Memories of Belonging: Descendants of Italian Migrants to the United States, 1884-Present

420 Pages·2015·5.744 MB·English

by  Christa Wirth

Memories of Belonging
Studies in Global
Social History
VOLUME 17
Studies in Global
Migration History
Editor
Dirk Hoerder (Arizona State University, Phoenix, az)
Editorial Board
Bridget Anderson (University of Oxford)
Adam Hanieh (soas, University of London)
Immanuel Ness (City University of New York)
Jose Moya (Barnard College, Columbia University)
Brenda Yeoh (National University of Singapore)
Vazira Fazila-Yacoobaliis Zamindar (Brown University)
Min Zhou (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
VOLUME 5
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sgmh
Memories of Belonging
Descendants of Italian Migrants to the United States,
1884–Present
By
Christa Wirth
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The book is based on a revised version of the doctoral dissertation which was accepted by the Faculty of
Arts of the University of Zurich in the spring semester 2012 on the recommendation of Prof. Dr. Carlo Moos
and Prof. Donna R. Gabaccia, Ph.D.
Cover illustration: Angelo, Beatrice, and Leonardo Soloperto. Picture taken sometime during World War I.
Photographer unknown. (Collection Paul Martone; courtesy of Paul Martone.)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wirth, Christa.
Memories of belonging : descendants of Italian migrants to the United Sates, 1884-present / by Christa
Wirth.
pages cm. -- (Studies in global social history, ISSN 1874-6705 ; volume 17) (Studies in global migration
history ; volume 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-28456-2 (hardback : alkaline paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-28457-9 (e-book) 1. Italian
Americans--Massachusetts--Worcester--New Hampshire--Oral History. 2. Migration Networks--Italy--
Massachusetts--Sources. 3. Memory--Oral History--Gender--Family--Italian American. 4. Memory--Oral
History--Religion--Italian--Education. 5. Memory--Oral History--Class--Ethnic Identity--Italian American.
6. Memory--Oral History--Generation--Migration--Italian American. 7. Memory--Oral History--
Generation--Migration--Assimilation. I. Title.
E184.I8W66 2015
973’.0451--dc23
2014038661
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering
Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities.
For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 1874-6705
ISBN 978-90-04-28456-2 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-28457-9 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff and Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
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Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa.
Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
To my parents
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of Figures, Maps, and Tables xi
Family Tree xiii
Introduction 1
1 Oral History Methodology and Networks of Memory 48
2 Transnational Migration Networks
The Paese in the Rising Global Economy 81
3 Memories of Everyday Life I
Hard Work and Family Life 115
4 Memories of Everyday Life II
Rural, Urban, and Suburban Environments 160
5 Memories of Italianness
Pride, Prejudice, and Consumption 188
6 Memories of Elvira and Giovanni Soloperto
In the Shadows of Memory and Dante’s Divine Comedy 251
7 Memories of the American Dream
Migration, Assimilation, and the Homeland 266
Conclusion 308
Epilogue: Italian Americans as the Poster Children of the Immigrant
Paradigm?  316
Appendix 321
Bibliography 357
Index 404

