Over the weekend of January 13-16, a group of around 100 young Italian-Americans, ages 21-35, met as fellows at the Italian American Future Leaders Conference in Sunrise, Florida. Several groups sponsored the conference, including the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO), The Italian American Podcast, Growing Up Italian, Cooking with Nona, and the Florida Panthers. In this short piece, I want to provide a supportive, but also critical, analysis and summary of the weekend and note that this event has created a platform for young Italian-American organizers, groups, and individuals to dialogue and work with each other nationally and differently from the previous generations of Italian Americans.
I was highly skeptical when the announcement went out for this event around two months ago. My main concern was with COPOMIAO because, under recent direction, they have promoted essentialist narratives of Italian-American identity, one example being the defense of Columbus as their central issue. This worried me because I have been openly advocating for Italian Americans to move past Columbus for several years and many of COPOMIAO’s key definers of who is Italian American do not align with my ethnic experiences. That said, when I saw that the Italian American Podcast was involved with the conference, I was confident that dialogue was possible because they have created space for conversations on topics such as the role of Columbus in Italian America, and they are open to complicating the Italian-American ethnic experience. Luckily, for me, The Italian Enclaves Historical Society, a participant organization in the event, and a group that I am a part of sponsored my application for a fellowship.
The first day of the event was a cocktail hour and meet-and-greet. I took this opportunity to talk to as many participants as possible. In all, I had conversations with around 45 people. Several things stood out to me about the participants. Everyone was open to having conversation. Some of my main questions were: Where are you from? How many generations in America is your family? Where in Italy is your family from? Are you fully Italian? What is your faith? The group reflected the plurality that Italian Americans are as a collective people. Most of the crowd from Louisiana were fourth-and-fifth generation Americans, there were folks from West Virginia and Indiana who were only a quarter Italian but proud, there was an Italian-American organization from Iowa, there were several Protestants and non-believers, and there were great regional disparities in origins from Italy. Some were even willing to share their political orientations and careers – which were broad in range.
The second day was productive but the keynote speech, on “IA History,” by Judge Basil Russo raised concerns for both me and some other fellows. I want to note that Judge Russo deserves much credit for acquiring the funds for making this event possible and for supporting the growth of younger generations. However, much of what his speech covered was not reflective of the entire audience’s relationship with Italian-American identity and what they saw as pressing issues for Italian Americans. Below are the three issues that I found most concerning. Judge Russo dedicated several sections of his speech to Catholicism and argued that Italians have a “centuries-long bond with the Catholic faith.” Though this may be true for most Italian Americans (56% in 2010), it is not the case for all. Several fellows voiced their concerns to me about this emphasis on a single religion since I had been open to many the night before about my Protestant upbringing. There are many queer Italian American Catholics. However, as one fellow from New York pointed out, for some, due to the Church’s stance on homosexuality, a centering of Catholicism as a defining factor for Italian-American identity excludes many queer and Italian-Americans from these spaces. Another concern was the emphasis on Italian Americans as former “people of color” and as “non-white.” Without even jumping into these historical inaccuracies, one mixed-race fellow raised a point to me about how thoughtless statements like this make Italian Americans look to actual people of color: such as the very employees of the convention hall where this event took place. Toward the end of his talk, Russo made the case that the removal of Columbus monuments and Columbus Day are a 14th amendment issue for Italian Americans. Besides the fact that Columbus has always been a contested symbol within the Italian-American community, one fellow, who is a civil rights lawyer, expressed to me that this was a waste of time and that there are cases to make for localized discrimination against Italian Americans. They argued that this is where the money and effort of Italian American civil rights should be spent.
I do not want this to be a polemic against Judge Russo. I think it is necessary and beneficial for doors to be open between academics like myself and Italian-American organizers such as himself. However, if one is going to lecture on Italian-American history basic facts about religious diversity and the relationship Italian Americans have with whiteness should reflect the data and discourse. The ideal situation would have a trained historian to deliver such a lecture. Secondly, by trying to make Columbus a 14th Amendment issue to the audience, which has many problems on its own, it felt like Judge Russo was trying to set the agenda of what the future leader’s fellow should focus on. I was not alone in this thought.
