming in’, suggesting that perhaps the Anglo Australians assumed migrants would result in a ‘decline in living standards and a threat to their leisurely or casual lifestyles because Italians worked seven days a week’.

Whatever the case, he stressed that there were no Anglo Australians visiting his house, nor did he visit Anglo Australians in their house and ‘there was sufficient evidence that people did not trust each other’.

At times the threat or suspicion came from a perception of malintent on the part of Anglo men directed towards Italian daughters:

AUF64…I did not have a lot of friends…the world out there was alien, they were Australiani, I was a girl! and so I was not really encouraged to do much outside of school… my family were not going to take too many risks…

Significantly for some, their limited interaction with the wider Anglo community continued even when their children married into Anglo families:

AUF62a…my friends now are still mainly Italian…my next-door neighbour is Australian, and we mix a bit, not much…thinking about it, those neighbours would be the only Australians who ever come into my house…my children have married Australians so I have in-laws that are Australian but still I would not say they were close friends as such…my dearest friends are definitely Italian…my own social group is still Italian…

Some responses did reflect the racist overtones of the past. Participants shared their experiences of language used toward the Italian community and racist jokes. This applied across the three countries:

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AUM50…we did not see many [Anglo]Australians…there was a wall between…the wogs versus the Aussies, the wall was there…it was certainly like that…

CAM73… they called us wop…a pejorative racial slur which implied losers…

USF78…they always called me dago …the Anglo Americans would bother you as a kid, even though there was a lot of us…but I guess it was because there were a lot of us that that they bothered us…

Inversely, several Canadian participants used of the terms ‘mangiacaker’, ‘mangiachecca’ or ‘caker’ to refer to Anglo Canadians, adding that it was something ‘uniquely Canadian’:

CAF57…we had a bit of a standing joke in those days in Toronto, the [Anglo] Canadians were mangiacakers…

Younger respondents also used the terms, insisting on recounting the parable as part of their discussion on what separates Italian and Anglo culture. They explained that the term is a derogatory term for a Canadian person of Anglo descent - literally a cake eater. The implication was that ‘cakers’ have a lack of culture and limited social skills. They are thought to have bad taste for absolutely everything, but in particular that young cakers drink too much cheap beer and boxed wine, have no appreciation of what they are drinking and that they put tomato sauce and maple syrup on almost anything they eat, as evidenced in the comments below:

CAF22… I want to tell you something that is uniquely Canadian… when you are not Italian, we call you a caker, it derives from the story of Italian immigrants arriving by ship to Halifax in eastern Canada. They were given bread as part of their meal on the ship, but it was so soft and sweet like toast bread and they said oh my God these people eat cake or mangia checca. Then that’s what they called the Anglo Canadians… mangiachecca…now our generation, young people my brothers and I, we shortened it and call them cakers. Oh, that person is such a caker, they eat boxed pasta, plastic yellow cheese or orange cheese…we even hear cakers themselves say: I am trying on not being a caker anymore…

CAM18…my grandmother told me that after she arrived by boat to Halifax, she goes to the grocery store to buy some bread, she sees no bread, just white bread like Wonder Bread, she told me she cried…she said in Canada there is no real bread…there is a bit of a divide between Italian culture and Anglo culture here in Canada, we call Anglo culture, caker culture…caker is a not so nice a term for a Canadian person of Anglo descent…

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Collectively the terms used were not flattering to Anglo Canadians. ‘Caker’ is intended to be an insult to non-Italians’ lack of appreciation for good food, but also in a much broader sense, their cultural practices and lack of social graces (Harney 2006). Cakers are culturally different and the term is used to define that difference. Again, Italian identity is formed through food e.g. ‘those people who eat plastic yellow or orange cheese’, ‘boxed pasta’, or

‘sweet white bread’ are not Italian. ‘Cakers’ declares and emphasises the cultural differences between Anglo Canadians and those of Italian heritage. However, racism is about structural power, it works from positions of power, thus Italians (as the minority group) are prejudice towards the Anglo Canadians but the term caker does not come with the structural power to operate as a form of racism. The thrust was on taste and appreciation, with those of Italian cultural heritage scoffing at a lack of overall refinement or elegance on the part of others, but particularly Anglo Canadians. Canadian participants had positioned themselves in terms of a continuum, where at one end, being a true Italian Canadian meant not being a

‘mangiachecca, a caker or becoming cakerised’. In this way they were directing their ridicule not just at Anglos but also at Italians who they perceived were compromising their

Italian cultural integrity by becoming cakerised. This is consistent with work completed by

Giampapa where she found that for some, to be truly Italian Canadian ‘one must not be too

Anglicised’ (Giampapa 2001: 283). I have heard similar comments from descendants of

Italians living in Australia referring to others in their cultural group as being too white or discussing behaviour as being too ‘Skippy’. Likewise, during discussion with American participants, several used the term ‘Johnny Bulls’, when referring to Anglo Americans.

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To conclude, the extracts highlighting the separation between Italians and those of the Anglo culture I defer to the example below. This participant too wanted to tell me a family tale but more than this, his words point to the extent of the separation and the impressions that persist:

USM58…let me share a story with you…my dad and one of his Italian friends ventured not even a quarter of a mile away from our house to a nearby suburb to fraternise with the ladies…the local men beat the crap out of them and sent them back…Murdock Street had so many Italians that it was a pretty close-knit community…there were others like, Poles, Greeks and Syrians in one end of town, the Johnny Bulls were on the west end, even though we were on the west end, we were down by the mill…were not segregated as such, that term has a very loaded meaning here in America, so we were separated…we did not mix with them…my friends still now are mainly Italian…outside of my in-laws [my wife is Irish], my circle was not and is not Anglo American…my best friend now is Slovenian…the rest are mainly Italian…the influx of immigrants into Canonsburg kind of ensured that you had and still now have very little interaction with the Anglos…the Anglos only welcomed the Italians into Canonsburg because we were the cheap labour, those that ran the town from say the 1880s, 1890s…but now, the Italians are the owners and in the majority…Italian families own and run the area still, well, people of Italian heritage…I have an interest in restoring old buildings…there was an old building that I purchased in 2007 in partnership with another Abruzzese, we restored it, the original owner was an old Johnny Bull, that family had lots of business in town and they owned this whole building…in honour of my Italian heritage the name of that building is Sulmona...[the name of the familial town in Abruzzo]

Collectively, the terms that are used by participants to describe their wider Anglo community stem from very different positions in the past, but they similarly reference solidarity amongst the Italians due essentially to their number and the strength of Italian culture and traditions.

Participant comments go directly to power: ‘Anglos only welcomed the Italians into

Canonsburg because we were the cheap labour for them as owners of factories and other businesses’, this ‘influx of immigrants ensured that you had and still now have very little interaction with the Anglos, even though the Italians have become majority business owners’

(USM58).

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I draw from Kong (2001) to argue that the sentiments expressed by my participants echo an historical reality where the emotional reaction is rooted in politics and identity, both individual and community. In all their multifaceted and plural characteristics, each research location has been part of an ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification across the generations for participants. Streets and suburbs where they grew up and where some families still live and work, are spaces that evoke emotion, place and culture (Smith and Bondi 2016). The separation of Italians and those of the dominant Anglo society evident in participant narratives, was initiated through direct experience of family elders, but is sustained in the memories of those experiences. It reflects a fusion of deference to elders and folklore that is an imbedded part of family migration narrative and the lived realities of day to day life for participants. Memories of experiences are transmitted intergenerationally through family (Erll 2010b). Ongoing interaction between and within communities are impacted by memories which are located in the present for those drawing from it (see

Ibrahim 1999, Crumley 2002, Erll 2010b, Bennett 2016 and Hua 2016). Relayed through family, memories are formative in relation to identity. Families tend to remember and share the information that is consistent and reflects the image and interest they wish to project.

Where cultural continuity is the need; the emphasis will be placed on similarities (Erll

2010b). For this participant group, their sense of being or feeling Italian comes, among other things, from their sense of separation from the Anglo society.

At times, participants talked of feeling separate and other times of separating themselves.

Additionally, all said their family mixed only (or predominately) with Italians or other migrants. Minimal interaction with Anglos remained the outcome for most participants while they were at school and into their adult life. Friendships in the wider Anglo community were usually made at work, with neighbours or in activities such as sport, but

253 mostly these people remained acquaintances. Close interaction or intimate friendships with those in the wider Anglo community, were completely missing from the interview discourse.

Culture and identity are not static, but constantly evolving and changing through time and space, they can also be more a state of mind (i.e. a feeling or a sense) (Lalich 2003). Ongoing transformations of course include power, but participants maintain their sense of separation not because power differences between communities created a sense of separation. They maintain their sense of separation because of the value and significance they placed on their

Italian identity and the significance of intergenerational transmission of Italian culture for them. This is noteworthy because by most reasonable measures, those from the later generations (third and fourth) of descendants of Italians migrants have more power (social, economic, political, cultural) than did their families when they arrived in host location, and yet the idea of separation was pointed and emphatic across generations. This was the case across location, age, gender and profession.

8.4 Italians Think, Feel and Behave Differently to Anglos

The discussion on the sense of separation between Italians and the dominant Anglo society revealed a strong affective component with participants highlighting that they believed that as Italians, they think, feel and behave differently to Anglos. Comments emphasising these differences were common in participant responses across the three countries, age groups, gender and generations. Respondents were quite definitive, asserting that not only was the

Anglo community separate from the Italian but that they were very different in many ways:

USF90…they were separate from us in every way, not just that they lived in other parts of the town, I mean they were different from us in every way…

CAF55….we think differently to Anglos, we behave differently, we are who we are, and we do the things we do, because we are Italian…

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CAF82…we have a different way of thinking…Italians think differently from the English…a different way of seeing the world…

For some this realisation that they were different came when as children they began mixing more with Anglos:

USF57…my family were very demonstrative, always hugging and kissing you...I always thought that was normal…until I got a little bit older…my friend who was Anglo…was so quiet…it was then that I realised that we were very different…

For others the difference was affirmed as adults when they worked with other likeminded people:

USM66…Italians are emotional family oriented people…I did not know that there was any difference until I started meeting other people…in my adult life I see that the folks I know, that I work with, folks with Italian heritage…they all have the same traditions and values that I was raised on….it is a sense of pride for me and always was definitely…

Others identified specific differences:

CAM63b…there is a difference between the Anglos and the Italians…Italians are definitely more focussed and concentrate more…they make education important, whereas Anglos did not, they were the ones who were kicking their kids out of the house at sixteen, that never happens here [Italian households] are you kidding? I was almost 34…when I got married [and left home] …

Different expectations that separated Anglo and Italian culture:

CAM49…I think we are 100 per cent different to the Anglos…let me give you an example, my wife’s sister, she married a Scottish fellow…I look at our parenting styles and it is night and day…I would say absolutely night and day and I would attribute that to his Anglo Scottish influence and our Italian influence…it [the influence] comes out in family values…like let’s say the kids had a birthday party to go to and at the same time my brother’s kids birthday celebration was on, my brother’s kids would take priority…the family function would take priority and then you can go and see your friends afterwards or in the words of our wise elders: prima il vostro dovero, poi il piacere [first your duty then your pleasure]…how we treat family members, how our cousins are like our brothers and sisters, these are definite markers of the differences between Anglos and Italians…some Anglos don’t even know who their cousins are or if they do, never have contact with them, that would be very rare in Italian families…

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AU38b… the expectations with children, like how my mother-in-law interacts with my children is very different to how my mother interacts with my children…my daughter’s grandmother is English and that has been the biggest cultural shock of my life…that expectation of Anglo parenting is the most different I have ever experienced…the differences are almost too different to work with…it has been very different bringing up my kids within the Anglo side... I would say that culturally we are VERY, VERY [her emphasis] different to the Anglos…

Reiterating earlier sentiments, others underscored feeling comfortable with people from your own cultural group and related to this, the solidarity that comes from strong and close families:

USM65…the Italian way is very welcoming and very different to the way they [Anglos] do things…I feel more comfortable with Italians, you feel you have an understanding of that culture…

CAM76…I feel we think Italian and feel Italian…it is comfortable to me…my Italian me…I think this is especially the case if you spend most of your time with people of your culture, and I have done that…

Participants also spoke directly to solidarity in family mitigating against the negative associations of the past:

AUM29…I think we [Italians] kinda think and feel the same…we are different to the Anglos, it is definitely something that is passed on through the generations [that is] to stay as close knit as possible….there has always been a bit of racism, our parents and grandparents felt that sense of superiority coming from the [Anglo] Australians, that we were lesser and that is what drew us together really…I think it still exists a little but of course things have changed but I think it is still there a bit…

In his study of Italians in Australia, Ricatti (2011) suggested that the amplified view of the

Italian family, when combined with the markers of their socioeconomic success, provided

Italians with their own sense of ‘moral and ethnic superiority’. There is an element of a similar sense of superiority in responses from North American participants:

USF36…there is a world of difference between us and the Anglos…I felt that [my Italian heritage] made me better than them [Anglos]…I feel like I have a stronger sense of myself than other people my age…

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USM36…I feel that people of Italian background are more open…more open minded and accepting of other people…like my grandfather felt he was discriminated against so when that happens you can see how other people were discriminated against and you have some common courtesy to the people…I saw that with my family…I inherited that from my grandfather and my family and part of that is our background…just being more open-minded people…

USF57…I thought we were special, I don’t know why…I felt sorry for people that weren’t Italian...I always felt bad for people that were not Italian and a lot of our friends said they wished they were Italians, so we adopted them as Italians…

CAM73…for decades, the Italian community had lived quietly, driven by the singular cause that had them moving to Canada…economic betterment…toward the mid-1960s the goal had been partially achieved or was within reach…a new wave of immigrants was arriving from Italy with a higher level of education and greater social awareness…at the same time, many of the children of the previous immigrants had grown up in Canada…when the Italians in Toronto began to become more aware of themselves, of the significant force, of the increasing importance that they were assuming in the moral and material building of the country, and the prestige that the community finally began to enjoy in the national context, then the move towards a more united expression began to spread, and the desire to assert that identity grew…until then the Italians had tried to disguise their identity to gain the approval of the Anglo majority…

The idea that this cohort of Italians think, feel and behave differently to Anglos emerged as one of the key findings of this study. Participant affirmations were unmistakable, poignant and convincing. The consistency of both theme and focus in responses reveals that participants ardently believe Italians think, feel and behave differently to Anglos. Emotions are at the core of understanding participant sense of and actual separation in their lives.

Identity, culture and memory, are each central aspects of transnational living (Marinelli and

Ricatti 2013). This point is succinctly expressed by Ziarek (1995) who writes ‘affect is crucial in the formation of national affiliation because it mediates between the emptiness of time and language, and the imaginary organic unity of the nation’ (Ziarek 1995:28-29).

Others (e.g. Phinney 2003, Phinney and Ong 2007, Marino 2020b) agree that the presence of likeminded peers can promote an individual’s culture, identity and attachment.

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Responses indubitably demonstrate that interacting with Italians (or descendants of other

European migrants) has remained high, most participants feeling more comfortable interacting with others in the Italian diasporic community, clearly enhancing or elevating culture and identity for them. No respondent reported that their friendship circles was Anglo only or predominantly Anglo. Participants drew from experiences and memories, situated in various migratory transitional waves, created through combinations of imagery of Italy and italianità together with the reality of their own lives, to form ‘emotionally charged identities reinvented, reproduced and ultimately experienced’ (Marinelli and Ricatti 2013:

11).

Emotions are an enduring part of the everyday lives of participants. Emotions personify individual thought, shaping and are shaped by interactions with people including those in the wider Anglo society, with places, locations and politics; all working to construct personal geographies (Davidson and Mulligan 2004). Research on emotional geographies recognises that emotions are pivotal to negotiating identity formation in different geographic spaces

(see the work of Davidson and Mulligan 2004, Davidson et.al. 2012).

My analysis of participant thoughts, feelings, opinions (their emotional and personal geographies) exposed minimal variance. There was some change in emphasis perhaps, but all comments underscore difference. A difference in thinking, feeling or behaviour, the message was consistent; Italians and Anglos are different. By drawing on their emotions to describe both positive and negative affect, participants displayed a heightened awareness of the deep and non-rational dimensions of life, of the value of feelings expressed through their experience of family, with that value being most understood as an instinctive feeling

(Bassetti 2003). Time to reflect on the family migration narrative focused respondent

258 attention on their Italian cultural heritage and the interconnectivity of family history including settlement and adaptation for grandparents or parents, and the experiences of growing up in an Italian household within a dominant Anglo society, reinforcing notions of their own italianità (Giampapa 2007).

Additionally, this level of reflection affirms that the locational and social components of emotions (feelings and affect) are central to the discourse. Individuals can only be the sum of their experiences; therefore, emotions derived from memories impact and drive individual cognition and behaviour. They expose the past, display the present and to varying degrees explain how individuals project or imagine their future. Attachment (or affective commitment) or a sense of belonging are key to cultural identity (Ashmore 2004 et. al.,

Phinney and Ong 2007). More than an emotional attachment, affective commitment also requires a level personal investment (Ellemers et.al. 1999, Roberts et.al. 1999), all consistently evident across participant responses. Maintaining a sense of separation between

Italians and those of the dominant Anglo culture, coupled with the belief that Italians think, feel and behave differently, predictably led to declarations of pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand Italia’ from participants. However, in the following section it will be shown that these pronouncements are validated by various sources. Each section builds on the previous to facilitate the construction of Italian identity and ongoing performance of italianità for the participant cohort.

