FRANC STURINO ITALIAN-CANADIAN STUDIES: a SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Toronto: Mariano A

FRANC STURINO ITALIAN-CANADIAN STUDIES: A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Toronto: Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian Canadian Studies, York University and Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1988. 107 pp. NICK G. FORTE A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS OF THE MULTICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF ONTARIO Edited and with an introduction by Gabriele Scardellato. Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1992. 715 pp. ARRANGIARSI: THE ITALIAN IMMIGRATION EXPERIENCE IN CANADA Edited by Roberto Perin and Franc Sturino. Montréal: Guernica, 1992. 251 pp. MIGRATION AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CULTURES Edited by Jean Burnet, Danielle Juteau, Enoch Padolsky, Anthony Rasporich and Antoine Sirois. Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1992. 294 pp. In Italian-Canadian Studies: A Select Bibliography, Franc Sturino argues that the field should be taken seriously, presenting abundant supporting evidence for his argument. Divided conveniently into seven sections, his bibliography lists in the first three parts the work done by academics. The remaining sections deal with: selected popular accounts, such as newpaper and magazine articles; theses; references from the Bollettino dell' emigrazione, 1902-27: and in the last, bibliographies and bibliographical sources. As the first bibliography in Italian Canadian Studies, Sturino's work comes at a favourable time in an expanding 178 field of research. A Guide to the Collections of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario provides a comprehensive listing of the thousands of hours of oral history housed at the MHSO of 56 different groups. The Italian collection includes: 25 pages of entries covering subjects such as the development of the Italian community of Hamilton, life during the World War II period, the Toronto Fascio of the 1930s, the Italian Immigrant Aid Society, FACI or the Federazione delle Associazioni e Club Italo-Canadesi and the history of a family of settlers in the United States and Canada. Browsing through the Italian section, with its many interesting references including Vincenzo Pietropaolo's photographs of Calabrian folklore and traditions in Toronto, gives evidence of the value of the collection. Roberto Perin's introduction to Arrangiarsi: The Italian Immigration Experience in Canada, a collection of nine essays, is a realistic study of the immigrant, a figure too often misunderstood. The volumes clearly focuses on the immigrant who came from a pre- industrial society and whose culture was circumscribed by his family tradition and hometown and who had to contend with, and adapt to, conflicting political and social forces. Perin's chapter, "The Immigrant: Actor or Outcast," deals with the men and women who fought to become self-sufficient and independent. The immigrant learned through experience to come to terms with the realities of his environment, to adapt or evolve, according to changing circumstances, even though he could not foresee their shape or direction. Robert F. Harney's essay on "Caboto and Other Parentela: The Uses of the Italian-Canadian Past" argues against "the manipulation of the past to create a pedigree" and against the hunt for the italianità of warriors, priests and explorers of Italian descent. In this connection, names in New France such as General Bourlamacque and De Ligne became Burlamacchi and De Lino; Henri de Tonty, Enrico Di Tonti; and Father Bressan or Bressani, Bresciani. The tendency to seek great names usurps the serious study of Italian migration which has to do with the migration of masses of humble Italians to North America after 1885, not with the assumption that ethnic group status in North America derives from notions of being "long in the land." A serious study of Giovanni Caboto has been carried on more by British or American maritime historians than by Canadian scholars who have not considered the subject central to their work. Harney then reviews the Italian 179 Canadian discussion revolving around Caboto from the 1920s to Senator Peter Bosa's efforts in recent years to give Caboto back his Italianity. In Harney's opinion the study of the Italian Canadian pantheon of explorers, priests and soldiers is an aspect of contemporary politics — a form of ancestor worship that sacrifices the "little tradition" of the common people. The subject of the next essay by Franc Sturino is chain migration defined as a movement which is determined by a close connection or relationship between emigrant and prospective emigrant who benefits from his predecessor's knowledge and experience. In "Italian Emigration: Reconsidering the Links in Chain Migration," Sturino examines the migration patterns from