The Cultural Context of the Italian-American Community in New York at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Abstract

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Italian immigrants constituted a rather complex ethnic group. Often, they were defined as “people in the middle” because of having both of their identities negated; no longer Italian, they were not yet American. They belonged to a group that initially was an anthropological creation; they were living in a no-man’s-land, much like physical and psychological nomads. The self-image of this generation of immigrants was characterized by a never-ending mobility—no longer there, but not yet quite here. Suspended between nations, so to speak, the Italian immigrants were forced to create their own identity. The story of emigration is replete with the trauma of mournful and dire events, of tragedy and death. Explained another way, emigration was an exodus that included painful separation, a severing of the connection to the source of cultural references and affections. What counts most in this passage, which is in a sense a kind of death, is the complex connection based on memory. That is, upon leaving their homeland, the immigrants are soon forgotten, and upon arriving in their new land, they find it difficult to integrate themselves into the new culture. In fact, not many of those native to the host country were disposed to accept a historical presence as disturbing as that of such large numbers of immigrants.