| CHAPTER 1
THE HOMELAND
page1
IN the Italy from which our immigrants
have come, two
distinct peoples were closely associated
in a relatively
small area. There were in fact two Italys,
one in the
north and one in the south, each with
its people thinking, be-
having, and living differently. Their
inhabitants frequently
demonstrated so much antipathy toward
those in the other
section for it scarcely to seem possible
that they belonged to
the same nation. "The North Italian
is Teutonic in blood
and appearance, and belongs to the Alpine
division of the
white race in Europe. . . . The South
Italian, who descends
with less mixture from the ancient inhabitants
of Italy, be-
longs to the Mediterranean branch."'
Ideas and customs
typical of Central Europe were found
in North Italy. As for
the south, an experienced French traveler(2)
commented at the
beginning of the nineteenth century,
"L'Europe finit & Na-
ples, et meme elle y finit assez mal.
La Calabre, la Sicile, tout
le reste est de l'Afrique." In the early
twentieth century, as
the traveler went south he still appeared
to cross an invisible
frontier into a new and strange land.
This imaginary line
ran roughly from Giulanova, just north
of Pescara on the
Adriatic, to Anzio in South Latium on
the Tyrrhenian Sea
(see frontispiece).
These fundamental dissimilarities occurred
in what to an
American seems a relatively small area.
Italy with its 119,-
7441 square miles is slightly smaller
than New Mexico, and
Sicily's 9,985 square miles approximate
the site of Mary-
footnotes
1.
M. R. David, "World Immigration", New York, The Macmillan Co., 1936,
p. 108.
2. Creuze de Lesser, "Voyage en italic et en Sicilie", Paris, P. Didot
l'Alnt,
1806, p. 86. "Europe ends at Naples, and It ends there badly enough. Cala-
bria, Sicily, all the rest is African." |
| THE HOMELAND
page 2
land. The leg of the boot-shaped peninsula
is nowhere more
than 150 miles across, but it has more
than 580 miles of land
frontier and over 2,500 miles of coast
which have made it ac-
cessible by land and especially by sea
for hundreds of years.
The considerable variations
in climate throughout the pen-
insula do not permit one to generalize
that South or North
Italians live in relatively warm or
cool districts. Not in the
Alps alone but also in the central range
of the Apennines and
in the upland valleys of Abruzzi are
some of the coldest dis-
tricts of Italy to be found. In the
plains and hills near Na-
ples snow is rarely seen and never remains
long. Twenty miles
east from Naples, however, the fertile
valley of Avellino, of
no great elevation but encircled by
high mountains, has light
frosts as late as June. Since Avellino
was in the heart of their
area, Neapolitans were subjected to
wide variations in tem-
perature. On the whole, the climate
of southern Italy, despite
the snow on its mountains for most of
the year, averages
warmer than that of the northern part,
and the shore districts
of the south enjoy conditions similar
to those of Greece and
the southern provinces of Spain.
The climatic differences
between southern and northern
Italy influenced the economic life of
the country particularly
through rainfall peculiarities. South
Italy has a relatively
slight precipitation, and this lack
of water, which varies lo-
cally and seasonally and over long periods
of time, was re-
flected in the general customs as well
as in the economic prac-
tices of the people. The average fall
of only twenty-six inches
at Naples, in contrast with New York's
fifty, occurs chiefly
in the winter months. Sicily, once so
fertile that it was called
"the granary of Rome," now gets only
half as much rain as
New England during March, April, and
September, months
in which precipitation is most needed.
The fall on the east
coast of the island, at Syracuse, has
been as little as one inch
during June, July, and August.
The long-time tendency toward less rainfall
in South Italy
and Sicily has contributed heavily to
deforestation and ero-
sion. The lack of rain makes a poor
growing season for trees,
and this joins with the absence of coal
to make the destruc-
THE HOMELAND
page3
tion of forests outrun replenishment. Land
and lumber specu-
lation, the rights that many communes
(villages) had over
forests, and to some extent excessive
taxation, which forced
proprietors to cut and sell their trees
and then abandon the
ground, all aided in the denudation.
