When these people start coming, Italy is not yet a country, process of unification began in 1859, not ending til 1919, groups of city states, but the US considers them by Northern “Italians” and Southern Italians.North Comprises Milan (banking), Venice (trading), and Florence (the Arts), we have positive preconceived notions about these immigrants.Highly skilled, bankers, traders, artists, educated, rich, dress well, look nice, light skinned (Some blonde and blue eyed), very cosmopolitan, fluent in other languages, A lot of the Northern Italians were protestant due to political issues with the papacy. Diverse, advanced, and essentially WhiteThis is one of the first groups that WASPs invited into our little club.Northern Italians in the Formative Wave1600s-1850, one of the few groups that came in besides WASPs and Africans in the formative wave, and this is a better time for Non WASP groups.Came over due to primogeniture in Italy, and their father or elder brothers give them money to get themselves here and buy land, some of the ONLY voluntary migrants, NOT pushed out of their country, of their own volition.Location – Actually follow “correctly” They don’t all live together, and not near the WASPS.Moves to California, most like Northern Italy in climate to produce fine grapes and olives for wine and oil, owned by Spain, so no WASPs there either.Also moved to Florida – Brought all the citrus fruits to this state, grapefruit, oranges, etc.Did NOT move here to avoid the WASPs, only because these had the proper climates.New York – Open pricey, fancy restaurants and specialized, expensive Grocery stores for the Dutch who love diversity in their area.Numbers – Only 26,000 came over, only an estimate because people can easily be misplaced in Florida and CaliforniaMost of them will have an accent, but learn English perfectly and WASPs think their accents are adorable, pretty much perfectly assimilated since the WASPs let them.Because they conformed to the four factors (Since most were even protestant) they were welcomed into the secret whitey club.They could have set positive stereotypes for Southern Italians, but they bad mouth the southerners, setting negative ones for these southerners, and WASPs are certain these guys suck because other Italians said they suck.Southern ItalyEverything South from Rome, including Sicilians even though they don’t want to be considered Italians.Rome, after falling still hasn’t picked itself up, it’s horrible, no one wants to visit, and Naples is a den of iniquity.Stereotypes? of the Southern ItaliansIlliterate – Don’t believe in education, think it’s horrifying. Trying to survive, so the kids go to the fields as soon as they can, therefore 80% illiteracy in southern Italy, couldn’t even sign their name when they got to Ellis Island, trueLowest Class, northerners call them “mongrels” (dogs) And a peasant is an individual who is a tenant farmer, caught in a cycle of poverty due to tenant farming, trueNon skilled farmers – a true stereotype, can’t do anything but farm“Darker” – Tend to be darker skinned, darker eyes, darker hair, truthNO MONEY (Quelle Horreur!) - truthConsidered “backwards”, referred to as mentally and physically retarded, falseLife in ItalyThe Family is the most important thing for Italians, the ONLY institution in Italy. In comparison, in the US, our institution is the Law/The Government, or Religion, people usually have religion in this country, some moral code made by whoever your leader is, Education, the belief you go to school and excel further with school.Southern Italians trust NO ONE but members of their family, which is why they don’t trust themselves to other institutions.Eg, even when you’re married to someone 30 years, you still keep an eye on her because she is not from the family. Or if you trip on a stone and see someone looking at you funny, they wished you to fall.Barely surviving, living in straw huts, so burned by the government, the school system (run by the pope), and the pope.Sort of the same family system as Chinese, patriarchal, women are only important for sex and procreation, off to the side, a man runs the family, but rather than the eldest male, it’s the strongest, both physically and mentally, usually your father, but may be your uncle, if that’s how it ends up.Two spheres of the family, public and private. Women are only part of the private sphere, don’t much leave the house, don’t talk to the neighbors, your dad picks out your husband, usually at birth EVERYTHING a woman does, men are in the public sphere, they work in the fields, factories, pick out husbands for their wives.they have to give honor to their family, do the right thing, you never shame your family, introduce themselves by their full names, to show the importance of their family, explaining to you, this is can include ALL familial names. If some mistake is made, like stealing, or falling on someone, you have wronged another family while shaming your family, called a Vendetta. These happen pretty easily, eg, Two men, both had too much to drink, talking how they shouldn’t be, when someone makes a joke about the momma, and now that man is dead to the first one, but not just the man, it’s his entire family. When he goes back to apologize however, he shames himself and his family and now THEY have a vendetta with the family that they apologized to because they had to shame themselves. (ERMAGERD STAHP) Vendettas carry from Italy to America, and are not necessarily violent, (although they sometimes are) but we promote the stereotype that they are.There’s also marriage, where Daughters are married off for resources, protection, etc. Usually married to MUCH older marriage because he has to prove himself to be worthy of this baby girl, usually about 18 at the birth of the daughter, because that is the age to prove themselves, married at about 13 years old.Daughters are raised to be a good wife in the other family, never truly part of the family because they are groomed for the other family. The family saves up for a VERY long time to throw the biggest party possible to show off your “wealth”. A girl wears her best dress, goes with only her father to her church, the groom goes with his father, the church gives their endorsement of the union (NOTE: NOT the actual marriage) then go to the massive wedding reception, the women in the Brides family, collect a box of things she’s
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