8.5 Pride in all things Italian and the Strength of ‘Brand Italia’

The outcome of ongoing mobility (both temporary as in working holiday, study, as well as permanent emigration) in and out of Italy leads to the ongoing reproduction of a global

Italian diaspora, ensuring an enduring renewal and continued dispersal of Italian culture.

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Another consequence of ongoing spread involves ever increasing consumption of Italian branded products. This magnified consumption is driving an emergent body of writing where ‘Brand Italia’ is commodified to a high value phenomenon (see Bassetti 2003,

Temperini et. al. 2016).

Discussion on pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand Italia’ in this section focuses on an aesthetic sense and the values of good taste and all things beautiful. Both are part of Italian history and are the embodiment of a heritage of art, culture and lifestyle that distinguishes the country. The universality of all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand

Italia’ is acknowledged as being due mainly to the success of ‘Made in Italy’ badging

(Bassetti 2003, Choate 2017). That badge has been in use since the 1980s to indicate the international uniqueness of Italy in traditional industries of fashion, food and beverages, furniture and engineering. Italian products are associated with quality, high specialisation and differentiation, elegance, and strong links to experienced and famous Italian industrial districts, affirmed not only through perception of luxury but the realities of Italian goods and services across the globe (Mariotti and Mulinelli 2017).

Support for such claims is easily accessed through various Italian government websites. For example, Italian Ministry of Economic Development cites the following:

• Italy is a world leader in the creation of major infrastructures; one thousand construction sites in ninety countries • it has the world’s fifth largest trade surplus in manufactured goods • is the world’s fourth largest producer of gold and silver jewellery with 75% of its production exported • the country is among the world’s largest manufacturers and exporters of pharmaceuticals • it is the European Union’s largest manufacturer of furniture and the number one furniture exporter to non-European Union countries • it is also Europe’s second largest exporter of machinery

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• the Italian automobile industry includes three thousand two hundred companies, employing more than 1.2 million people working with arguably some of the world’s most recognisable brands • the country is also home to leading aerospace technologies; the third country in the world to send a satellite into orbit • Italy is a leader in the production of super yachts with 40% of world orders • the country exports 40 billion euros worth of goods in the food and drink industry and related technologies and • Italy has the greatest number of UNESCO world heritage sites (Ministry of Economic Development, March 2020).

Since 1999, Made in Italy badging has also begun to be protected by associations such as Istituto per la Tutela dei Produttori Italiani [Institute for the Protection of Italian

Manufacturers], regulated by the Italian government (Temperini et.al. 2016). Some of the strength in the badging reflects the recognition of Italian design and fashion houses, manufacturing and building products, but some of it may in part be due to the collectively accepted success (by most measures) of emigration from Italy and the concurrent progressive fading of the negative stereotypes of Italians living in diasporic communities across the globe. This second point coincides with the fact that from around the mid-1970s, second and subsequent generations of Italian descendants, wherever they were living, were becoming more visible and more active in social, professional and political positions, reflecting those of their Anglo counterparts particularly in Australia, Canada and the United

States of America (D’Amore 1994). Combined, these factors have meant that Italian diasporic communities are growing not only in number but more significantly in self- awareness, embracing as part of this, pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand

Italia’ (Faist 2010). This point was evident from participant responses that focused on the success of migrants:

USM86…I am very proud when successful Italians come across my path…I say, how about that he’s Italian…I’m Italian…

CAF30… Italianness…it is was what made me, it was totally embedded in me…there is currency in brand Italia, perhaps the early arrivals had some

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discrimination, but now brand Italia is powerful, and everyone wants a piece of the action as they say, everyone wants to be Italian…

Others focussed on the natural beauty and richness of Italy and the Abruzzo region:

CAM66b…how can you not be proud of a place like Italy that has given so much to the world…

CAF21b… I am proud to be Italian…I am proud of a lot of things… it is such a beautiful country…

While for others it was culture and heritage, the art, the lifestyle and the strength of the people:

CAM65…we grew up with this incredible love of being Italian…there was a love of Italy…not the country necessarily but a love of being Italian…very much so…

USM70…I feel very proud to be Italian…I feel more proud the more I learn about the immigrants, the contribution they made here and in Italy, the contribution the Italian culture made to the world…the Renaissance, the church, the magnificent culture that Italy gave the world…the more I see, the more educated I am, the more proud I am to be Italian… personally, and professionally I say, thank you for who I am...I grow in that every day…it is just magnificent who we are… magnificent…I want to celebrate more our traditions, the wine that we drink, the food that we eat, the religion that we share, the love that we share, the emotionality we share, the creativity we share…the magnificence of who we are, the Abruzzese people...how beautiful these mountain people are, Forte e Gentile [kind and gentle] I love that, I am proud of that and the more I know, the prouder I am…

CAF82…Italy is beautiful everywhere…if you live near the beach or the mountains it is always beautiful, so beautiful…I feel when I (and others) go to Italy that it renews life…in every way… it renews your language, it renews your fashion, it renews your way of thinking about life because they take it easy, they don’t do crazy working like here [in Canada], they go on vacation, they take their time in the afternoon…they always find a way to have a long weekend…we have a long weekend here too but where do you go?.. the distances here that is what bothers me…Canada is still a very cold country [participant laughs], it is cold in every way…I have a few customers that are warm, they come in and they hug me…they tell me, I am so happy to see you here, but other than that it is hi, hello and goodbye…when families come from Italy, come here to eat…you can see different people, different way of doing things, of talking…

Pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand Italia’ amongst this participant cohort was palpable. Collectively all factors they discussed contribute and enable participants to

262 be more self-assured. They not only embrace pride in being Italian, they also explicitly place pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand Italia’ as a centre piece in their day to day life, demonstrating an important and significant intergenerational transformation.

8.6 Italian Identity in Day to Day Life

As a group, participants presented as self-assured contributing members of their Italian community, very positive about their cultural group, happy and content to promote various aspect of it in day to day life. Unmistakably participants owned their culture and identity, recounting in concert that for them it is displayed daily:

CAM49…it comes out in our day to day lives…in what we eat, the way we parent, our traditions, like family traditions…the kids see it every day…we live it in a lot of different ways every day…

CAF55…in this house, we always have RAI15 international daily…it was part of growing up, the music, the Italian entertainment shows, then there was the Ave Maria broadcast from the Vatican [the Pope’s Mass], you would hear that in the middle of the night because my mum would be singing…we would hear her saying the prayers along with the Pope…Christmas and Easter have always been very big Italian feasts…mum would cook for the priest and his dog…you cannot feed people and not the dog…for me it’s the food, the openness…people that come to the door…and family…all the day to day things that happen each day…

Membership to Italian clubs and associations was universally mentioned as a way that participants saw Italian identity represented and a space where they could ‘be’ Italian.

Responses make known that clubs and associations were established and frequented for a variety of reasons. Many participants identified the usefulness for family to belong to culturally based clubs and association in the early years after arrival, as safe spaces to relax and interact using home language with people who shared common experiences and had

15 RAI: Radiotelevisione italiana is the national public broadcaster of Italy

263 similar cultural appreciations. For example, an older Canadian participant went into considerable detail to explain that the first club to be constructed in Toronto at the beginning of the 1940s was known as the Italo Canadian Recreation Centre. He told me that because post-World War Two migration in some cases resulted in entire townships in Abruzzo being emptied. Soon the community in Toronto numbered around seventy-five to eighty thousand

Abruzzese, ensuring that by 1983 there were around eighty Abruzzese specific clubs and associations in Toronto. As a consequence, the community formed the Federazione Delle

Associazioni e Dei Clubs Abruzzesi in Canada in November that year, many of which remain active. Other Canadians spoke of their membership of various clubs and cultural associations, validating the strength of village, town and regional affiliation, affirming that for many, Italianness was localness. Some were also active in national associations, but localism remained strong:

CAM55…we have had a federation of Abruzzese clubs and association since the 1980s…that Federation has become the voice of Abruzzese migrants…they represent Abruzzese migrants across Canada…I am involved in the Navelli Social Club of Toronto…we have a long history…all the founding families [of the club] have roots in Navelli…[we] just have fun and catch up with likeminded people from the same area in Italy…the families have so much in common…they migrated together down here, they grew up together, their children and friends got drunk together, they went to each other’s weddings…here it is 2018…next year we will be celebrating our forty-fifth birthday…next Saturday night is the annual club dance…my family has always been strongly involved…I have been active for around twenty years, I love it, I grew up with these people, these people were all my ‘uncles’ and ‘aunts’ when I was growing up and so I love them all…we still have a picnic and a Christmas party that get well over two hundred people respectively, still now…

CAF53…I attend functions at Italian clubs and associations…I go with my mum, especially to the Popoli club, it is nice to see all the paesani…[my sister] belongs to an association called CIBPA [Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association]…she was very active for many years...she has been president…because she was very prominent in that association, she has been very prominent in the Italian community…

CAF22…my mum has been very involved in Italian community cultural activities…she has been part of the Italian Canadian women’s alliance to mentor Italian Canadian women, she is part of the Italian congress as well…she was part of the Pirandello Theatre group [that has been passed onto to me]…throughout my university years I have been an executive member of the Italian Canadian Association of the University of Toronto. I have won a couple of awards specifically

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for Italian Canadians…the Italian Canadian business award and the Italian Canadian Professional Association award. I have volunteered for an Italian politician who represents Italians in North America, Italians who live al’estero…it was really cool…

CAF22 makes a slightly different point to those made earlier that focus on clubs as a safe place to interact with like-minded people. Rather, she is describing the pride that comes from leading or running (being on the executive) or belonging to a club. She describes feeling great pride in the awards she received from the clubs she is associated with.

Many Canadians also spoke of being part of groups that were established to teach the Italian language, and to promote cultural activities such as Dante Alighieri Associations,

Campagna di Teatro di Giovanni [theatre group for the youth] in Canada, and sport and recreation more generally. Motivation to form the clubs and associations arose from different ideals. Some were purely recreational as in the various Abruzzo clubs, others were tied to ethnically based sporting teams like the Toronto Italia Soccer association, or specific

Abruzzese towns who sponsored sporting teams, such as the Sulmona Club, the Popoli club to name just two. Related to the proliferation of Italian soccer clubs, many Canadians spoke of an ‘outpouring of Italian nationalism in July 1982, and again in 2006 when Italy won the

World Cup of Soccer’. They described over 50,000 people in St Clair Avenue in a spontaneous celebration of pride on both occasions. ‘Thousands of people in Corso Italia, it was peaceful, fun, it’s nuts’ (CAM55). For a few, the clubs and associations have come to be used for political and economic lobbying.

Likewise, American participants spoke of active memberships in multiple clubs and associations such as the Italian Sons and Daughters of American (ISDA) which began in

1930 in Pittsburgh, but different to the Canadians, their associations were locally situated

265 with a national perspective. For example, the Washington County Italian Association, the

Grand Lodge of the Sons of Italy, the National Italian American Foundation, the Italian

Independent Club located in Canonsburg, known as the MUSE:

USM86…I belong to the Washington County Italian Association…the Grand Lodge of the Sons of Italy, Ambassador magazine comes from them…the National Italian American Foundation, and other local Italian Associations…

USF63b…I am active in Italian Sons and Daughters of America (ISDA), I belong to Sons of Italy…and to the Italian Independent Club [the MUSE] …

Participants from Melbourne nominated multiple clubs and associations they and their families remain active in. Many mentioned Abruzzo clubs [Sulmona club and Casa

Abruzzo], as well as Italian clubs and associations in various universities (Italian Social

Club, University of Melbourne, Italian Society, RMIT), Italian soccer clubs, the Cavour

Club, the San Remo Ballroom, Società di Dante Alighieri, Co.As.It. and the Museo Italiano

[Italian museum]. Those who were not members said they attended functions and activities run through the various clubs and associations with family and other Italian friends. For example:

AUF62b…I belong to the Abruzzo club in the city and the one in Epping…many of our family celebrations have been held in one of those clubs…I met my husband at the San Remo Ballroom at one of their Saturday night dances…and likewise for AUF59…we go to Italian club functions…my husband and I met at the Casa Abruzzo picnic…

AUF62a…I belong to many Italian clubs and associations…Società di Dante Alighieri, I have done courses at Co.As.It. and at the Italian institute…I continue to go to Co.As.It. and the Italian Institute for functions…

AUM52a…I am a musician, so the first music I ever listened to was Italian music at Italian clubs…those first experiences I had with live musicians…that used to blow me away as a kid…I was always drawn to Italian music…I love the music… the waltzes, the tarantellas and all the styles of music that the Italians really enjoyed…

As social constructs, culturally based clubs and associations adapt and incorporate cultural histories and memories of the home community, providing a functional medium through

266 which to apply social and recreational, educational, cultural, economic and commercial experiences, and aged care and welfare services to likeminded people in their community.

Sometimes membership is by people from the same geographic location, but not always.

They serve three main functions: a) they are an identifier, b) they provide a network of groups and institutions, and c) they refract the cultural norms of the host community through the filter of their own cultural heritage (Conzen et.al. 1992: 5). They can operate long after the group has lost most of its distinctive cultural attributes, however such loss was not evident in participant responses.

What was evident was their endurance over many generations, and the interactive engagement by people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds (not just the original custodians). Over time there will have been adjustments that align performance and representation of ethnicity (or culture). By definition they are continuously negotiated and renegotiated as a consequence of day to day life experiences and interactions over generations in their country of residence (Culley 2006).

Participants acknowledged varying shifts, such as initiatives now focussing on supporting elderly members of their community through the provision of aged care services and accommodation. Ongoing renewal ensures that clubs and associations meet the needs of their community and sustain their relevance. Italian clubs and associations played important affective and pragmatic roles in the lives of participants. Many remain engaged because what clubs and associations provide remains significant for them. It is clear that for the earlier generations, more than places to play bocce, cards, or football, Italian clubs and associations were also sites that allowed Italians to acknowledge, maintain and celebrate their regional (sometimes town and village) identities, fulfilling an emotional need. Many were lonely, some were without partners, others had left partners in Italy. Whatever the

267 circumstances, clubs and associations provided social networks, sometimes employment and other commercial connectors. For newer generations, Italian clubs and associations maintain connections to the wider Italian community more generally, as well as to Italian cultural heritage. Clearly the need to belong remains a powerful influence for descendants in this study, who maintain membership or participate in activities into their fourth generation and beyond, even if it is symbolic (Waters 2006).

Participants also actively promote Italian culture through membership and interaction within these multiple clubs and associations who continue to attract membership (Moreno 2003b).

Clubs and associations built and created in their respective communities by Italian migrants affirmed and enhanced their connections to ‘home’, and allowed descendants of the migrants

‘to experience, negotiate with and feel connected to their Italian heritage’ (Ricatti and

Klugman 2013: 473), and facilitate interactions between descendants of similar provincial and regional origins across the globe, connecting diasporas worldwide (Baldassar et.al.

2012). Many have distinct connotations reflecting diverse perceptions in status or objectives. However, interactions suggests that descendants are maintaining links to their

Italian culture and identity through those components they most value. They are likely to feel Italian and to find ways of expressing that identity when they choose, which could be membership of Italian clubs or groups, or participating in activities or functions therein.

Even in instances where clubs and associations held little relevance, Italy and ‘being Italian’ remain pertinent (Baldassar et.al. 2012) for this participating cohort.

8.7 Separating Citizenship and Cultural Heritage

Separating participants’ understanding of their citizenship and cultural heritage is another key finding of this study. A striking feature of the analysis of responses is the distinction

268 participants made between citizenship and cultural heritage. Participants were clear on separating their country of birth and their country of cultural heritage. That is not to say that participants did not see themselves as Australian, American or Canadian. They did, the critical difference was that the country of birth could have been anywhere. What made them who they were, and what separated them from others born in the same country was their

Italian cultural heritage and their continued identity as Italian. As a group, they proclaimed their sense of being Italian, feeling Italian or of italianità (my first question). As descendants, cultural and national identification clearly reflected ongoing transformations over multiple generations since their emigrating family arrived to the country of their birth

(my second question) but Italian cultural heritage maintain pre-eminence. This proclamation was significant, signposting the transmission of Italian culture and Italian identity intergenerationally for my participants, as well as living as part of an Italian diasporic community away from ‘home’ (my third question).

Overwhelmingly, the majority of respondents in this study identify as Italian or claim Italian cultural heritage despite not being born in Italy and/or not having Italian citizenship. Most participants spoke of their migrant forebears taking citizenship of their host country, at times having to forfeit their home country citizenship, for purely pragmatic reasons, echoing what

Huntley (2012) wrote when she said that citizenship was about property not patriotism or culture, explaining that for her great grandfather his ambition to own land drove him, and naturalisation (citizenship) was a step towards land ownership and wealth.

