“…The Italian home and family, what I have been calling the domus, is the religion of Italian Americans (pg. 77).” This quote surprised me. After reading chapter one and learning all about the  annual religion celebration of the festa of the Madonna on Mount Carmel on East 115th Street, such a statement about the domus is confusing.  What exactly does Louis Giambastiani mean when he says religion? It seems that he implying that the domus is like a religion because it functions like many organized religions.

One of the most important ideas surrounding the domus is the idea of self-sacrifice.  There are no individuals, rather just the community. The individual sacrifices their own needs, desires, and emotions, in order to serve a greater good, which according to the Italians is the family unit.  Many times what the second generation immigrant is giving up is not something trivial. It might even be a potential job because it would force someone to live far away, which threatens the domus.  New alliances may be made far away from home with new people, such as the Americans, who cannot be trusted. Many organized religions have some aspect of self-sacrifice to a god, a saint, a church. By being apart of a religion, you accept that sometimes what you want and what your religion deems right are not the same.

The domus rules about marriage follow a similar pattern. Many religions have rules about being endogamous, or marrying within a certain group, in this case, Italians.  There is fear that if Italians do not marry other Italians, the union will ruin the Italian blood.  But more than that, young children “picked up (pg. 77)” family values by living in the domus, which are very important, apparently more important than being educated at school.  If a man chooses a wife that is not Italian, she does not know the Italian values because she has not grown up in an Italian household or domus, so how can she pass them on to the next generation?  His wife is probably a fine young lady, but she is lacking in the understanding of the domus.  According to Robert Orsi, educating the children was a cultural task, so how can this woman do that, if she is not part of the culture? This is intertwined with the fear of assimilation and becoming American, two undesirable effects of living in East Harlem and marrying a non-Italian. The religion, or domus centered society of that culture is lost.

Often the rules in the domus seemed suffocating and old fashioned, but they were ingrained in the second generation, just like any religion which was practiced at home would be.  Whether they liked it or not, the domus was their form of organized religion without the godly aspect and was going to dictate how they lived their lives.

To continue on the topic of “paradox” that we discussed in class, I found that these two sections introduced more paradoxes and contradictions. The first section painted the picture of a loyal, close-knit supportive life in the domus. The domus, Orsi explained, was a way for immigrants to feel grounded in a new, unstable society. People were very close and had a strong sense of community and support for one another. The second section of the reading seemed like the “behind the scenes” or “behind closed doors” aspects of the domus. Beneath the domus’ supposedly positive exterior, life inside the domus was far from picture perfect.

The main paradox I found within section two was the idea of authority in the domus. The Italian parents demanded the utmost respect from their children yet Orsi writes that the eldest son often claimed more authority than his father. This makes little sense to me. I feel that this discrepancy over who has power, who should bow down to whom, etc. would provide for much confusion as well as the sending of mixed messages within the domus. Perhaps, because my upbringing was a stark contrast to the “domus” lifestyle (think Gilmore Girls), I just don’t truly understand the mechanics of family life in the domus. Maybe it is not as confusing as it seemed, but I certainly would not want to be the father nor the eldest son in a domus because of the conflict and rivalry that existed among the members of the family.

Orsi’s description of the domus in the second section appeared, at times, cult-like. I was particularly annoyed at the number of times the Italian immigrants spoke badly of America. Orsi quoted them frequently putting down America’s methods of child rearing, education, etc. These people came to America for a reason and their disrespect of our values and methods doesn’t seem right. Many immigrants appeared to feel superior to the “American” way of life. Why are they here, then, if they hate the lifestyle so much? This is not to say that all Italians, or all immigrants, think in this way, but I always find myself tired of foreigners in America putting down the way we live.

Welcome to the class site for Professor Elisha’s Peopling of NYC course.  We will be using this site to post the syllabus, course readings, reading response blogs and our final multi-media projects.