Re: Image of Sicily abroad

Penguini, thank you very much for your response.


Penguini wrote:
"ruffiano" <rough_ruffiano@xxxxxxxxx> ha scritto
news:1150137711.245344.217590@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Hello, I was born and raised on the island of Sicily, Italy, and I have
been living in the United States for a few years. I am posting this
message because I noticed there are many people here in US that have a
distorted image of Sicily. Some of them seem to perceive Sicily as some
sort of political entity of its own as opposed to as just a region of
Italy. Once someone even asked me if Sicily was a country! This is a
bit funny --if not sad at times-- considering that the unification of
Italy started right in Sicily back in 1860! To top it all off, while I
was at the Italian Consulate a few weeks ago, I met an Italian-American
of Sicilian parents who made it specifically clear he was a Sicilian
but not an Italian! Although I respect everybody's opinion, I thought
it was odd --not to mention inappropriate given the location-- that
such a statement was being made by someone who had visited Sicily only
twice, did not speak any Italian or the Sicilian dialect! Maybe there
are some Italian-Americans of Sicilian ancestry in this newsgroup that
may want to shed some light on this for me?

I'll give it a little try. Many Americans are ignorant of geography even
their own. Many Americans seem to think Hawaii (and even New Mexico) are
foreign countries. Believe me it probably had nothing to do with his /
her ignorance of Sicily.

As regards the I am Sicilian comment. You must remember that many Italian
descendents have ties that go back to Italy in the late 19th century. At
this time yes Italy was unified but there were strong regional feelings.
Sometimes these feelings "trumped" Italian national feelings. Many
Italian Americans identify with their "region", calling themselves not
only Sicilians but for example Calabrese, Pugliese, Abruzzese, Napolitano
etc etc.

Also as you must know it took decades in the former Kingdom of the Two
Sicilies to overcome regional pride. As you may or may not know Naples
and the south was kind of "sacked" by the unionists (to develop
industrialization in the north) after winning unification. It left a
bitter taste in many southern Italians and left southern Italy a very
poor part of Italy (even to this day). This was the mindset of immigrants
from the south at least through the 19th century. This mind set was
passed on to the sons and daughters and persists in some regards to this
day. This is so because they know American history and grew up here and
not Italy.

I am not Siciliano but Abruzzese. I study this with an eye on Italian
history without growing up in Italy and seeing my father (veteran of WW1
with the Italian army in Slovenia) interact with his amici - not only
Abruzzese but Toscana and Calabrese etc.

.

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