blog assignment #2

Write about what you think makes roman and Italian identity. What are the myths around this identity? What are social, culture, and physical forces that shape this identity? Who belongs and who doesn’t, and why?

Italy, the country that shaped as a boot, home of pasta, pizza, and probably some other Italian dish that starts with a ‘p.’ But there’s far more than just delicious food Americans have classified and commercialized, it’s the people that create the identity of this nation. Though here too there are many misconceptions of Italians, as mustache wearing, speaking with theirs hands, mafia affiliated, and a certain character that eats mushrooms and jumps on turtles trying to save a princess. Italy has become a country of people from many different backgrounds, cultures, and traditions. Compared to the United States, these issues are coming up more recently, in the last 20 years, and there are different controlling aspects of law regarding the integration of everyone, this makes it very difficult to define an Italian identity at a national level.

Coming here I felt as if I was going into an episode of MTV’s Jersey Shore where the characters are, according to them “very Italian,” so I was anticipating people that were overly tanned, wearing bedazzled shirts, and dirty hamsters. Although this show doesn’t depict anything of Italy itself, it actually depicts the youth of Italian decent who reside in parts of New England that even residents there considered to be popular culture’s definition of “ghetto.”

Being here in Rome and having the opportunity to learn about some of Italy’s history, I learned about the complexity of the nation and how it’s only been considered a unified country for only 150 years. Even with this unification the country is still considered split between the north and the south. As the north was able to industrialize compared to the south still being agricultural, many went north in search of jobs leaving jobs to be filled by the diaspora of migrants. Another reason for outsiders claiming Italian jobs was because Italy is a country that still allows those seeking asylum from being persecuted in their country of origin and under Italian law, to not be an illegal migrate,one must be employed to prove an income. This was the cause of tensions between the Italians and the migrant community. But now, most migrants are confined to working jobs that Italians won’t take or work in businesses that catering to the migrant community. This tension goes as far as even having growing tensions with Italians themselves as conflict arises when claiming who is truly Italian, the north or the south.

Although there is one group of ethnic minorities that our class had the opportunity to learn about, and that group is the Roma, not to be mistaken as inhabitants of the city of Roma (Italian for Rome) or mistaken for being from Romania, this is a displaced group that has had a presence in Italy for over 500 years. Commonly stereotyped as “gypsies,” the Roma have been completely “other’d” by Italians and in world history, they were also supposed to be killed off with the Jewish by the Nazis. As of today, they have been placed into camps provided by the Italian government, there are a total of 40 camps, and only 22 of them are to legal Italian standard. This is the one group that has been completely ousted from the Italian community, although they have been here longer than other migrant group from more recent issues.

The city of Rome is considered neutral in the north and south question, though it can be said that it is very Italian, as the city center has very little influence by eastern cultures. Also being home to the Vatican, the Catholic Church is highly revered and there was actually a time when Rome only asked for “Catholic immigrants.” Here the ethic minorities reside outside of the city center and usually work as selling random things on the streets or in ethnic restaurants.

The concept of a national identity cannot be defined by a concrete definition; it is a social construction, which by definition isn’t static and is subjected in change. But Italian law conflicts with this as there are many different laws and requirements to being an Italian. For example, in America, if one is born on America soil, the 14^th amendment of the American constitution grants them citizenship. In Italy, to be granted citizenship at birth, it depends on lineage, as one’s parents must already be Italian. There are many different laws and requirements of Italian identity that are now being challenged by organizations such as the g2 and arcigay. These bring up questions, such as “what is an Italian identity? Who is or can be considered Italian? Is the migrant community apart of the national identity? Can one be Italian with a different country's ancestry? All these and many more are brought to the table as questioning what it means to be Italian. There has to be an entirely different approach to what is considered national identity, making Italy itself a new Italy.