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On Becoming Italian American: An Autobiography of an Ethnic Identity

University of Rhode Island

This article is about growing up Italian in Connecticut after World War II, and the author finding in the 1980s and 1990s that he is supposed to be Italian American, which, to him, is not satisfying to be. The density of family and ethnicity in the first 22 years of the author's life, and how that changed over time, is delineated. The quest for the Ameri can dream, driven by the Newtonian world machine (in both its modern and postmodern modes), has eclipsed the world he grew up in. The author tries to communicate through prose and poetry that what was lost has not been replaced, hasn't even been substituted for. Put over-simply, most of the wine the author now drinks is better than the wine he made with his uncles, grandfather, and cousin. But going to a liquor store is an incredi bly impoverished cultural experience compared to making 200 gallons of wine in one's own cellar.

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