History did not happen to make us feel good, and a few realities overlooked by many Italians and Italian Americans have spawned misconceptions. We have seen individuals claim a monopoly on what is or is not Italian, ranging from “the correct way” to make recipes to how to pronounce words.
Multiculturalism is a good place to start. Italy is multicultural. For example, Aosta and Alto Adige/South Tyrol, languages other than Italian, are spoken, exemplifying how Italy is polycultural. For a historical example, Christians, Muslims, and Jews cohabitated in medieval Sicily. Sicilians are an eclectic mix of haplogroups, while the Sicilian language and even the cuisine reflect diverse influences (including the Arab delights cannoli and arancini).
Sicily’s golden age that brought Europe, Asia, and Africa together was not to last. Eventually, the Anjou kings of Sicily suppressed Italy’s last Muslim community in Puglia. Later, in 1493, Sicily’s Spanish sovereigns abolished Judaism. The muddling of the Italian mosaic continued into early modernity, as seen in the erasure of Protestant culture through the Piedmont Easter. Erasures continued into the 20th century when Fascism enforced Italianate social culture through the Italianization of South Tyrol and Slovene-speaking counties. Italy’s most pernicious exercise in misplaced monoculturalism was the suppression of the rights and eventual lives of the nation’s Jews, starting with the infamous “racial” laws of 1938.
Multiculturalism also applies to the diaspora. Italian Americans are from various regions of Italy, have left Italy at different times, practice various non-Catholic faiths, and have mixed racial backgrounds. Multicultural production has also emerged within the diaspora. In Arkansas, Italians plate spaghetti with Ozark-styled fried chicken; in New Orleans, Italians and African Americans shaped early Jazz; and in Oklahoma, Italians and Native Americans brewed beer together.
Why is so much of this generally unknown to many Italians and their American cousins? In Italy, where schools are only beginning to teach history that occurred after 1920, the cause is apparent. In the United States, a certain lack of knowledge is rooted in other developments.
As of 2024, there are zero Italian American/Diaspora studies programs in doctoral-granting institutions. It is in these institutions that future scholars and research are developed and promoted. There has also been a lack of engagement with academics from national Italian American organizations. A damming example is seen in the various Columbus education projects, funded by Italian American originations, which do not engage with Italian diasporic literature and instead platform dated and inaccurate histories.
Our goal here is not to wag fingers but to note there is no monopoly on what is or is not Italian or Italian American. Education is best step to debunking the homogenizing notions above and a greater dialogue between Italian American leaders, in small and large organizations, and scholars of Italy and its diaspora. The culture and history of Italians and the Italian diaspora are multifaceted.
