Tag: Italians

Criticism, Essay

Chiara Barzini’s Things That Happened Before the Earthquake Reminds that Italians “Out West” Have, In Many Regards, Always Had It Rougher When It Comes to “Assimilating”

Perhaps the first thing one must emphasize in talking about the Italian diaspora in the United States is that East Coast Italians are very much their own race of people now, entirely separate from Italians themselves (the real ones that arrived in the 1880s for the first wave of immigration). And they certainly seem to like it that way—are even proud of the “standalone” “culture” … Continue reading Chiara Barzini’s Things That Happened Before the Earthquake Reminds that Italians “Out West” Have, In Many Regards, Always Had It Rougher When It Comes to “Assimilating”

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Poetry

Things I’ve Heard While Growing Up Italian by Alise Versella

“You don’t look I-talian.”“Do you get dark in the summer?”“Do you know anyone in the mob?”“Of course she’s Italian, she’s from Staten Island.”“And look at her nose…” Yes, let’s address my Romanesque NoseThat hooked beakFor so many years I loathedMy profileLearned the perfect head tilt, the proper way to smile Do you know my great-grandparents came outta Harlem?Yes, 110th Do you know I can’tSay anything nice in … Continue reading Things I’ve Heard While Growing Up Italian by Alise Versella

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Criticism

The Italian Prostitute Can’t Be Bought (By An American): The Girl on the Via Flaminia

For those who seem to have forgotten that anti-American sentiment didn’t merely arise when Donald Trump assumed the presidency, let us turn back time to the thick of the nationality’s sudden involvement in World War II, once the Japanese tapped the sleeping giant that was the U.S. on the shoulder with a friendly little bomb on Pearl Harbor. It was then, already two years into … Continue reading The Italian Prostitute Can’t Be Bought (By An American): The Girl on the Via Flaminia

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