rodriguez:An Italian American Culture
...nts and uncles, we know we have a chance within the immediate family. I As important as our values are, they will never be as strong as they were when Grandma was alive. As I flipped through the memories in my mind, I saw a girl that moved between her memories with her Grandma and her life at home after her grandma’s death. At her grandma’s, the Italian Princess, as she became to be known, was taught about her Italian heritage. Then at home, facts were mentioned like women take care of their families, but were not showed how. Then at her Grandma’s, she learned how to crochet, make wine, cook and clean so she knew how she could take care of a family of her own. Then at home she was spoiled and treated like a girl instead of a woman. The Italian Princess learned to live with two lifestyles. She was either a hard-working Cinderella or a pampered but disciplined girl. Gradually, the balance of the two environments are lost. The new ways of her parents are the only ways the Italian Princess lives by. She keeps the family together by cooking and bonding, just like her grandma once did. Relating to Framing A Life, by Geraldine Ferraro, “Dinner is a time in which the family becomes one and focuses solely on each other.” Italian Dinners are import to the Italian Princess. The hard work she puts into them by cooking and gathering the family makes her feel like she is keeping some of the most important Italian American traditions. The Italian Princess knows that the only way to keep her Italian American family strong is to have at least some of their traditions stay from generation to generation. I intended to keep up with the traditions, but with the busy life of my family, it was hard. The more I wanted the Italian culture to be back to the way it was, with all my cousins, and all my aunts and uncles, the more I dreamt about my Grandma. Thinking about her was the only drive I had. Her spirit guided me to keep the culture going. It mattered that my culture was changing. I could not ignore that in future generations, the Italian culture will dissipate and start to resemble the American culture of not eating as a family, or the culture will not put family as priority. “How does your family stay so close through all the years?” At first when I was asked this, I did not know how to answer because people did not know the transition my family has gone through and what the cause of this transition was. In a way I was embarrassed because my family was not as strict Italian as they used to be. My family became soft. American. Forgetful. II From an early age the Italian Princess knew that her culture was something special, especially the way the Italian language rolled off Grandma’s tongue. When I was little, sometimes, to hide what Mom and Grandma said, they spoke Italian to each other. I was six and naïve. I mimicked their hand gestures and said the words with a thick Italian accent. I did not know what I was saying, but I was glad to know that I was saying real words in Italian. I was expressing myself the way my Grandma did. Her hand gestures alone revealed what she was talking about. The Italian Princess knew that in order to keep her traditions going she had to learn the skills of being an Italian American woman. My Grandma handed me a crochet hook. Within one day I started crocheting scarves for everyone. I even started making a list of clientele, (only consisting of my mom, dad, brot...