8.7.1 Citizenship and Loyalty

There is evidence of some Italian Americans in the 1940s and 1950s abandoning their Italian cultural heritage. Primarily this was due to two notable and related factors, both significantly

269 influenced by Italian loyalty to the United States of America in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Firstly, there was a need to try in every way possible to assimilate, reflecting the community attitudes being promoted at that time, namely that racial and cultural differences were not valued, rather they were to be condemned and ridiculed (De

Salvo 2003). Several American respondents told me that their parents and/or grandparents studied English at night in order to gain citizenship. One spoke of a club that his father was able to access once he became an American citizen, a highly desired outcome:

USM65…he became an American citizen…there was a club…called the Citizens Club, it was a bar and it was a big thing to go there as a US citizen…

The other factor was enlisting in the armed services. Multiple researchers comment on the role of Italian migrants in the armed services and on Anglo American perceptions of them during both World Wars (see Belmonte 2001, Carnevale 2003, Luconi 2012, La Gumina

2016). It was during World War One that perception of Italians in the United States began to shift with Italy’s alliance with America, where Italians and their families in America were increasingly seen, not as the dangerous ‘other’, but as allies (Di Giovine 2016). Then during

World War Two, over 500,000 Italian Americans enlisted in the American armed forces

(Santucci 2010), where Italy was a core member of the Axis powers and thus at war with

America. Many received American citizenship as a consequence of fighting for America

(Gardaphè 2003). Of course, where men and women were American citizens they were probably drafted. Still, during both wars Italian Americans were faced with the reality that the land of their birth or that of their parents’ birth was taking up arms against their chosen host country. Many researchers write that this presented a challenge as well as an opportunity to demonstrate that they were loyal Americans, living within the principles of

‘Americanism’ and taking a public position that would have worked towards fostering public perceptions of moving from an Italian identity to one as Italian Americans (see Moreno

2003b, Luconi 2004, Di Giovanni 2016, La Gumina 2016 ). Several participants detailed

270 their own or their father’s military service:

USM92...my dad, he and his brother, came with their father…it had to be early 1900s because he was in the First World War for the United States...

USM70…I think my father joined the army because he wanted to show his community that he was American…I guess there is no greater way to show people that you are American than to fight for it…I think it is a bit sad that he thought he had to do that, that he thought he had to prove he was worthy, that he was worthy to be here and to claim to be an American…

USM65…I don’t know what motivated my dad to join the military, but I think in that era, my dad’s generation…they wanted (or needed) to prove that they were really American American, because there was still the prejudice against Italians…even in my era I have heard it…the peer pressure too, people were flocking for sure…after Pearl Harbour…

One participant offered a more pragmatic explanation for the motivation, referring to what he called the GI Bill16, suggesting that it provided a generation of migrants with an incentive

(or reward) for enlisting that resulted in access to an education:

USM58…the GI Bill was a law that provided a range of benefits for returning World War Two veterans. It established hospitals, made low-interest mortgages available and granted stipends covering tuition and expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. The Bill provided a generation who might not otherwise have completed their education because they could not afford it…out of the horror of World War Two, the GI Bill also provided that generation of Italians with an education…

Not surprisingly, references to participating in wars for the host county did not emerge from

Australian or Canadian participants, given that mostly families migrated post World War

Two. Canadians typically spoke of gratitude to their host country while maintaining their ties to their Italian cultural heritage, acknowledging the lived reality of their lives in Canada:

CAM73…Italian Canadians have acquired the full status of citizenship…without the slightest damage to the proud claim of our Italian roots…I feel I have a huge debt of gratitude towards my two homelands, equally loved and honoured by me…it seems

16 The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G.I. Bill, introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 22, 1944 Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-103sjres202cds/html/BILLS- 103sjres202cds.htm downloaded 27 March 2020

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to me important that the Italian essence be affirmed not just out of nostalgia, but rather by the establishment in Canadian society of socially useful initiatives, which relate to the values of the cultural heritage of the mother land and at the same time look towards the future…I believe strongly in maintaining, culture, language, food and tradition but I separate what I call nationalism and citizenship…I believe in creating our identity as Italian Canadian, Italian Australian or whatever…as a citizen I am Canadian first, culturally I am Italian first…this [Canada] is my reality, this is where I will spend the rest of my life…my children are here, my grandchildren will be here...

One Australian participant spoke of citizenship as an identifier for herself:

AUF53…I am Italian. I have maintained my citizenship…

8.7.2 Dual Citizenship

Differently, another Australian who since early 2000s resides in Abruzzo for at least six months of the year, spoke of how Italian citizenship is critical to her identity as an Australian of Italian origin:

AUF63…I have a very strong connection to all things Italian, absolutely…I have got [Australian] citizenship. I am an Australian of Italian origin. I also have Italian citizenship. That Italian citizenship is critical to my identity…

Several younger participants across the three sites expressed disappointment that they may not be eligible to apply for Italian citizenship due to past policies:

CAF22…I have been trying to get an Italian passport…my mum had to revoke her Italian citizenship when she became a teacher in Canada…you could not be a dual citizen, you could not have two passports…in order to become a teacher in the 1970s you had to revoke a second citizenship…she is not Italian anymore, which is the saddest thing…I cannot get it from her side and I cannot get it from my dad’s side because my great grandfather became a naturalised Canadian citizen before my grandfather was born…it is really a sad situation for me because I really wanted Italian citizenship…

In all three countries, the challenges of citizenship and cultural heritage have arguably been a factor since colonisation given that most aspects of life are profoundly influenced by transnational forces operating across borders (Holton 2011). Colonisation aside,

272 transnational identity, not a new concept, is usually applied to post 1965 migrants. Earlier, the high numbers of returnees ensured high levels of interactions between home and host, sometimes multiple host countries. More recently, increased travel and simple and cost- effective modes of communication ensures that those living in Italian diasporic communities are able to shape and sustain loyalty to more than one country or culture even though they live primarily in a host country. For the cohort in this study, being a citizen of their country of birth did not equate with a detachment from their Italian cultural heritage. What was noted was that wherever they lived, participants had a heightened awareness of their privileged position, the outcome of their forebears determination for a better life and their sense of strength gained from their pride in all things Italian.

8.8 Concluding Comments

Italian transnational spaces, wherever situated, are created through combinations of imagery of Italy and Italianness together with the lived reality of Italian identification (Marinelli and

Ricatti 2013: 11). Although often described as the exemplar minority community in

Australia, Canada and the United States of America, Italian migrants and their children have a sense of separation between themselves and the dominant Anglo community, maintaining their attachments and sense of belonging to the country of their cultural heritage. The impact of government policies and practices remain significant, they set the tone across all three nations and in Australia and Canada remaining until the late 1970s. I argue that these factors go some way to providing the context to understand why participants maintained a perception (and practice) of separation between themselves and the dominant Anglo society, their different and sometimes contradictory experiences of inclusion and exclusion and as a consequence, an affiliation with the other marginalised communities. Additionally, responses suggest participants see themselves through two lenses, through one they see their

273 country of birth and through the second they see their country of cultural heritage (Hua

2016). The first provides their citizenship but the second provides their values and traditions, as does ongoing interaction with Italian clubs and associations.

Participant responses steadfastly promoted the view that Italians think, feel and behave differently to the wider Anglo community in which they live. They have maintained a sense of separation from them and pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand Italia’ permeates their day to day activities. Some of this is evident in their ongoing interactions with Italian clubs and associations, but most of all it is personified in the separation of citizenship and culture in the formation of their identity, which remains Italian. They may have been Australian, Canadian or American citizens but culturally they were Italian. Italian was their primary identifier wherever they lived.

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CHAPTER NINE

Interactions with ‘Home’

9.1 Introduction

In this chapter I use the concepts of culture and identity to help me explain how the participant’s sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità are sustained through their interactions with ‘home’. By interactions, I mean visits to Italy and/or the region of Abruzzo, including visiting on business/employment or part of school or university type programs and the relationships forged and maintained with family and friends living therein. ‘Home’ is used to mean a significant attachment to Italy as a whole or the home region.

Participant interactions with ‘home’ arise from a combination of practical, emotional and intellectual engagement between and within the communities in which they live all derived from their common homeland; Italy (see Anthias 2008). Consistent with the preceding chapters, strong emotion pervades the personal narratives that address interactions with

‘home’. Thus, the concept of nostalgia is again drawn on to assist in understanding what is transpiring in their stories. Throughout this chapter, emotion is at the core of understanding diasporic culture and identity, playing a central role in the transnational lives of my participants (see Marinelli and Ricatti 2013).

For earlier generations, the affective reactions invoked from nostalgic memories, helped mitigate against the dislocation of mobility, and mediate between the remembered or imagined perceptions of ‘home’ and their country of migration (Ziarek 1995). Each

275 respondent who has contributed to this study has chosen to live transnationally, maintaining their interactions with ‘home’, relying on direct encounters or in some cases perceptions and understandings originating from others. In all instances the construction of their identity involves ongoing intercession with Italy, the Italian diasporic community in which they live, other migrant groups and the dominant Anglo society, to construct their Italian identity in situ (see Saxenian 2005, Wilson 2008, Marinelli and Ricatti 2013). Interactions with Italy in pursuit of education, business, employment, cultural opportunities and political exchanges more broadly, are mentioned because collectively, they were all important in my participants’ lives when thinking about connections with Italy. Whatever the context,

‘home’ plays a central role in diaspora consciousness. Transnational connections are integral to academic discourse on diasporic communities because that which links Italian diasporic communities to ‘home’ are a direct consequence of mobility, and inseparable to construction of culture and identity, where visits to Italy and the associated transnational experience are a powerful metaphor for identity (Giampapa 2001). I build on the work of others (e.g. Safran 1991, Clifford 1994, Sheffer 2003, Brubaker, 2005, 2017, Cohen 2008), and say that the one hundred and fifty year span and the numbers involved in Italian mobility, the emotional and social connections with ‘home’ for Italian migrants and their descendants, the accepted influence of Italy in the formation of personal values, identity and loyalty

(Brubaker 2005), all work to facilitate interactions with Italy as a whole or the Abruzzo region and the furtherance of Italian identity and culture.

As already established (cf. Chapter Five, Section 5.4), for participants, their sense of Italian identity and culture is not just about living within our notion of national boundaries, place of origin or place of settlement. They are personal constructions that centre on values, association, belonging and an acknowledgement of ‘home’ through a variety of interactions

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(see Smolicz 1983, Giddens 1991, Smith 1991, Vasta 1993, Castles 1995, Miller 2000,

Vertovec 2001, Chiro 2003, Jacobs 2011, Bauman 2005, 2013, Moreno 2020b).

Based on my data, my interpretation is that the three Italian diasporic communities in this study share many features. Firstly, the social and cultural compositions within them are fluid, dynamic, ever changing and evolving. Secondly, interactions between where participants live and Italy are defined by specific experiences. Thirdly, analysis of the generational and geotemporal differences across the three locations provides significant insight into how earlier generations were able to interact with ‘home’ and those available to newer generations. For example, the complexities of the globalised and transnational realities of twenty-first century life, chiefly the take up of travel and communication technologies, challenge past constructs of social organisation, culture and identity.

Participants are more easily able to be active members of Italian communities where they live, be part of their broader Anglo communities and simultaneously interact with family and friends in Italy. Newer generations have supplementary enablers resulting in increased opportunities for more enriching interactions with Italy, which in turn builds its own momentum, creating a strong sense of being, or feeling Italian or of italianità. Access to

Italian language and cultural programs through university or community colleges (cf.

Chapter Seven, Section 7.4) providing opportunities to live and learn in Italy and Abruzzo accentuate the differentiation between generations.

More frequent travel is another distinguishing feature. To explain this point, I defer to a third-generation American participant (USM86) who said he ‘tried to interact with people in Italy, but that over the years it was very hard’. He added that he was aware that his son was disappointed that he could not answer the many questions he had of his family in Italy.

Differently, his son (USM57) was able to travel and seek answers to his questions for himself

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(and his grandson, not a respondent in this study contacted me independently seeking advice on accessing Italian citizenship). In his interview, the son described arriving at his ancestral hometown and seeing the Benvenuto a Rosello sign:

‘I began to feel quite emotional…then when we went into town and stopped at the War Memorial, it was the first time I had seen [our] name outside of Canonsburg and that really hit…it was really emotional…we ran into a guy, I told him I was [] and he points to this house, but nobody was home. Then we went to the cemetery…we stayed for quite a while just taking pictures of tombstones…it was very moving’.

Both participants, third and fourth generation Americans respectively, were active members of the Italian communities where they lived, but their interactions with Italy were vastly different.

Other participants, particularly those in Canada, benefited from initiatives in the schools and universities they attend/ed taking advantage of communication technologies to engage with learning communities in Italy to create innovative cultural exchange programs.

Additionally, regulatory structures such as those facilitating dual citizenship make it simpler to work, study, buy property, begin commercial or other entrepreneurial start-ups in Italy.

In concert, these initiatives and enterprises build from the scaffold laid by previous generations beginning with the emigrant, assisting descendants to sustain an Italian identity through cultural, social, education, business or political interactions with Italy as well as maintaining an emotional attachment to their country of birth should they wish to do so.

The point was expressed most acutely in this extract from an Australian participant who said:

AUM29…I decided to go to Europe and ended up working and living in Pescara…yesterday I met up with nonna…she was talking to me about my travel and I was saying how easy it was for us, our generation to be away, I have spent about three years abroad nearly and it seems so easy to save the money and do it all and that is thanks to nonna…because if she did not make the sacrifices I would not have been able to do any of it…

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For others, their Italian identity and attachment to Italian culture was more aspirational, perhaps even to an imagined Italy or italianità formed without direct interaction with Italy.

For example, a third-generation American participant who had never visited Italy, identified as Italian simply saying, ‘I don’t speak Italian, but I identify as Italian. I am proud of my

Italian cultural heritage…that has not changed, not ever’ (USF58).

Participant voices throughout this chapter demonstrate how emotion binds their interactions with places to make them meaningful. This applies when describing first visits to meet family, as it does to educational, cultural, business, commercial and political interactions.

Italy as ‘home’ and more specifically, Abruzzo as the ‘home’ region, is the only common factor for each participant. Everything else is subject to differences of varying degrees but overwhelmingly they all have a sense of being or of feeling Italian or of italianità. Their narratives reveal a cognisance of the ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification across the generations, and the significance of the transmission of culture intergenerationally for them as descendants living as part of an Italian diasporic community way from ‘home’.

9.2 Visits to Italy

Visits ‘home’ have always been seen as vital to establishing, maintaining and reinvigorating relationships and interactions, and a sense of belonging and attachment to ‘home’ for descendants of migrants (Baldassar 2001). When opportunities for return visits to Italy were limited for the emigrant generation, many early researchers (for example Gamba 1952,

Borrie 1954, Foerster 1968, Abramson 1980, Bertelli 1986, Ramirez 1989) and some more recent ones (see Hernandez-Ramdwar 2006, Jupp 2007) reasoned that interactions with

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‘home’ could not be sustained, and from this they concluded that motivation or need for interaction would dissipate. Unlike that which was averred by the researchers referenced above; across each location, participants did not talk of motivation dissipating. Also, when referring to early generations, they spoke more about need not being matched by the means that limited their travel and therefore interconnectivity with ‘home’. To explain, many participants did recount that the priority for their older or migrant family member/s was not a return visit to Italy, it was work. They needed to repay travel debts to those that had lent them the money to emigrate, then came the expenses associated with marriage, children and buying houses. Mostly they suggested that when travel did occur for older or the migrant family member/s, it was usually in response to an emergency or after a spouse was left on their own. These examples were typical of second-generation responses:

AUM60…[Mum and dad] did not go back to Italy for a long time…for my father it was because there was a death in the family and for my mother it was after twenty years...there was no sense of making regular trips at that time nor was there the money to do it…only an emergency would drag you back…

USF67…my father first took me back when I was about ten years old…his mother was not well, and I went back with him to meet my grandmother…

CAM76…my father never went back to Italy; my mother went back after my father had died…

CAM66b…I [returned] in the late 1990s to visit my uncle, he had cancer, I was very close to him…

Increased education has of course meant newer generations are better resourced than their parents and grandparents. Being more financially secure inspires and facilitates different experiences and attitudes, particularly travel, making visits to Italy a prominent and regular part of life for later generations. These shifts, together with twenty first century communication technologies have been transformative. Descendants of migrants and families still living in Italy (or elsewhere), can have ongoing and regular meaningful interactions efficiently, simply and cost effectively.