These factors plus the
unrestricted pasturage of goats held
natural as well as arti-
ficial reforestation in check. Efforts
by the central govern-
ment before the World War to unify and
coordinate the for-
est laws of the various states (3) came
belatedly and met great
local opposition. As a result, the scant
rainfall was not held
by forests or sod to the extent necessary,
and streams became
torrents for short periods and then
dried up. Soil from the
hills deposited in the valleys, choked
their drainage, and
formed swamps in which malaria mosquitoes
bred. These ac-
cumulative ills, in addition to the
deterioration of the seaport
trade and other factors, aided decisively
in the depopulation.
Metaponto, once rich and powerful, scarcely
left even a name
behind, and Siri, "reduced to a small
village of a few hun-
dred inhabitants," was "devastated by
the two chief sores of
South Italian agriculture: the Latifondo
[a system of land-
ownership] and malaria." (4) This acute
problem of water
shortage and its attendant ills afflicted
chiefly four of the
South Italian states: Campania, Apulia,
Calabria, and above
all Basilicata.
Little wonder then, in view of these
facts, that the whole
social system of South Italy was colored
by this water scar-
city. In places like Apulia, where the
shortage was greatest,
the municipal authorities restricted
consumption and main-
tained a watchman at the public fountain
to enforce their
orders. The poorest people washed their
clothes only once in
three or four weeks. In many places
water selling was a trade,
with some vendors specializing in drinking
water and others
in laundry water for those rich enough
to buy. (5) In Sicily,
footnotes
3.
Paul Radii), in The Italians of San Francisco, San Francisco, SERA
Monograph No. I, Part II, August, 1936, p. 124, describes the control of
wood utilization at Scala, Campania.
4. Cesare Cagli, La Basilicata ed U problima dell' immirazione e della
colonizzazione interna, Rome, Carlo Colombo, 1910, p. 6.
5. Drinking water was known as acqua potabile (drinkable water), as op-
posed to acqua di pozzo (wall water), not thought fit to drink |
| THE HOMELAND
page4
where both sexes carried on the trade,
the peddlers were
known as barrel-men and barrel-women.
The seller of drink-
ing water often had a portable stand
on which were glasses, a
pitcher, and a bottle of anise for flavoring.
He was a common
sight in Sicilian towns where he cried
musically through the
streets, "Heart's cheer! Heart's reviver!
Come and try my
water. Not one cent will I ask of you
if it isn't fresh." In
places not too remote from the hills,
this man had to go out
early in the morning to get ice or snow
from the caves where
it might be found unmelted for a large
part of the year.
The style of flasks
carried by shepherds who followed their
sheep far from safe springs illustrates
the sort of adjustment
necessitated by the general water shortage.
These containers,
when inverted, permitted water to issue
in a light spray suffi-
cient to moisten the mouth without allowing
any great quan-
tity to escape.
The fact that it was
frequently necessary to go long dis-
tances to obtain drinking water, added
to the high rent often
demanded for private springs, lays bare
the chief root of
many customs that seem strange and possibly
almost offen-
sive to Americans. The South Italian
drank relatively little
water, even at meal times.(6) Piles
of soiled underwear and
sheets heaped in a corner or thrust
into an old cupboard re-
flect the persistence of old-world customs
rather than a slov-
enly attitude. In Italy, on the arrival
of washday (once in
three or four weeks), the women carried
the accumulated ar-
ticles to the nearest lake or river.
There they spent the whole
day together, working and goasiping
over their affairs and
those of their neighbors. A recreation
indeed, compared with
the lonely Monday session in America
over a washtub or an
electric machine! In some parts of Calabria,
the washing of a
newborn baby in wine became another
of the many adapta-
tions to this ever-present need. For
hundreds of years, when
footnotes
6.
Almeda King, in A Study ofthe Italian Diet in a Group of New Haven
Families, New Haven, MS. M. S. Essay on file in Yale University Library,
1935, pp. 130-131, comments on this point thus: "At meals, very little
water
was taken even when no wine was served. . . . One Italian woman with
whom this limited use of water by the Italians was discussed, quoted a
prov-
erb which she said meant, that water 'rusted human stomachs and intestines."