Rende, in the province of Cosenza, to Toronto and Chicago, illustrating how the commercial and social activities of that area served to integrate the people in such a way as later to facilitate emigration and settlement in the New World. Sturino's detailed research, covering the period from 1881 to the present, is the result of close investigation, involving visits to the Rende area, and to the Italian settlements on Miller Street in Chicago, and College and Grace Streets in Toronto. Nicoletta Serio's article on "Canada as a Target of Trade and Emigration in Post-Unification Italian Writing," begins with Cristoforo Negri's article of 1863 in the Turin daily, Monarchia Nazionale, on the possibility of trade between Italy and Canada. Negri, who had been director of the Department of Emigration of the Kingdom of Sardinia after 1848, believed that the government should be able to keep Italian emigrants informed of the possibilities of settling abroad. In that connection, Leone Carpi's first study of emigration published in 1878 still constitutes a valuable source of information. Enea Cavalieri's articles in Nuova Antologia in 1879 with his observations on Canada and the United States added to the fund of information available to prospective Italian emigrants. Giuseppe Solimbergo, Italian Consul General to Montreal in 1901, favoured the legitimate intervention of government which he thought would diminish the padrone's role in the settlement of emigrants. In June 1901 the Corriere della Sera carried a series of articles on the misfortunes of Italian immigrants to Canada that spurred the Italian government to increase its contribution to the building of schools, churches and to assist the poor. In Marco Doria's fact-finding inquiry of 1905-1906 Canada was seen as an important producer of natural resources and a potential market for Italian goods. 180 The immigrant was rarely the focus of attention of writers who rather looked upon Canada as a desired objective. Bruno Ramirez's "Workers Without a Cause: Italian Immigrant Labour in Montreal, 1880-1930," reconstructs the experience in Canada of Italian immigrants who soon became an integral part of the market. The demand for labour grew out of large-scale commercial services and utilities and construction, but the railroad facilities generated the largest demand for day labourers, particularly as the city expanded. Labourers sometimes had to be imported from the United States due to a shortage in Montreal. Italian immigrant labourers were subject to the changing conditions of the economy. Some succeeded in moving up to the area of small business operators — a significant step up the economic ladder that left its mark on the social and cultural life of Montreal. In "Beyond the Frozen Wastes: Italian Sojourners and Settlers in British Columbia," Gabriele Scardellatο presents an overview of the history of Italian migration and immigration to British Columbia, attracted to the province by mining prospects and the CPR in the 1880s. Some immigrants left their mark on the geography of B. C. such as: Giovanni Ordano, a hotelier, who had settled near Cowichan on Vancouver Island, north of Victoria, and whose birthplace is commemorated in the name of Genoa Bay; and Francesco Savona, a ferry operator on the route to the Cariboo gold fields at the west end of Kamloops, and whose name Savona's Ferry remains simply as Savona. Scardellato notes the arrivals of early settlers in the Okanagan Valley in the 1840s, in Rossland, east of Trail, and comments later on the establishment of mutual benefit and other societies. In citing Amy Bernardy's trip to B. C. in 1910 and her observations on the Italians of Vancouver, in tracing the work of the church and the growth of the Italian community in the early years of this century, Scardellato has put the story of Italin immigration to British Columbia into its appropriate perspective. In her essay on "Italian Art and Artists in Nineteenth-Century Quebec: A Few Preliminary Observations," Laurier Lacroix stresses that the participation of Italian artists in Quebec is an asset which must now be acknowledged. She points out that 98 Canadian painters sojourned in Italy prior to 1914, noting that although most visits to Italy were only for a short duration they made Quebecers aware of Italian art. As a result artistic judgement became more refined. The author identifies more than 30 artists of Italian origin who were active in Quebec before 1914; one third worked in murals and decorations but much of their 181 work has been destroyed. Guido Nincheri (1885-1973), a muralist and glass maker from the mid-1910s on, and a prolific Florentine artist, created original work in a number of churches and private buildings. His painting in the Chiesa della Difesa in Montreal, his most controversial work with the figure of Mussolini on a white horse was responsible for his internment by the RCMP

Load more