What Italians Think About Americans: Italian-Americans

7/7/2016

"What do we think of Italo-Americans? They look doubly ignorant if they can't even speak the language, or if they slap Italian words in their phrases at random, or replace perfectly fine English words with Italian words just because. Why can't they just use the word 'grandma' instead of hijacking 'Nonna' all the time? Italo-Americans use the Italian flag as if it's theirs. When they come to Italy they feel lost like a stranger. That's because they are. If someone of Chinese decent is born in Germany or England they are German or English. Period."

5 Comments

Teresa

10/20/2015 03:33:29 am

What makes YOU
look ignorant is your lack of understanding of American history. When my mom's parents came to the U.S. In the early 1900s, they left their homeland and familes behind. My dad's grandparents came to the U.S. from Como & Biella. Like most European immigrants, they lived in segregated neighborhoods. My mom did not learn to speak English until she started school, she spoke her parent's dialect of Barese. my grandmother, who we called "Mammay," never got her naturalization and spoke very little English her entire life. She did not "hijack" her name anymore than my other grandmother did, who I called Nonna. My Nonna was fluent in her parent's northern dialect of Italian.
My grandparents held onto their customs, beliefs, faith, and cooking. These bits and pieces of OLD Italian culture have been passed down- it is part of my inheritance, and with every generation it becomes much more watered down with modern Ameican culture.
When visiting my mom's family I would hear more Italian spoken than English, there was lots of macaroni, pastries, cookies, polenta- (when my Dads family) to be eaten.
So our families identify with Italy and even more so with their hometowns- my mom makes lighthearted comments about my dad's northern family.
If I visited your country I would feel as though you hijacked my Nonnas name!! I live in an area where there are few Italian Americans, so no one else had a Nonna but me, and quite frankly, in my eyes, no one elses grandmother could live up to the name.
I understand that Italians don't identify with Italian- Americans or our pride of Italy. You have no way to appecriate what our Nonno's and Nonna's gave to us, our little Italian phrases & customs meshed with American culture is not Italian, it is all we know, it is how we were raised, and your distaste for this is your ignorance. If Italians are like you, maybe that's another big reason my grandparents left your country.
At any rate, someday I'll be a Nonna, never as wonderful or as special as my own, but be assured I'm not hijacking anything! It's my birthright.

Jerry Finzi

10/20/2015 08:21:20 am

Teresa, In your comment you capitalized the word "YOU" as if you are directing your contempt toward me personally and are calling me "ignorant". I must remind you, that when I post these short "What Italians Think About Americans" articles, that they are within quotation marks... they are what some Italian citizens--born, raised and still living in Italy--think about Americans. Some of these are actual quotes directly from Italian nationals that I found in online discussions, or others are a conglomerate of several quotes I gathered either from talking to Italians directly or from Internet discussions. The tone of your message seems to be taking ME personally to task for saying these words or having these views. (Obviously, you haven't had time to read the hundreds of other posts written by me on this blog... to really get to know who I am). In fact, I have a similar background as you-- My Dad was born in Molfetta, my Mom was born here (her parents from Naples). We used all sorts of Italian (or Southern dialect) expressions in our household growing up. My parents did not teach us to speak Italian. Mom said she wanted an "all-American family" for us five kids. In fact, right now, my 12 year old son carries on this "Italian-American" tradition... he spent three weeks in Italy with us last year, he now calls me Babbo, he makes pasta with me, he loves his Italian roots... So, please don't think of ME as the ignorant one here. This particular quote represents the views of some (not all) Italian Nationals toward the (as they see it) overly enthusiastic and misplaced pride we Italian-Americans feel for our Italian heritage. Hey, my wife is half Italian (Sicilian) and half Polish and even she feels a stronger connection with her Italian roots. BTW... to add to this feeling from Italian Nationals toward Italian-Americans, before I went to Italy I researched the Finzi's still residing in Molfetta, my Dad's birthplace. I tried to contact several before the trip. All I got was silence. I was told by other Italian friends that they don't quite understand how we long to get connected to fragments of our family lineage still living in the Homeland of Italy. They lost track of lines of their family who left "their family and their country" so long ago. It's how they feel.... not me. Still, I would not call them "ignorant" either. It's just a very different point of view. In my personal view, Italians today in Italy have evolved separately and have become VERY different from Italian Americans. If you read my earlier posts about my experiences with Italians and the way they live and work, you'll see that I had lots of issues with their attitudes and parts of their lifestyle. We Italian-Americans are a hybrid... We are not Italians. We should be proud of that fact.

