{"id":1377,"date":"2019-11-15T16:54:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/italianamericana.ysu.edu\/wordpress\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2019-11-15T16:54:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T16:54:22","slug":"volume-xxxv-no-2-summer-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/?p=1377","title":{"rendered":"Volume XXXV No. 2 Summer 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Letter from the Editor\u00a0 107<\/li>\n<li>Notes on Contributors\u00a0 111<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThat\u2019s Your Uncle? He\u2019s White!\u201d \u201cYeah, A Long Time\u201d: Negotiating Whiteness in the Rocky\/Creed Series<br \/>\n<em>Stephen Hock\u00a0 <\/em>117<\/li>\n<li>White Ethnic Racial Backlash and Black Millennial Counter-narrative: Intersections of Race and Masculinity in Sylvester Stallone\u2019s <em>Rocky<\/em> Series and Ryan Kyle Coogler\u2019s <em>Creed<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Jessica Maucione\u00a0 <\/em>141<\/li>\n<li>Stallone\u2019s Creed<br \/>\n<em>Stephen Hock\u00a0 <\/em>155<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Interviews<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"leaders space list\">\n<li>Bill Conti: Gonna Fly Now<br \/>\n<em>Carla Simonini\u00a0 <\/em>181<\/li>\n<li>Ray &#8216;Boom Boom&#8217; Mancini<br \/>\n<em>Ben Lariccia\u00a0 <\/em>195<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Poetry<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"leaders space list\">\n<li>Featured Poet Maria Mazziotti Gillan\n<ul>\n<li>Essay: How I Learned What It Means To Be Italian\u00a0 205<\/li>\n<li>My Appetite for Words is Boundless\u00a0 207<\/li>\n<li>The Sky in San Mauro\u00a0 208<\/li>\n<li>What My Father Taught Me\u00a0 209<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Acts of Contrition<br \/>\n<em>Michael Gino LoStracco\u00a0 <\/em>210<\/li>\n<li>The Grape Arbor<br \/>\n<em>Jennifer Martelli\u00a0 <\/em>211<\/li>\n<li>Aria<br \/>\n<em>Stacy Nigliazzo\u00a0 <\/em>212<\/li>\n<li>Steps to Climb<br \/>\n<em>Paola Corso\u00a0 <\/em>213<\/li>\n<li>Undone<br \/>\n<em>Rosemary Starace\u00a0 <\/em>214<\/li>\n<li>The Italian Literature Professor Recalls the Infinity of Desire<br \/>\n<em>Kevin Clark\u00a0 <\/em>215<\/li>\n<li>Ode to the Outdoor Shower<br \/>\n<em>Ethan Joella\u00a0 <\/em>216<\/li>\n<li>Mary<br \/>\n<em>Maria Giura\u00a0 <\/em>217<\/li>\n<li>The Labyrinth at First United Church<br \/>\n<em>Albert DeGenova\u00a0 <\/em>218<\/li>\n<li>Office Visit<br \/>\n<em>Mike Rose\u00a0 <\/em>219<\/li>\n<li>What Quickens the Blood<br \/>\n<em>Michelle Reale\u00a0 <\/em>220<\/li>\n<li>Bromco Grater<br \/>\n<em>Maryfrances Cusumano Wagner\u00a0 <\/em>221<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Creative Non-fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Rock Star Grandma<br \/>\n<em>Joan Leotta\u00a0 <\/em>233<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>Review Essay: Bicycle Thieves by Mary di Michele<br \/>\n<em>Review by Eleonora Rao\u00a0 <\/em>239<\/li>\n<li>Review Essay: The Bronx Kill by Philip Cioffari<br \/>\n<em>Review by James Nicola\u00a0 <\/em>242<\/li>\n<li>Review Essay: Il porto di imbarco di Messina by Sebastiano Marco Cicci\u00f2<br \/>\n<em>Review by John Paul Russo\u00a0 <\/em>245<\/li>\n<li>Asonius: Moselle, Epigrams and Other Poems, translated by Deborah Warren with an introduction and notes by Joseph Pucci<br \/>\n<em>Review by Bijan Omrani\u00a0 <\/em>248<\/li>\n<li>Italian Women at War: Sisters in Arms from the Unification to the Twentieth Century<br \/>\n<em>Review by Catherine Ramsey-Portolano\u00a0 <\/em>249<\/li>\n<li>Storia vera terribile tra Sicilia e America by Enrico Deaglio<br \/>\n<em>Review by Stefano Luconi\u00a0 <\/em>251<\/li>\n<li>In una casa un\u2019altra casa trovo. Autobiografia di un poeta di due terre<br \/>\nby Joseph Tusiani<br \/>\n<em>Review by Andrea Ciribuco\u00a0 <\/em>252<\/li>\n<li>My Three Sicilies: Stories, Poems, and Histories by Joseph Amato<br \/>\n<em>Review by Robert Risso\u00a0 <\/em>254<\/li>\n<li>Pre-Occupied Spaces: Remapping Italy\u2019s Transnational Migrations and Colonial Legacies by Teresa Fiore<br \/>\n<em>Review by Michael J. LaRosa\u00a0 <\/em>255<\/li>\n<li>Bloodletting in Minor Scales [A Canvas in Arms] by Justin Limoli<br \/>\n<em>Review by Peter Convino\u00a0 <\/em>256<\/li>\n<li>Ma