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We Were Minority. Italiani Ed Afroamericani a Chicago Tra Emancipazione E Conflitti, 1945 –1965

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We Were Minority. Italiani Ed Afroamericani a Chicago Tra Emancipazione E Conflitti, 1945 –1965 UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MODENA E REGGIO EMILIA Dottorato di ricerca in Scienze Umanistiche Ciclo XXXII TITOLO della TESI We were minority. Italiani ed afroamericani a Chicago tra emancipazione e conflitti, 1945 –1965. Un'analisi storica tra documenti d'archivio e fonti orali. Candidato Moschetti Marco Relatore (Tutor): Prof. Lorenzo Bertucelli Coordinatore del Corso di Dottorato: Prof.ssa Marina Bondi A mia madre e mio padre. Migranti. C'è il bianco, il nero e mille sfumature Di colori in mezzo e lì in mezzo siamo noi Coi nostri mondi in testa tutti ostili E pericolosamente confinanti siamo noi Un po' paladini della giustizia Un po' pure briganti, siamo noi Spaccati e disuguali, siamo noi Frammenti di colore, sfumature Dentro a un quadro da finire Siamo noi, che non ci vogliono lasciar stare Siamo noi, che non vogliamo lasciarli stare Siamo noi, appena visibili sfumature In grado di cambiare il mondo In grado di far incontrare Il cielo e il mare in un tramonto Siamo noi, frammenti di un insieme Ancora tutto da stabilire E che dipende da noi Capire l'importanza di ogni singolo colore Dipende da noi saperlo collocare bene Ancora da noi, capire il senso nuovo Che può dare all'insieme Che dobbiamo immaginare Solo noi, solo noi, solo noi… (Sfumature, 99 posse. Da La vita que vendrà, 2000) Marco Moschetti , We were minority. Indice INDICE INTRODUZIONE p.1 1. CAPITOLO I: stereotipi, pregiudizi e intolleranza. Gli italiani negli Stati Uniti e l’immagine dell’italoamericano. 1.1 Lo stereotipo anti-italiano ed il pregiudizio contro gli immigrati. Alcune ipotesi di ricostruzione storica. p. 25 1.2 La questione della whiteness p. 43 2. CAPITOLO II: Italoamericani ed afroamericani a Chicago dopo il 1945: elementi per una racial geography 2.1 La whiteness, gli italiani, gli afroamericani. Un approccio introduttivo. p. 57 2.2 La racial geography di Chicago. Gli italoamericani in cerca di una collocazione. p. 84 2.3 Not in my backyard. Dalla mobilità abitativa alla mobilità sociale. Relazioni e conflitti tra strade, scuole e sale da ballo. p. 119 3. CAPITOLO III: Fonti orali e storia dell’immigrazione italiana a Chicago. Il fondo dell’Italian in Chicago Oral History Project. 3.1 La struttura del progetto p. 129 3.2 Casa, chiesa e lavoro. Autorappresentazioni dell’”italoamericano medio”. p. 137 • 3.2.1 Le pratiche dell’abitare. Casa, quartieri, confini. p.138 • 3.2.2 Backyards p.150 Marco Moschetti , We were minority. Indice • 3.2.3 Rotta per casa di Dio p. 153 • 3.2.4 Politica e comunità p. 163 • 3.2.5 Gangland p. 172 4. CAPITOLO IV: Dai numeri ai fatti. 4.1 La legislazione statunitense sull’immigrazione. Un profilo storico-politico. p. 179 • 4.1.1 Dall’Uomo bianco all’uomo nero p. 182 4.2 I numeri degli Annual Reports of the Immigration and Naturalization Service p. 202 • 4.2.1 Arrivi p. 203 • 4.2.2 Partenze p. 211 5. CONCLUSIONI p. 219 6. BIBLIOGRAFIA e FONTI p. 230 Marco Moschetti, We were minority. Introduzione INTRODUZIONE L’obiettivo principale di questa tesi è ricostruire l'esperienza della comunità italoamericana di Chicago dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Tale istanza deriva dalla constatazione che, in relazione a questo periodo di tempo, non sono presenti all’interno del novero delle ricerche relative all’immigrazione italiana negli Stati Uniti, studi esaustivi. Questo ovviamente non significa che l’argomento non si mai stato affrontato, quanto piuttosto che lo si sia sviluppato all’interno di pubblicazioni di più ampio respiro 1 o comunque senza specifici riferimenti alla capitale dell’Illinois, che si vedrà più avanti essere fortemente paradigmatica. Nel procedere con la definizione degli elementi cardine che avrebbero costituito la cornice entro cui sviluppare la ricerca, è emerso fin dalle prime analisi come l’evolversi del percorso di emancipazione in cui gli immigrati italiani si stavano inserendo, era stato influenzato da un secondo fattore, ovvero il complesso rapporto con la comunità afroamericana di Chicago. Per tanto l’oggetto della ricerca si è spostato, così da risultare più completo ed innovativo, sui rapporti tra le due comunità all’interno di quelli che potremmo definire processi di “razzializzazione” della struttura urbana ed abitativa della città che li ospitava. Sarà però utile, in questa fase introduttiva, chiarire come le premesse che hanno stimolato inizialmente questo lavoro siano invero da individuare nell’interesse verso una serie di fonti che, almeno all’apparenza, potrebbero comunque apparire distanti da quello che è stato qui identificato come obbiettivo primario della tesi. In alcune precedenti ricerche, durante le quali avevo studiato l’emigrazione di ritorno dagli Stati Uniti dopo il 1945 verso l’Appennino modenese 2 , in fase di costruzione del repertorio delle fonti d’archivio utile ai fini della tesi, ho avuto modo di consultare alcuni volumi di dati statistici estremante ricchi ed interessanti, ovvero gli Annual Report of the Immigration and Naturalization Service statunitensi. 