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During their interviews, I asked those who had visited Italy to reflect on that first visit and to discuss with me what they remembered of how they felt. From participant responses, it became clear that the first visit was significant for all, well remembered as a deeply emotional experiences. Participants spoke of feeling comfortable, of ‘knowing’ the people and places, and feeling like they were ‘back home’ or being at ‘home’ despite it being a first visit. These points were prominent across the three locations and generations, as is highlighted in the extracts from American participants whose age at interview span fifty- four years and three generations:

USF90…the first time…I met my family [in Italy] I was crying, they were crying, it was like going home…that is exactly how I felt…I felt so comfortable…that is important because you must understand I had limited Italian, well no Italian really, just a little of the Abruzzese dialect and they had no English, but I still felt very comfortable…they treated me with great kindness, and they were very generous in that they shared their home and a lot of stories with me…luckily my cousin’s daughter spoke good English, so when she was there she was able to translate…

USF67…I really enjoyed my first visit to Italy, I listened a lot…my grandmother took me everywhere…I felt like I sort of knew the town where my father and my mother were from…we ate that way, we spoke that way, we knew of the people, we knew friends and family of the people back in the United States…it felt like I was at home, everything was very familiar, I felt very comfortable meeting my cousins…I had heard many stories from my parents and I felt like I knew these people I was in fact meeting for the first time…

USF57…I think it affected me greatly to be honest with you…the thing I was most amazed about was to hear the language, to eat the food, everyone looked like people in my street…in Smith Street and that just blew me away…I remember saying Oh My God these people look like Shirley, Anthony, this woman looks like Annie or Jesse or Aunt Jo or whoever…I just felt like it was an immediate connection…I felt like these are the people I have known my whole life even though I did not know them…it was absolutely like going home…

USM36…I felt wonderful there on that visit, it felt like family… definitely has a different feel to it there, a lay back life style, different connection than here in America…I don’t know if it is the corporate commercialism that we are driven off, but it definitely feels like family and a big community there…

Participants did not speak of explicit planning on their part for that first visit, however all indicated they were very prepared. That preparedness was a direct outcome of the bonds

281 within their family. The stories heard from parents, grandparents or respected elders generally, family and cultural iconography on display in the homes they grew up in, the familiarity with traditions and customs that were all part of participants’ lives. Individually and combined, each of these factors worked to prepare for that first visit, all was like at home, it was a different physical location, but it was ‘home’. Emotion, both outward displays and inherent, is what made that first visit important. It was emotion that made the connection and it was nostalgia that brought it to the forefront. Memories made the experience significant and therefore memorable. Nostalgia also ensured the attachments the emigrant had with ‘home’ were never severed. Participants felt that sense of continuity of attachment and identity (Bennett 2016). They spoke of deep emotion impacting that first visit even in instances when there was no direct family (known) or when they visited other parts of Italy or places of high cultural significance. For example, this reaction from a participant who visited St Peter’s Basilica in Rome:

USF57…it was my first trip anywhere…I chose my first trip to be a visit to Italy…I was only nineteen, I was very young, had never left the USA, had never flown before, that was my first trip, to fly to Rome…going to St Peters…was deeply moving and made me very proud of not only being Italian but also of being Catholic…I have been back three times…

To conclude the American voices, I use an extract from a participant who was emphatic in telling me that after her first visit, if she could have afforded to, she would have returned to

Italy permanently because Italy was her ‘home’, not Canonsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she was born, educated and lived her entire life:

USF63b…my first visit was in 1974…we have pretty close relationships with the family and friends in Italy…I visited my family in Abruzzo…I loved it…when I got off the plane [USA]…my dad asked, what did you think, would you ever go back? I said if you buy me a ticket, I’m never coming home…I very much feel like Italy is home…

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Similarly, for Australian participants the first visit was also well remembered, with some able to nominate the precise date of the trip decades on. Participants vocalised comparable sentiments to those discussed above including the idea of being well prepared for that first trip; of ‘knowing’ the people and places they visited, affirming that family narratives were very important in connecting them to ‘home’. They provided both information and images, permitting them to process their experiences transculturally. For example:

AUM49…the first time I went to Italy was 1994, May 7 to be precise. I went on my own, it was fantastic…you would hear so much about Italy, I heard lots of stories, the stories I have heard have been built up over a number of years…then going and actually arriving and seeing it was just beautiful…my feet did not touch the ground, that is how I felt at the time, it was a beautiful feeling…

AUM57…the first time was magnificent…it was very nostalgic to go back to mum and dad’s house and town…it was everything in a sense, and more than we imagined it to be [that first visit]….my parents used to tell me all the time ‘we are in a valley and it is beautiful’, when I got there I saw how beautiful and picturesque that valley really was, they were exactly right…the view was just extraordinary…

AUM29….[my first visit] I went with my parents…we travelled through Italy together as a family…we were excited about meeting family, we spent all our time with them…we had a real affinity for them….we had grown up knowing them, even though we had never met them…

Apart from the connection from stories, the other important points made by several was that the first visit was a grounding experience, something that normalised their culture, that it

‘made the culture you grew up with seem closer to something normal’. The examples below were typical of that type of response:

AUF64…I visited Italy for the first time in 1972…I stayed four or five months…I loved it, it was like being at home…physically I would see people…like me, I used to see people like my mum…when I reflect...all those happy times as a young child, hearing all those stories, the barzellette [jokes], the funny stories about Sulmona and you were there, walking on the road and you would say wow this is where my dad played, this is the door that he talked about, all that made sense, it all made sense, I really did feel I was home…I absolutely felt like I was at home…my family was always telling stories, sometimes not directly about family and friends but wonderful stories from their time in Italy…

AUF55a…it feels like going home because of all the stories you have been told, the stories you have been listening to, even if you think you didn’t listen to your parents,

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it was a constant, the towns…mum would say oh, nonno used to go to such and such a town to do this, when I saw it for the first time, just the stupid street sign or the freeway sign that says detour here for [Sulmona] it’s like oh wow…that’s what it was like…I would hear her [my mum’s] voice saying this is [] and knowing they walked here, I would hear their voices…through your memories; what you remember, that is what connects you with a country you were not born in and have not yet visited…then you go and you remember what mum and dad said, their stories become so important because those stories connect you to home…

AUM52b…the first time I went to Italy it was surreal, the idea that you could walk the streets and feel like you were in Melbourne because you heard a language that you were so used to at home and you could identify with things you were so used to…I remember the first hour or so I was in Rome, I stopped off and got something to eat, I remember ringing my mother while I was eating and saying ‘it’s just like nonna makes’…little things like that that made the culture you grew up with seem closer to something normal…

Younger participants as a group were greater in number from Canada than from Australia or America. They expressed similar commentary as those from the two other cities, but differently the emphasis in their stories of ‘home’ came from grandparents where the focus was on the emotional turmoil associated with dislocation and loss. Mostly this younger group described their conflicted feelings. The sadness of grandparents having had to leave and be away from home, memories of which consumed much of their time in reminiscences about the past on one hand, with the exhilaration they felt at first seeing the beauty of

Abruzzo on the other:

CAM19…my grandparents’ entire conversations for as long as I can remember, their chatter was always about their home town…where they grew up, their friends…what they knew…despite living in this city [Toronto] where they could have done many things they spent their time reminiscing…having heard that and never seeing the town, I remember driving there through the mountains and pulling into a spot that I had heard being described by my grandparents as paradise, their mecca because their entire lives revolved around their town. The moment I first saw it, I reflected on what they talked about. It was kind of like a euphoric pain, that was my first experience, euphoric because of all the joy of my childhood and pain because of the sadness my grandparents had because they left…the first time I set foot in the home town…it was very small town on a slope with a lake on the bottom I remember standing in my room at the top of the house and looking at the lake and I thought, why would they ever leave here? This is paradise on earth, I still think of it that way…it is so isolated and beautiful…unbelievable…it is like seeing a movie after you had read a book…you had a lot of the background, you knew the characters and the landscape…

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Others also spoke of the wonder and natural beauty of Italy, the people, as well as the food, the history, the architecture. The theme of next extract was repeated by many:

CAF22…the first time I went…I was in awe of Italy…it was wow, we come from this most beautiful country ever…I know there is a stereotype that Italians are very proud, at least here in Canada…but the way I remember it, it is one hundred per cent true…I remember thinking to myself wow I come from the most beautiful country in the world, the best country in the whole world, great food, great history, great architecture, the people are so nice and beautiful…that was the first time I went and honestly that has never subsided…I still think the same things…I always feel very comfortable, these are my people and I have a passion for learning more about my culture…

There were also those who spoke of their first visit being very grounding experience, normalising their life:

CAM30…what going to Italy did for me was normalise my life…when I grew up I thought everyone made salsicce [sausages] in the winter and then I realised they didn’t but when I went to Italy yes it was normal…when I was making a reservation for a restaurant, they asked me for my name, but they did not ask for the spelling…I thought wow for the first time ever the person asking my name did not ask me how to spell it…

Related but different to ‘normalising and grounding’, others said their first visit to Italy gave them the connection they had been looking for. In the extract below, the young visitor seeking solace after a significant elder had died, found that connection when she went

‘home’:

CAF21a…it has been a connection I have been looking for…it has been difficult since nonna passed away…we were driving from Rome to Siena on the bus with all our stuff…we were driving by the beautiful landscape and I finally found my nonna’s presence…like for the first time in two years…it was one of those feelings…like you know I thought I have to write it down, I just took it in…I am crying on the bus and people are looking at me thinking I just met you on a plane and man you’re weird…it is definitely the connection I have been looking for…we went to our home town and found bits and pieces, you know where the person who raised me came from, why she left, just putting together even her childhood, like we even saw one of the stoves that they used…we took pictures in front of the old house and WOW...things just clicked…like going home…things just fell into place…

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For a deeper explanation of seeking solace after a bereavement, I turn to Avril Maddrell

(2016a, 2016b) a scholar working in the area of emotional and affective geographies including place in relation to mourning. She contends that place (and objects) are central to giving the bereaved a focus for locating grief. The embodied emotions are intricately connected to specific sites and contexts, which can be variously expressed, including a house and objects therein (the stove), as well as wider notions of ‘home’ such as the sense of transnational belonging when a grandchild visits Italy (Maddrell 2016a, 2016b).

The words of the younger group of Canadians educed deep emotions. This was evident in both the words they uttered (e.g. euphoric pain, pride, passion) and the experiences they described (e.g. it was grounding, finding the spiritual presence of a recently deceased nonna). The ideas of emotion, memory and nostalgia are useful here to explain the phenomenon felt by participants. All three concepts work in unison to provoke affective responses and are increasingly being included within academic literature on identity formation (Marino 2020b). Emotion is acknowledged as one of the crucial organisers of autobiographical memory, and just as autobiographical memory is important in structuring identity, affect is a crucial factor in autobiographical memory (See Strayer 2002, Bluck

2003, Finkelman 2009, Ricatti and Klugman 2013).

Nostalgia is potent, it produces a longing for the past, even when that past is only experienced vicariously. It works to relive or enrich significant memories of the past

(Bennett 2016), usually positive. Davis (1979) writes that ‘nostalgia is a memory with the pain removed’ (Davis 1979: 37). It is this dimension of nostalgia that leads to it being a major force in the publishing industries (Friedenthal 2017). As an example, Italy Magazine, an online publication ran a ‘Back to Your Italian Roots’ series, where readers who have

286 travelled to Italy to reconnect with relatives visited their ancestral towns and narrate their experiences. One such story came from Laura Battaglini (2019), whose father emigrated from Pacentro, Abruzzo to Detroit, United States of America. Battaglini wrote of how she grew up hearing her father Pasquale’s stories about his hometown and his childhood spent amid the mountains of Abruzzo. She said that from hearing stories about Pacentro, she had a strong desire to visit, which she did in 2017. For her, the trip to Italy meant understanding her father ‘for all that he was’ and helped her feel his presence again. Laura writes:

‘My father always had stories to tell us about his childhood. He would tell us how he rang the bell at the old church that he worked at as an altar boy, how he would listen intently to his grandma as she peeled potatoes, one of their only food sources, and sang opera music, and how he fantasized about life as he ran through that small village. They were like childhood storybooks to me…nothing can ever take away the experiences I gained going on that trip…for me, it made me feel whole again…I understand my own self better. It is magic being able to see where my roots lie…going to Pacentro, even if it’s ever only once in my life, has forever changed who I am, and I will never forget it’ (Battaglini 2019).

Nostalgia is significant in the creation of narratives around collective and individual identity.

It gives people a sense of connection in the face of dislocation (caused by emigration, or the passing of the emigrant population), providing continuity to culture and ‘home’. Coming back to idea that ‘nostalgia is a memory with the pain removed’ (Davis 1979: 37), nostalgia for newer generations was devoid of the deep poverty, despair and political disenfranchisement that was left behind in Italy by their emigrant forebears, making their interaction with ‘home’ a very different experience. I give the final word in this section to

USM70 or ‘Donato’, the Italianised version of his name preferred using during his interview.

He eloquently epitomised the essence of interactions with ‘home’, and the significance of continuity to culture and identity when he explained to me that:

USM70 I played baseball, I coached my son in baseball…for eighteen years I coached high school baseball…mainly I was an American boy, never connected with my roots until I went to Italy…my first visit to Italy was in 2004…I was fifty-seven years old…I had never been to Italy, my parents had never returned…when I got off the plane, it was totally emotional, I felt at home [participant became very emotional and interview was stopped to allow him time to compose himself]. When I went to

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the little towns…I fell in love with who I was, I found my dad’s people and my culture. I felt that I was at home. I connected with the people, I felt loved. It was so emotional, my whole identity changed, I became Donato…I grew up Don, an American boy of Italian descent, but when I went to Italy, I found out who I was…I found Donato…

I interviewed ‘Donato’ (USM70) in his home in Canonsburg, Pennsylvanian. His identity as an Italian and the enthusiasm for his Italian culture was obvious and on display. I have included the photo below depicting the pizza oven he used to make pizza for me and other participants at the end of a day of interviews. The pizza oven stands prominently in the backyard of his home and provides him much pride and joy.

Photo Eight: ‘My Pride and Joy’ The photo shows the pizza oven built by ‘Donato’(USM70) in his back yard. The façade depicts the church in his ancestral town of Scoppito, Abruzzo together with statue of a saint. When I asked about the statue, he said ‘the statue is of Saint Francis, patron Saint of Italia…a soft light glows over him at night’. He told me that he built the oven after his first trip to Scoppito. The oven was extremely important to him because it represented the components in his life that he valued most: Scoppito and Abruzzo, his family, his friends, food, and Catholicism. The oven also symbolises the prominence of his identity and culture as Italian (and Abruzzese). He vocalised this point to me at every opportunity, and it is affirmed in the sign posted within the construction. The sign has the tri colours of the Italian flag, the name of his ‘home’ town SCOPPITO is the most prominent with ABRUZZO capitalised a little smaller, below the town name. Photo forwarded by USM70 26/08/2019

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This participant encapsulates the complexities of emotion, culture and place. Emotion is the authoritative component for ‘Donato’s attachment and sense of belonging to his ‘home’ region and ‘home’ town. Emotion can incite, provide awe and wonder and connect people to a place or to the performative components of culture (Smith and Bondi 2016). For him, his identity and culture are fixed to place and emotion, providing meaning to his perceptions of both. Emotions are vital aspects of who ‘Donato’ is and his engagement with Scoppito,

Abruzzo and the people therein (Smith and Bondi 2016: 10).

To conclude this section, visits to Italy were repetitively constructed as finding ‘home’ or returning ‘home’. Visiting ancestral hometowns and villages provide a tangible representation of the past, of people known or unknown (but know of), and therefore are sites of identity and as such are ‘culturally embedded’ (Francis et.al. 2005: 37). Associated with visits were expressions of love and connection to place, usually reflecting what had been imbued by parents, grandparents or significant others in forming part of cultural memory (Erll 2010a, Hua 2016). Cultural memory, including the remembering of significant people, places, traditions and performances, provides a conduit between the past and the present (Hua 2016).

Likewise, memory establishes a connection between an individual’s past and a collective past (i.e. a cultural heritage). In this way the past is always with individuals. It defines their present and explains how they came to be who they are, and why they associate an ancestral town or village in Abruzzo as ‘home’ (Agnew 2005: 3). Memory is an essential component in the construction of identity (Hua 2016), and through nostalgic memories people feel a sense of continuity in identity (Bennett 2016). Memories or nostalgia for ‘home’ can also produce national (or regional) cultural identities, similar to Benedict Anderson’s (2006)

289 notions of an ‘imagined community’ where he writes about the production of a shared identity that encourages, in this instance, those with no experience of ‘home’ to love and have an association and sense of belonging to it (and the people there) anyway. Narrative accounts of family stories that are part of the construction of identity are only possible through memory and identity is constructed by and through these family narratives (King

2000: 2). Visits to places of significance in Italy, such as the visit to St Peter’s Basilica referenced earlier, are also effective examples of what Anderson and Smith described as

‘emotionally heightened spaces’ (Anderson and Smith 2001: 8).

Participant perceptions of ‘home’ were emotional, powerful, and all-encompassing. They acknowledged the sufferings and sacrifices made by family members in leaving and they displayed a level of understanding of the displacement and dislocation. However, grandparents and parents have carefully curated family stories that elides some of the harsher material. Those visiting will never have been really hungry; nobody wants them to be. But this exclusion results in a very different visit. Thus, participant perception (or understanding) can only be derived from what was told to them of both the migration experience and the experiences of settlement and adaptation of earlier generations.

Adding another factor, Baldassar in her work on the responsibilities of transnational caregiving for descendants living away from family, views visits ‘home’ as conceptualised symbolically, an act of recompense in response to the culturally defined moral obligation to return to kin and country (Baldassar 2001, 2011a, 2011b). While a sense of obligation was not evident in participant recounts of their visits to Italy, some did express sadness and remorse for their family members having to leave Italy. These feelings, often combined with a sense of nostalgia or longing, are the motivation propelling continued ties with ‘home’

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(Bennett 2016), where that longing or nostalgia can only be alleviated by a return (Baldassar

2015).

