What Does It Mean To Be Italian?
Weilà weilà raga! This blog post corresponds to my video of the same title you can watch here. I’m going to be discussing the same ideas I spoke about in the video, this time in English. With difficult-to-explain topics, such as this one, it helps to have both the written and spoken word. What’s more, in this situation we’ll have both Italian and English options too to work with.
As I mentioned in the video, identity - and more specifically - cultural identity is a layered topic. Every individual will have their own relationship to their cultural identity and it will change over time. I believe our cultural identity is greatly influenced and shaped by our lived experience, so there is no single or easy answer to a question like “What Does It Mean To Be Italian?”
A professor of mine put it so eloquently for me: our relationship with our culture is an ongoing discussion. There is no one point in time in which you just sort of stay put, have all the answers, and just ruminate in that. Rather, as you are constantly growing and evolving as a person, so too will your relationship with cultural identity and identity as a whole.
In another video I made discussing a similar topic (which you can watch here), I compared cultural identity to the different hats we wear in life. For example, I am a brother, a cousin, a friend, a colleague, a student, a teacher - the list goes on! With each hat I wear, with each role I play, I essentially have a different identity. More precisely, it’s not that my overall identity changes and I transform into a different person given the hat I’m wearing, rather, different sides of who I am are able to shine or become more prevalent depending on the context. It’s a pretty beautiful thing when you think about it.
In the video that corresponds to this blog post, I used the analogy of a small town person from a fictional town called Weilà who moves to the big city. Picture this: you and everyone around you grew up and lived for most of life in the same small town. You’re all pretty similar and on the same page given your shared lived experience. When you need something down at town hall, you go see your dad’s buddy who works there. At the local shop in town, your older brother’s former classmate works there and always helps you when you need to buy something. What you consider normal is based on your experience living in the small town of Weilà. You feel very much weilaese and that is the lens through which you view life.
One day, you decide to move out to the big city. At first, it’s a culture shock because everything is so different: people in the big city act differently, treat you differently, and you’ve got to learn how to adapt to the city’s ways if you want to make it there. Long gone are the days of just dealing with dad’s buddy at city hall or your brother’s classmate at the local shop.
After about 10 years living in the big city, you’ve changed. You’re older, learned a lot, and you’ve grown as a person. Your life and world view are much bigger than when you just knew your small town of Weilà. You may not realize how much you’ve changed until you go back to Weilà to visit. Suddenly, everyone is quick to point out how much you’ve changed: they notice you talk differently, have a different accent, you carry yourself like a big city kid, and you even have a new hairstyle! Your fellow weilaesi then tell you, “who do you think you are acting all like this? What’s happened to you? You’re not some big city kid, you’re one of us! You’re weilaese!”
But are you, really? I think this analogy gets to the heart of what we’re discussing both here in this blog post and in the corresponding video. I’d say, yes - of course you’re still weilaese, its where you’re originally from and its always going to be a part of you. But, you’re also more than just weilaese; your lived experience has shaped you into who you are today. So you’re weilaese, but with a twist! I believe we are the sum of everything we do, everywhere we go, and everyone we meet. In other words, we’re too dynamic to just be put into one box. That doesn’t mean that box can’t still apply to us, it’s just a part of who we are rather than all of who we are.
When it comes to me and how I answer the question “What does it mean to be Italian,” I’ve got a two pronged response: firstly, an Italian is someone born and raised in Italy, speaks Italian, comes from an Italian family, lives, studies, works, and carries out life in Italy. It’s also someone with an Italian mentality and embodies the overall Italian way of living, as Italians have come to generally accept/agree on and act out as a society. I think a definition like this is important. We need to have bedrock concepts we can hold on to. But at the same time, I think its important to acknowledge things may start off as this, but can have additions or exceptions that add more accurate color to a picture. That’s why I also believe that is not the only definition of an Italian. An Italian can also be someone who has all, some, or even just a few of those characteristics, but who lives in Italy and over time becomes like someone who checks off all of those boxes. As the saying goes (and forgive the perhaps bluntness of the expression), “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”
What about how I feel about my cultural identity? I feel American, Italian, Italian American, like someone that could be from any part of the world that just so happens to have Italian heritage, and - perhaps most accurately (at least, at this point in my life) - I feel like a “New York Italian.” Given my lived experience growing up in New York in a family run by my Italian grandparents who shared with me their food, language, mentality, stories of their childhood, morals, values, and traditions, I feel this term is pretty accurate and it resonates with me.
For me, there is no one word I can use to describe myself. While I always begin with American as the first characteristic of my cultural identity, there is always a comma afterwards given my lived experience. Beyond my family and childhood, when I was just 13 I decided to start studying Italian and completely immersed myself in the Italian world. From that point onwards, I have been living alongside both Americans and Italians on a daily basis. This dualistic way of living is why I feel I can identify with both Americans and Italians. Both cultures had a major impact on me from a very young age and continue to do so to this day. I identify more with Americans and feel I am much more American than I am Italian. I also identify with the concept of Italian American and think that identity is pretty cool. The only specification I would make as far as Italian American goes is that I’m Italian American more on the Italian side given my lived experience.
As you can see, it’s never easy to talk about cultural identity as it is so layered. But, I’m very happy to discuss this idea as I find it fascinating and I enjoy trying to reason it out, both in my mind and out loud with all of you. It is thanks to all of the discussions I’ve had over the years and those that I continue to have today that I am able to form these ideas and better understand what I think and feel. As such, please feel free to share what you think with me, I’d love to get your take on this and would be happy to continue to explore these ideas with you in the future!
Always remember to spread the love!