Past Commemorations of Italian Unification

In considering the 150 years of Italian “diasporic continuities” I became curious to think about what kinds ofevents marked earlier celebrations of unification, especially ones outside of Italy’s national borders.

Among various commemorations, there are two that I find particularly striking:

In 1971, in Philadelphia there was a multi-day “Festival of Italy” that according to Samanth Owen Quinn served more to confirm an Italian American identity than celebrate the Risorgimento specifically (see: http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/study/migration-studies-society/). In fact, when we consider the larger racial tensions and cultural shifts of the late 1960s/early 1970s in the US, such a celebration of Italian ethnic pride—“Kiss me I’m Italian”-buttons and flags galore—makes perfect sense. And what does it mean that as Coppola’s The Godfather was about to hit movie screens and revitalize one of the most powerful popular images of Italian Americans, communities were looking back at the history of a nation that had in many respects let them down?

Going back to the early twentieth century, instead, the Dante Alighieri Society of New York City (and Carlo Barsotti, then-editor of Il Progresso) spearheaded the building and placement of a monument to Dante at Lincoln Center. In 1912 it was inaugurated specifically in honor of the 50th anniversary of Italian unification. The complexities of upholding Dante as a noted “Italian” poet is pretty straight-forward these days. Although a figure central to eventual unification mainly as an early proponent of a single-Italian language (with all the loaded socio-political linguistic concerns related to this) , it rings odd, at the very least, to have a 14th century poet of a non-unified Italy held up as a symbol of a modern nation—even more so when it is an immigrant community who is shaping that symbol.

What will the 150 year commemorations hold ? How will they come to reflect the cultural and political position and experiences of the Italian diaspora today?

(posted by Laura E. Ruberto)