THE HOMELAND
page5
no well or even spring was considered
wholly free from ques-
tion of pollution, wine was thought
to be the only safe drink.
"As a kid," recalled
a man'(7) who came from a small farm in
Asti, Piedmont, "and up to the time
I left home, I used to get
an occasional bath in the river during
the summer time but
never during the winter months. This
was true of the whole
family, and my father, who is eighty
years old, I have never
known to take a bath." The American
should realize that a
like standard in this country satisfies
many Italians, to whom
elaborate rinsings of vegetables and
frequent baths seem use-
less and even dangerous.
In view of these
conditions, the existence in South Italy of
varied vegetable gardens and groves
of fine lemon, orange,
fig, and other trees testified to the
infinite care with which
they were tended. Plants were set in
places chosen with care
and prepared with an enormous expenditure
of labor. Since
pasturage was equally difficult to maintain,
cows were few
and served as draught animals as well
as sources of milk and
cheese. This restricted the milk supply
even more.
The heavier
and more regular rainfall of North Italy, to-
gether with numerous rivers and lakes,
make such valleys as
that of the Po, Italy's largest river,
a veritable Garden of
Eden in contrast with the fields of
the southern section. De-
spite these conditions favorable to
agriculture, however, in-
dustrial activities explain the greater
prosperity of North
Italy. Coal was also absent in the north,
but its place was
filled by "white coal", water power,
bountifully supplied
by the numerous rivers and of recent
years harnessed by
power plants that have cost millions
of lire. Life in the val-
leys and on the well-watered plains
of the north approximated
that of the more prosperous and highly
civilized peoples of
Central Europe.
Historical events
have had as notable a share as geographi-
cal conditions in determining the trend
of civilization in
Italy. While events in its history exerted
a favorable influ-
ence generally in the north, in the
south they usually became
additional obstacles. In early times,
Italy and especially
footnotes
7. Quoted by Paul Radin, op. cit., p. 132. |
| THE HOMELAND
page 6
South Italy was the scene of repeated
invasions by one for-
eign power after another. Civilization
was replaced by civili-
zation, "if indeed they were all worthy
of this name," com-
ments Giuseppe Pitre (8) bitterly. These
influxes of foreigners
produced in the native population an
overpowering sense of
antagonism and suspicion of ruling powers.
Foreign exploi-
tation joined with climate and malaria
in ravaging the south,
"between 300 B.C. and 100 A.D. . . .
one of the richest and
most prosperous portions of the country
as well as a center
of culture.(9)
Greeks, Saracens, and Normans all ruled
at different pe-
riods in the south and all left their
marks upon language, cus-
toms, and beliefs. Little Sicilian carts
carry paintings of his-
torical scenes from the lives of the
Paladins of France. The
public storyteller (contastorie), found
in the town square,
recounted to those who later became
Italo-Americans adven-
tures of Crusaders fighting the Infidels.
Some of the oldest
shepherds' flutes and horn drinking
cups are carved with
scenes from the combats between Renard
and Count Orlando,
characters in the French Chansons de
Geste. Still others,
reminiscent of the Crusades, depict
little children with crosses
in their hands. These and many more
crude records of the
past testify to the traditions that
were absorbed by the South
Italians. "The past is not dead," observes
Pitre.(10) "It lives
always in us and with us." It left visible
traces in the humble
tools and household possessions of the
peasants. It left others,
often unrecognized as such, in faces
and forms. Still more
were deeply engraved in their minds,
as mental habits gov-
erning their daily thought processes.
These traces are now
fast dying out both in the seacoast
towns, once the site of im-
portant Greek and Saracen settlements,
and in the inland vil-
lages, always rather isolated from outside
influences.
History dealt differently with the north.
Although this sec-
tion was by no means free from the invasions
of foreigners or
their depredations, such city states
as Florence, Bologna,
footnotes
8.
Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Siciliane, Palermo, A. Reber, 1913,
Vol. XXV, p. viii.
9. Paul Radin, op. cit.. Part I, July, 1935, p. 43.
10. Op. cit., p. xi.
page 7
and Milan were too strong and prosperous
to serve merely as
fields for exploitation. Those who came,
came to stay. Though
primarily invaders, they gradually became
absorbed into the
population and contributed constructively
on the whole to
the development of the district. The
north was always in a
more fluctuating state than the south,
more acculturated to
the customs of Central Europe and far
less antagonistic than
the south to innovations. It welcomed
the unification of Italy
in 1870 without reservation. From its
political viewpoint,
this act meant new strength, whereas
to South Italy and es-
pecially to Sicily it was to bring little
advantage.
The peculiar historical and geographical
backgrounds of
South Italy and their contrast with
those of the north have
given southern cultural patterns certain
definite characteris-
tics. The south, for one thing, exemplified
its popular tradi-
tion of no cooperation with the government
in its moral code
of omerta (manliness). This group of
practices and theories
"demands firmness, energy, and seriousness,
a self-reliant and
self-conscious mind whose activities
are as far as possible in-
dependent of the civil authorities.""
Forces opposing civil
authority thus received the support
of these people with little
regard for their broader implications.
The code was a reflec-
tion of the people's in-group solidarity
with its concomitant
suspicion of strangers and of those
placed over them. Their
suspiciousness, however, did not stop
here. It was even mani-
fested in a lesser degree toward fellow
townsmen and mem-
bers of the same family. "The Romans
called the Sicilians a
genus acutum et suspiciosum, calculating
and quarrelsome,
a criticism that they still merit."(12)
This characterization also
applied to the continental South Italian.
The conditions that
characterized the mental habits of
South Italians with suspiciousness also
gave them a more
overt adaptation to such problems-a
sign language. Al-
though vestiges of it were also to be
found among other South
Italian groups, its use was largely
confined to Sicilians. It is
footnotes
II.
R. E. Park and H. A. Miller, Old World Traits Transplanted, New
York, Harper & Bros., 1921, p. 10.
12. Alexander Rumpelt, Sicilien und die Sicilianer, Berlin, Allgemeine
Verein fur Deutsche Litteratur, 1902, p. 16. |
THE HOMELAND
page 8
said to have arisen to meet the need
for Secret communication
in the presence of foreign oppression.
It was particularly use-
ful to members of secret societies,
like the Camorra and the
Mafia, and to remind people of the principle
of omerta. Manypage8
said to have arisen to meet the need
for aecret communication
in the presence of foreign oppression.
It was particularly use-
ful to members of secret societies,
like the Camorra and the
Mafia, and to remind people of the principle
of omerta. Many
of the gestures involved were made with
the action of the
hand or fingers on the nose with slight
variations denoting
different words. A nod of the head,
among non-Italians an
indication of acquiescence or affirmation,
meant among the
Sicilians, "no."
Fatalism was another well-defined cultural
characteristic
that colored the ideas of these people.
Some writers attribute
this, as well as the comparative seclusion
of the women-more
strictly enforced in Sicily than elsewhere-to
the influence of
the East, the close contact with Turks
and Saracens. Sir J.
Rennell Rodd,(13) British ambassador
to Italy and a keen ob-
server of culture who lived there for
over twenty years, states
it thus:
"On the South the influence of the East
left an enduring mark; some-
thing of the fatalism of the Oriental
may still be traced there, with
a similar inclination to procrastinate
and a reluctance to face defi-
nite issues, a resignation which accepts
disappointment with the un-
protesting word paziensa (patience).
Together with this fatalistic view of
life and its apparently
related slowness and casualness of pace,
one readily sensed a
steady plodding persistence born of
the small incentives and
scant opportunities of this land.
Its environmental, historical, and cultural
characteristics
made South Italy the home of all that
an American would call
unhealthy in political life. To many
a southerner, "the com-
mune is everything and the State is
very little; the commune
and its doings and its struggles make
a big part of his life,
while the far-off Government at Rome
vanishes to a speck."
