Vol. XXXVIII No. 1 Winter 2020
Table of Contents
Letter from the Editor………………………………………………………………… v
Notes on Contributors………………………………………………………………. ix
Articles
Notions of Space and Questions of Identity: Italian Americans in Tina De Rosa’s Novel Paper Fish (1980)
Sirpa Salenius………………………………………………………………….. 1
Giuseppe De Simone: from Mirabella Eclano to Seattle
Raffaele Di Zenzo…………………………………………………………… 27
Preserving, Remembering, and Commemorating the Italian American Experience in the Chicago Area
Elisabetta Marino…………………………………………………………… 33
Featured Poet: Elton Glaser
Essay, “Lala Land”…………………………………………………………….. 43
Deep Sleep in Venice………………………………………………………. 45
En Plein Air…………………………………………………………………… 46
Nude Pencil Sketch beyond the Vanishing Point…………………….. 47
Poetry
“A Winter Peace Dance” by Joseph A. Amato…………………………………………………………….. 48
“Houdini’s Daughter by Victoria Tomasulo………………………………………………………….. 49
“Seam” by Sandra Marchetti…………………………………………………………… 50
“An Ordinary Life” by Angelo Verga………………………………………………………………… 51
“Western Wind” by Pat Valdata…………………………………………………………………… 52
“Consecration” by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell………………………………………………… 53
“Badge of Embarrassment” by Maria Mazziotti Gillan……………………………………………………. 54
“My Father’s Work” by Joan Mazza…………………………………………………………………… 55
“Cataract Surgery” by Maryfrances Wagner………………………………………………………. 56
“Geniza” by Marc Alan Di Martino…………………………………………………….. 57
“Pond” by John L. Stanizzi……………………………………………………………… 58
“this” by Laura Bonazzoli…………………………………………………………….. 59
FictIon and CreatIve Non-FIctIon
“Italian Impressions of South Florida (with some South Floridian impressions of Italy)” by Emanuele Pettener…………………………………………………………. 63
“Chiusa Sclafani” by Michela Valmori…………………………………………………………….. 69
“Destinations” by Catherine Moderalli Hardy………………………………………………. 75
Reviews
Review Essay: War and Peace in a Hidden Gem of Italian-American Literature Io, pacifista in trincea: Un italoamericano nella Grande guerra by Vincenzo D’Aquila edited and translated by Claudio Staiti
Review Essay by Costantino Pischedda……………………………….. 79
The Winter without Spring by Rina Ferrarelli
Review Essay by John Paul Russo……………………………………………… 82
Blurred Nationalities across the North Atlantic: Traders, Priests, and Their Kin Travelling between North America and the Italian Peninsula, 1763- 1846 by Luca Codignola
Review by Maria Serena Marchesi……………………………………………… 88
Coal War in the Mahoning Valley: The Origin of Greater Youngstown’s Italians by Joe Tucciarone and Ben Lariccia
Review by Melissa E. Marinaro…………………………………………………. 89
Charcoal and Blood: Italian Immigrants in Eureka, Nevada and the Fish Creek Massacre by Silvio Manno
Review by Michael LaRosa………………………………………………………. 91
Italian American Cultural Fictions: From Diaspora to Globalization by Francesca de Lucia
Review by Ferdinando Fasce…………………………………………………….. 92
The Mediterranean Dreamed and Lived by Insiders and Outsiders edited by Antonio C. Vitti and Anthony Julian Tamburri
Review by Maria Galli Stampino……………………………………………….. 93
Ralph W. Curtis, un pittore americano a Venezia by Rosella Mamoli Zorzi
Review by Dorothy Jean McKetta………………………………………………………………………… 95
The Catholic Writer Today and Other Essays by Dana Gioia
Review by John C. Pinheiro……………………………………………………… 96
Bitter Chicory to Sweet Espresso by Carmine Vittoria
Review by Philip Cioffari…………………………………………………………. 97
If Anyone Asks, Say I Died from the Heartbreaking Blues by Philip Cioffari
Review by Marisa Labozzetta……………………………………………………………………………. 99
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames
Review by RoseAnna Mueller…………………………………………………. 101
Some Glad Morning by Barbara Crooker
Review by Maria Anita Stefanelli
Letter from the Editor
Carla A. Simonini
Dear Readers:
We are very pleased to feature bring you the Winter 2020 issue of Italian Americana. For this issue, our third to be published in association with the Italian American Studies Program at the University of Loyola Chicago, we have selected a group of distinct articles, each in some way connected to the city of Chicago. Our first article, a work of literary criticism, connects the Italian-American experience to Chicago via Finland. Sirpa Salenius, a scholar of Transatlantic, race and gender studies currently teaching at the University of Eastern Finland, brings us an essay exploring “notions of space and questions of identity” in Tina DeRosa’s novel Paper Fish. Many of our readers are likely familiar with DeRosa’s expressive novel, which draws on the author’s own childhood memories of Taylor Street’s Little Italy in Chicago.