Speaks Up and a First-generation Daughter Talks Back<br \/>\n<em>Review by Carol Bonomo Albright\u00a0 <\/em>257<\/li>\n<li>The Fabric of my Soul. Poems by Venera Fazio<br \/>\n<em>Review by Salvatore Marano\u00a0 <\/em>259<\/li>\n<li>Thieves Never Steal in the Rain by Marisa Labozzetta<br \/>\n<em>Review by Lisa Marchi\u00a0 <\/em>260<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Letter from the Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Carla A. Simonini<\/p>\n<p>Dear Readers,<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the Winter 2017 issue of Italian Americana! This issue goes to press at a formative juncture in U.S. immigration politics, falling as it does on the heels of President Trump\u2019s executive order, which bars for 90 days people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen), bans all refugees for 120 days, and Syrian refugees indefinitely. At the time of this writing several lawsuits have been filed against the president\u2019s order on the grounds that it is illegal and unconstitutional, and a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling to suspend it. Proponents of the ban claim that the president has the executive power to enact orders aimed at protecting its citizens from terrorist attacks and that the ban effectively represents a prudent and necessary measure in support of our national security. Opponents, meanwhile, cite both legal and moral grounds, arguing that it not only violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality or place of origin, but also betrays our fundamental American values as a nation founded by immigrants. As Harvard professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has stated, \u201cif you scratch an American family, sooner or later, you\u2019ll find an immigrant ancestor.\u201d It should be noted that the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act was enacted as a response to and remediation of previous restrictive immigration acts based on quota systems. In a highly symbolic gesture, President Johnson signed it into law at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, signaling a new era aimed at righting the injustices and discriminatory practices that characterized previous U.S. immigration policy and the treatment of resident aliens in the U.S. We would do well to reflect that one of the groups that was negatively affected by early restrictive immigration legislation was the Italian-American community.<\/p>\n<p>The two articles we have chosen for the current issue in fact deal with episodes of discrimination against Italian Americans that have been largely overlooked by historians and forgotten in our cultural memory. Patrizia Fama Stahle\u2019s scholarly article analyzes the diplomatic crises, which swirled around the lynching of Italian immigrant laborers in the United States before World War I and the question of whether there should be a federal anti-lynching law. Roslyn Bernstein\u2019s journalistic piece, \u201cEnemy Alien: The Unresolved Case of Vincenzo Beltrone,\u201d meanwhile, examines the arrest, conviction and internment of poet and journalist Vincenzo Beltrone as an alien enemy during World War II. Despite contradictory evidence as to the extent of and the threat posed by the \u201canti-American\u201d activities for which he was convicted and the fact that he had spent \u201call of his conscious life\u201d living in the U.S. and had initially applied for citizenship in 1937\u2014four years before his arrest\u2014his post-war petitions for citizenship were summarily denied and he died never having been recognized as a citizen of the country to which he consistently proclaimed his loyalty.<\/p>\n<p>In our other sections, the poetry review team, led by editor Maria Terrone, has once again selected and organized an array of expressive and compelling poems. Featured poet Anne Marie Macari, in her introductory essay \u201cBeginnings,\u201d reflects on the importance of story-telling and the transmission of oral history within the Italian-American family, a theme which resonates with the investigation of the historical events recounted in the articles referenced above. She writes, \u201cThere are times when you know that you must break open the narrative you have made of your life, to question the things you believe and the direction you are going.