Table Of ContentItalian and Italian American Studies
Stanislao G. Pugliese
Hofstra University
Series Editor
This publishing initiative seeks to bring the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian American history,
literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general readers, and students.
I&IAS will feature works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present) and Italian American culture
and society by established scholars as well as new voices in the academy. This endeavor will help to
shape the evolving fields of Italian and Italian American Studies by reemphasizing the connection
between the two. The following editorial board consists of esteemed senior scholars who act as advisors
to the series editor.
REBECCA WEST JOSEPHINE GATTUSO HENDIN
University of Chicago New York University
FRED GARDAPHÉ PHILIP V. CANNISTRARO†
Queens College, CUNY Queens College and the Graduate School, CUNY
ALESSANDRO PORTELLI MILLICENT MARCUS
Università di Roma “La Sapienza” Yale University
Queer Italia: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film
edited by Gary P. Cestaro, July 2004
Frank Sinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture
edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, October 2004
The Legacy of Primo Levi
edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, December 2004
Italian Colonialism
edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller, July 2005
Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City
Borden W. Painter Jr., July 2005
Representing Sacco and Vanzetti
edited by Jerome H. Delamater and Mary Anne Trasciatti, September 2005
Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel
Nunzio Pernicone, October 2005
Italy in the Age of Pinocchio: Children and Danger in the Liberal Era
Carl Ipsen, April 2006
The Empire of Stereotypes: Germaine de Staël and the Idea of Italy
Robert Casillo, May 2006
Race and the Nation in Liberal Italy, 1861–1911: Meridionalism, Empire, and Diaspora
Aliza S. Wong, October 2006
Women in Italy, 1945–1960: An Interdisciplinary Study
edited by Penelope Morris, October 2006
Debating Divorce in Italy: Marriage and the Making of Modern Italians, 1860–1974
Mark Seymour, December 2006
A New Guide to Italian Cinema
Carlo Celli and Marga Cottino-Jones, January 2007
Human Nature in Rural Tuscany: An Early Modern History
Gregory Hanlon, March 2007
The Missing Italian Nuremberg: Cultural Amnesia and Postwar Politics
Michele Battini, September 2007
Assassinations and Murder in Modern Italy: Transformations in Society and Culture
edited by Stephen Gundle and Lucia Rinaldi, October 2007
Piero Gobetti and the Politics of Liberal Revolution
James Martin, December 2008
Primo Levi and Humanism after Auschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections
Jonathan Druker, June 2009
Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans
edited by Luisa Del Giudice, November 2009
Oral History, Oral Culture,
and Italian Americans
Edited by Luisa Del Giudice
American Italian Historical Association
oral history, oral culture, and italian americans
Copyright © Luisa Del Giudice, 2009.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-61947-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a
division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is
by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in
England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21
6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has
companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-62003-2 ISBN 978-0-230-10139-5 (eBook)
DOI.10.1057/9780230101395
Oral history, oral culture, and Italian Americans / edited by Luisa Del Giudice.
p. cm. — (Italian and Italian American studies)
Papers originally presented at the 2005 annual conference of the American Italian
Historical Association.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Italian Americans—Social life and customs—Congresses. 2. Italian
Americans—Folklore—Congresses. 3. Oral history—Congresses. 4. Oral
tradition—Congresses. I. Del Giudice, Luisa. II. American Italian Historical
Association.