The proportion of the population having
the vote accentu-
ated this situation. Before 1882, it
was only 2 per cent, and
by 1913, it was a little over seven.
"The disqualification of
illiteracy disfranchises a very large
number, especially in the
13.
Thf Italian People, London, Oxford University Press, 1920, p. 9; from
theProceedings of the British Academy, Vol. IX.
THE HOMELAND
page 9
South and parts of the Centre."(14)
Political neglect of the
south has been traditional. At the time
of unification, Basili-
cata had no railways, only 400 kilometres
of traversible
roads, and 91 villages without ready
means of communica-
tion between them or with the other
nearest town. It was prac-
tically cut off from the rest of Europe.(15)
And yet, this state -
in common with others in this impoverished
section of Italy
had to bear a burden of taxation proportional
to the more
prosperous political units. The communes,
in turn, "have
copied the state only too faithfully
in throwing the burden
of taxation on the poor." The recourse
from such abuses was
far from easy. "The people may rebel,
but they are power-
less to effect a change because of the
corrupt political sys-
tem, both the local and the governmental."
The commune of-
ficials realized that they must keep
the anger of the populace
in check, and they therefore spent large
sums on feast-day
celebrations, with expensive "illuminations
and explosion of
petards in the streets at no small risk
to the limbs of the crowd
and the tottering houses. £1200
is spent on one piece of fire-
works to make a Roman holiday."(16)
The commune or village
both formed the social center and
circumscribed the social horizon of
most South Italians. De-
pending mainly on its own resources
for economic support
and restricting marriage largely to
members of its own
group, it was almost a complete entity
in itself. The moun-
tain chains of South Italy contributed
to this isolation into
small units, whether the settlements
were located in narrow
valleys, on hilltops, or by the seashore.
The term campani-
lismo, meaning that which is within
sound of the village bell,
was the apt label given by the natives
to this regionalism.
No cultural trait reflected more clearly
the campanilismo
of Italy than the array of dialects
found throughout the
kingdom. Each state had its own dialect,
and each section of
a state had local variations. Educated
people knew and spoke
Italian and in addition among themselves
used the dialect pe-
footnotes
14.
Bolton King and Thomas Okey, Italy Today, New York, Charles Scrib-
ner'g Sons, 1913, pp. 263, I4.
U. Umberto Glanotti-Bianco, La Batttieata, Rome, R. Garroni, 1926, p. 6.
16. Bolton King and Thomas Okey, op. cit., pp. 263, 267.
|
| THE HOMELAND
page 10
culiar to their native section. The royal
family of the House
of Savoy used the Savoyan dialect, which
was incomprehensi-
ble to inhabitants, say, of Apulia.
The following words illus-
trate the more extreme differences:
celery in Italian is sedono,
in Neapolitan, alaccia; witch in Italian
is maga, in Neapoli-
tan, iannara, in Sicilian, donna di
fuora. Then there were
differences in the spelling of words,
such as: Italian, piu,
Neapolitan, chiu; Italian, bello, Sicilian,
beddu. Substitu-
tions of ch for p and of dd for ll were
not made consistently
throughout Italy; e.g., Italian, cipolla,
Randazzo, cipulli,
and Girgenti, cipudda, for onion. Randazzo
and Girgenti
were Sicilian towns at no great distance
from each other. Lit-
tle wonder that "there is perhaps no
other country where
dialect occupies such a conspicuous
place in literature."(17)
This product of geographic isolation
and other differences
thus acted as a powerful hindrance to
homogeneity among
the inhabitants of a state and of the
various states. An Ital-
ian(18) of Fontamara in the Department
of Abruzzi and Mo-
lise gives the point of view of his
own village thus:
Let no one get it into his head that
Fontamarans speak Italian. The
Italian language is for us a foreign
language, a dead language, a
language whose vocabulary and grammar
have grown complex with-
out remaining in touch with us, our
way of living, our way of acting,
our way of thinking, or our way of expressing
ourselves. Of course
other farmers of the south besides myself
have spoken and written
Italian, just as when we go to the city
we have our shoes shined and
wear a collar with a tie around it.
