Maria Laurino Interview

INTERVIEW WITH MARIA LAURINO FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

Not just specific to the interests of Italians, but to any Hypen-American. Maria examines the nature of family, history and of course goes into detail about the lives of Italian-Americans.
DM) The title of the book is "Were You Always an Italian?" which, as far as I understand is what Mario Cuomo asked you during an interview. What was your answer to that question?

ML) I was writing a profile about then-Governor Mario Cuomo, trying to place him in a progressive Italian-American political tradition in New York. In the middle of questioning him about politicians such as Fiorello LaGuardia and Vito Marcantanio, he asked, "Were you always an Italian?" With a childlike guilt, I shook my head no. And he responded, "I know all about ethnic self-hate." To him, being an Italian meant understanding and appreciating the culture of southern Italy; being an Italian meant not being embarrassed by one's ancestry. It would take me a few more years before I fully appreciated my heritage as an Italian-American of southern Italian descent. I love his question because it touched the core of my ethnic ambivalence. It could also be applied to any ethnic group: Were you always Irish? Were you always Puerto Rican? Etc. There is pain -- but also humor -- in this question.

DM) When you were asked that question, how would you have responded when people asked what your nationality was?

LM) Sometimes if I didn't feel like saying Italian, I would tell them that I was American -- or from New Jersey!

DM) Why do you think Americans seem to have a fixation with hyphenated nationalities? I don't think I've heard the term Italian-Canadian or German-Brit too often. It seems as if we do it more then most other cultures.

LM) Because we're a country of immigrants, we identify ourselves with our hyphens. Europeans I've met think Americans are way too preoccupied with their ancestry: to them we are just "American." But they have the luxury of feeling that way because their histories are very different. Italians, for example, are just beginning to untangle the thorny issue of identity and ethnicity. A few years ago, a young black woman who emigrated from the Dominican Republic was crowned Miss Italy -- and one judge wanted to rescind her title, arguing that she wasn't truly Italian.

DM) The book is at points praising, and other points criticizing Italian-Americans. After writing the book, do you find yourself more proud or less to be an Italian-American?

LM) I am proud to be an Italian-American of southern Italian ancestry. With that said, let me add that I don't like to get caught up in ethnic pride movements because they can become dangerously celebratory -- the notion that there is nothing finer than being Italian-American: we cook better, we emotebetter, etc., etc. Yes, it's healthy to have a degree of pride about you're heritage, but you also have to be clear-eyed about your past. I used to invent all sorts of things about my past. I met an Italian once who said I must be from the Naples area because a famous man named Lauro lived there "who owned many sheeps." Sheep, I thought, pondering my grandparents' agrarian past, which now seemed biblical in nature -- shepherds roaming the land, shielding their eyes from the blinding rays of the Mediterranean sun.Years later, when I told the story to another Italian -- who spoke much better English -- he politely told me that Lauro owned ships, not sheeps. He was a shipping magnate and peasants from the neighboring area were often named after him, little Lauros, or Laurinos. My book tries to explore how you can better understand your ethnic past without getting lost in nostalgia.

DM) Have you begun to research your family tree further after writing the book?

LM) During the course of writing the book, I went to southern Italy and found my mother's first cousins. I did research on the family tree there but I have not made any new discoveries since then.

DM) You discuss the differences between dialect and the national Italian language. With the globalization of the world, do you feel that regional dialects will disappear as a whole?

LM) Yes, there is a chance they will disappear. But in Italy right now there is a growing fascination with regional dialects, and perhaps if enough people recognize the uniqueness and importance of dialects they will survive.

DM) Some feel that the current culture of Italian American's is the result of a unique time and place... an era of immigration. Do you feel that such a sub-culture will last, or will it die out with this generation?

LM) I think it will last. Certainly we're becoming more removed from the experiences of our grandparents and great-grandparents, but many third and fourth generation Italian-Americans that I've met are very interested in better understanding their heritage. If most of us believe that our DNA maydetermine certain aspects of our health - I'm suggesting that we can also better understand some character traits if we connect to our past. And for those of us who travel to Italy (many second generation Italian-Americans never visited the country of their parents), we can discover things about ourfamily that may have eluded our parents.

During the course of researching my book, I interviewed an Italian-American psychologist who specialized in "ethnotherapy" - the idea that ethnicity needs to be accounted for and better understood in psychology. I asked why so many Italian-Americans mention their grandmothers and mothers when they talk about the culture. She responded, "Culture is mother's milk." I like that notion - that women nurture and pass along culture. I hope to do the same.

DM) What do you teach your children about your heritage?

LM) I have one young child and I can only teach him basics right now: food and some Italian and dialect words. At three, he has a passion for parmigiano and provolone cheeses!

DM) Originally you started as a speechwriter and a journalist. As of late, you've become an author. I guess the most fitting question I can think of is "Were you always an author?"

LM) I hope so! I wanted to be a journalist since I was in high school, and while writing, "Were You Always an Italian?" I realized that the format of a book suits me well. I've loved books since I was a child and still escape by reading and writing.