The ANNOTICO Report

"The Family Has No Border" is much more then just an affectionate account
of a poor immigrant family journeying from Tuscany to the New World and
making good: The book is a sincere, heartwarming and insightful
recollection of honest discoveries made and true emotions felt. The book's
simple power lies in the telling of a story of family emigration from the
perspective of a third-generation descendant, who lovingly pieced together
her family narrative from her Nonna's (grandmother's) old photographs,
conversations with relatives and several trips to the "old country."

Perhaps, the ultimate beauty in "The Family" lies in the power of
rediscovery: rediscovery of a heritage that one older generation shunned
and another younger embraced.

"There's a stereotype of immigrants that goes like this,"  "The first
generation remembers, the second generation tries to forget and the third
generation rediscovers."

The book 'The Family Has No Borders,' by Joan Weibel-Orlando, discusses her
Italian family heritage.

University of Southern California
Daily Trojan
By Tony Chiorazzi
Monday, April 11, 2005

Memories. In Joan Weibel-Orlando´s latest book, she remembers experiences
with her grandmother from when she was a little girl.

What are some of the challenges of writing a book about one's family?
"Negotiating the narrative," said Joan Weibel-Orlando, professor of
anthropology and author of the new book "The Family Has No Borders: 100
years 1904-2003." "Negotiated narratives are attempts to decide what to
include or not to include or how to tell or not tell certain problematic
historical facts in a book about one's family history."

Weibel-Orlando will be discussing negotiated narratives along with her
reflections on growing up Tuscan-American and rediscovering her heritage on
Monday at 3 p.m. in Intellectual Commons in Doheny Library.

Family secrets

"Part of the challenge of putting together a negotiated narrative is you
have to be mindful of family members' feelings and what they may not want
you to put in your negotiated narrative," Weibel-Orlando said. For example,
during her research on her family book, Weibel-Orlando uncovered a number
of long-held family secrets. One secret was the reason for her
grandparents' economic success in the New World during the 1920s. It was
not only because of hard work and thriftiness, but also because of
Prohibition. "But should I make it public in a book?" said Weibel-Orlando.
"Well, maybe, but you'll have to wait and come to the book signing to find
out."

Nonna's little drawer

"The Family Has No Border" is much more then just an affectionate account
of a poor immigrant family journeying to a foreign land and making good:
The book is a sincere, heartwarming and insightful recollection of honest
discoveries made and true emotions felt. The book's simple power lies in
the telling of a story of family emigration to the New World from the
perspective of a third-generation descendant, Weibel-Orlando, who lovingly
pieced together her family narrative from her Nonna's (grandmother's) old
photographs, conversations with relatives and several trips to the "old
country."

Remembering her grandmother's house from when she was a little girl,
Weibel-Orlando writes about how some of her fondest memories were looking
at old photographs with her grandmother.

"I would beg and wheedle until she, finally, would go to the credenza, open
the middle drawer, take out her collections of photographs and begin to
tell me, once again, the stories associated with each of her precious
family images," she wrote.

Weibel-Orlando treasured those family history-sharing sessions with her
grandmother and said that it helped sow the seeds for her current book.

Family of students

Weibel-Orlando also has a reputation for bringing her same love for family
to her students as well. For example, in both of her classes last semester
Weibel-Orlando held an end-of-the-semester party where she bought pizzas
for the entire class, said Devon Kliger, a senior majoring in anthropology
and cinema critical studies.

"She always goes beyond the norm to make her students feel like part of her
extended family," Kliger said. "You can really tell that family is
important to her."

Josue Reyes Jr., a senior majoring in anthropology and student of
Weibel-Orlando's, agreed. Reyes said that Weibel-Orlando recently helped
him through some personal difficulties by just listening and offering some
good advice.

"She loves her students like family. That's what I really like about her,"
Reyes said. "She's very close to all her students."

Indian Country, L.A.

"The Family" is not Weibel-Orlando's first book. "Indian Country, L.A:
Maintaining Ethnic Community in Complex Society" was published in 1991 and
is the product of years of fieldwork on modern American Indians living in
Los Angeles...

Janet Hoskins, professor of anthropology, said that what is intriguing
about both of Weibel-Orlando's books is that they are both centered around
heritage issues.

"Her new book shows a labor of love concerning her own heritage issue,
which is in a sense similar to the kind of thing she did for Native
Americans," Hoskins said. "And she has brought together a very impressive
archival of visual material - all the photographs and documentation."

Precious heirlooms

And there are a lot of photos in "The Family." Many of them are from family
exchanges between Tuscans in Italy and Tuscans living in America, both
attempting, across the Atlantic, to keep family ties alive through the
sharing of family-get-together, wedding and religious photographs.

"There is still considerable excitement when photographs of family members
arrive with greeting cards," Weibel-Orlando wrote. "Every new photograph is
placed in a visible spot for continuous viewing. They are handled and
treated with the care one usually affords a precious family heirloom."

Rediscovery

Weibel-Orlando wrote that while growing up, her mother deliberately did not
teach her sister and her to speak Italian. "It was after all, 1942 and
wartime. My mother's generation was not interested in a past they never had
experienced. Rather, they concerned themselves with becoming 110 percent
Americans, of fitting in, of not being labeled Italian 'greenhorns.'"

But what the mother might be ashamed of, the daughter need not be. Perhaps,
the ultimate beauty in "The Family" lies in the power of rediscovery:
rediscovery of a heritage that one older generation shunned and another
younger embraced.

"There's a stereotype of immigrants that goes like this," Weibel-Orlando
said. "The first generation remembers, the second generation tries to
forget and the third generation rediscovers."

http://www.dailytrojan.com/news/
2005/04/11/Lifestyle/Professor.Keeps.It.All.
In.The.Family-919096.shtml