Participants all spoke of the resultant deep sense of attachment and belonging from their first visit to Italy; of ‘knowing’ the place and to the people, all suggesting that they were well prepared by the stories that had been passed down by parents and grandparents. For some, that first visit was a grounding experience and for others it was memorable because the emptiness felt from the death of significant people was filled through that person’s

‘presence’ on that visit to Italy. Resoundingly, responses highlighted the depth of feeling for ‘home’; a place where few were born, but for each, Italy held a central place in their consciousness. While I did not design my study to examine emotions specifically, participant recounts position emotion as the motivation for identity construction and transmission of cultural intergenerationally. Overall, younger participants gave no impression that their emotion for or attachment to Italy had diminished, directly or inherently. On the contrary, several spoke of their first visit normalising their life and validating their culture and identity as Italians.

9.3 Attachment to Italy the Nation or Abruzzo the Region

As has been established, Italy the nation and the Italian people have been the outcome of an evolution of many influences (i.e. Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Saracens,

Normans, French, Spanish) (Brockman 1996). Multiple languages and differences in traditions, customs, even cuisines have been the reality for people living on the Italian peninsula and its island territories for at least five centuries before the dawn of the Roman

Empire. Journalist, researcher and author, Nicola Mastronardi in an interview with Sinisi

(2020) focused on what he calls ‘the birth of Italia’. He argued that regional differences

291 have been part of life for people living on the Italian peninsula from time immemorial, explaining that not all Italians are ‘sons of Rome’. Originating from the Molise region

(which prior to 1963 was known as Abruzzi e Molise region), Mastronardi has published two books (2012, 2019) of a planned trilogy in which he explores un viaggio nella storia della mia terra [a journey through the history of my land] detailing an older culture comprising of Italic tribal groups, who lived for centuries before being subsumed by Rome and the later

Unification of 1861. This history, he reasons, explains his way of eating, his way of speaking, essentially his way of being (Sinisi 2020). The passion and emotion that envelopes

Mastronardi was also similarly evident in participant responses:

CAM65…my parents, were born from Abruzzo…as kids, we proudly identified ourselves as coming from the boot…there was an obvious sense of pride about being Abruzzese…the Abruzzo with its less than one million five hundred inhabitants occupies the landscape spread out between the Apennines and the Adriatic coast, south of the Marche, north of Puglia…our family grew up Abruzzese, with all the ancient traditions, customs, including cooking maintained…my families collectively, are an enigma of diversity, division, displacement…we are Italics…

Developing this point further, as part of the discussion on interactions with ‘home’, I was interested in understanding if attachment for participants, once identified, was to Italy the nation or was it to Abruzzo the region. Does one have precedence over the other, and did notions of regionalism (c.f. Chapter Three, Section 3.3.3) actually matter to my participants?

I anticipated that responses to this theme would vary. For some, the essence of Italy being a ‘young’ country was noted and applied to suggest that an attachment to Italy the nation was naïve as in this first dispassionate response:

USF36…Italy is such a young country I don’t know how somebody like you and me [descendants] for example, can say that they have a connection to Italy as a whole, I would say that they have not done their history homework…

Some participant responses paralleled Benedict Anderson’s notion referred to earlier, where individuals are encouraged to align themselves with an anonymous nation and love it even

292 though they knew very little of it and even less the people in it. Others asserted that before they were better informed, their attachment was to Italy the nation, however that changed after their first visit and interaction with the region. In this way, nationalism eliminates the anonymity, but regionalism is much more an intimate type of affection, where people are more likely to love the reality of the region than a substitute ‘imagining’ of it. To illustrate the point, in the next extract, the participant credits embracing of national (Italy) over regional (Abruzzo) to not understanding the significance of regional identity. For him, visiting the ‘home’ region is what conceived his regional identity:

USM36…I have a strong connection to being Italian, absolutely…that connection initially, when I did not know any better, was to Italy but now I definitely recognise more as someone from the Abruzzo region, and having a pretty good understanding of where I have come from, I can speak intelligently about that location and the things I have done there…

For others, decisions on national or regional identification were contextual and pragmatic; it depended on who they were speaking to, and if the distinction added value or was even understood by those asking. For example, in the extract below, the participant separates identifying themselves to other Italians or to non-Italians:

CAF52…I associate my connection first with being Italian and then I preface it by affirming where my parents are from…if I am speaking to Italians, I will say Abruzzese but if I speaking to Canadians, then I would just talk about being from Italy…

In the next extract, the participant, an academic working in the area of Italian politics tells me that when he goes to Italy, he always visits the home village, however his work requires a national perspective:

AUM60…it tends to be the official Italy rather than the village Italy…the discourse of whatever is happening at that time nationally, the big picture…

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Two other assessments were offered as to the reason for national over regional attachment.

In the first, a younger respondent explained that her attachment to the Abruzzo region may not be as strong saying that her grandfather was ‘encouraged to adopt Canadian lifestyle’:

CAF22…I am connected to broader Italy not just to Abruzzo although obviously Abruzzo is part of broader Italy. I guess I am not very Abruzzese because my grandfather was encouraged to adopt a Canadian lifestyle and everything that goes with it and to distance himself from his Italian background…

The second came from those whose parents and grandparents were from different towns or villages in the Abruzzo region. For them, the primary objective was to avoid the risk of offending by favouring one location over another, and thus their target was outside the region. For example:

AU58…my mum and dad are both from Abruzzo, my mother from Fossa, my dad is from Sulmona. I am considering living in Italy because I love the lifestyle…people have divided loyalty when parents come from different places, I do not want to have to choose so I would live in Rome, rather than a town in Abruzzo…

Where the attachment was to Abruzzo, mostly it was due to an overall sense of loyalty to family and the paesani network, impelled by what was known and familiar:

AUF64…I love Abruzzo and I really love Sulmona…for me Italy is Sulmona and the Abruzzo…

Others with an attachment to Abruzzo provided various but similarly engendered perspectives as to why they are drawn to the region over the national:

USM65…the history and culture of Abruzzo is what I know and what I have experience with…I have travelled throughout all of Italy, but I don’t really have an affiliation with the whole of Italy. I love Venice, I love Florence and I go there just to see it, but they don’t move me, my emotional attachment and my connection is with the Abruzzo region…

USF36…I do not have a connection to Italy as a whole…I do not feel a connection to pizza Napolitano like someone from Naples would have or to granita that someone from Sicily might…I do however feel connected to Sulmona, the names, and little traditions…

CAM66b…I identify as an Abruzzese and my connection is with Abruzzo, it is the most beautiful region and as my uncle used to say: Sulmona e la piu bella citta del

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mondo [Sulmona is the most beautiful city in the world]. My connection is with Abruzzo, I love the ruggedness and all my memories are there…

As I have contended throughout this thesis, the mobility of the Italian people is a core aspect of Italy’s national history and critical to understanding national, regional and local identity

(Ricatti 2018). Moreover, it adds to understanding of the impact these features may (or may not) have on how descendants grasp the experiences of the migration process for their family members, their comprehension of differences and similarities in national, regional and local perspectives, and thus social and cultural choices. Certainly, scholars of Italian migration

(e.g. Sassatelli 2006, Iuliano 2010, Gabaccia 2013) have long argued that particularly prior to 1914, notions of allegiance is problematic in that attachment to Italy the nation or Abruzzo the region is complicated by the fact that ‘Italians who left their paesi (both towns and the nation) came from one country, but many Italies’. Few would have considered themselves

‘Italian’; instead identifying more with regional and familial bonds than to the nation as such

(c.f. Chapter Two). Others (e.g. Dewhirst 2008) explore the compounding factors that form the north versus south discourse that have plagued the diverse people of the Italian peninsula for centuries.

Part of this ongoing discussion holds that Italy has ‘two races’, the outcome of which is socioeconomic disadvantage, developing a vast gap between the urban communities, generally in the north, and the rural settings of the south to this day.

Whatever the source, regional, particularly home-town attachments for descendants of migrants are easily understood given settlement patterns, in particular provincial and village concentrations in neighbourhoods or even streets (c.f. Chapter Eight, Section 8.2). This tendency for Italian diasporic communities to settle in regional and/or town groupings, may have worked to discourage a national sense of community, ensuring that identity remained

295 fragmented well into the 1960s, impacting on at least three generations of American participants and two in both Australia and Canada.

Much of the literature suggests that where Italian emigrants and early generations of descendants did gain an Italian national consciousness, it was in response to xenophobic attitudes they were subjected to in their host countries. These almost daily experiences of anti-Italian discrimination heightened awareness of their common cultural heritage and prompted them to develop a sense of italianità that may have been lacking when they first settled in their selected host country (Luconi 2011). This was affirmed by several younger participants who proposed that their national perspective may be directly related to government policies and practices that encouraged acculturation. However, in instances where childhood experiences were augmented with heartening family narratives and visits to Italy, these affective pull factors positioned attachment to region over the national for participants in this study.

Overall, the participant cohort have strong attachments to Abruzzo, but more particularly to the ancestral hometowns and villages rather than to the nation. However, I am cognisant that when asked how they identified (c.f. Chapter Five and appendix ten) most participants nominated Italian rather than Abruzzese. Though, this should not be viewed as conflicted tensions between national and regional attachments, it is more about being complementary.

To specific notions of attachment and loyalty, fewer participants nominated nation over region. More typically, responses targeted pride in being Italian or of having Italian heritage with stronger allegiance to hometowns and villages.

9.4 Interactions with Family in Italy

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Broadly speaking, the scholarly literature on the transmission of Italian culture intergenerationally supports the premise that interactions with family in Italy is key to continuity of attachment, belonging and identity for descendants of Italian migrants living abroad (Bennett 2016, Hua 2016). Clearly interactions have been augmented and enhanced through twenty-first century communication and social media, keeping descendants current with the expansive spectra that is Italy. Older participants spoke about both reconnecting and/or maintaining interaction with friends and family in Italy. In the extract below, the participant explains that he is planning a visit ‘as we speak’. He added that he posted a childhood photo with friends on social media and he was hoping he could re-create the photo, but mostly he spoke of not anticipating any difficulty because he had been interacting with family and friends since his last visit twenty years ago in the summer of 1999:

CAM66b…even though I have not been back in a while I keep in touch with family and friends via social media…. all my cousins know I am coming soon…I have friends I am going to see…I found a photo and I am going to take that same photo in the same location when I go back…

After his interview, CAM66b emailed the photo he spoke about saying: ‘I posted the attached photo of myself (striped shirt) with friends. I’m looking forward to meeting up with these guys, most of them are still in Sulmona!!! Maybe we can re-create the photo…’

Photo Nine: A Photo with Friends

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Photo forwarded by CAM66b, October 2018

Many other participants reported that they interacted with family in Italy reasonably frequently. Most commonly through various forms of social media, but older respondents did prefer the conventional telephone. Indeed, participants responses typically reflected the generational shift in communication technologies. For example, ‘I still call my family on the telephone…my girls are on the internet’ (USF78). Many spoke of their parents and grandparents receiving letters from Italy, usually with photos. Several American participants said their family had to engage the services of a translator to read letters and to help formulate a response. Others spoke of parents or grandparents procrastinating over writing back (limited education making the task difficult).

Contrariwise, Younger participants who were not confident in writing in Italian, were able to avail themselves of translation services easily accessed via the internet. Similar changes in how people interacted with family and friends were evident in participant responses in

Australia, most saying ‘my parents and grandparents found a way, telephone, letters, they kept in contact with the family, I have kept that up especially now with the ease of social

298 media’ (AUF53). The Canadian cohort appeared more active than either their Australian or

American counterparts with one of the youngest telling me he is working at staying connected to enhance his Italian self: ‘I feel I am trying to be more Italian…I want to stay as connected as I can with family and friends and maybe new people that I will find in the coming years’ (CAM19). Ultimately the message from all participants across the three locations, even when interaction was infrequent, was that they were confident that they could

‘pick up where they left off’:

USF67…my family has kept in touch with family and friends in Italy in between visits…if I do go back, I will be staying with family and believe I will have no difficulty picking up where we left off…

To conclude this section, interactions with family in Italy are maintained by the majority of respondents. The primary motivation is relationship with family and friends, but for some it was also business, other commercial or employment related interactions or educational opportunities.

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9.5 Education, Business, Employment and/or other Economic and Cultural Interaction

The ability to initiate and sustain interaction with Italy for my participants was also shaped by their capacity to live, work and learn transnationally. Education and business (sometimes the business was education) were important ways that participants created or maintained their interactions with Italy. For example, the oldest of my participants proudly explained that the ‘Mayor of Lucca, Giovanni Martinelli, invited me to start a school in his town, I have just finished my forty-seventh year’ (USM92).

However, it was mainly Canadian participants who had forged business opportunities, completed exchange programs mostly coordinated by Centro Scuola e Cultura Italiana or through their respective schools or university in Toronto:

CAF53…I have been a regular traveller to Italy…I have sought work and business opportunities in Italy, and I have lots of interaction with people in Italy…

CAF22…I participated in the Centro Scuola…I went to Abruzzo…in the summer…I was in high school at that point…we studied Italian there…we went to Sulmona for a month…

CAF35…I went to Italy the first time as part of cultural exchange program when I was thirteen years of age…I fell in love with Italy, it was amazing…. I have never stopped travelling there since…

CAF57…as part of my university degree at the University of Toronto I did ten months at the University of Perugia, that counted towards my degree…

Australian enterprises were not as prolific. One participant lives in Melbourne for six months and in Abruzzo the remainder of the year. A second detailed working in the Australian consulate in Milano from 1980 to 1997. He told me that while there he built a house [home village] and that he and his wife ‘are part of the street establishment now, I got to know the village really well’(AUM60), maintaining regular contact even after his return to Australia.

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A significant difference between earlier and later generations is that more recent generations have facilitated transnational connections; the outcome of which is the prospect for dual citizenship, an opportunity not afforded to the former. Participants recounted different reasons for their grandparents and/or parents relinquishing their Italian citizenship but mostly it was practical and pragmatic ones that prompted earlier generations to relinquish their Italian citizenship to became citizens of the host country. Dual citizenship (c.f. Chapter

Eight, Section 8.7.2), has opened numerous pathways and opportunities to work, study, buy property or do business in Italy. Citizenship and residency rights, of course, do not determine an individual's identity or sense of belonging with place, but they do enable access to ongoing education, business, employment and other economic opportunities that encourage it.

9.6 Political Interaction

My analysis of the data suggests that political affiliation was not so important in diasporic identity formation, however several participants were very vocal in voicing their objections to the right of Italian citizens living abroad having a vote in Italian elections. It was a polarising issue for them. For example, an Australian participant explained he was heavily engaged in the area of voting in Italian elections (AUM60), while oppositely a Canadian participant told me he was ‘vehemently opposed to Italians or descendants of Italians living abroad voting in Italian elections’, explaining that ‘we should have cordial relations with bureaucrats and officials in Italy, but we set our agenda here free from political interference from Italy’ (CAM73).

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At times the general discussions with participants ongoing engagement in various clubs and associations exposed some fractiousness too, provoking antagonism directed at the motivations behind their community engagement. To this point, the participant below appeared concerned about an apparent shift away from support for projects in Italy to those in Toronto where the motivation may have been the pursuit of personal accolades:

CAM76…through community activities we were a central conduit organising interaction between Italy and Canada. For example, we worked to help Italy after earthquakes or other natural disasters, uniting in grief and difficulty. Now of course Italians are very comfortable, some very rich, and they support sick kids in Canada for the accolades or to become a Cavaliere [an Italian knighthood]…

The last word on political interaction is from a younger Canadian, who while acknowledging pride in her heritage, also said she is politically active and interested in Italian politics. She chose to separate herself from what she sees as the current state of play that did not elicit pride, including corruption, lack of women’s rights, no recognition of LGBTIQ folk to mention a few that she spoke of. She separates herself from this type of Italianness. More generally, her decision to opt out of Italian politics, despite her interest, reflects a space that is devoid of nostalgia. Instead it reflects the current reality of the state of play in Italy as I write. This important extract reminds me that there are other aspects to the story of italianità. That story includes that which is not good about being Italian. The fact that the woman chooses to separate herself, alerts me to the even broader question of selection bias in that other people who were concerned about gendered violence or coercion, homophobia, marriage equality or other sociopolitical issues may have elected not to be in my participant cohort:

CAF21b…I am proud to be Italian, I am proud of a lot of things, it is such a beautiful country, it is family, it is culture and the food is great but when I think about what is happening in Italy right now, the politics…I am not embarrassed but I don’t like it…I am more uneasy about what is going on there now…picking and choosing, pulling and taking what I want and what I relate to…I am comfortable in my skin as an Italian but I was more comfortable…now that I am more aware of what is going on

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there…the politics… they are not progressive, domestic abuse, no marriage equality, but I am comfortable because I am not that, I am here and have a unique voice, I separate myself from that…

9.7 Concluding Comments

This chapter has explored the transnational nature of participant lives. Participant histories require developing multiple identities in order to manage their affiliation to multiple communities. It has demonstrated the ways in which transnationalism has allowed participants to grow up in a markedly different context than their migrant ancestry.