But yon have only to look at us to
observe our awkwardness. It is true
that to express oneself well in
any language, one must first learn to
think in it, then the trouble
that we have in speaking this Italian
clearly must mean that we do
not know how to think in it, and that
this Italian culture is a foreign
one to us.
The campanilismo of Italy is particularly
apparent among
immigrants in their exclusive use of
the word paesano (a per-
17.
J. R. Rodd, op. cit., p. II.
18. Ignailo Silone, Fontamara, New York, H. Smith and R. Haas 1934,
p. xviii.
THE HOMELAND
PAGE 11
son from the same district or town as
the speaker), to indi-
cate an old-world bond. If two women
are seen walking to-
gether on the street, they are almost
sure to be paesane. The
young mother who comes to the clinic
brings her paesana
with her for propriety's sake. The foreman
on the job hires
as many paesani as possible because
he will thus have less dis-
sension; an unexplained dismissal is
frequently because a
man is a forestiere (stranger), not
a paesano albeit a compa-
triot. Ten Neapolitan,
one Sicilian, and one Calabrian
women attending a cooking school all
treated one another
cordially during the lessons, but the
latter two did not form
friendships with any of the others,
despite the nearness of
their homes in some cases to one another.
The Sicilian woman
brought her sister, and the Calabrian
was accompanied by a
paesana to each session of the class,
not for the benefit of the
instruction but simply for the sake
of propriety and com-
panionship during the walk. Both the
uninvited women lived
at a distance of several blocks.
In view of these strong
regional differences, the groupings
of Italian political divisions made
by the Central Institute of
Statistics of Italy, by the United States
Department of La-
bor, and by the Italo-Americans studied,
given herewith, con-
tain striking divergences. The Institute
or Italian census ar-
rangement indicates some understanding
of the various
factors discussed above. The classification
made by the De-
partment of Labor, on the other hand,
is an arbitrary one
based on whether a state is north or
south of the River Po.
The Ligurian, for example, objects to
this division because it
puts his native district in the same
group with Calabria and
Basilicata. He is proud of the fact
that as early as 1911 his
state had the highest proportion of
children in secondary
schools-6.60 per 1,000-of all the states
in the kingdom;
Calabria had only 2.27; and Basilicata,
the lowest of all,
1.65.(19) The popular notions of Italian
regionalism gained
from interviews with immigrants, are
the most workable ones
to use.
footnotes
19.
Encyclopedia Britannica, New York, The Encyclopedia Britannica
Co., 1911, Vol. XV, p. 166. |
|
page 12 is a chart, which was not reproduced.
THE HOMELAND
page13
From these evidences of regional differences,
one appre-
ciates how an immigrant arriving in
this country may be and
frequently has been associated with
a district having a cul-
ture almost as foreign to him as that
of the old-stock Ameri-
cans themselves. Such divisions as Lombardy,
Tuscany, and
Apulia mean little to Americans other
than Immigrant Serv-
ice officials and other specialists,
but the "man in the street"
has accumulated some definite ideas
regarding the contrast
between the South Italian and the North
Italian. This tends
to raise the status of those who are
able to establish a North
Italian background. Since the average
American confuses
districts and even goes so far as to
classify all Italians with
other relatively recent immigrants as
outsiders and undesir-
ables, his generalizations and those
of many popular writers
give unsound estimates of racial characteristics
and deroga-
tory evaluations of culture traits.
"I have often asked
myself," one writer(20) asserts, in
illustration, " 'What is the
Italian's most dominant characteristic?'
" After "mature re-
flection," he concludes that "it is
that he believes what he
wants to believe and that he does not
trust any one implic-
itly," that he "trusts his own fellow
citizen least of all." Sus-
piciousness is mentioned above in relation
to southern mores.
Wishful thinking, however, can scarcely
be called a peculi-
arity of any given group of human beings.
