When I Am Italian

<p><b>Can a person born outside of Italy be considered Italian?</b></p><p>My ancestral Italian village in America was in Waterbury Connecticut. In this sentence Joanna Clapps Herman raises the central question of this book: To what extent can a person born outside of Italy be considered Italian? The granddaughter of Italian immigrants who arrived in the United States in the early 1900s Herman takes a complicated and nuanced look at the question of to whom and to which culture she ultimately belongs. Sometimes the Italian part of her identity-her <i>Italianità</i>-feels so aboriginal as to be inchoate inexpressible. Sometimes it finds its expression in the rhythms of daily life. Sometimes it is embraced and enhanced; at others it feels attenuated. If like me Herman writes you are from one of Italy's overseas colonies at least some of this <i>Italianità</i> will be in your skin bones and heart: other pieces have to be understood considered called to ourselves through study travel reading. Some of it is just longing. How do we know which pieces are which?</p>