Alongside other scholars, I have concluded that the emotion and pride they draw from their

Italian identity and culture, together with enhanced and enriching opportunities available provides them with a greater confidence and strength to live in and interact with ‘home’ than earlier generations (Stone 2017). The transnational nature of participant’s lives results in multiple interactions, affiliations and intersections with Italy. They are managing not necessarily conflicting (however some were as evidenced by CAF21b above) but they certainly highlighted dissimilar attachments and allegiances (Bélanger and Verkuyten 2010,

Zubida et.al. 2013, Wirth 2016).

In particular, data from this study advances the thinking of connections to ‘home’ by extending the scope to include an intergenerational and locational perspective.

Overwhelmingly, participants affirmed their sustained connection to ‘home’ well into the fourth generation, including their attachment to the Abruzzo region and more particularly their ancestral hometowns and villages. Participants responses powerfully encapsulate the attachment to ‘home’, the enrichment derived from the visits to Italy and the potency of the interactions with family and friends there. I close this chapter with one such voice:

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USF63b… my family teases me because I have always said that when I get cremated I want part of me buried here but the rest of me sent to Italy…my family say…you are an American, you were born here…I say I know, but there is something I cannot explain…I feel very much attached to Italy…I say I want to go back to the mother land…it’s an attachment, a feeling I have for ‘home’. I was born in America, but my heart is Italian…there has been regular trips since the first backpacker trip…I have a very close relationship with family…I do not know how to explain it…we did not see each other often and we could not speak to each other that often either, but I really felt close to my zia…I have four cousins in Italy… two are older, one is younger, and one is my age…we are close and stay in touch…eventually I would really like to be taken ‘home’…

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PART FOUR CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TEN

This study has explored the construction of identity and intergenerational transmission of culture for descendants of Italian migrants living in diasporic communities away from their ancestral country. The findings provide deep insights into what precisely having a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità means for these descendants living transnational lives in four countries (three research sites and Italy) in the twenty first century. The thesis has also explained the ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification across four generations to show that intergenerational transmission of valued components of Italian (and regional) culture is highly significant for them living as part of diasporic communities away from ‘home’.

In the discussion that follows, I highlight the outcomes of the study that are most important in strengthening and extending knowledge on the ongoing construction of culture and identity for descendants and that which is new. These include:

1) expanding understandings of diaspora and introducing the Abruzzese as a significant

subset of Italian migrants to the United States of America, Canada and Australia;

2) more nuanced explanations for the rejection of assimilation from the perspective of an

Abruzzese cohort living across three countries and well into their fourth generation of

descendants;

3) appreciation of Italian culture from an Abruzzese perspective living across three

countries and into their fourth generation of descendants;

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4) a new understanding of the role of family in Italian migrant communities, characterised

by participants as separate from the dominant Anglo society including different ways

of thinking, feeling and behaving;

5) building on what is known about experiences of descendants visiting and interacting

with Italy from a twenty-first century standpoint which corresponds with an exponential

rise in connectivity and interactions with ‘home’ for newer generations of descendants;

6) role of institutions namely Italian clubs and associations and the Catholic church in

sustaining Italian culture and identity into the fourth generation with no indication of

waning for this participant cohort.

As detailed, the participating cohort are all descendants (or they arrived as children) from one regional group, with numbers relatively small in each location. In future studies it would be interesting to focus on other regions, particularly the northern regions of Italy to ascertain differences and similarities in participant responses.

For participants in this study, their Italian identity and culture is inclusive of attitudes, emotions and behaviours. The key findings that I want to highlight in this conclusion are firstly, as argued in Chapter Eight, that participants asserted their separation from their wider

Anglo communities. Although often described as the exemplar minority community in

Australia, Canada and the United States, in their interviews participants emphasised this sense or feeling of separation as well as instances and experiences of actual separation.

Decidedly, this cohort feels Italian, thinks Italian and behaves Italian, some emphasising being Abruzzese over their Italianness. Though, irrespective of the strength of their regional or national affiliations, all participants universally referred to Anglo Australians, Anglo

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Americans or Anglo Canadians as ‘other’ and separate, in order to declare difference and separation from the Anglo community. This position applied across locations, ages, gender, education, socioeconomic status and professions/employment..

Another key finding from this study is that maintenance of Italian identity was very important to participants and they were able to intelligibly and cogently articulate how that identity was sustained. This was set out throughout the thesis but more specifically in

Chapters Five, Six and Seven. However, as elucidated, while they have maintained Italian identity into the fourth generation, participants well understand the difference between the italianità of their ancestors, Italy today and the way they feel and behave as people of Italian cultural heritage. They are not trying to be someone other than themselves, nor are they replicating something that may not be real or relevant. Continual renewal is a part of the process of sustaining Italian identity for them. Some aspects of cultural heritage are maintained as they were, some retained without a substantive change, others are renovated and reproduced, with pride in traditions and customs practiced in daily life pervading participant discourse.

This enduring renovation and renewal of identity process happened in different ways and across the different sites. When changes were described, mostly participants spoke about them as being pragmatic and practical, taking place at times deemed necessary for socioeconomic advancement, including for employment and business opportunities. The most common change across each location and generation was the shift from Italian languages to English. Overall, respondents had limited Italian language use in their day-today activities. That said, some maintained a dialect, while others had taken explicit actions to learn standard Italian. Participants from Toronto were significantly more engaged in learning standard Italian, with many younger Canadian participants having undertaken

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Italian language studies at school, at universities or as part of community college programs.

This level of engagement was not evident in either Australia or in the United States of

America.

Across the generations, enhanced employment opportunities sometimes meant a change in residential location for the next generation. However even when this occurred, many participants held strong attachments to the area where the family made their first home after arrival, with some still working close to where they grew up. This ongoing association with point of settlement is significant and best conveyed through a brief recap of participant voice. Beginning with the American participant who explained that his family’s ‘first home was built in 1924 at 128 Murdock Street, Canonsburg…my father was born in that house…[it] remained in the family until about five years back… that sale was sad for me…my office, still to this day, is one block away from Murdock Street. I have been there my entire life…my dad’s life, my grandfather’s life, mine, all in Murdock Street’ (USM58).

Likewise, participants in Melbourne and Toronto who relocated tended to remain in areas with a high concentration of Italians. As evidenced when the Canadian participant said ‘I grew up in a very Italian community…probably the most Italian anywhere in Toronto…then when I went to University in Downtown Toronto, I went back to live with my grandmother in the first house my family had…she still lives there and I have lived there now for twelve years’ (CAM30).

Names were sometimes a key means that italianità was produced long after fluency in

Italian language was gone. Decisions to change names were only discussed by American participants as in the sisters who said, ‘we assumed it was because that is what they did when they came through Ellis Island’ (USF58, USF77). Several participants maintained that it

308 was what others decided for them as in the older woman who told me ‘my daughter who is

Maria asked me why I call myself Mary when my name is Maria like hers. I said I don’t know; they did that to me’(USF78). Younger participants, wherever they lived were more likely to provide and use their full Italian name as well as having an expectation that the receiver will make an effort to pronounce names correctly or at least to seek assistance to pronounce them correctly. They were also more inclined to give Italian names to their children.

Whatever form the renewal or renovation took, the critical point is that difference did not result in a weakening or a diminished sense of belonging or attachment to Italian culture and identity. For all participants, being Italian is a set of quotidian behaviours. The traditions and customs that shape an openly recognisable italianità are almost banal in the sense that they are obvious and natural for them. The central issue being that italianità is claimed and performed by participants daily. More than this, italianità, cannot be explained as a symbolic gesture that has minimal purposes or affect, or even a perfunctory action occurring out of habit or obligation. During my interaction with the participant cohort their messaging was clear; not only in highlighting multiple examples of italianità, but also in their uninhibited descriptions of their conviction. In the brief commentary that follows, overlap and interconnectivity will be noted, reflecting the very nature of participant discourse.

Diaspora

Participants actively seek engagement in their Italian communities, seeing themselves as part of a plurality of diasporas, which reinforce for them their association with their ‘home’ region of Abruzzo (and/or home villages, towns or provinces). Such association, together with maintaining relationships with the people in those places many generations after family

309 members left Italy (in many cases spanning over 100 years) are strong indicators of continued use of regional identifiers for them. Living as part of the Italian diaspora in the different locations has been a process of ongoing transformation of cultural and national identification.

One important finding was that participants separated their national and cultural identity to claim a place in the worldwide Italian diaspora, affirming their plural (even multiple) attachments to country of birth and country of their forebears. For them, having an Italian cultural heritage and living away from Italy, even in a culturally plural family, overwhelmingly meant placing greater prominence on the Italian component or on Italian descent only. As when ‘people say to me what nationality are you? I do not say I am Italian and Assyrian, I just say I am Italian because I do not feel any kinship to the other half of me’

(USF62), or ‘I sometimes feel bad because my father in fairness, he has quite an interesting background we go back to the Mayflower, but I feel no connection to it; zero. I do not feel the emotional connection and I guess it is because we were raised as Italians’(USF57). This has been achieved in all three countries despite the imposition of swingeing legislation, bureaucratic processes and drives designed to anglicise their Italian (and other) emigrant family or descendants thereof. In doing so, participants consistently emphasised two points.

Firstly, that who they are now remains about culture and identity from ‘home’ rather than something left behind by those who emigrated generations before and secondly, that ‘home’ is Italy (or Abruzzo) over all others even in families where claims on several cultural attachments could be made

Older participants clarified that for their family members, the path from Italian emigrant to citizen of their host country was influenced by both home and host government policies, procedures, and attitudes. That said, both participants born in or those who arrived as

310 children and who had become citizens of their host country were proud nationals, appreciative of the features they valued in that country. Responses also suggested considerable interest in opportunities to take up dual citizenship (country of birth and the country of cultural heritage). Higher levels of education and more resources may be what is encouraging them.

Rejection of Assimilation

Across all three research sites, participants rejected the repeated push for Anglo conformity in whatever form it was presented. Participants were cognisant that the assimilation and acculturation structures in place for previous generations have been replaced by those that encourage and augment a sense of being Italian or feeling Italian for newer generations.

They well understood that their forebears left Italy mostly accompanied only by an abundance of optimism and energy. They were also acutely aware both of the blatant as well as the subliminal racism from the dominant Anglo community and that which came from the attitudes of bureaucrats and others (say teachers) even the Catholic church, in administering government policies aimed at anglicising through diminishing performances or representations of italianità. The impact of these policies and practices were significant.

They set the tone across all three nations and in Australia and Canada remaining until the late 1970s.

Notwithstanding, participants characterised the very embodiment of the critical importance of allowing groups to embrace their cultural heritage in order for each to reach their potential, for their benefit and for the overall growth and development of their respective countries of residence. This cogently demonstrated how inclusion, diversity and multiculturalism can prevail for all. These findings differ significantly from the assertions in much of the earlier research (see Gamba 1952, Borrie 1954, Foerster 1968, Abramson

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1980, Bertelli 1986, Ramirez 1989) predicting that descendants of Italian migrants into their third and fourth generation would be indistinguishable to their broader host community except perhaps by their surname is not surprising. What is more meaningful is that these findings contrast with more recent research, especially that from the United States (see

Gardaphè 2003, Hernandez-Ramdwar 2006, Jupp 2007), that maintained the assertions that newer generations would not sustain a sense of attachment or belonging to Italy or to Italian culture and identity.

Appreciation of Italian Culture

Participants were unequivocal in the declaration that their italianità is epitomised through an appreciation of Italian culture. As active agents in cultural interaction, participants created (both literally and metaphorically) opportunities through education, employment and entrepreneurial initiatives, to represent Italian cultural values in all their diverse characteristics. While I expected that as a group, descendants of Italian migrants living in diasporic communities would maintain a sense of belonging within their Italian cultural group and an attachment to Italy, I did not anticipate their appreciation of Italian culture to be so poignant. Participant appreciation of Italian culture is a strong feature of this study.

Responses unswervingly endorse the view that Italians think, feel and behave differently to the Anglo community in which they live, and that they have maintained a sense of separation from them. Their pride in all things Italian and the strength of ‘Brand Italia’ permeates their day to day activities.

More than this, their sense of a separation between Italians and the wider Anglo community differentiates this study from other studies of Italian diaspora; those that examine notions of

‘home’ and belonging and the overall literature of identity and culture for migrants and their descendants. This sense of separation was underscored with equal zeal across generations,

312 gender, education, socioeconomic status and professions/employment. Responses were both univocal and ardent. I am not aware of a study across three sites, where the informers, descendants of migrants, were as perspicuous. Additionally, responses suggest participants see themselves through two lenses. Through one they see their country of birth and through the second they see their country of cultural heritage (Hua 2016). The first provides their citizenship but the second provides their values and traditions, ongoing interaction and engagement with Italian culture but most of all, it characterises the separation of citizenship and culture in the formation of their identity. They may have been Australian, Canadian or

American citizens but they were all culturally Italian. Italian was their primary identifier wherever they lived.

The Family

The participants were all very clear and stated with both assurance and persuasion, that their sense of being Italian is derived from their family. My analysis of their interviews demonstrates that identity was performed in the family space through rituals or activities such as those around food (i.e. growing fruit and vegetables, making and preparing meals), family milestones and other multigenerational celebrations. I experienced this personally when for example, being invited to evening meals or Sunday lunch ‘because that is what

Italians do’ (CAM63a) or being picked up at my hotel rather than having to find my own way in an unfamiliar city because that was what ‘Abruzzese hosts do when they have guests’

(CAM55). Likewise, when greeted by the participant who arrived for her interview in a very shiny red FIAT 500 accompanied by her elderly mother, saying that her she wanted her mother to be part of the experience of a ‘shared story’ (CAF52).

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The personification of italianità for my participants is family. The family is where participants gained their knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Italian culture. The people and the way of life are infused in family stories told to them as very young children mostly by women. These first narratives taught them how to think and feel through family solidarity. Who participants were and who they hoped their children would become was drawn from family. Their Italian communities were strongly connected through family, as well as an extensive social network of culturally based clubs and associations. Being part of an Italian family is also what participants said most directly separated them from the dominant Anglo community. Firstly, because for them, being in an Italian family is more than the biological (parents, grandparents and siblings). It includes an extensive paesani network who are not blood relatives but are as important. Secondly, family for them is also relational in that family is as much a way of thinking and talking about relationships as it is a set of biological and extended kin folk ties.

The family was also a safe environment that facilitated change, enabling identity and culture to evolve developmentally through the multipart complexities of the cyclical phases of life.

The influence of family has withstood generations of mobility, adaptation, acculturation, assimilation and interference from government and their agencies, even from the Catholic church to sustain Italian cultural traditions and customs in each of the locations. The solid bond within and between family, stabilised the community and facilitated an impenetrable sense of belonging and association with the Italian community.

Intergenerational transmission of Italian culture occurred through family and grew exponentially with each generation. Younger participants described their deep attachment to grandparents and significant elders, and while aspects of their cultural heritage were

314 socially constructed, spatially contingent and fluid, that which was learnt from elders was sacrosanct. In the words of an American participant, ‘we have tried as the heirs of our Italian elders to carry on the traditions that they instilled in us’(USF57). Many third and fourth generation participants described their desire to replicate what they saw or learnt from them, regularly referencing l’orto [vegetable garden], the annual salami and salsicce days, making pasta at home, the baking of festive biscuits and recreating long held festive menus for

Christmas and Easter celebrations.. Where participants were not living in multigenerational households, mostly their extended family lived close by ensuring they remained prominent in participant’s lives. Through a combination of enhanced exposure to practices and iconographies and the emotions shared within and through them, time spent in the homes of nonni [grandparents] and zii [uncles/aunts] and other significant elders all but guaranteed intergenerational cultural continuity. As exemplified in the following ‘we have physical things in our homes which give us great comfort, the table you are sitting at has been in our family for over one hundred years, it was nonna’s and then it was with our zia’s (USF62).

Visiting Italy

My analysis also demonstrates that visiting Italy was an important way that participants performed italianità, particularly in visiting family and friends; reiterating that the family was what bonded participants with their ‘home’ country. Though most participants spent their formative years away from Italy, the people, the values, and the traditions that both inform and remain important in their lives, originated or are in Italy and/or in Abruzzo.

When positioning ‘home’ within discussions of identity construction and intergenerational continuity of culture, my notion of ‘home’ is of course less literal and more encircling. It is not so much a physical or even a social construction. ‘Home’ involves the affective pull that participants felt to their ancestral home. Their experience of feeling at home is different from being in a place that is home. Italy was where participants felt grounded, surrounded

315 by relationships and sites to which an attachment had been formed in their early childhood.

Their sense of belonging and attachment to ‘home’ did not diminish with passing generations because visits and ongoing interaction with Italy were about respecting and honouring the legacy of forebears. Participants interacted transnationally with Italy and the people there on various levels because Italy encapsulated much of what was socially significant and culturally meaningful to them.

The mobility of Italian people has enriched and extended Italian culture and identity. The legacy of which is that expressions of Italian culture and lifestyle have permeated the broader communities where participants live. My assessment of interviews convinced me that for these participants the power of ‘Brand Italia’ is such that to consume or to buy Italian products is to experience Italy, which in turn works to make Italian cultural heritage self- sustaining. The confidence participants displayed in the identity they constructed for themselves is built from the foundations of previous generations. Each generation extending in an upward spiral their attachment to Italy the nation, the Italian culture and to an Italian identity. Of course, some components of that culture are more difficult to access (e.g. languages) but they can be replaced by others, like the consumption of ‘Brand Italia’ products (e.g. the shiny red FIAT). Twenty first century communication technologies have been attributed to the connectivity with Italy and all things Italian, but they are not the cause, they are the facilitator. Explicit processes have been promoted by Italian families, Italian communities and the broader host community.

