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

A life of “exploitation, endurance, unemployment, difficulty, and separation” (27).

The most important thing to Italians coming to America (and Italians back home) was family – la famiglia.  This stereotype is still very prevalent today, but I think it’s something true and beautiful about the Italian community.  More than mourning the loss of their Italian homeland, immigrants mourned the loss of having their extended family surrounding them.  Orsi emphasizes the fact that many came here in hopes of either going back with enough money to live in Italy, or to make enough money to bring the rest of the family over – I don’t think this is much different than other immigrant groups.  Where there might be a difference is in their passion and determination in this endeavor.  Many looked down upon the Italian community for being “docile” and weak against their padroni.  The Italians recognized how easily they could be replaced in the workforce, and therefore took the exploitation in order to keep a job.

More so than trying to instill a love and fondness for the mother country, Italian immigrants tried to instill Italian cultural values on their children – “traditional patterns of respect, familial obligations, and social behavior” (20).

One thing I found very interesting and extremely prevalent in the first two chapters was the gender inequality.  Orsi constantly talks about the “men in the street” and the “women crawling on their hands and feet.”  Though both men and women worked, I find it surprising that a population just trying to get by was able to maintain such a traditional gender role structure.

la Madonna

Virgen del Carmen – Andalucia, Spain

Devotion to the Madonna – Italian Harlem

I just wanted to briefly highlight this extremely religious, emotional, and cultural festival that is mentioned in the first chapter.  As I was reading, I was reminded of a similar festival that takes place in my father’s home country (Spain), the festival of the Virgen del Carmen.  The statue of Mary is taken out of the church and is paraded through the streets, and it is quite an honor to be carrying her.  The event attracts quite a crowd.

I’m not sure for the reason of little immigration from southern Spain to the United States, but, I think there is a lot in common with the southern European countries – especially Italy and Spain, and especially in their close ties to religiosity (whether for spiritual or superstitious reasons).

Marina B. Nebro

Again, the issue of segregation and discrimination has popped up in the reading, and I thought it an important topic to cover in my third post.  Nancy Foner repeatedly mentions that things are usually the worst for Dominicans, Blacks, and Hispanics.  Out of all the different immigrant groups that venture to the United States each year – Asians, Europeans, Russians, Asian Indians, Latin Americans, West Indians, and so on – the previously mentioned groups are faced with the most hardships.

My first question is this: what makes the Dominicans worse off than most immigrants?  What is going wrong in that country, and why are people leaving?  The main reason that I can think of is that Dominicans are coming here the least educated and least financially stable.  It would have been nice to be given a little more background history about the Dominican plight.

As for our country’s black population.  Have we seriously not gotten over our racism?  Apparently not, as both Nancy Foner and Stephen Steinberg have mentioned.  One line that stuck out to me in the past reading was when Steinberg states that “not until the structures of American apartheid are thoroughly dismantled and the persistent inequalities are resolved” will African Americans find their way into the melting pot.

There are two reasons for “white flight” that Foner poses.  One, as native-White Americans ascend the social and economic ladder, they seek the “green pastures” and leave the cities and their neighboring counties.  The second reason for “white flight” is the emergence of a Black middle-class and their desire for the same things – “green pastures” and middle class living.  What happens, is, white’s leave perfectly good neighborhoods and the result is town ruin.

How is it that we’ve come so far in Asian acceptance – remember the Chinese Exclusion Act of the early 20th century and the Japanese Concentration Camps during World War II?  Foner states that it is highly unlikely to find a white-suburb in the New York area that isn’t also populated by Asians.  If whites don’t flee from the Asians, why can’t we learn to accept the blacks?

Marina B. Nebro

What makes America distinctly American?  According to Michael Walzer, “American” doesn’t exist.  America is defined as being everything.  We pride ourselves in including everyone – but does this hurt our chances of having an individual identity?

