This Mother’s Day Weekend….here’s why Italian moms are the best

I was digging through recipes trying to find an Italian breakfast cake to serve my mom for Mother’s Day, when I realized that why would I cook or bake for the best cook and baker I know. It might actually be an insult. (The vintage ad image above is meant to be ironic! Just a note!)

So how does one celebrate an Italian mom on Mother’s Day or Feste della Mamma? Besides a small gift (that I can’t mention here right now), I’ll take the time to remember why Italian mothers are so great and hope my own mother is reading this.

1. The food. Lots of food.
2. Love. Lots and lots of love.
3. Passion. Whether in happiness or in madness, they give their all.
4. Her house is my house. It always feels like home.
5. Advice. They are full of it and always ready to listen.

Don’t take my word for it? Well, there’s been a lot of talk in the media lately about which cultures have the best mothers (Chinese and Jewish for example). Writer Joe Queenan from the Wall Street Journal penned “Why Italian Moms are the Best” and got quite the reaction from even more mothers that think their culture does it better. Here’s what he wrote:

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An Italian-Canadian girl’s birthday wish list

I’m a little behind on the blog already this May – I’m celebrating three weddings, six birthdays, two mother’s days and one 40th anniversary so it’s a little busy. But that’s what comes with big Italian families and I love it just the same.

So I’m just going to go out there and say it. It’s my birthday today. Let’s not get into age (particularly the differences between Italian and Canadian birthdays, where the Italian one always puts me a year older), but let’s just say it’s a day to reflect on what has passed and what’s to come. This blog has been an adventure this year and there’s lots to come from it too. So let’s mix birthday with blogging and here’s what we get.

An Italian-Canadian girl’s birthday wish list:

1. I wish for the days of “just dropping by.” I remember a childhood when everyone – siblings, cousins, friends – just dropped by. My grandparent’s house always had a different car in the driveway and a lot of chatter on the back patio. It’s how I remember a lot of summers. It doesn’t seem like anyone just drops by anymore to anyone’s house or maybe I’m remembering with rose-coloured glasses. There’s always scheduling and calling, checking calendars. Maybe we’re all too busy or maybe it’s all just too much effort these days to get off track by a surprise visitor. But I wish for the days with a full house and people just coming by to chat. I wish that I could make my life open to that.

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An Italian-Canadian reading list: books about history, community and creativity

It’s the beginning of May! I had a lot of lofty resolutions five months ago when 2012 started including a goal to read 50 books by December 31. I’ve made the pile of 50 from my own bookshelf alone as I have an affinity for buying books, constantly, and then never getting around to reading them. Some of the books on my shelf have an Italian-Canadian focus, and given my post a few weeks ago about the new books that came out about the internment of Italian-Canadians during WWII, it got me thinking about creating an Italian-Canadian reading list.

The Italian-Canadian books I already have are definitely on my list of “to read”, and I’ll write about them as I get through them, but I was also interested in finding new books and different perspectives. Turns out, Italian-Canadians do a lot of writing! Fiction and poetry are a big part of this collection, and not just Nino Ricci, which was great to see. While I can find records of journal articles and books about Italian-Canadian life, immigration and services all the way back to 1929, I’ve tried to select books that are a bit more modern (1995 and onward).

Here’s An Italian-Canadian Life’s suggested reading list:

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The Internment of Italian-Canadians during WWII

Last month, it was hard to miss all the news about WWII for those of us in the Italian-Canadian community. That may seem strange, but last month saw the release of a number of projects that documented how Italian-Canadians were treated during that tense time in Canadian, and world, history. The internment of Italian-Canadians during WWII is now documented well, where very little was available before.

For those who haven’t read about it, or attended one of the events, and for my readers who many not be familiar with this topic, I thought I would cover it here and point to all the new resources available to find out more about the history of Italians in Canada. WWII saw the toughest of times for Italians.

In June of 1940, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King declared war on Mussolini’s Fascist government.  Days later the Canadian Minister of Justice signed an order that resulted in labelling thousands of Italian-Canadians as enemy aliens. During this time, 31,000 were were fingerprinted, photographed and ordered to report monthly to the police. Approximately 600+ Italian-Canadian men were interned at camps in rural areas for years, most never even charged with a crime. The remote camps were in Petawawa, Ontario, Kananaskis, Alberta, and Fredericton, New Brunswick, operating from 1940 to 1945. Before and after this internment, Italians were treated harshly. There was public hostility, ethnic slurs and Italian businesses were boycotted. In addition, many men and women lost their jobs. Thousands of Italian-Canadian families were denied relief across Ontario, and forbidden to speak Italian and congregate in groups larger than five.

