Americans of Italian descent may be in danger of losing touch with their roots, as many of our ancestors immigrated a century ago (or more). No longer are we in touch with the old country by being able to interact with the people who left Italy for America – we are three or four generations removed!
Additionally, many younger Italian-Americans are of mixed heritage. In older times, Italians were expected to marry other Italians. This changed with the second- and third-generation Italian-Americans, due to the melting pot of the USA allowing many nationalities to mix.
As a result, for many Italian-Americans, Italian identity is a distant genetic memory. While some family traditions may still be alive, and some awareness of history has been preserved, “Italian-American-ness” isn’t as distinct of an identity as it has been in the past.
I would argue (and many would agree) that this is a bad thing – the dilution of such a unique group of people shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Italian-Americans need to embrace, celebrate, and keep their identity alive. If you have Italian blood in your veins, this means you!
So how can you do it? How can you reinforce your Italian-American identity? Here are a few suggestions. I hope some of them are helpful…and enjoyable!
- Cook family recipes. If possible, get some favorite old-school recipes from a zia (aunt) or nonna (grandma) and make them yourself. Recreate the holiday meals from the past – or just make a batch of cuccidati for Christmas. Make the pasta dishes your relatives made in the old days (even the simple, povero foods – because sometimes they were the best). If you don’t have any family recipes, then you can find genuine many regional Italian recipes online – like this site for Sicilian recipes.
- Garden – and grow what your nonno grew. If you had an Italian grandpa, chances are he had some fig trees in the yard that he carefully tended. He may have kept a lemon tree, if the climate allowed it. In the garden, there would be tomatoes, basil, and lesser-known crops (outside of Italian communities) like the cucuzza. Whatever you can plant where you live, grow it – and you will be walking in your ancestor’s footsteps. It might just be a Jimmy Nardello pepper plant in a pot, but it’s a small bit of Italian-Americana.
- Learn the Italian language. Not only is language crucial to preserving a culture, but learning Italian is fun! Also, it’s one of the most beautiful languages to hear and speak. Learning opportunities abound online – there are numerous apps, videos, and websites that focus on Italian. In-person opportunities are less common, but your options may include classes at a local college in your area or a local Italian organization. (An example of such an organization is the Societa’ Dante Alighieri in Coral Gables, Florida). If you lack opportunities to practice speaking in person, there are ways to practice and learn online.
- Learn Italian and Italian-American history. There are numerous biographies of notable (and relatively unknown) Italian-Americans as well as many accounts of life in the USA among early Italian immigrant communities. Some examples include: La Storia and Mount Allegro (both by Jerre Mangione), Blood of My Blood by Richard Gambino, The Italian Americans: A History by Maria Laurino, and Bread and Respect: The Italians of Louisiana by Margavio and Salomone.
- Join an Italian-American club, social group, or organization. There are many local organizations throughout the country, especially within areas that have a large populace of people of Italian heritage. These local groups provide a great way to connect and participate in the local Italian-American community and may include festas, parades, classes, and regular meetups. If your area doesn’t have a strong Italian presence, there are a few national organizations you may be interested in. [Browse our section on Italian-American Organizations to find a group.]
There are other ways you can connect with your roots, but not matter what you do – have fun and enjoy exploring the wide and vast history we share as Italian-Americans. Whether your ancestors hailed from the north, from a city, from the country, from Naples, from Rome, from Sicily – we all share some commonalities that can be enjoyable, comforting, and interesting to explore. So let’s keep our Italian-American roots alive – and fertile – together!
