Mini-Documentary about The Relationship of Italo-Americans and More Recent Italian Immigrants with the United States
Between 1880 and 1921, Italian immigration to the US reached its peak. At that time, 4.2 million Italians came to America. (Global Boston, 2015). In the process of assimilation, Italians rejected their immigrant past in some ways. For example, immigrant future generations forgot their parents’ mother tongue. But, they also held on to other aspects of their heritage, like ethnic cuisine, specific religious holidays, and family traditions. Each immigrant group possesses its strategies for survival and success. For Italians, theirs rested upon two pillars: work and family. (Cannato, 2015). Nowadays, in a globalized world, this dynamic of adaptation is much different. Already well-established Italo-American families and communities have a completely different relationship with the US. In this documentary, I interviewed Carmela Furio, an Italian American, and Cinzia Sartini Blum, an Italian professor at the University of Iowa, originally from Tuscany, to understand their relationship with the United States.