As I had mentioned in a previous post, it’s no secret that la famiglia is a big part of Italian culture.  And once immigrants were able to bring over their loved ones, they were able to hold onto this important tradition.  These Italian-Americans came from the lowest rungs of southern Italy.  Orsi makes an important distinction about their love of the homeland – they “did not know an Italian nation – they only knew the domus of their paesi” (78).

The domus – “the Italian home and family… the religion of Italian Americans” (77) – was deeply ingrained into the Italian Harlem society.  Parents, along with their friends, comari/compari, and extended family, would raise their children with a strong sense of family values.  Growing up in the domus represented to the Italian-Americans a fundamental piece of a child’s education – ben educato.

The domus, however, was not without its problems.  From what Orsi says about the domus, it seems to be chock-full of problems, making it seem to be a negative system.  The main issues that I took out of the reading were generational tensions and gender tensions.  Because I think that all cultures and people struggle generationally, I want to focus more on the gender tensions.

The Italian domus is heavily hierarchical and patriarchal.  That being said, the mother is the “boss.”  How can this be so?  It seems almost contradictory to say that the mother was in control of everything, when there was a father around.  Often times, because of this complicated hierarchical power system in the home, men would struggle to control their women.  “Italian fathers ‘are simply mad.’  They rage against their wives, whom they perceive as rivals for the respect of their children” (119).  They also had a rivalry with sons, whom had a strong tie to their mothers through a “blood-bond.”  Younger sons, who resented older brothers for their seat of power in the house, would act out by controlling their sisters.

As younger generations grew up finding these problems within the domus, they had trouble breaking free of the highly structured lifestyle.  In the end, most children accepted their place in life – not as individuals but as part of a domus.

Marina B. Nebro