E184.I8O73 2009
973'.0451—dc22 2009013901
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: November 2009
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Contributors ix
List of Illustrations xiii
Part I: Introduction 1
1 Speaking Memory: Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italians in America 3
Luisa Del Giudice
Part II: Oral History 19
2 What Makes Oral History Different 21
Alessandro Portelli
3 Oral Histories of Italian Americans in the Great Depression:
The Politics and Economics of the Crisis 31
Stefano Luconi
4 Il Corriere del Pomeriggio of the Gruppo Lonatese of San Rafael,
Marin County, California 41
Ernesto R. Milani
5 Breaking the Code of Silence Woman to Woman 55
Marie Saccomando Coppola
6 Twice-Told Tales: Art and Oral Histories from the Tenement Museum
and Ellis Island 69
B. Amore
Part III: Oral Culture 81
7 Cantastorie: Ethnography as Storysinging 83
Christine F. Zinni
8 “That’s Not Italian Music!” My Musical Journey from New York
to Italy and Back Again 101
John T. La Barbera
vi CONTENTS
9 Simple Does Not Mean Easy: Oral Traditional Values, Music, and the
Musicàntica Experience 119
Roberto Catalano and Enzo Fina
10 The North End Is a State of Mind Surrounded by Water 137
Augusto Ferraiuolo
11 The Alms-Seeking Tradition of Sant’Antonio Abate in 1920s Western
Pennsylvania 149
Michael Di Virgilio
12 In Search of the Roots of Stregheria: Preliminary Observations on the
History of a Reclaimed Tradition 165
Sabina Magliocco
13 My Homer 183
Joanna Clapps Herman
14 Alessandra Belloni: In Her Own Words 193
Interview and Translation into English by Luisa Del Giudice
Index 253
Acknowledgments
Speaking Memory: Oral History, Oral Culture and Italian America, the title of the
2005 Annual Conference of the American Italian Historical Association (AIHA)—
the first ever to be held in Southern California and the first to address the themes
of oral history and oral culture specifically—occasioned the papers of which the
present volume represents a selection. The conference was, by all accounts, a great
success, and was attended by close to two hundred participants, most as speakers.
It was an honor for the Italian Oral History Institute (IOHI) to have been invited
by the AIHA executive to host and organize their annual meeting in Los Angeles.
Enriched by the IOHI multimedia festival, Italian Los Angeles: Celebrating Italian
Life, Local History, and the Arts in Southern California, this occasion also offered
the local California Italian community—both lay and academic—the welcome
opportunity to highlight local history, culture, and its own institutions. These
were historic events for our community.
I have many more debts than I can acknowledge. Still, I especially appreci-
ate the great support given throughout the two-year organizational process by
AIHA then-president Anthony Tamburri and then-executive director Dominic
Candeloro, who both acculturated me to the ways of the AIHA while allowing
plenty of leeway for personal arbitrium. Conference planning could not have been
initiated without the organizing committee: Mary Bucci Bush (California State
University, Los Angeles); Giuseppina Candia (Istituto Italiano di Cultura); Clara
Celati (Istituto Italiano di Cultura); Carlo Chiarenza (California State University,
Long Beach); Teresa Fiore (California State University, Long Beach); Gloria Ricci
Lothrop (California State University, Northridge); Kenneth Scambray (University
of La Verne); Edward F. Tuttle (University of California, Los Angeles); Marcella
Tyler (National Italian American Foundation); Pasquale Verdicchio (University of
California, California, San Diego). To Teresa Fiore, cochair of the Conference Pro-
gram Committee, who read, commented, and helped organize panels—and who
was my closest ally in many areas besides—I owe my greatest debt. Gloria Ricci
Lothrop, California historian and expert on Italians in Los Angeles, offered invalu-
able guidance to us both, as well as direct help organizing panels on local history.
I especially thank Gloria for her direct role as guide of the cultural and historic
tour: “Chi Siamo: Italians of Los Angeles.” I note too, the contributions of Kenneth
Scambray and Mary Bucci Bush as organizers of the reading by Italian American
Writers of Southern California. Substantial and reliable administrative assistance
came from staff at California State University, Long Beach, particularly Jessica Vita,
and Rebecca Addicks, as well as from IOHI intern and UCLA student and friend,
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Erika Nadir, and to conference volunteers Carol Avona, Gabriella Azucena, and
Shan Emanuelli, long-time IOHI executive board member. To our many cospon-
sors* who generously and tangibly supported this effort: grazie di cuore (heartfelt
thanks). And finally, of course, I thank members of a wide-flung scholarly com-
munity who assisted in the task of evaluating manuscripts for this publication:
Cristina Bacchilega (University of Hawaii at Manoa), Teresa Barnett (University
of California, Los Angeles), Mary Jo Bona (State University of New York, Stony
Brook), Moyra Byrne (Washington), Roberto Catalano (University of California,
Riverside), Edvige Giunta (New Jersey City University), Sabina Magliocco (Cali-
fornia State University, Northridge), Alessandro Portelli (Università di Roma,
La Sapienza), Joseph Sciorra and Anthony Tamburri (John D. Calandra Italian
American Institute, Queens College/City University of New York), Edward Tuttle
(University of California, Los Angeles). Further thanks are due to the editors at
Palgrave Macmillan for their invaluable assistance throughout the editorial pro-
cess and to Andrea Jones, graduate student at UCLA, for compiling the exhaustive
index to this volume.