Italian folk sayings
derogatory of other districts furnish
a sharp contrast to the American's lumping
together of all
Italians. Benevento in Campania, for
example, was said to be
the home of the witches. They assembled
there every night at
a famous nut tree and then flew from
it over the countryside.
Sopra acqua e sopra vento
Sopra li noci di Benevento.
Over the water and over the wind
Over the nut trees of Benevento.
20.
Joseph Collins, Idling in Italy, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons,1920,pg204. |
|
| THE HOMELAND
page 14
The following rhyme popularly repeated
regarding the
people of Scafati described them in
no uncertain terms:
Scafati, schifeti, anche l'herba e
malamente
Bratt' acqua e brutta gente.
The people of Scafati smell to the
skies;
They are worth no more than the grass
underfoot.
The Neapolitans accuse the Calabrians
of having teste dure
(thick heads). The saying, "Non c'e
sole net Castellamare"
("There is no sun in Castellamare"),
may merely arise from
the existence there of a large state
prison. The inhabitants
of Girgenti (Agrigentum on the south
coast of Sicily) were
reported to be so quarrelsome and treacherous
that they
would eat bread with a man and then
stab him in the back
afterwards on the street.(21) Regardless
of the origin of these
sayings, their currency intensifies
the contrast between the
American's notion of the Italian and
the Italian's identifica-
tion of himself with the culture of
a specific state and espe-
cially of a single village or commune.
Oblivious to these dif-
ferences, the American frequently characterizes
thee Italian
as "a dirty, undersized individual,
who engages in degrading
labor shunned by Americans, and who
is often a member of
the Mafia, and as such likely at any
moment to draw & knife-
and stab you in the back."(22)
This contrast is quite
explainable in terms of the reasons
for the Italian's presence in our country.
America wanted
cheap unskilled labor. The Italian and
other immigrants filled
this demand. Here the matter usually
ended so far as pur-
chasers of labor were concerned. "If
the immigrant were a
horse instead of a human being, America
would be more care-
footnotes
21.
S. C. Musson, In his Sicily, London, Adam and Charles Black, 1911,
p. 156, attributes this characterization of the people of Girgenti to their
descent from "an unruly colony of Berbers." He also recalls that "the re-
ports in the agrarian Inquiry Instituted by Parliament in 1884 describe
in
the province of Girgenti a hideous and shameless immorality, condoned by
public opinion."
22. Emily F. Meade, "Italian Immigration Into the South," South Atlantic
Quartwly, July, 1905, Vol. 14, p. 218.
THE HOMELAND
page 15
ful of him; if it loses a horse it feels
it loses something, if it
loses an immigrant it feels it loses
nothing."(23) The immigrant,
however, would scarcely wish to trade
his "freedom of choice"
for the "protection" of a property relationship.
Let us also
look at the Italian's reasons for coming
to this country-fac-
tors closely related to the character
of the states and com-
munes from which he emigrated.
Numerous forces precipitated
the vast migration from
Italy to the United States. This mass
movement is termed by
one writer~ "well-nigh expulsion." Before
1900, "only the
more progressive regions, with a numerous
population, had
large rates of emigration." In other
districts, especially the
south, Sicily, and Sardinia, "the motives
making for a smaller
emigration rate were the traditional
love of country and
home, the fear of a new life, the conditions
of moral and po-
litical inferiority in which the old
separatist regimes had kept
the people, the greater stability of
populations unused to the
intensive labor developed in the north,
and less urgent eco-
nomic necessity of a life almost exclusively
agricultural and
patriarchal."(25) The greatest emigration
increases in this cen-
tury (see table), on the whole, came
.then in the regions pre-
vailingly agricultural and with a relatively
sparse popula-
tion. A student of the subject(26) concludes
from this that
emigration did not result from overpopulation.
She finds no
relation between emigration and density.
She leaves out of
consideration, however, the full import
of that weighty fac-
tor in the man-land ratio, the productivity
of the land at a
given stage of the arts.(27) Extreme
poverty functioned as the
strongest cause of emigration. In the
south, opportunities
footnotes
23.
H. G. Duncan, Immigration and Assimilation, Boston, D. C. Heath
& Co., 1933, p. 562.