I met Judge Russo, but unfortunately, we were not able to chat about these concerns. I should also note, that this does not mean everything Judge Russo said was a wash. For instance, he gave a thoughtful and nuanced analysis of how Italian Americans should approach topics such as The Godfather and the Mafia. It was one of the sharpest comments of the conference. I also do not believe exclusion and directives were Judge Russo’s intentions, nevertheless, contesting that keynote must go on the record because Italian-American organizers cannot gate-keep what it means to be Italian-American. I hope that these comments above are taken in the same good faith as the dialogue that was present that day. My door is open.
There was a consensus about the pressing issues facing Italian Americans. This developed when we broke up into several groups for SWOT analyses. One of the most common concerns was the lack of knowledge of the Italian language. What was refreshing is that many also emphasized learning regional languages such as Neapolitan or Sicilian. This is linked to another pressing issue, which is building greater connections between Italy and Italian American communities. The lack of organized Italian American presence in universities through collegial societies and in courses/programs was also a concern. There was a push by my group to develop a platform for the university-based issues listed above. The image of Italian Americans was a central issue since many fellows felt they have faced stereotypes. A fellow from Massachusetts added to this by arguing that Italian Americans also need to stop embracing those stereotypes themselves. Further, still, several groups advocated that Italian Americans must dialogue with other ethnic and racial communities in America.
Throughout the day, the forum was open for the fellows to have a dialogue. This was fantastic because it allowed future leaders to meet and talk. At several moments during public dialogues, as with any open floor conversation, there were moments of tension. Nevertheless, moderator John Viola did a fantastic job keeping the conversations on track. As a whole, dialogue with each other on Italian-American issues was the spirit of the day. In my case, all the people I had vocal disagreements with, on issues ranging from public monuments to religion, graciously opened up dialogue with me throughout the weekend. Everyone was open to dialogue. There was no fighting or yelling – only conversation and listening.
The second day was filled with guest speakers from Growing Up Italian to We The Italians. However, I will focus on the most important one and the one that received the most engagement. Fitting with what the fellows saw as a pressing issue, a connection with Italy, Mike De Sapio, owner of De Sapio Dual Citizenship gave a lecture on how to acquire Italian citizenship. In this, lecture De Sapio laid out the conditions for starting the citizenship application. His lecture received the most questions, which makes sense given that connection with Italy came up as a consensus issue in the SWOT analyses.
What this event did was create a platform for Italian-American organizations, groups, and individuals to dialogue and work with each other nationally, but different from the way previous generations have or have not. It was not an attempt to create a new Italian-American organization with dues, members, a party line, etc. There were several rival organizations there. This conference provided the space for those groups to dialogue. This is what makes this different; this was not akin to founding a new organization but instead was about creating a space for younger members of those already existing organizations and individuals, to get to know each other. Since this was an open platform, I hope the organizers take into account the consensus of the SWOT analysis. This means that next year they would have a component on how to learn the languages from professional language teachers, a presenter on Italian-American education/studies, more emphasis on connections with Italy, and a contingent of guests from other ethnic groups.
I think the future leader’s fellows should be optimistic and, at the same time, critical. Optimistic because so many of us want to see the Italian-American community grow and its various groups productively engage with each other. Critical in order to prevent falling into ethnocentrism or setting litmus tests for who belongs to this community. In his closing statements, John Viola noted that we all came from different parts of the country, have different backgrounds, worldviews, generations in America, percentages of Italian genes, and faiths – but what unites us is that at some point in history, someone left the geographical area of Italy. This ending comment was the most important one of the event. With its many pluralities, the diaspora connects Italian Americans as an ethnic group. While waiting for my flight the next day, I asked a fellow based in North Carolina what he thought of the conference and on those closing thoughts, he noted, “no matter where in the country we are from, we are all in this together.” A few hours later, before departing, he stated, “there is no way I will miss this next year.” The future of the diaspora is pluralistic, it always has been. An open platform such as the Italian American Future Leaders Conference is necessary to keep the connections of this diaspora bound.