Membership of Italian Clubs and Italian Associations

Italianità was also produced through membership to and participation in activities as part of

Italian based clubs and associations. For later generations, involvement was not as essential

316 as it was for the earlier ones, yet many maintained their membership. Even when they were not members, participants said that their families still turn to Italian clubs for the celebration of family milestones. Likewise, Italian assistance associations that were formed during peak

Italian migratory periods have maintained their relevance by adapting to the changing needs of community. Participants spoke at length about organisations such as Co.As.It in

Melbourne and Villa Colombo in Toronto. Both have been operating since the 1960s as charitable institutions, committed to general well-being and enhancing the quality of life of

Italians and people of Italian heritage in their communities. They have maintained their commitment to language and other Italian cultural activities whilst also becoming significant providers of aged care services for community members. From the United States, two participants spoke separately, equally fervent about the Italian cultural association they attend once a month that has been going for forty years and ‘which still has over three hundred members’. The association was ‘a good bonding experience for first generation

Italian American men primarily’ (USM58). Now many trips to Italy have been initiated via this organisation and ‘many of these people went to Italy in search of their identity - its magic’ (USM 70).

Engagement with the Catholic Church

By way of contrast, the Catholic church has not retained the central role it had for the emigrant generation. However, the American participants did still have a strong attachment to the Italian parish of St Patricks. Likewise, many of the Canadian cohort strongly associated with St Michael’s College, University of Toronto. This level of commitment was not evident in Australian participants. Across the three countries, many participants were regular church attenders in their respective communities, and those who weren’t, still spoke of engaging through practice of religious rites (i.e. the ceremonies, prayers and functions)

317 of Catholicism. Catholic schools were strongly supported, even if some reported that enrolling their children in them may be more nostalgically or sentimentally driven than faith based.

Emotions in the Process of Identity Formation and Intergenerational Transmission of Culture

Another salient point I want to share in this conclusion is the role of emotions in the process of identity formation and intergenerational transmission of culture A mixture of emotions is at the heart of participant italianità, connecting what participants said with what they felt, and what they did, tying the various threads that have emerged from this study. Cognitive and performative components of Italian cultural heritage situate participant cultural learning in the past but perform it in the present. Their commentary powerfully emanated from people and events that continue to be revered and trusted ensuring Italian culture and identity remains dynamic and relevant for them.

The outcomes of my study stem from four fundamental tenets: 1) the perception of Italian people and Italian culture by the broader community, 2) the positioning of Italians both inside their communities and against the dominant Anglo community, 3) the level of participant engagement within their Italian community and 4) the regard in and optimism for their Italian identity and culture including their esteemed Abruzzo. Separately and collectively each works to maintain Italian identity and transmit culture intergenerationally for the participant cohort, enabled principally through family.

To sum up, my analysis of participant responses enabled me to provide noteworthy answers to the three questions I set for this study. From the data, I derived that having a sense of being or feeling Italian or of italianità is strong. Intergenerational transmission of culture

318 and identity for this group of descendants is significant, with participants explicitly working to ensure it is sustainable, and the trajectory for continuity to newer generations is in the ascent. Overwhelmingly participants identify predominantly as Italian, maintaining and replicating Italian cultural traditions and values - as part of their daily lives. Intimate relationships and significant friendships remain primarily with Italians and what they value most in life remained Italian. Whether they coupled with Italian or non-Italian partners, did or did not speak an Italian language, were overt or more subtle in displays or performance of their italianità, they spoke as one on the importance to stay engaged with their Italian culture and of the significance and value they attached to intergenerational cultural continuity. Participants melded what they value of their Italian and regional culture to create a valued lifestyle for themselves. A lifestyle where italianità is observable, the affective component of which will ensure continuity.

The Participants, the Researcher and the Methodology

This study provided an opportunity for participants to reflect on how they identify, how they present themselves to others and the impact their Italian and/or Abruzzese cultural heritage has in their day to day lives. Those agreeing to participate can be said to have a predisposition or inclination to being or feeling Italian. With this in mind, I accept that there is probably some selection bias in the sample. Further to this, respondents were drawn from cosmopolitan urban communities, mostly well-educated and well-informed, perhaps suggesting a propensity to engage in a study such as this one. Certainly, those responding would have been prompted from a position of interest, given the effort required, which in and of itself displayed a level of commitment to both their Italian heritage and to the broader

Italian community in which they lived. Also, recruitment in Toronto was supported by the

Italian Studies Department of the University of Toronto, and in Melbourne by Museo

Italiano and Co.As.It. Those who initiated their engagement from their interaction with

319 these organisations would have viewed my project as an opportunity. While I acknowledge that by agreeing to participate, the cohort can be said to have signalled an attachment or association to being or feeling Italian, my analysis goes much beyond this to show how culture and identity is replicated and reproduced.

For this study, the interview process generated the data rather than collected it (Baker 2004).

The thesis evolved from the depth and vibrancy of participant voices, delivered through their family narratives. These types of personal narratives in the research context raise some criticism due to the possibility that some parts of the recount may be ‘fictionalised’ (Watson

2006: 371) or idealised. However, in research addressing how individuals construct their identity and the significance or otherwise of intergenerational transmission to respondents, it is not critical to be factual, given that construction of identity is part of an ongoing process of negotiation that is never complete. Personal beliefs, feeling and perceptions are important components of the very process. Furthermore, an expectation of strictly factual representations is inconsistent with what is known about memory and nostalgia. My resolve was to form conclusions to answer my research questions on the construction of identity and the importance of maintaining and transmitting Italian cultural heritage. The specific accuracies of what was remembered was not critical to that process.

This small but important study adds to the richness of our knowledge about what it means to be and feel Italian for individuals with Italian cultural heritage living outside Italy. What was initiated in this research project can be extended to investigate Italian communities from other regions of Italy living in other host counties. Additionally, a comparative study that is informed by individuals with Italian heritage who live in communities with smaller numbers of those with similar heritage and therefore less opportunity to perform or present their italianità, or to participate in organised culturally based activities, would add clarity to

320 the discussion on intergenerational continuity of Italian culture and Italian identity for descendants of Italian migrants. This study has illuminated through the words of my participants some of the powerful drivers that keep Italians being Italian, where they live and at ‘home’. That their behaviours and beliefs have been similarly sustained across three urban communities for more than one hundred years after family members left Italy also affirms the importance of intergenerational transmission of culture for them.

A Final Reflection

In completing this study, I became increasingly conflicted when thinking about Italian migration to each of the three colonial settler countries in this study. Who the participants have become (and who I am), the opportunities we have all had, the privileges we enjoyed growing up and continue to enjoy, have all come at a cost to the First Nation peoples of each country and in the United States also at the expense (at times in competition with) the

African American people. Each of us has benefited and prospered from dispossession and ongoing subjugation and oppression of these peoples.

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PART FIVE MAPS, PHOTOS, APPENDICES AND REFERENCES

MAPS

Map One The Twenty Regions of Italy………………………………… 40

Map Two Location of Abruzzo in Italy…………………………………. 41

PHOTOS

Photo One Traditional Christmas Pastries………………………………. 166

Photo Two The Three Stages in Making Ceciripieni....…………………. 167

Photo Three The Three Stages in Making Ceciripieni……………………. 167

Photo Four The Three Stages in Making Ceciripieni……………………. 167

Photo Five Three Generations Ready for Easter Sunday Mass………….. 211

Photo Six Photo Shared by Participant of her Father at School………… 215

Photo Seven Murdock Street, Canonsburg………………………………… 239

Photo Eight ‘My Pride and Joy’…………………………………………... 288

Photo Nine Photo with Friends…………………………………………… 297

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APPENDICES

Appendix One Extracts from Interviews of Respondents born in Australia who Either Returned as Children, or as Adults to make their life in Abruzzo……………………………. 323

Appendix Two Regionalism Reflected in Group Settlement……………. 325

Appendix Three My Home Town…………………………...... 326

Appendix Four Italianità Espoused through Popular Culture…………... 327

Appendix Five Australian Participant Profile…………………………… 328

Appendix Six American Participant Profile……………………………. 329

Appendix Seven Canadian Participant Profile……………………………. 330

Appendix Eight Guide for Semi-Structured Interview Discussion………. 331

Appendix Nine Participant Generations…………………………………. 333

Appendix Ten How Participants Identify………………………………. 333

Appendix Eleven Language Spoken as Children in Parental Household….. 334

Appendix Twelve Language Maintenance of Participant………………….. 334

Appendix Thirteen Language Spoken to Own Children…………………….. 335

Appendix Fourteen Participants who undertook Italian Language Study…… 335

Appendix Fifteen Participants who Signalled their Intention to Learn Italian…………………………………………………… 336

Appendix Sixteen Participant Education…………………………………… 336

Appendix Seventeen Numbers of Married and Single Participants…………… 336

Appendix Eighteen Choice of Partner in First Marriage…………………….. 337

Appendix Nineteen Choice of Partner in Second/Third Marriage…………… 337

Appendix Twenty Summary of Participant Name Use…………………….. 337

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APPENDIX ONE

Extracts from Interviews of Respondents born in Australia who Either Returned as Children, or as Adults to make their Life in Abruzzo.

The first two extracts are from women, and the third from a male respondent. All were interviewed in English. I asked each of them to reflect on leaving Australia, how they identify as adults, and their contact or interaction with the Australian expat community living in Sulmona. Each became emotional when discussing having to leave Australia, articulating different perspectives on the outcome of their parents’ decision to return to Italy. From the first extract, the propelling factor for the return appeared to be the father’s need to be close to his mother. The reason for the return in the second is not clear but the respondent appeared more appreciative of the opportunity to return to Italy, both however have maintained a strong attachment to Australia:

IF50…when they [my parents] said, we are going to leave Australia and we are going to Italy, I remember…(respondent became very emotional, interview paused to allow the respondent to compose herself)…I was happy to go then but now I asked WHY…my father had come back [to Italy] in 1974…when he came back to Australia he told us everyone was OK, they all had jobs, there are lots of jobs, they have lots of work, they live better than us and they have got everything. So, my mum said OK we can go…but when we came back it was not like that…there was no job, he realised but he never said I made a mistake, but he realised he made a mistake. I was prepared to give it a go, I said maybe it was like Australia, new, beautiful, but when we got back…got into the car going to Vittorito, and when we arrived in Vittorito, you can imagine, all these old houses one after the other, small views [windows]. It was 15th of March 1975, I was one month off my tenth birthday…recently, [my father] now an elderly man, not that well, he conceded that he may have made a mistake…maybe. He has said, maybe it would have been better to stay in Australia, but he had his mother in Castel di Ieri, he was the only one who wanted to come back because he had his mother here and we think it was mostly for that…when I was younger, I felt more an Australian girl but now I feel Australian Italian...A part of my heart is always in Australia!!! E come diciamo qui: le radici non si rinnegano!!!! [It is like they say here: you cannot renege your roots]. My blood is Italian, but I also have a big spot in my heart for Australia. I have no association with the Australian expat community in Sulmona…

IF49…the decision [to come back to Italy] was quite terrible, we did not accept it, it was very hard. I tried in every way to ask my father to leave me in Australia, in every way. I did not want to move here…I cried all my tears when I left Australia and I remember that I took in a jar a little bit of sand from the garden. It was very hard (respondent became very emotional and interview audio paused to allow respondent time to compose herself). Sometimes I ask myself: what would my life have been if I did not come back here in Italy, it is something that changes not only your life but also your mind and your heart. I have doppio identita [dual identity]. I think my father has been an intelligent man because he made us grow up in both the countries, he gave us our Italian heritage but also Australian language and Australian society…he understood that it was important for us to integrate completely in the Australian life. I think this is the reason why even though I live here in Italy since a long time, I have maintained my love for Australia and that has driven me in some of the things I have done in my life. I am proud of this; I do not

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treat it lightly. I love Italy and I am sure I am a privileged woman in living in such a great country like Italy but at the same time I am also proud, and I still say Australia is my homeland…I initiated Clean Up Sulmona modelled on Clean Up Australia…it is mostly expat Australians who live here four to six months per year who help me in that…

The third extract is from a male respondent. He too is proud of his association with Australia but considers the lifestyle is better in Italy.

IM56…I have always had Australia in my mind, I love Australia. You’ve got it in your heart, you were born there, and you have it in your heart. Even though I am well acquainted with Australia, we have got class here [in Italy] and everything, but I miss out on the Australian things. I went back in 1986, I was twenty four almost, I was tempted but I decided I could not start out again…you know you cannot spend your life going back and forth…sometimes I think I have missed out but not really, no regrets. I miss the organisation, the order, the weather, the work opportunities. Then again Australia misses out on a lot too…our lifestyle. I want my son to have his Australian citizenship and I want him to travel later…he may even work…I wish Australia was closer. I see myself as Australian Italian, I feel more Australian than Italian. I was born and grew up in Australia. I keep in contact with English speaking people…[here in Italy] many of the expat community and other English-speaking people I am friends with….

I have included a fourth extract because differently from the others, this respondent was born in Melbourne, married an Australian, and raised two children in Australia. Then, after her divorce, returned to Sulmona to visit family, fell in love and has been there now for fifteen years.

IF64…as an Australian living in an Italian town, initially it was quite difficult actually. I was brought up in a big city, I married an Australian, embraced the Australian way of life, then we divorced, and another adventure of my life starts, and I come to live in Sulmona. In Australia I was really the Italian. I was not the Australian I was the Italian. I come to Italy and I am the Australian, I am l’australiana. I was f…d in the head. A psychiatrist dream, it is almost like history repeating because I have done what my mother has done. She has left and gone on this big adventure and I have come here to Italy. I remember my mother saying to me [] of all the things as a mother you think your children will do, all the roads I imagined you would travel on, I never thought you would go back, you would be living in Sulmona, never and yet here we are! I scratch my head sometimes too, truly I do…If there is something going on, I fly the Australian flag…I think I am Australian first…I am an Australian with Italian heritage…there is a special place in my heart for Italy but in the brain, I am Australian. For example, when Australian played Italy in the world cup of 2006, I had the Australian flag out there… [my partner] said take it down, you will probably get rotten eggs thrown at the house if you win…we played so well, I was so proud…there is an expat community here…I belong to a book club we read in English and we discuss in English…the members are all Anglo/Scottish/Irish/Australian…

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APPENDIX TWO Regionalism Reflected in Group Settlement The extracts explain people grouping themselves on one block, or a side of the street and remaining there for at least two generations several remaining in the same location to work even if they have relocated their own families: USF90…my mother was married to [] who was one of a big family from Sulmona, Provinca di L’Aquila, Abruzzo…when my parents first came to America they came to Murdock St Canonsburg. They were there until their deaths… USM58…to the best of my knowledge they came straight to Canonsburg and that is where they stayed…there were many from Sulmona here at that time…they always lived in Murdock Street. I grew up there myself, my office still to this day is one block away from Murdock Street. I have lived there my entire life; my father was born in that house and lived there is whole life. All my grandfather’s life too was in Murdock Street…after my grandmother and my aunt died, my parents took over the house…128 Murdock Street, Canonsburg…it was built in 1924 and it has always been the family home… That house remained in the family until about five years back, when my sister sold it, that was a bit sad for me...for me growing up in Murdock Street, it was like being in little Italy. I had Italians, family or other Italians, all around me, people who were friends of my family, all paesani…when I was growing up it was family everywhere, Italians next door, Italians across the street, Italians up the street and Italians down the street… USM53…my maternal grandmother came [to the USA] in 1903, my father in 1914, they came to Canonsburg and remained here.

Sulmona House, a building on Murdock Street, Canonsburg, is testament to the fact that ‘Italian immigrants were drawn from particular areas, going to specifically targeted locations. Sulmona is a regional town in Abruzzo with a population today of around 25,000. Participant interviews affirm that most of the Italians living in Murdock Street were Abruzzese immigrants, specifically from Sulmona. The building was purchased by a descendant of an Abruzzese, refurbished and named in 2007 Photo supplied 20/08/19 by participant USM58.

