Thanks to H-ITAM [Edited by Prof. Ben Lawton]
H-ITAM is an extension of AIHA (American Italian Historical Assn)
I wholeheartedly endorse Prof. Viscusi statement, that to "claim" an
Italian Heritage
is a "empty" gesture, if it is not supported by a strong effort to
"learn" about it.
For those in the NYC environs he recommends attendance at a discussion
of
Dante, Thursday, April 4, 2002, at Casa Italiana as a start (or continuance).
Prof. Viscusi is President of IAWA (Italian American Writers Association)
[RAA Note: Promoting such "learning" is the prime objective of ANNOTICO
Reports.]
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"My Grandmother¹s Basil Plant and the Tragedies of Homework"
By Robert Viscusi
Italian American cultural artifacts (this category includes books) may
be
divided into two kinds, the innocent and the experienced.
THE INNOCENT, OR MY GRANDMOTHER'S BASIL PLANT.
The day an artist or a writer wakes up to the reality of being Italian
American is a romantic day. She is sitting at the computer. She has
just
finished a PowerPoint presentation for a sales meeting. The sun is
shining.
She looks out the window and sees a leafy plant with drops of water
on it. It
is not a basil plant, but it looks like one. Suddenly the world is
full of
light. She can smell the basil in the bubbling tomatoes of her nonna¹s
kitchen. To that imagined aroma, she attaches the whole world of the
immigrants. Their gardens, their food, their songs, their customs,
their
dialect, their embroidery, and their tragic histories. This is
my heritage,
she thinks.
Or else, he is leafing through a magazine in the (doctors¹s) waiting-room.
The beautiful color photographs are all a little wrinkled and oily.
The pages
lie weary and limp. The damp hands of too many worried readers have
softened
them. He turns to an article on the museums of Rome. There is
a string of
brilliant photographs of the Palazzo Barberini, its amazing collections,
the
trompe l¹oeil ceiling in its grand salone, Bernini¹s monumental
staircase.
He leans back in the waiting-room chair,
not even noticing how it creaks under the pressure. He draws a deep
breath
that swells his chest. Leonardo, he sighs, Dante, Marconi, Puccini.
This is
my heritage, he thinks.
These are the golden moments of innocence, when a person, deeply immersed
in
the ordinariness of daily life in the United States, turns and unexpectedly
discovers, like a treasure chest in the upstairs closet under the old
neckties, some powerful piece of Italy or some radioactive relic of
old
Little Italy.
Such an object it might be a dusty bottle of Brioschi or a painted
plaster
cast of San Rocco with his dog is emotionally radiant.
It opens a door to
the sacred moments of childhood when one does not believe in God so
much as
see God in the grandmother or the glass of yellow Galliano. It
gives a
person strength to deal with the tiresome and the diminishing realities
of
adult life in the so-called real world.
The feelings are so powerful, the throb of divine grace is so palpable,
that
one is tempted, sometimes irresistibly, to take action. These are the
moments
when poems and cultural societies and seven-volume autobiographies
are
conceived. Some of these beginnings produce wonderful achievements.
Others
not. It is hard to write a work of epic scope based entirely upon one¹s
feelings. The things one remembers from childhood do not, all by themselves,
constitute an effective heritage. Those who persist in trying to realize
their inspirations come to realize that innocence is not enough. To
claim a
heritage, one requires not only feelings but knowledge as well.
THE EXPERIENCED, OR THE TRAGEDIES OF HOMEWORK.
In Italian America, an Italian heritage can mean a family, a neighborhood,
a
dialect.
It cannot mean a civilization. Italy and things Italian lead a qualified
existence here.
A person who lays hand on heart and claims to be the heir of Raffaelo
or
Giuseppe Verdi is, often enough, an importer of shoes or macaroni.
To claim
an Italian heritage in the United States means to outlive and abandon
one¹s
innocent raptures. It means to accept the tragic necessity of homework.
To
claim an Italian American heritage calls forth the same necessity.
We cannot inherit Italian anything, but we can claim it, if we like,
if we
allow our passion to become the subject of our studies. If we wish
to speak
of the migration, then we will not merely remember our grandparents,
but we
will also learn something about other people¹s grandparents, Italians
and
others alike. We may wish to study the mystery of the Risorgimento,
the
revolution that led to so much misery and migration. If we presume
to speak
about Italian history, then we will want to know the names of Italy¹s
principal cities and regions, of its heroes and villains in politics
and in
folklore. The main crops, exports, imports, and industries all
matter. If we
presume to speak about Italian American history, then we will want
to know
the economic and political pressures that have formed it through the
years,
we will want to know the aims and actions of Italian immigrants, of
their
organizations, of their leaders, of their encounters with other peoples
in
the Americas. The lesson of experience is that a person who claims
a cultural
heritage had better know a good deal about that heritage. Otherwise,
there is
a great danger of error and of empty bloviation( to speak or write
verbosely
and windily).
What are "the tragedies of homework"? There are three.
First, we must put aside our raging impulse to speak until we have spent
some
hard weeks and years mastering some aspects of the endless archive
of Italian
history and culture. This may mean long spells at the library table.
It can
also help to learn the language, a task that alone can take some little
while.
Second, we must come to realize that whatever our grandmother¹s
basil plant
has given us does not, all by itself, constitute a heritage. We must
make
that heritage our own. This need not mean reading history or learning
Italian. It may mean learning to grow our own basil or do our own embroidery.
It may mean acquiring a familiarity with the paintings or operas of
which we
would like to boast.
Third, we must come to realize that whatever we learn will only amount
to a
very small portion of a heritage that we can come to call our own simply
because experience has taught us that we can never own it at all. This
is the
paradox that all study teaches us, sooner or later. Those who believe
that
they love their Italian heritage will learn to give it the respect
of
patience and humility. That is the lesson of experience.
IAWA suggests that Italian Americans particularly honor writers who
have
taken this approach to their literary inheritance. This month
we are
presenting Michael Palma¹s translation of Dante¹s Inferno.
John Freccero,
himself an Italian American who has become one of the leading Dante
scholars
of our time, will speak about this remarkable translation. Michael
Palma
will share something of his achievement with us. Be there.
Copyright © 2002 Robert Viscusi
Presentation of The Inferno: A New Verse Translation by Michael Palma
With Michael Palma and John Freccero
Thursday, April 4, 2002. 6 to 8 pm.
Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò
24 West 12th Street
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Why IAWA? Episode Forty Six April 2002
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