24. R. F. Foerster, The Italian Emigration of Our Times, Cambridge,
Harvard University Press, 1919, p. 49.
28. Anna M. Ratti, "Italian Emigration," in W. F. Wilcox, International
Migrations, New York, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1931, Vol.
II, p. 447
26. Ibid., p. 448.
2T. See A. G. Kdler, Man't Rough Road, New Haven, Yale University
Press, 1932, pp. 68-67. |
| THE HOMELAND
page16
for the aggressive practically did not
exist. An Italian,(28) to
illustrate, asked some of his countrymen
working in Switzer-
land if they loved their native land.
"They answered me, smil-
AVERAGE EMIGRATION FROM
ITALIAN STATES
PER 10,000 INHABITANTS*
1876-1886 1887-1900 1901-1909
Piedmont
96 85
162
Liguria
59 43
60
Lombardy
53 53
113
Venetia
134 324
298
Emilia
23 50
133
Tuscany
40 57
117
Marches
10 42
204
Umbria
0.5 10
144
Latium (Rome)
0.5 10
98
Abruzzi & Molise
31 102
337
Campania
34 96
222
Apulia
3.9 17
104
Basilicata (Lucania)
108 184
305
Calabria
44 115
308
Sicily
7 44
210
Sardinia
1.5 7
62
All Italy
47 87
179
*R.
F. Foerster, op.cit., p. 529; data of the Bureau of Statistics com-
piled by the Commissioner-General of Emigration, see Bolletino di Emigra-
zioni, 1910, No.'18, p. 5. The population used was that for the middle
of each
period. The table covers roughly the period in which the subjects of this
study left Italy.
ing, as if I had spoken of some stranger,
'Italy is for us who-
ever gives us our bread. " The following
characteristic state-
ment by a Campanian(29) is added for
comparison.
footnotes
28.
Pasquate Vlllari, "L'emigrazione e ie sue conseguenze in Italia," Nuova
Antologia, Jan. 1, 1907, p. 53; quoted in R. F. Foerster, op. cit., p.
22.
29. An informant quoted by H. G. Duncan, op. cit., p. 564.
THE HOMELAND
page 17
"For me, America has proved itself and
promises to continue to
itself the land of opportunity, but
I have not forgotten Italy-it is
foolish to tell any Italian to forget
Italy. I say Italy; but for
for the others, Italy is the little
village where I was raised."
The people who came
in such numbers and so recently from
South Italy were for the most part peasants,
fishermen, and
unskilled laborers. They knew nothing
of big-city life.
they settled down-as most of them did
in the east-in large
industrial towns, they presented more
serious problems of
adaptation than as if they had been
steered into occupational
districts more comparable with those
they had left. To
facilitate their assimilation into urban
society, they frequently
tried to conceal their peasant origin
and to create the illusion
that they came from a city in Italy,
a device also common
(and for similar reasons) among American
migrants from a
"hick" village to New York or Chicago.
Their port of de-
parture, Naples (la grande citta), usually
served the pur-
pose. The resulting confusion of a social
worker in her early
efforts to ascertain the old-country
background of a family
sometimes elicits pointed rejoinders
from other Italians
"Roman, nothing," one woman declared
heatedly of a rela-
tive who claimed Rome as his birthplace.
"The liar! He's a
damn Scafatese." As a homesick informant,
born in Naples
commented, "People in New England, when
asked where they
come from, say: 'I am from Naples.'
They are not, or they
would not be here. Naples is not Italy.
If one lives away from
Naples, the heart is broken!"
Generally speaking,
few Italians wish to return to Italy to
live. Although this may not have been
their original intention,
immigrants usually stay. Despite early
plans to save enough
money to return to live in comfort in
their old homes chil-
dren and the World War and other complications
even
made the prospects seem less alluring.
"To visit Italy for a
month or two, yes," commented a woman,
"but not to stay
They always fight there; every ten years
there is war. The
man he goes to fight and the woman she
work like the jack-
ass." So they stay, as did earlier North
Europeans with simi- |