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Store, storo or negozio? The Back Story of Italiese

I’ve been itching to see something new. Get away and plan a vacation. While we’ve been planning, we’ve been joking around and it brought up  a word my grandmother used to use: vacationa. I’m sure you won’t find that in a dictionary anywhere, but let’s use it in a sentence as Nanna would have (I never called her Nonna): “Where you go on vacationa?” Neither Italian nor Canadian, it was her word from vacation and it stood in the middle of two languages and two cultures. It was, and is, Italiese.

I love these altered words used by older Italians…ones that have found their way into my own Italian language knowledge as well. Beyond them being adored by Italian-Canadians, the creation of  new words is also worthy of academic study. From the inner workings of the Internet, I found a paper from 1984 documenting the development and use of Italiese: “Canadian Italian: a Case in Point of How Language Adapts to Environment.” Here’s their definition of the new words Italian immigrants created as they settled in Canada:

The Canadian version of Italian (and its dialects) constitutes a case of what linguists commonly refer to as an “ethnic dialect” or ethnolect, of the mother tongue….Known vicariously as italiese (a blend of italiano and inglese “English”) or Italo-Canadian.

You can check out the full paper, but here’s my sum up with some words and how they have changed:

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Join the Italian-Canadian community online

Since starting this blog, I’ve found many other Italian-Canadians online sharing their views, lives and thoughts. It’s been great to find this community and add to it. You should get involved too! You’ll find out about events in the community, be able to share opinions about what’s going on in Canada and Italy, even find recipes that you had long lost.

Today, I’ve also added a new section to An Italian Canadian Life: Community Links. Here I’ve listed Italian-Canadian organizations  and associations that promote Italian-Canadian community and culture within Canada and have an online presence. This is the only national Italian-Canadian community listing available online, but it is still a work in progress so check back for updates. If you would like to be added, or change the listing, send me a note. Also listed are some international associations that may be of interest to Italian-Canadian communities.

But I also wanted to draw attention today to some fabulous Italian-Canadian bloggers and tweeters sharing the Italian-Canadian voice online.

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Italian Preserving: food, family and heritage

As spring and summer approach, I’ve been thinking a lot about Italian preserving and canning techniques. Italians who went abroad, like us here in Canada, have maintained many traditions from our former country including preserving meats, vegetables and fruits. While preserving has come back into style due to economic conditions here in North America, Italian-Canadian families are blessed with the knowledge and experience of years of preserving everything including tomatoes and beyond.

It’s said that many in Italy have left this tradition behind, as have those of us that are now third generation Italian-Canadian. However, even I, as a young Italian-Canadian, am hoping to keep the preserving of our foods, and yes, our heritage, much a way of life. I have a few reasons for doing this…

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Italian Folktales – lessons from hardship

My grandfather had a saying, in deep Calabrese dialect (such that I can say it but can’t figure out how to properly spell it), that “a full stomach, not a clean white shirt, makes you sing.” So many of his stories, and the stories of many other Nonni currently here in Canada tell, come from a place of hardship, from all the reasons why they left Italy.

There are many other stories told in my family that brought me to an interest in Italian folktales, that I worry sometimes are left behind in our memories. As a writer, I’m interested in the stories as they are told and the morals that are common in our culture. As with most folklore, Italian folktales focus on the religious or the mythical tied to an everyday experience. Italo Calvino‘s Italian Folktales, published in 1956, is a large collection of Italian folktales that range from simple country-side stories to ones that involve magic and royalty. While I’m still trying to decode the message in some of the stories, many of them echo sentiments I had heard from my grandparents about honour, struggle, distrust of leaders (whether religious or otherwise), and so on.

From Italo Calvino‘s Italian Folktales, here is a sample of those morals and messages that Italian storytellers, which is essentially each one of us, loved to share:

Giufà, fool that he was, never got invited anywhere or asked to honor anyone with his company. Once he went to a farm to see if they would give him something, but noticing how slovenly he was, they sicked the dogs on him. His mother then bought him a fine topcoat, a pair of pants and a velvet vest. Now dressed as a country gentleman, Giufà returned to the same farm. They made a big to-do over him, invited him to sit down to the table with them, and quite turned his head with all their compliments. When they served him, Giufà carried food to his mouth with one hand; with the other he stuffed food into all his pockets as well as his hat saying, “Eat your fill, my fine clothes, for they invited you, not me!”