“How can you be both Italian and American? I don’t get it when you Americans say that you’re Italian-American. Explain it to me.” This is something that my Italian friend, who works with a lot of American students, asked me. What he didn’t understand is how so many young people, born in America, who had come to Italy for the very first time could proudly proclaim that they were Italian-American, even if they were only half-Italian, like myself. It’s questions like these that lead me to believe that Americans have a unique perception of nationality and cultural identity.
In America it’s quite natural for a person to say “I’m Polish-American” or “I’m Irish-American” and no one will question them on their respective Polish or Irish-ness. They participate in the traditional culture of their family’s origin in the capacity that they see fitting to them. Even if they don’t participate at all, other Americans will probably still not question their claim of nationality. I am not trying to oversimplify the notion of national identity or speak for everyone but in my experience of living outside the United States, I have encountered notions of nationality that are more rigid than what Americans are accustomed to.
Over the course of living in Italy for a year, I found that the Italian conception of nationality was completely different. This is perhaps because the Italian notion of national and cultural identity is very closely tied to a specific location. People take great pride in the city or region they’re from. Some families have been living in the same location longer than America, or Italy itself, has been a country (Italy became a single unified country in 1871). People also try not to move very far from their families unless they have to. That’s why when you say you’re Italian but your great-grandparents left Italy 100 years ago, you get raised eyebrows from actual Italian people. In their view, your family lost its connection with their place of origin, and in doing so became fully American. For Americans, nationality is something you can take with you and can pass down to succeeding generations. People in other parts of the world don’t see it that way.
In contrast, Americans base part of their national identity on family members having come from somewhere else and moving around fairly often. Up until about 50 years ago immigrants still lived together in tight knit communities. I feel Italian because my grandmother and great aunt would tell me stories about when they lived in the Sicilian community in Detroit where everyone spoke to each other in Sicilian. They would show me black and white photo-albums from this time and we would eat those white Sicilian cookies with the colorful sprinkles that you can only really find in Sicily and Italian specialty stores in America. They taught my mom how to make pasta and she in turn taught me. Here we were, a bunch of Italian-American ladies making pasta, or cannoli or cookies, participating in the culture that we brought over from the old country. That is what being Italian-American means to us and many families in America do the same thing. They talk about the heritage their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents brought over and take pride in it.
It seems that any person living in America who wants to be an American can do so. At the same time, a person can choose for themselves what “being an American” means and also what being Italian, Irish, Mexican, African, Arab (etc.) means to them. An American can have more than one nationality because the American conception of nationality allows for it. That’s really unique. America does have its own distinct
Of course there are people out there who will point to a certain kind of lifestyle and say “This is the American way and anyone who doesn’t follow this way are (insert derogatory term here) trying to steal our jobs!”. This comes from a bigoted mindset which is historically and culturally inaccurate. America is a land of many races and cultures and anyone who claims that there is one correct “American way” is delusional. Rather, if there is a common “theme” held by those who consider themselves American, it’s expressed in the unique, individual interpretation one can make for one’s own nationality and cultural identity.
So to answer my friend’s question, I can be both Italian and American simply because I feel like I am and that’s how I have constructed my cultural identity.
Euro-Jes's Culture Questions 