NEWS Bollettino Highlights In Touch New on the Website Calendar Winners

BOOK REVIEW: Grandmothers, Mothers, and Daughters: Life Stories of Italian American Women www.italianamericanwomen.com Growing Up and Growing Old in Boston's North End: An Oral History Approach to a Study of Italian-American Women Boston College, 1999. 283 pp. Both by Anita Maria De Felice The importance of oral history to preserve the rich cultural and social history of Italian Americans cannot be emphasized enough. Besides adding much to our historical knowledge, the personal stories of Italian American immigrants and their descendents contribute much to our understanding of what it means to be Italian and American in the United States. Fortunately, historians, sociologists, and academics have been collecting such stories for decades, saving the personal memories and histories of many Italian Americans. However, unfortunately, too many times, these stories remain in library or museum archives, and unless printed by some small press, difficult for the average person to access. Foreseeing this problem, Anita Maria De Felice decided to make the best use of modern technology and created an Internet website, entitled Grandmothers, Mothers, and Daughters: Life Stories of Italian American Women, to share the stories she had collected from Italian American women. This website contains many personal stories, collected by De Felice in interviews, that illustrate the personal struggles and triumphs of Italian American women. It also illustrates the important roles women play in Italian American culture. Here's how De Felice explains the origins of Grandmothers, Mothers, and Daughters: Life Stories of Italian American Women: . . . during my graduate studies in sociology at Boston College I decided to make Italian-American women the focus of my Master's Thesis research. This decision was undoubtedly driven by my desire to further understand my roots and my heritage. However, it was also driven by something else. For decades sociologists and social historians either ignored or inadequately addressed the lives of Italian immigrant women and the lives of their Italian-American daughters and granddaughters. Social scientists apparently considered women's experiences, expectations, and contributions to be insignificant-unworthy of representation or analysis. Or perhaps sociologists and historians were not "intellectually cognizant" of the Italian woman's existence. In other words, they simply did not "see" her as a separate entity requiring consideration in her own right. Thus, I wanted to "give a voice" to Italian and Italian-American women-to the grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. After completing my thesis (entitled Growing up and Growing Old in Boston's North End: An Oral History Approach to a Study of Italian-American Women) and receiving my Master's Degree, I wanted to ensure that these wonderful, vivid stories would not languish in the Boston College archives or sit in boxes in my basement, rarely to be read. I began to ponder ways to make the oral histories available to a wider audience, to share the life stories of Italian-American women with others. Thus was born the concept for this website. Eventually, my "mission" grew from publishing the seventeen life stories I had already collected to gathering additional life stories from other Italian and Italian-American women throughout the country, using Internet technology. De Felice's website contains many interviews that illustrate the struggles and triumphs of Italian American women. These women often worked hard both at home and on the job. When times were tough, these women were not only wives and mothers but also employees in the various factories that were the backbone of the American economy. Elena's story illustrates the difficult times these women often faced: I went to work at fourteen years old, you know. And I worked in a sweatshop. At fourteen years old I worked forty-eight hours for $6.44 a week. [Elena is very animated here.] And it was a candy factory . . . I worked all my life in the candy factory, all my life. I got married and I was still working in another candy factory afterwards. Because [the first] place had shut down and another company came and took all the people from there. They knew what we did and what we didn't [do]...So I stayed at the candy place but it was a different environment, different machines afterwards, you know. But very, very, very heavy, hard work. You know, [when I was] growing up work was different. We couldn't have a say as a worker. Never, never. When you saw the boss, you started to tremble, you know. The stories on De Felice's website also illustrate the important roles women play in Italian American culture. Often historians focus on the roles of men as leaders in the development of a community or a culture, but De Felice's work shows how important women are in the Italian American community. In another interview, Domenica explains the central role her mother played in the decision-making in the household: I think my mother did more [decision-making]. My father would go along with her. He was the peaceful type. He worked, gave her all his pay. I think she was the stronger force, but she wouldn't let you know it was her. But we knew, we knew. What she said, went. My father wouldn't [contradict], he was real quiet, and he was a hard worker. If my mother said, "No, you can't do it," he went along with her.... She was the stronger force, in controlling us kids, telling us what to do. Teaching us how to sew, cook and clean. My father gave her all the money he made. She ran the house, you know....He made her handle everything. I could see that. If she said no, it was no. He would never contradict her. Because he trusted her, you know. Besides the rich collection of stories, Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters also has other interesting features, such as a page devoted to recipes, several pages of photographs, and a page with Internet links for further exploration. To further develop the site's archive of stories, De Felice also allows visitors to submit their own stories to the website. De Felice's thesis, Growing up and Growing Old in Boston's North End: An Oral History Approach to a Study of Italian-American Women, collects the stories of second generation Italian American women from Boston's North end. In it, she "indicates the continued importance of the family among Italian-Americans and suggests the centrality of women within that institution. The findings further suggest that women wielded more power than previously indicated by some sociologists . . ." It is available both from Boston College and online. (Simply type the title into a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, to find the appropriate Boston College site.) Readers will find both De Felice's website and thesis important additions to our understanding of the roles women have played in Italian American society. Her work is an important reminder of the central place of women in Italian American culture. By sharing the stories she has collected, De Felice has preserved the memories of these important women for future generations. Italian Catholic Federation, 8393 Capwell Drive, Suite 110, Oakland CA 94621 tel: 888/ICF-1924; 510/633-9058; fax: 510/633-9758; Email: info@icf.org Website designed by HYPERSPHERE