\u201d I feel it would behoove us all, descendants of immigrants, to turn a critical eye towards the experiences that shaped our ancestors\u2019 American journey and led us to the position of privilege we occupy today in U.S. society.<\/p>\n<p>Our creative works feature Toti O\u2019Brien\u2019s memoir \u201cNotes on a Culinary Education,\u201d in which the author explores how her Italian ethnic heritage has nourished her, both literally and figuratively, through the acts and rituals surrounding the preparation and consumption of biancomangiare (meringue). Basil Rosa\u2019s short story \u201cWhy the Good are Needed\u201d similarly focuses on food and nourishment in relation to the Italian-American family, opening with reflections on the narrator\u2019s childhood hunger, played out against his mother\u2019s insistence that he find and bring home his drunkard father before the family can sit and eat. Our \u201cBook Review\u201d section, under the astute direction of John Paul Russo, offers reviews of fourteen different works, ranging from poetry anthologies and novels to scholarly works rooted in the humanities, social sciences and literature.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in keeping with our commitment to examine in each issue an aspect of the Italian-American experience in Youngstown, OH, the journal\u2019s host city, we have included a review of filmmaker Eric Murphy\u2019s documentary Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown and a brief interview with the filmmaker. Murphy\u2019s documentary presents the life and times of James (Jim) Anthony Traficant, Jr. (1941-2014), the controversial U.S. Congressman from Youngstown, Ohio who served in the House of Representatives from January 3, 1985 to July 24, 2002. Of Italian and Slovak ancestry, Traficant was known for his flamboyant style and populist politics, which included wearing unstylish ties, positioning himself as an outsider &#8220;Bangin&#8217; away in D.C.&#8221; and a strong stance in favor of immigration restriction and stronger sanctions on illegal immigrants. Traficant was eventually expelled from Congress after being convicted of racketeering in 2002, but retained a strong cadre of supporters and an active voice in local politics up until his premature death in 2014. In many ways, Traficant can be viewed as a precursor to our current political state. What can we learn by examining the arc of his career, and how can we interpret his respective accomplishments and foibles?<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, I would once again like to thank all the members of the editorial team, led by John Paul Russo, Maria Terrone and Christine Palamidessi Moore, my chair Dr. John Sarkissian, my intrepid and incredibly talented editorial assistant Tom Slagle, and all the members of the advisory board for their dedication and contributions to the Winter 2017 issue. In light of the current debate on U.S. policy regarding immigration, I encourage our readers to further explore Italian-American history and how the U.S. government has viewed and treated Italian immigrants in past decades. Anthony Tamburri\u2019s recently published article (available online) \u201cWhen We Were the Muslims: President Trump\u2019s Executive Order and the Immigrant History of my Grandmother,\u201d is a good place to start.<\/p>\n<p>I thank our readers for their continued support. For up-dates and information on Italian Americana please consult our website: <a href=\"http:\/\/italianamericana.ysu.edu\/\">http:\/\/italianamericana.ysu.edu\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>Carla A. Simonini<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Table of Contents Letter from the Editor\u00a0 107 Notes on Contributors\u00a0 111 Articles \u201cThat\u2019s Your Uncle? He\u2019s White!\u201d \u201cYeah, A Long Time\u201d: Negotiating Whiteness in the Rocky\/Creed Series Stephen Hock\u00a0 117 White Ethnic Racial Backlash and Black Millennial Counter-narrative: Intersections of Race and Masculinity in Sylvester Stallone\u2019s Rocky Series and Ryan Kyle Coogler\u2019s Creed Jessica &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"readmore-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/?p=1377\">+<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-journals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.luc.edu\/italianamericana\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}