Raccogli e passa
July 8, 2012
The “Naive Wooden Sculptures” of Theodore Santoro
Theodore Santoro's "naive wooden sculptures"
An Italian American self-taught artist from Oakland, California, adds yet another chapter in the story of Italian Americans and material culture.
October 12, 2011
Il Fanciullo del West: Shorty Joe Quartuccio’s Country Western Sound
Shorty Joe and his Red Rock Canyon Cowboys - 1947
(Shorty Joe Quartuccio, Bob Simas, & Jim Franchina)
A Few Notes on California’s Sicilian American country music history.
March 17, 2011
Leo Politi, Saint Joseph, and Las Golondrinas
Leo Politi
cover of "Song of the Swallow," 1948
Children’s literature, the Watts Towers, and Italian-Californian celebrations of Saint Joseph’s Day.
March 2, 2011
The Case of the Missing Fasanella Painting
Ralph Fasanella
"Welcome Home Boys" (1953)
How I uncovered that the City of Oakland, the Oakland Public Library, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Oakland International Airport have misplaced Ralph Fasanella’s...
December 24, 2010
Vince Guaraldi--“the sound of Yuletide on these shores”
Charles M. Schulz/Vince Guaraldi
Italian version of Charlie Brown's Christmas Album, 1979
Some Italian-American notes about the man behind the music of Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
November 21, 2010
Remembering the Irpinia Earthquake Thirty Years Later
Laura E. Ruberto
Cairano (AV), buildings damaged in the 1980 Irpinia Earthquake and never repaired (photo taken June, 2010)
Marking the material culture of one of Southern Italy’s worst natural disasters, the Irpinia Earthquake of November 23, 1980.
October 8, 2010
Italian America’s Eureka Moment
Laura E. Ruberto
Romano Gabriel's Wooden Sculpture Garden, Eureka, CA
Finding Romano Gabriel’s Wooden Sculpture Garden along the Italy-California border.
July 30, 2010
Hollywood, Italian Americans, and the Golden Coast
"Full of Life" Movie Poster, Richard Quine, 1956 (written by John Fante)
John Fante’s and Richard Quine’s 1956 film, "Full of Life," constructs California Italian culture, one brick at a time.
June 1, 2010
The Über-Country: Italy at 150 Years
"The Contribution of a Great Race" 1924
cover of the THE CONTRIBUTION OF A GREAT RACE, published in San Francisco, 1924, by “The Italians of California to their American Brothers"
Some thoughts on Italy’s mythical status, migrating identities, and the creation of an online salon to talk about it all.
April 23, 2010
“And so we left leaving Italy and all of my dear ones”
Bordighera Press
"Such Is Life" Cover, Bordighera Press, 2010
Introducing "Such Is Life" ("Ma la vita è fatta cosi"), an immigrant woman’s memoir about her life between Italy and America.
March 21, 2010
Photographs of Jack Salvatori, the British Valentino
photo courtesy of Ray Holland
Jack Salvatori, possibly in the United States
On having received an envelope mailed to Berkeley, California from Cornwall, England with photographs of the Italo-British filmmaker and actor, Giovanni “Jack” Salvatori.
March 8, 2010
Re-reading Diane Di Prima, in Honor of International Women's Day
Cover of Diane Di Prima's "Memoirs of a Beatnik" (first published in 1969)
San Francisco’s Current Poet Laureate, Diane Di Prima, moves Italian American Identity Above, Below, and Beyond.
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- CALITRI OR BUST!
- A Californian Goes East
- Radical Italian American Christmas Cards
- Italian Americana, California Style
- The Gate on the “Golden Gate”
- Vince Guaraldi--“the sound of Yuletide on these shores”
- “The Mediterranean Came to Flavor My Existence”: Harry Bertoia’s Midcentury Italian American Aesthetic
- Revisiting Southern Italy through the Lens of a Future Anthropologist
- Uncredited Extras: Cinecittà’s Refugees and the Italian American Who Filmed Them
- Breastfeeding Breasts!
- I’ll Have Some Pancetta with My Mob Reference, Please
- The Case of the Missing Fasanella Painting
- The Eternal City of Champions
- An Italian Topography within a California Cemetery
- Among Roman Ruins, the Italian Communist Party’s School
- Californians Sell Little Italy, One Crate at a Time
- Italian American Romance in the Era Before Roe v. Wade
- Mobsters in Sin City
- Radical Espresso: Mario Savio and Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement
- Becoming Italian American: POWs and National Identity
- “And so we left leaving Italy and all of my dear ones”
- Italian Gambling Site and the US Presidential Election
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