—Luisa Del Giudice (Founder-Director, Italian Oral History Institute, 1994–2007**)
“AIHA in LA 2005” Conference Chair
* The conference and festival sponsors included Italian Oral History Institute; American Italian His-
torical Association; Istituto Italiano di Cultura; George L. Graziadio Center for Italian Studies, Califor-
nia State University, Long Beach; National Italian American Foundation; UCLA (Center for Medieval
and Renaissance Center, Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, Center for European
and Eurasian Studies, Department of Italian, Ethnomusicology Archive, Oral History Program); City
of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department; Watts Towers Arts Center; the Association for Cultural
Equity at Hunter College, New York City; Frank de Santis; San Gennaro Foundation, Los Angeles; Ital-
ian Organic Wines from Dynamic Imports, St. Peter’s Italian Church. These events also had the support
of the Politi Family, Friends of Leo Politi, Ed Stalcup, Italian American Writers of Southern California,
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Villa Scalabrini, and Children’s Services at Los Angeles Public Library
** The Italian Oral History Institute, a California nonprofit educational organization, was dissolved in
2007.
Contributors
B. Amore is an artist, educator, and writer who has spent her life between Italy and
America. She studied at Boston University, the University of Rome, and the Acca-
demia di Belle Arti di Carrara, and is the recipient of a Fulbright Grant, a Mellon
Fellowship, as well as a Citation of Merit Award from the Vermont Arts Council.
She has won major sculpture commissions in the United States and Japan; she is
founder of the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in Vermont and cofounder of
Kokoro Studio Retreat Center. Life line—filo della vita, her multimedia, six-room
exhibition, premiered at Ellis Island and has traveled in the United States and Italy.
An Italian American Odyssey, Life line—filo della vita: Through Ellis Island and
Beyond, which includes the visuals and expanded text of the exhibition, has been
chosen as a National Book Club choice by Order Sons of Italy in America. She is
currently working on a prose sequel to her book.
Alessandra Belloni (See introduction to Chapter 14, “Alessandra Belloni: In Her
Own Words.”)
Roberto Catalano was born in Catania, Sicily, where he began his music career
as a self-taught guitarist in 1973. He is a scholar, teacher, composer, and multi-
instrumentalist and holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from UCLA. His academic
interests include music of Mediterranean cultures, jazz, and organology. He has
performed with various ensembles in cities such as Rome, London, Vancouver,
Seattle, and Los Angeles, opening for major jazz artists such as Jim Hall and Michel
Petrucciani, and has played with guitarist John Scofield. He has written scores in
various contemporary genres, most notably, a Sardinian cantu a tenores vocal
piece, which he arranged for the Grammy Award–winning Kronos Quartet. As
a collector and instrument maker, he possesses almost two hundred instruments
from around the world. Together with Enzo Fina, he is the coleader of Musicàn-
tica, a duo committed to the transmission and translation of Italian oral traditions
in America.
Marie Saccomando Coppola is an independent scholar and a member of Malia.
She earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at the State University of New York at
Buffalo for a dissertation entitled “Toward a Missing Link in the Identity of Ital-
ian American Women: Oral Histories of Sicilian and Sicilian American Women.”
She was the executive producer of a video on immigrant women, Voices of Differ-
ence (2001) in Western New York. Presently her work involves an article on Italian
American women religious in Western New York. She has recently moved to Black