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APPENDIX THREE

My Home Town Lidia Valerio-Dell’Oso was born in Torino di Sangro, Provincia di Chieti in 1930, emigrating to Australia in 1955. In 1996, almost forty years after leaving Abruzzo she published a book of poems, written in Italian, translated and published as a bilingual text. I have included the poem My Home Town, as an example of the potency of campanilismo. The love for her town and the interconnected importance of the bell tower is as clear as it is enduring, highlighted in the pull of the words: ‘beautiful Torino looks in sorrow at those who have to leave that church’:

My Home Town Il mio paese

Abruzzo is a region of peace and tranquillity L’Abruzzo è la regione and whoever visits will never forget it. di pace e tranquillità Its four provinces: chiunque la va a vistare Teramo, Aquila, Pescara and Chieti are very mai la può dimenticare. special. Le sue quattro province – Not to boast, but the most beautiful of all Teramo, Aquila, Pescara, is my home town, Torino di Sangro. e Chieti sono veramente speciali From its high hills you see all the small towns Però il più bello e il mio paese. below. Non per vanto, è Torino di Sangro Their lights twinkle at night Con le sue alte colline As if the stars were bending down from the sky si vedano intorno tanti paesani, to kiss the earth. la sera scintillano tanti lumicini It’s so lovely to feel the breeze come se dal cielo le stele coming down from the high mountain called La si inchinano a baciare la terra. Maiella Ѐ tanto bello, sentire il venticello and your gaze can’t help but admire the Adriatic dall’alta montagna di nome La Maiella Sea e gli occhi non possano evitare It really makes you want to sing di ammirare l’Adriatico mare. to the sound of the bells which as evening falls Fa venire tanta voglia insieme di cantare calls everyone to prayer. al suono delle campane che verso sera Sitting and contemplating a town I should never invitano tutti all preghiera. have left, Ed io seduta a contemplare Looking at the church of the Holy Virgin of Loreto un paese che non avrei mai dovuto lasciare, Listening to the song ringing in my ears guardando la chiesa della S. Vergine di Loreto ascotlando quell canto che nelle orecchie si ripete ‘Oh Maria, Queen of Heaven Oh, sublime Queen of Love “O! Regina del ciel Maria You bring honour to Torino O! sovrano sublime d’amore You, the glory, the hope and the desire. Di Torino tu formi l’onore You are the greatest comfort. Tu la gloria la speme il desio Your beautiful serene eyes Il più dolce conforto sei tu. the divine purity of your face and the veil that is in Paradise Le pupille tue belle serene God radiantly adorned you with il candor del divino tuo viso Torino your beloved town’ ed il velo che nel paradiso Dio ti cinse ripien di fulgore Beautiful Torino looks in sorrow Per Torino tuo suolo d’amore.” at those who have to leave that church and this farewell weighs heavy on the heart Chi deve lasciare quella chiesa, and while this pen writes, no sound passes my lips. la bella Torino I remember my tranquil, peaceful town. la guarda con dolore e sente vero addio che pesa in fondo al cuore e mentre questa penna scrive, la mia bocca tace rammento il mio paese di tranquillità e tanta pace.

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APPENDIX FOUR Italianità Espoused through Popular Culture

The family as the place where italianità is performed dominates and transcends many fora, including popular culture. To highlight the point, I have included an extract from a recent newspaper article reporting the success of an Australian recording act in the appendix. The artists are two sisters of Italian descent who have become known as The Veronicas. In the extract the women are responding to questions on how they can explain their survival and maintaining fifteen years of relevance in the industry. Their response exemplifies the performance of italianità:

‘because we're family says Lisa, because we're Italian family! adds Jess…there is nothing that can't be resolved over good, homemade pasta (Jess and Lisa Origliasso, known as the Veronicas, The AGE, November 11, 2019)

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APPENDIX FIVE

Australian Participant Profile

Identifier Gen Abruzzese Emigrant Intermarriage Education Current Employment Partner Residence Industry AUM23 3rd Grandparents Single Year 11 Melbourne Hospitality AUM29 3rd Paternal Grandparents Single Graduate Melbourne Actor/Performer AUM34 3rd Maternal Grandparents Single Graduate Melbourne Hospitality AUF38b 3rd Maternal Grandparents Single Graduate Melbourne Photographer AUF38a 3rd Maternal Grandparents Single PhD Melbourne Museum Curator Candidate AUF46 3rd Grandparents and Italian Graduate Melbourne Human Resources Parents Manager AUM49b 3rd Maternal Grandparents Single Masters Melbourne Engineer AUM49a 3rd Grandparents and Italian Vocational Melbourne Draftsman in Parents Certificate Family Business AUM50 2nd Parents 1st wife Italian; Graduate Melbourne Finance 2nd Anglo Australian AUM52a 2nd Father Anglo Australian Graduate Melbourne Musician/Music Teacher AUM52b 3rd Maternal Grandparents Single PhD Melbourne Vocational Candidate Education Teacher AUF53 2nd Parents with Participant Single Year 12 Melbourne Office as a child Administrator AUF55a 2nd Parents Italian Year 11 Melbourne Hairdresser AUF55b 2nd Parents Italian Year 11 Melbourne Secretarial Work AUM57 2nd Parents Italian Diploma Melbourne Self Employed Hospitality AUF58 2nd Parents Single Year 10 Melbourne Retired State Public Service AUF59a 2nd Parents with Participant Italian Year 11 Melbourne Executive as a child Assistant AUF59b 2nd Parents German PhD Melbourne Academic Candidate AUM60 2nd Parents Croatian PhD Melbourne Academic AUF61 3rd Grandparents: Parents Single Graduate Melbourne Retired High came to Australia as School Teacher young adults AUF62a 2nd Both sets of Italian Masters Melbourne High School /3rd Grandparents; Parents Teacher came to Australia as young children AUF62b 2nd Parents Polish Graduate Melbourne Primary School Teacher AUF62c 2nd Parents Sicilian/ Year 10 Melbourne Company Calabrese Director AUM63 2nd Parents with Participant Italian Year 10 Melbourne Distributions as a child Manager AUF64 2nd Parents First Husband Year 10 Abruzzo Retired Law Anglo Italy Clerk Australian; Partner Italian AUF77 2nd Parents with Participant Italian Migrant Year 9 Melbourne Retired Factory as a child Worker/Office Administrator

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APPENDIX SIX

American Participant Profile

Abruzzese Intermarriage Current Employment Identifier Gen Education Emigrant Partner Residence Industry Great 84 University USF18 4th Single Undergraduate Grandparents Pennsylvania Student Armenian/ USF36 3rd Grandparents PhD Candidate Niagara Falls Teacher Austrian Great Washington Grandparents and Project USM36 4th Italian Masters County, Paternal Manager Pittsburgh Grandfather Maternal Great 3rd/4t Actor and USM53 Grandfather and Single Masters New York h Opera Singer Grandfather Maternal Great Retired District USF57 3rd Grandparents and Italian College Canonsburg Manager Retail Grandmother Paternal Great Logistics USM57 4th Grandfather and Italian Masters Canonsburg Manager Grandfather Office USF58 3rd Grandparents Italian High School Canonsburg Administrator 84 Insurance USM58 3rd Grandfather Irish Graduate Pennsylvania broker Maternal Great Retired Office USF62 3rd 4th Grandparents and Anglo America High School Canonsburg Manager Grandmother Maternal Great Retired High USF63a 3rd 4th Grandparents and Italian Graduate Florida School Teacher Grandmother Case Manager USF63b 2nd Father Scottish/Irish Masters Canonsburg D&A and Mental Health USM65 3rd Grandfather Portuguese Masters Budapest Teacher Grandparents and Speech USF67 3rd Italian Masters Pittsburgh Parents Therapist USF68 2nd Parents Italian Year 9 Muse Factory Worker 2nd Grandparents and Czecho- Disability USM70 Masters Canonsburg /3rd Father slovakian Services Paternal Great 3rd Italian/Anglo Office USF70 Grandparents and College Canonsburg /4th Irish Administrator Grandparents German Retired USF73 3rd Grandfather High School Canonsburg Migrant Hairdresser Anglo Registered USF76 4th Great Grandfather Graduate Canonsburg American Nurse USM76 2nd Grandfather Italian Year 7 Muse Factory Worker German USF77 3rd Grandparents High School Canonsburg Retail Austrian Retired USF78 2nd Parents Italian High School Canonsburg Hairdresser Anglo Retired Primary USF83 2nd Parents Masters Canonsburg American school teacher Paternal Semi-retired USM86 3rd Grandparents and Italian Graduate Canonsburg Finance Father School 2nd Anglo USF90 Parents High School Canonsburg Administration /3rd American Secretary 2nd Grandparents and Polish / College and USM91 Canonsburg Retired Judge /3rd Parents Lithuanian Law School Grandfather and USM92 3rd Italian High School Canonsburg Artist/Painter Parents

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APPENDIX SEVEN

Canadian Participant Profile

Abruzzese Intermarriage Current Employment Identifier Gen Education Emigrant Partner Residence Industry University CAM18 3rd Grandparents Single Undergraduate Toronto Student University CAM19 3rd Grandparents Single Undergraduate Toronto Student Maternal University CAF21a 3rd Single Undergraduate Toronto Grandparents Student Great University CAF21b 4th Grandparents and Single Undergraduate Toronto Student Grandparents Parental Great University CAF21c 4th Single Masters Toronto Grandparents Student Recent Graduate Paternal Great CAF22 4th Single Graduate Toronto beginning Grandparents Public Service Internship CAF30 3rd Grandparents Single Graduate Toronto Public Servant Paternal Grandparents and CAM30 3rd Single Masters Toronto Lawyer Parents as Children High School CAF35 3rd Grandparents Anglo Canadian Graduate Toronto Teacher Paternal CAM38 3rd Grandparents and Anglo Canadian Graduate Toronto Finance Father CAM49 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Finance CAF51 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Adult Education Paternal Secondary CAF52 2nd Grandmother and Italian Masters Toronto School Teacher Parents Maternal Management CAF53 3rd Grandmother and Single Graduate Toronto Consultant Parents CAM55 2nd Parents Anglo Canadian Graduate Toronto Civil Engineer Public CAF55 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Servant/Project Manager Tertiary CAF57 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Administrator CAF61 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Family Business CAM63a 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Finance CAM63b 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Engineer Grandparents and Author/Publishe CAM65 2nd Italian Graduate Montreal Parents r CAM66a 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Small Business Fort St John, Fisheries CAM66b 2nd Parents Italian/Ukrainian Graduate British Biologist Columbia Teacher/Acade CAM73 2nd Parents Anglo American Graduate Toronto mic Teacher/Adult CAM76 2nd Parents Italian Graduate Toronto Education Parents with Self Employed CAF82 2nd Participant as a Italian High School Toronto Hospitality Child CAM89 2nd Parents Italian High School Toronto Factory Worker

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APPENDIX EIGHT Guide for Semi-Structured Interview Discussion The guide is designed to be suggestive but not prescriptive. The categories may not be applicable or significant to all participants. The list is not exhaustive, discussion is fluid Introduction Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed. I am talking with you because you have a family member who migrated from the Abruzzo region in Italy (or you arrived as a child). For you it means I am referring to [name of family member] and that makes you [generation] To begin the interview, I just want you to talk a little about yourself. Tell me a bit about your earliest memories of, for example where you were born, your first home, your first day at school etc. Thank you

Knowledge, understandings and perceptions of family migration history I now want to explore with you what you know, or what you remember or what you might have imagined, about your [parent/grand parent or great grandparent’s] migration story. For example, do you know from where in Abruzzo your parent/ grandparent originated?

Can you talk to me about? Who did your family member travel with on their voyage to Australia/Canada/America? Did they leave family in Abruzzo? What has [family member] told you about why they left Italy? When did they arrive in...? Was this destination their chosen destination or were there other circumstances involved that you are aware of? Are you aware or what do you know about how emigration was organised? What stories do you remember your [family member] telling you about Italy or Australia/Canada/America? Did your [family member] ever go back to Italy? What did they say about that and any subsequent visits?

Settlement Where did your [family member] settle when they arrived in…? What do you know of their first years in …? What was living in an Italian family in ...like for them? Their talk at home i.e. what did they speak at home?

I now want to talk about what it was like for you growing up in ……. What do you remember about growing up in an Italian family in …? What was the talk in your home i.e. what language did you speak at home? Who did your family mix with? How much contact did your family have with Anglo Americans/Canadians /Australians? Tell me about your friends, who they were, nationality etc. Did you participate in any group or hobbies outside the home?

Religion How important was religion to your family? Have they maintained their connection with Catholicism? What part did/does Catholicism play in your life growing up and what about now? As far as you can remember, did church personnel or church related activities play any part in you or your family’s settlement or life in ...?

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Education Do you know the level of education achieved by your parents/grandparents? And you – high school-university? Did education have a high priority while you were growing up? Did you participate in extra curricula activities outside of school hours or during school holidays?

Visits to Italy Have you been to Italy? If so, focusing on the first one - did your parents or grandparents prepare you for that visit? Tell me what you remember of your first visit? What about subsequent visits - anything change or different?

Interaction with Family in Italy Would you tell me about your family in Italy - who are you are closest to and how often you see them? Do you stay in touch with your family - by what means and how often?

I now want to go to the issue of connection to Italian cultural heritage Can you remember an occasion from your childhood when you felt proud to be Italian? Can you tell if you feel you have a connection to being Italian? If you do feel you have a connection - is it a connection to being Italian or is it more a connection to being Abruzzese? How does your connection manifest itself- e.g. is it food, music, language? Has there been a change over time/age/generation? Is it persistent or intermittent / steady or subject to change (i.e. family circumstances, money, etc?) Would you say that there is an ‘Italian community’ where you live or where you grew up? Where you/are you part of that community?

Group Maintenance Do you belong to any Abruzzese/Italian groups/clubs? If yes why? If not, can you see yourself ever being interested in such groups or clubs in the future or even was there a time in your past when they may have been significant?

Intermarriage Do you feel your spouse/partner has had an impact on your connectedness to your cultural heritage? If so, how?

Names Is your name the same as the one you were given by your parents? Have you Anglicised your first or second name? Do non-Italians have difficulty pronouncing your name? What name have you /would you have given to your children?

Demographic data I need to collect some demographic type details please D.O.B Where do you live now? Where did you complete your schooling/education? Your occupation Can you tell me about your current association with the town/city you grew up in?

Thank you

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APPENDIX NINE Participant Generations Second Generation Third Generation Fourth Generation Australia 60% 40% Nil America 31% 54% 15% Canada 59% 30% 11%

APPENDIX TEN

How Participants Identify

Australia Australian Italian Italian Australian Australian of Abruzzese Australian Italian Italian Parents /Australian Descent/ with Abruzzese Heritage/ Heritage Culture Total 26 0 4 7 2 9 4 America American Italian Italian American American of American American Italian Italian Parents Italian with Descent/ Abruzzese Heritage/ Roots Culture Total 26 0 9 7 2 7 1 Canada Canadian Italian Italian Canadian Canadian of Abruzzese/ Canadian Italian Italian Parents Abruzzese Descent/ Canadian Heritage/ Culture Total 27 2 11 7 0 5 2

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APPENDIX ELEVEN Language Spoken as Children in Parental Household

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian Australia 2nd generation 12 2 3rd generation 5 1 4th generation - -

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian America 2nd generation 2 2 3rd generation 3 0 4th generation 0 0

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian Canada 2nd generation 10 3 3rd generation 2 0 4th generation 0 0

APPENDIX TWELVE Language Maintenance of Participant

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian Australia 2nd generation 4 5 3rd generation 1 2 4th generation - -

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian America 2nd generation 1 2 3rd generation 3 1 4th generation 0 1

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian Canada 2nd generation 4 6 3rd generation 0 5 4th generation 0 2

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APPENDIX THIRTEEN Language Spoken to Own Children

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian Australia 2nd generation 0 2 3rd generation 1 0 4th generation - -

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian America 2nd generation 0 0 3rd generation 0 0 4th generation 0 0

Location Abruzzese Dialect Standard Italian Canada 2nd generation 4 4 3rd generation 0 0 4th generation 0 0

APPENDIX FOURTEEN Participants who undertook Italian Language Study

Location School University Community College Australia 2nd generation 0 1 0 3rd generation 0 1 1 4th generation - - -

Location School University Community College America 2nd generation 0 0 0 3rd generation 0 0 2 4th generation 0 1 0

Location School University Community College Canada 2nd generation 1 2 0 3rd generation 1 2 0 4th generation 0 2 1

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APPENDIX FIFTEEN

Participants who Signalled their Intention to Learn Italian

Location 2nd generation 3rd Generation 4th generation Australia 1 - -

Location 2nd generation 3rd generation 4th generation America - - 1

Location 2nd generation 3rd generation 4th generation Canada - - 1

APPENDIX SIXTEEN

Participant Education

Location High School Vocational College University Graduate Post (Partial Certificate Diploma Student Graduate attendance or completion) Australia 10 1 1 0 8 6 America 9 2 2 1 5 9 Canada 2 0 0 4 18 3

APPENDIX SEVENTEEN

Numbers of Married and Single Participants

Location Married Single Australia 15 10 Canada 18 9 America 24 2

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APPENDIX EIGHTEEN Choice of Partner in First Marriage

Locatio Endogamy Exogamy n Gen Abruzzese Other Italian Other Anglo European Australia 2nd 3 6 2 2 3rd - 3 - 1 4th - - - - America 2nd 2 1 3 2 3rd - 6 5 2 4th - 1 - 2 Canada 2nd 7 6 1 2 3rd - - - 2 4th - - - -

APPENDIX NINETEEN Choice of Partner in Second/Third Marriage

Locatio Endogamy Exogamy n Gen Abruzzese Other Italian Other Anglo European Australia 2nd 1 - - 2 3rd - - - 1 America 2nd - - - - 3rd 2 - - - Canada 2nd - 1 1 - 3rd - - - -

APPENDIX TWENTY Summary of Participant Name Use

Anglicised Anglicised but Italian Reverted to (given or with a Italian by choice surname) connection to or through Italian heritage marriage

Australian 8 5 13 0

American 17 4 4 1

Canadian 9 7 10 1

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