1 William J. Connell, Stanislao Pugliese, The Routledge History of Italian Americans, New York 2017; Laura E. Ruberto, Joseph Sciorra, New Italian Migration to the United States, 2 voll: 1. Politics and History since 1945; 2. Art and Culture since 1945, Chicago 2017. 2 Marco Moschetti, Dagli Stati Uniti al Frignano. Storie di emigranti di ritorno a Pievepelago nella seconda metà del Novecento. Tesi di laurea magistrale, Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, a.a. 2013/2014 1 Marco Moschetti, We were minority. Introduzione Questi sono stati, in forma varia e con alcuni episodi di discontinuità, la pubblicazione che gli uffici dell’Immigration and Naturalization Service statunitense ha dato alle stampe tra gli anni ‘30 e ‘90 del XX secolo. I volumi, costituiti non soltanto da dati quantitativi ma da un ampio ventaglio di riflessioni, relative ad esempio alle politiche sull’immigrazione, ai diversi risultati amministrativi conseguiti via via nell’anno fiscale di emanazione nonché alcuni glossari – anch’essi aggiornati annualmente – relativi alle terminologie legali adottate, hanno dimostrato fin da subito di poter essere un supporto di estrema importanza nello studio dell’immigrazione negli USA. Poiché una loro analisi dettagliata è presente nel capitolo IV, qui è forse più opportuno motivare perché questi report abbiano dalla loro un così ampio rilievo per questa ricerca. La motivazione è assai semplice: dallo studio dei dati contenuti sono emerse alcune complessità sino ad oggi scarsamente indagate dalla ricerca italiana. Per tanto è nata l’esigenza di voler fornire risposte a domande spesso inevase. La prima questione ad essere stata sollevata potrebbe nuovamente apparire distante da quello che si è dichiarato essere il focus di questa ricerca, ma in realtà porta un sottinteso da non trascurare: perché nei diversi studi italiani sull’emigrazione negli Stati Uniti lungo l’arco del XX secolo, questi report non sono stati pressoché mai consultati? La tendenza infatti è stata spesso quella di riferirsi alla raccolta di dati che, sempre con cadenza annuale, vengono raccolti in altro materiale statistico, ovvero quegli Statisical Abstract of The US Bureau of Census. Questi, pur avendo a loro volta un’importante valenza di studio e ricerca, sono strutturati in modo molto ampio e vario, tanto che solo in una breve parte si fa cenno alle questioni legate all’immigrazione. Va da se che gli Statistical Abstract non presentano sufficienti elementi di approfondimento tali da giustificare il loro uso in sostituzione dei più specifici report dell’ INS. Uno degli aspetti che ad esempio caratterizzano le pubblicazioni annuali dell’INS è l’esposizione di dati e soprattutto di riflessioni legislative e storico-politiche sul tema dei rimpatri, dei respingimenti e delle espulsioni o, più ampiamente, sui flussi di ritorno. Proprio tale ricchezza si è conseguentemente rivelata foriera di un secondo quesito, che sposta la questione si di un piano maggiormente epistemologico: per quale motivo non ha trovato adeguato interesse lo studio dell’emigrazione di ritorno dagli Stati Uniti, contrariamente invece all’ampia trattazione che la storiografia 2 Marco Moschetti, We were minority. Introduzione italiana ha fatto dei flussi di partenza 3? Naturalmente, se pur con un notevole distacco rispetto alla produzione accademica statunitense - che ancora forse poco ha fatto sulla seconda metà del ‘900 – le poche ricerche condotte in Italia sono in ogni modo di grande rilievo e di estrema importanza 4. Queste però rimangono spesso sul piano dell’analisi dei rientri volontari, senza approfondire i rimpatri forzati, quale che sia la motivazione. Va da se che i report dell’INS si dimostrano ancora più interessanti proprio perché ai numeri si affiancano approfondimenti che aiutano nella ulteriore messa a fuco di quali fossero le specifiche motivazioni - sanitarie, politiche, sociali – per cui tali fallimenti migratori presero forma. Inoltre, in modo ancora più specifico, si ha la possibilità per un notevole numero di anni – almeno fino alla fine degli anni ‘50 del XX secolo – di confrontare i dati anche sulla base di informazioni quali il Paese di arrivo, di nascita o di ultima residenza. In tal modo emerge bene come l’osservazione dei dati statistici, pur non rappresentanti sul piano quantitativo qualcosa di particolarmente significativo ( si parla di alcune decine di rientri, di varia natura, ogni anno), continuano ad essere, obiettivamente, qualitativamente rilevanti. Ciò che li rende di particolare interesse è il fatto che nei volumi relativi agli anni che giungono sino al 1965 – anno in cui attraverso una sostanziale modifica legislativa cambiano in modo importante le prassi di ingresso su suolo statunitense – , si possano trovare diversi casi di espulsione e di respingimento per motivazioni passibili di arbitrarietà. Questo avveniva in una fase storica durante la quale possiamo constatare come le maglie dei controlli potessero essere in un certo qual modo eluse. Tale affermazione è sostenuta anche dalle parole di Joseph LoGiudici, italoamericano di Chicago intervistato nel 1980 da Joseph Sauris per l’Italian in Chicago Oral History Project 5.
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