The Hyphenated American

I would consider myself super hyphenated.  I’m the type of person who likes to retain my cultural identity and ancestral past.  For that reason, I am a Spanish-Jewish-American.  But which of these identities is the strongest?  And if I identify more with my Spanish or Jewish side, does that make me less of an American than you are?  Walzer also struggles with where each identity fits.  Might I have a Spanish-Jewish cultural identity but an American political identity?  He later goes on to say, “no.”  My Spanish-Jewish identity equally impacts my political identity as does my American.  “The hyphen works… like a plus sign [or] a sign of equality.”

The Anonymous American or the American-American

This was one thing that confused me that I would like someone to clarify for me.  I would assume that an American-American is a person from Middle America who is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP).  Some of these people can trace their heritage back to the founding of the country.  If anything, I believe that it is these people who try to define “American” in their terms.  That’s why, when we first think of America we think of extremely patriotic things that link us back to the founding fathers.  Other than that, though, I don’t understand why Walzer sees them as extremely complicated.

Removing the Hyphen

Is this possible?  Is this the “American Destiny?”  Stephen Steinberg seems to be of the opinion that eventually America will become a true melting pot.  In the past, I had never really internalized what a melting pot truly is, but in reality it is a “fusing of… diverse peoples into a new amalgam.”  A new term I learned recently in my Honors in the Humanities class is “transculturation,” and I think this perfectly fits the melting pot definition: adaptation of new culture (acculturation) + forgoing of older culture (deculturation) brings about a new culture (neoculturation).  The real question is whether the melting pot is a desirable trait.  Why can’t our identity be defined as multiple identities in one?  What is the trouble with that?  Must we become like the countries we’ve come from?  Must we become France, “suspicious of any form of ethnic pluralism?”

Marina B. Nebro

Though at times very repetitive and mundane with numbers and statistics, Nancy Foner really brings to light some key issues surrounding immigration to New York City.  She differentiates between the current (though, out of date at this point, copyrighted in 2000) immigrants and the “old immigrants” (though in history, we consider early 20th century immigrants as the “new immigrants,” but let me not get into that).

—

Who
Back in the 19th and 20th centuries, people usually came from Europe.  The first wave was from North/Western Europe (England, Ireland – though Catholic and stigmatized, German) and the second from South/Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland, Russia, JEWS).  Now, because the world has significantly become more globalized, Europe is not the only place that people emigrate from.  A big portion of Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean Islands are now finding their way to cities such as New York City.

One thing that I found very interesting about some of the people that come to NYC, is that a lot of them are actually educated and professionals.  It is common to believe that immigrants – especially illegal immigrants – are lower class people that seek minimum wage jobs.  According to Foner, this is not the picture of all immigrants.  She somewhere states that your average street vender or taxi driver might actually be a well educated foreigner, but resorts to lower wage jobs mainly because of discrimination or sometimes because of illegality.  It was also mind-boggling that a woman could make more money babysitting in the states, than she could actually working a professional job in Latin America.  I must say, we really take for granted what we have!

Why
The main connecting factor between the oldest, the older, and the new immigrants is their desire for a better life.  Though they all come for different reasons – political oppression, economic instability, unemployment, etc – their main goal is to find a freer, stabler, and job filled world in New York.

It was also mind-boggling that a woman could make more money babysitting in the states, than she could actually working a professional job in Latin America.  I must say, we really take for granted what we have!

How
A common preconception of immigrants – especially illegal ones – is that they walk the Mexican border, or float to Florida on tiny rafts.  Though there are some cases where this is true, a lot of immigrants today actually just fly over here from one airport to another.  It’s crazy to think about, but any plane your own, might contain many future illegal immigrants, or even people coming here for a legal new life.

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Right before finishing the reading for tomorrow’s class while walking on the treadmill, I was watching CNN and heard about Obama’s new push for immigration reform.  One thing that he’s stated is to strengthen border control.  My question is, does border control merely mean the Mexican/Canadian border?  If that is so, then he might need to read Foner’s book and realize that most illegal immigrants are coming in elsewhere.  If “border control” also includes airport customs and official documentation, then I guess I understand.  That being said, at least in the NYC area, the amount of illegal immigrants isn’t something to worry about, states Foner.

Marina B. Nebro