People - 16 Dicembre 2020 Patricia de Stacy Harrison: Stop Division, for Italian Americans, the Values Count "There was an election, and we will have an inaugural, and for the good of our country we need to get behind the president of the United States, and give him the opportunity to tell us what his vision is. We’re going through this horrible, terrible pandemic; divisiveness can actually kill us... We have a Board which is bi-partisan; some are Republicans, some are Democrats, some supported President Trump, some supported President-elect Biden, and I think what NIAF has to do is focus on its mission, which is perennial, no matter who is president, and that is to advance our culture – all of the values that I talked about earlier; to help young people, especially now that they have lost so much time in their education. We shouldn’t spend time focusing on divisions... We cannot afford to have the threat coming from ourselves, from the inside, to divide us. So, that is my goal for NIAF, and I think you can be a member of NIAF and really be sad that your candidate lost, or you can be happy your candidate won, but get over it!"
News - 19 Novembre 2020 Massive Support for Trump and the End of Italian American Identity Hatred was bubbling through our ranks looking for a channel. Donald has been that conduit, giving his followers what they always wanted: greater acceptance into the white mainstream and easy scapegoats on which to pin their own lackluster success….
News - 17 Luglio 2020 When the Term “Italian American” Means the Worst of Both Worlds It is no mystery that some segments of the Italian-American community share the rest of the nation's view of African-American's shortcomings as due to "moral flaws": their endemic laziness, the parasitism that makes them dependent on social welfare, the propensity to crime. Paradoxically, these are exactly the same vices that, in Italy, sum up the northern prejudices towards southerners which make up the majority of the Italian diaspora in America.
News - 17 Luglio 2020 Getting Out of An Embarrassing Situation: Replace Columbus with MLK, Jr. The argument made by Douglass in 1852 is similar to that of the descendants of the "Native Americans" who do not celebrate "Thanksgiving", and could also be taken as a model by us today when it comes to reflecting on the meaning of "Columbus Day", and of the solemn statues dedicated to the man who was respectfully called "the Admiral".
News - 17 Giugno 2020 In America’s “Novel”, Italian-Americans and Columbus Are “Cheated” and “Beaten” In Italiano It’s almost like a Pirandello play: loves and hatreds, admiration and disdain for a similar situation, but seen from different points of view, simply to remind us that absolute truth does not exist. And this very sick America, angry and instigated, takes it out on its symbols, its memories, its past–but not with […]
Food & Wine - 6 Ottobre 2019 Paisans of the World, Unite! We Are Also Italian, With Our Spaghetti and Meatballs Italian Americans, their adaptation of Italian dishes and their tastes are judged as being impure in a patronizing and condescending manner… But this mythical Italian-ness, put on a pedestal as an ideal to which all other criteria must come second, is defined by whom? Are the newly arrived from Italy better able to judge?
People - 24 Gennaio 2019 Now that I Live in His Country, My Reflective Images of Nonno in New York I understand you on your own terms now, Nonno. Before you were a foreigner in my country, now I am one in yours. Funny how symmetrical life can be sometimes.
Arts - 4 Gennaio 2019 Gay Talese on Italian American Writers: The Epitomy In this brief video segment taken from a conference on Frank Sinatra, organized by Professor Stanislao Pugliese of Hofstra University, renowned journalist and bestselling author Gay Talese, tells the audience that Italian Americans at the beginning of the 19th Century did not have “a tradition of writing novels.” As they landed in this new country, […]
People - 3 Gennaio 2019 What Does It Mean to Be Italian American? I Have No Idea You can’t assimilate without abandoning your heritage, and you can’t embrace your heritage the way the old-timers would like without appearing as an outsider. The challenge is finding a happy medium between the two... I once asked my Grandmother why she never went back to visit Italy; she said: “For what? All I had there was miseria.”
Lifestyles - 17 Dicembre 2018 What Does Christmas Look Like in an Italian American Family? Usually an Italian American family Christmas involves at least 20 people, and that is just counting the immediate family. So, it’s very important that everything is studied to detail for the special day. For starters it’s important to count the chairs, because not only will you have to have the right amount of chairs, you also need some extra ones. "Why?" you may ask.