La Mia Strada (Directed by Michael DiLauro)

Post-Screening Discussion with the Director immediately following the film.

La Mia Strada is a feature-length documentary that offers a personal perspective on ethnicity and culture as it links ancient and contemporary Italian culture with its Italian-American counterpart. It’s a discovery of how fragile the bonds are that connect a family from generation to generation, from country to country, even as they search for ways to adapt to an ever-changing world. Over a period of years, the filmmaker has conducted dozens of interviews, explored historical sites, sifted through archaeological artifacts, dug through family photographs, and immersed himself in the music, poetry, and oral histories of the Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia regions. La Mia Strada links the ancient and contemporary history of families divided by an ocean, yet united by an indelible genetic bond.

Dr. Battisti is an assistant professor of History at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She received her Ph.D. in U.S. History from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2010. She specializes in American immigration and ethnic history and her research looks at Italian American efforts to influence American immigration policies in the 1950s and 60s. She is currently working on a manuscript entitled,” “Whom Shall We Welcome? Italian Americans and the Politics of Immigration Reform, 1945-1965.” Battisti has published “The American Committee for Italian Migration, Anti-Communism, and Immigration Reform,” The Journal of American Ethnic History, Winter 2012; and chapters in Ethnic Families in America (Prentice Hall 2011) and Making Italian America: Consumer Culture and the Production of Ethnic Identities (Fordham UP, forthcoming 2014).

This research is an attempt to capture some qualitative traits of Italian emigration in Chicago, with regard to that originated from Calabria and particularly from the province of Cosenza, by means of the analysis of biographical profiles contained in a sample (realized with the word of mouth) of people who have emigrated to Chicago. Sample formed in part by persons who have returned to their villages of origin after a long stay in U.S. (26 units), and in part by persons still living in the Chicago area (20 units). This research, because the small number of questionnaires and also for the way the people were contacted does not claim a statistical analysis of the phenomenon, however the answers contained in the questionnaires allow to catch some of the causes and effects of Italian emigration after World War II, and also could reach out and touch aspects of the migratory chain that was formed between the city of Chicago and a group of municipalities located close of the city of Cosenza (Castrolibero, Rende, Marano Marchesato, San Fili and Piane Crati). This is an open attempt to collect qualitative data of the process of calabrese emigration in the U.S. that will continue over time as we will have availability of other persons who have emigrated to be interviewed. The paper is structured in three parts. In the first we presented the framework of the Italian and calabrese emigration to the U.S. In the second we analyze the responses to the questionnaires, with the intent to seize the most important migration dynamics. In the third we examined in depth the interviews done at two personalities of the calabrese community in Chicago, representing a paradigmatic example of Italian emigration of success.

Presenter: Mary Jo Bona, PhD

Mary Jo Bona is Professor of Italian American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies in the Department of Cultural Analysis and Theory at Stony Brook University. Bona is the author of By the Breath of Their Mouths: Narratives of Resistance in Italian America and Claiming a Tradition: Italian American Women Writers; editor of The Voices We Carry: Recent Italian American Women’s Fiction and co-editor (with Irma Maini) of Multiethnic Literature and Canon Debates. Bona is a past president of the Italian American Studies Association and editor of two of its conference volumes. Bona is the series editor of Multiethnic Literature at SUNY Press. Her current project examines representations of migratory women through the trope of needlework.

Respondent:

Gloria Nardini, PhD
University of Illinois - Chicago

Mother Cabrini and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart
Ellen Skerrett

Fr. Augustine Morini and the Servites
Conrad Borntrager, O.S.M.

The Scalabrinians
Dominic Candeloro, Ph.D.

Join us for a prosecco reception to celebrate the publication of Italian Women in Chicago: Madonna Mia! QUI debbo vivere?

This book has been published by Casa Italia: Italian Cultural Center and edited by Dominic Candeloro, Kathy Catrambone, and Gloria Nardini.

This event is being sponsored by Loyola University Chicago's Gannon Center for Women and Leadership.

Panel of Authors:

Mr. Tony Ardizzone
Author of In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu (1999)

Mr. Tony Romano
Author of If You Eat, You Never Die (2008)

Mr. Billy Lombardo
Author of How to Hold a Woman (2009)

Mr. Frank Cicero
Author of Relative Strangers (2011)

Ms. Anne Calcagno
Author of Love Like a Dog (2010)

Mr. Arthur Cola
Author of Stolen Christmas (2013)

Fred Gardaphé, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies
Department of English, Queens College
Queens, NY

Susana Cavallo, Ph.D.
Professor of Spanish & Dean of Faculty
The John Felice Rome Center, Loyola University Chicago
Rome, Italy

Cristina Lombardi-Diop, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian
Department of Modern Languages and Literature, Loyola University
Chicago
Chicago, IL

Wiley Feinstein, Ph.D.
Professor of Italian & Chairperson
Department of Modern Languages and Literature, Loyola University
Chicago
Chicago, IL

Samuele Pardini, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Italian
Department of World Languages and Cultures, Elon University
Elon, NC

This panel, moderated by Dr. Anna Clara Ionta of Loyola's Department of Modern Languages and Literature, will focus on the experiences of Loyola students who have grown up both Catholic and Italian in the United States.

Each student will talk about religious traditions that have been passed on in their families and are still maintained maintained today as fundamental cultural and emotional bonds with their Italian roots.

Students will also present their own comments and suggestions on how they envision their commitment to keep these traditions in the future.

Loyola Student Panelists:

Mr. Dominic Cale
Mr. Eric Carrabotta
Mr. Rocco Larose
Ms. Allison Levison
Mr. Luigi Loizzo
Ms. Nadia Marasti
Mr. Luke Mirabelli
Ms. Alessandra Puleo
Mr. Mike Tolitano
Ms. Gina Maione

Moderator:
Dominic Candeloro, PhD (Casa Italia)

Topics and Panelists:

Calabrian Traditions
Mr. Giuseppe De Bartolo

Feast of San Francesco di Paola
Mr. Joe Bruno

Santissima Maria Lauretana
Mr. Joe Camarda

Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Ms. Chris Caliendo

San Giovanni Bosco
Mr. Tony Napoli

Santa Maria D’Udienza
Ms. Donna Campise-Tagli

Household Saints (Directed by Nancy Savoca)

Post-Screening discussion with the Director immediately following the film.

Based on the novel by Francine Prose, Household Saints is the story of three generations of Italian American women in New York's Little Italy played by Judith Malina, Tracy Ullman and Lili Taylor. The story begins when young Joseph Santangelo (Vince D'Onofrio) wins his wife (Ullman) in a pinocchle game.

Find video segments of most presentations at the conference at

https://www.youtube.com/user/CasaitaliaInc

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