Teresa

10/20/2015 10:16:32 am

Jerry, my deepest apologies for misdirecting my response. I overlooked the quotation marks on your posted comment.
My lashing out was not aimed to be directed at you, but at the "you" behind the quotation marks, and I regret that I was "preaching to the choir." I allowed my emotional reaction to override my good senses to respond in the appropriate context, and ultimately that makes ME the ignorant one- I'll own it.
In my naivite, until recently, I've never realized just how negatively many Italians have regarded Italian-Americans, although, I know there are those who are more gracious towards our subculture's attitudes; my extended family in northern Italy welcomed my aunts with open arms when they visited some years ago. Perhaps this "very different point of view" is not "ignorance," but to me it does comes across as arrogance.
Ultimately I know my opinion is just that in its worth- I'm not even sure I care about my opinion as much as I did last night, LOL, I just miss my grandparents, especially my Nonna's and I hope I'm blessed enough to be one someday.
Thank you for sharing part of your personal history and background in your post. Now that I am enlightened to see that what I stumbled upon last night while trying to pass my nightly insomnia, is part of your blog, I am excited to explore all that you've shared! Realistically, I'll never get to go to Italy or so many of the other countries I'd love to visit, so I appreciate living vicariously!. Respectfully- t.

Jerry Finzi

10/21/2015 07:29:47 am

Hey.... no ignorance here... just a lot of passion. (We're Italian, right?) I find the attitude of a lot of Italians toward Italian-Americans and Americans in general as a two sided, schizophrenic affair. On one hand, they love everything about "'Merica" and just about every young person I conversed with talked pretty good English and confessed to me the desire to come to the U.S. for their career (I met wannabee musicians, artists, designers, pizzamakers, etc.). I always recommended to them that they look inward toward their own country--that opportunities and creativity is right there in front of them. (Hey... I tried living/working in Paris in 1974... so I know what it's like to try and "make it" in another country). They also love our fashions, music and TV shows (I didn't understand how they were still watching Jersey Shore and the A-Team... really?? This was last year! Even their infomercials are styled like ours, albeit with much more er... abundant women.) ....

On the other hand, they criticize our politics (when their own is in shambles), our food habits, our TV watching, our clothes, etc.

It's a real love hate-thing. Yet, they are a very proud people--if not on a national level, at least regionally. And there can be some very warm, sweet people there too. I remember all their faces. I regret not photographing more of these everyday people... a great taxi driver in Rome who discussed crazy Rome drivers, pop music and his kids.... a Tabacchi man in Molfetta who couldn't stop talking about Hoboken once he found my Dad was from there.... my Trullo B&B host near Alberobello who made hot chocolate for Lucas, broke into his mother's special stash of jarred figs and Ricotta Forte for us... the alimentari lady on the Amalfi Coast who helped us gather amazing tidbits for our dinner... I could go on and on. Still, there is that arrogance--or ego. I felt the same thing in France years ago. They love us while they despise us. It's up to us when we travel to bring down those boundaries and NOT become--ourselves--the typical Ugly American.

CHRISTOPHER M FORTE link

7/26/2022 08:37:45 pm

I realize this post is from 2015, but I do hope the writer and his viewers see this opinion anyways. I enjoyed the thoroughly educating and entertaining back and forth between two "passionate" Italian Americans, Teresa and Jerry Finzi! But what I wat to opine on is the last line in the quote, "If someone of Chinese decent is born in Germany or England they are German or English. Period."

-This isn't true in the United States. Here we would still consider them Chinese or Chinse-American (if born in the USA). This is due to racism (hard to accept Asians as "one of us Americans" who "normally" look European), and due to the other side, wanting to welcome them as Americans while trying to respect their family's cultural background. There is a difference between ethnicity and race, which are based on blood/genetics and culture, and on nationality, which is based solely on citizenship. Italy is starting to figure this out with all the tens of thousands of foreign and in many cases Muslim refugees now entering it.

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What Italians Think About Americans: Italian-Americans

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