Our second article conversely connects to Chicago not through its subject matter, which propels us due west to Seattle, Washington, but through its author. Raffaele DiZenzo is a professor emeritus of Loyola University Chicago, who brings us a biographical sketch of Giuseppe De Simone, a lesser-known Italian American who not only realized personal success in the early twentieth century but is considered one of the “founding fathers” of Seattle for his contributions to the establishment of the Pike Place Farmer’s market and, later, the development of the Boeing Company.
Finally, our third article is brought to us by an historian from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata.” Elisabetta Marino explores the history of Italians in Chicago, and the ways in which the city’s Italian-American legacy has been preserved, remembered, and commemorated. She devotes particular attention to the Casa Italia Italian Cultural Center in the Chicago village of Stone Park. Marino not only enticingly describes the contents of Casa Italia’s numerous collections and archives, but also analyzes the role they play in preserving Italian-American culture in the greater Chicagoland area.
In our poetry section for this issue, editor Maria Terrone features the award-winning poet Elton Glaser, a native of New Orleans and descendent from that city’s vibrant Sicilian community. In his personal essay he relates his Sicilian heritage to his gastronomic memories, including a rustic bread prepared by his grandmother and aunts that he has been unable to find on Google. I would suggest that his equally un-Google-able ancestral town in Sicily may in fact be the small town of Contessa Entellina, in the province of Palermo. If so, Glaser’s Italian roots may spring from the arbëreshe, an Albanian ethnolinguistic group in Southern Italy who are known as the Albanians of Italy or Italo-Albanians. I would encourage the poet to search further! Maybe he will find his grandmother’s bread in a panificio arbëreshe (an Arbëreshe bread shop).
Our other twelve poems represent a breadth of styles and subject matter, reflective of the ever-increasing number of poetry submissions we have been receiving. The same is true of our creative writing section. This issue Christine Palamidessi has chosen three complementary pieces, each from a different genre. Emanuele Pettener’s personal essay opens the section with his thoughtful reflections on his journey from Italy to South Florida, via West Lafayette, Indiana. Across his life’s journey he has come to identify himself as an Italian American, and from this hybrid sense of self has come to see and appreciate both the United State and Italy in new and often unexpected ways.
Michela Valmori’s work of short fiction “Chiusa Sclafani” also probes the issue of Italian-American identity, but through a more mystical lens. How much does the understanding of ourselves reside in knowing the facts, and how much permeates our unconscious? And which of the two is more real? Completing our creative trio of works, “Destinations” by Catherine Moderalli Hardy considers what may be termed the transnational condition. A chance meeting on an airplane provides the writer with an occasion to reflect on the theme of “destination,” and how encounters with different people in different places propel us along the way.
Finally, John Paul Russo has once again brought together an exceptional selection of book reviews including historical monographs, biographies, novels, a poetry anthology and a collection of critical essays. No doubt among these reviews our readers will find some new works that they will wish to purchase and read for themselves.
In closing, I would like to once again express my heartfelt gratitude to all of our section editors: Maria Terrone, Christine Palamidessi, and John Paul Russo. Special thanks goes to Thomas Slagle, who continues to provide exceptional support to Italian Americana with his fine attention to detail in every phase of the journal’s production. We are very pleased that he has agreed to continue in this role even as he pursues his doctoral studies in the Literacy, Rhetoric, and Social Practice program at Kent State University. Tom, I don’t know what I would do without you!