Acknowledgements
It is a pleasure to thank those who have contributed to the task of writing this
book. Firstly, I want to thank Carlo Moos and Donna R. Gabaccia who have
supported me through this project, read drafts, and commented on the doc-
toral dissertation from which this book results. In countless stimulating con-
versations and several seminars with Carlo Moos, I have had the opportunity
to profit from his in-depth understanding of and passion for history. His criti-
cal reading of the dissertation has been instrumental for the development of
this book. Donna R. Gabaccia’s insightful and invaluable feedback on the dis-
sertation equally helped in forming the book, as did the conversations in which
she generously shared her vast knowledge of history.
I am also thankful for the precise commentaries on the entire manuscript by
Dirk Hoerder and the two anonymous reviewers at Brill, as well as Brill’s assis-
tant editors Jennifer Obdam and Rosanna Woensdregt for their expert advice.
I thank Immanuel Ness for his guidance in finding a suitable publishing house
for the manuscript. Also, many thanks to Jessica LaPointe for her intelligent
copy editing of the manuscript. I am in debt to Stefano Luconi, who has pro-
vided me with numerous suggestions and criticism on single chapters and the
project as a whole. The book would not have been possible without Thomas
Guglielmo, Matteo Pretelli, Alexandra Binnenkade, Eric Payseur, Peter Collmer,
Ariane Tanner, Manuel Dür, Claudia Mäder, Anja Suter, Sostene Massimo
Zangari, and Sabina Bellofatto, who each read single chapters and provided
productive comments.
For intellectual conversations that influenced my thinking on this project at
Harvard University, I would like to especially thank Carolin Firouzeh Roeder,
Silke Martini, Philipp Michelus, Alexander Woolfson, Alina Opreanu, Codruţa
Morari, Holger Drössler, Arndt Lümers, and Nicole Burgoyne, as well as
Adelheid Voskuhl, Sven Beckert, James Kloppenberg, Nancy Cott, Lizabeth
Cohen, Elvira G. Di Fabio, Michèle Lamont, Denise Khor, and S. Deborah Kang.
At Zurich University, these conversations took place with Rainer Hugener,
Nathalie Büsser, Alexandra Locher, Jolanda Nydegger, Rahel Bühler, Gerald
Schwedler, Stefan Sandmeier, Roman K. Abt, Luís Calvo Salgado, Corinne
Pernet, and Jakob Tanner.
Beyond the Zurich–Harvard connection, intellectual exchanges pertaining
to this book took place with Dorothee Guggenheimer, Elias Kreyenbühl, Isabel
Schropper, Eveline Geiser, Jennifer Guglielmo, Russell Kazal, Cathy Frierson,
and Peggy Levitt. For guiding me through the project-managing process of
writing a book, I would like to thank Martha Pederson; for her endurance and
x Acknowledgements
cheerleading, Sharon Hale. I gratefully acknowledge Miranda Margowsky for
her patient and diligent transcribing of some of the interviews; Dominique
Veltri-Angst and Andrea Veltri for translating the Italian interviews, Seth
Peabody for double-checking some of the sources, Esther Laurencikova for her
comprehensive correction of the footnotes and bibliography, and Francesco
Falone and Ole Alexander A. Jensen for technical support in finishing the man-
uscript. Of course, all of the errors are mine.
I received excellent audience feedback from papers delivered at, among
other places, the Trans-Atlantic Summer Institute in European Studies (tasi),
University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, mn, the annual meeting of the
American Historical Association (aha) in Boston, ma, the annual meeting of
the Canadian Historical Association (cha) in Ottawa, on, and the John D.
Calandra Italian American Institute in New York City.
In researching this book I have received guidance from the librarians of sev-
eral libraries and archives: the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Harvard
University, the Murray Research Center, Harvard University, and the Schlesinger
Library at the Radcliff Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
I also thank the staff at the Worcester Public Library in Worcester, ma; the
library of Zurich’s history department; the town archives of Sava (Archivio
Communale), Italy, especially Palma Soleto; the state archives (Archivio di
Stato) in Taranto, Italy; the archives of Roberto Corrado, town chronicler of
Sava; and the interviewees for sharing their personal documents with me.
Particularly, I would like to thank the interviewees, Roberto Corrado, and Blake
Gumprecht for giving me permission to publish their materials, and for the
permission of a reprint: Proquest.
This book was possible only thanks to the generous financial support of
the snsf Fellowships for Prospective Researchers (Swiss National Science
Foundation) and the Salomon David Steinberg-Stipendien-Stiftung in Zurich,
as well as through academic employment as an academic assistant at Zurich
University (to Carlo Moos, Monika Dommann, and the Central Department)
and at Harvard University as a teaching fellow and postdoc (to Caroline Light,
Linda Schlossberg, and Lisa Parkes).
I am deeply grateful for all the interviewees who have most generously wel-
comed me into their homes and shared their stories with me. A special thank
you to Sarah Genner with whose support I was able to complete this book. And
finally, I want to express my gratitude for the endless support of my parents to
whom I dedicate this book.
Zurich, September 2014