Italian Quiz 2 – Flashcards

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question
Who was one of the most prominent figures of the Risorgimento?
answer
-Giusseppi Garibaldi -soldier -led the "expedition of the 1000" -forced into exile to staten island -defeated the bourbon army -moved towards rome to fight the pope but was stopped by the piedmontese
question
What did the criminologist Cesare Lombroso say about Southern Italians?
answer
negative, disloyalty to piedmonte, beheaded them "scientifically sanctioned inferiority" intelligence could be proved by facial features
question
Who was the famous philosopher who wrote about the conditions of Sicily and Sicilians?
answer
karl marx, saying "no people have suffered so much as sicilians and italians"
question
What was the reaction of Italian aristocrats and landowners to the mass emigration from Italy?
answer
-Were replacing the slaves after the emancipation -Cheap labor -Unable to speak English -Totally dependent for jobs and guidance
question
Did Italians have to pay more or less taxes than the inhabitants of the other European countries?
answer
the italians had to pay more taxes than the other countries because mules were taxed and cows were not, and many poor people had mules because they could not afford cows
question
What was the "padrone" system? How did it work?
answer
the padrone system was a contract labor system for any immigrants to get work in the US, but was especially used by italians. there were issues of kids being taken and basically enslaved into the padrone system. italians were often exploited (shocker!!!) padrone means boss/manager in italian. also important to note that the padrone was like the middleman that set up the jobs for immigrants so it was positive in a way bc they found jobs and housing etc bc they didn't know anything about america and probably couldnt find those otherwise, but they were also exploited by the padrone because of this ignorance about america and the way things work. so many of them were essentially enslaved
question
Were there other causes of the emigration from Italy, except poverty? Illnesses, natural catastrophes?
answer
-In the dry season water was scarce and sometime unsafe, even for washing puprposes. That was the main source of the eye disease called trachoma (immigrants diagnosed with trachoma were rejected by the officials at Ellis Island) -During the 19th century, Italy became notorious as the most malarial area in all of Europe -Cholera epidemics took the life of 55,000 people in southern Italy between 1884 and 1887 -1908: a calamitous earthquake claimed almost 100,000 lives in Sicily and Calabria
question
Why was the American consul in Catania struck, when he spoke with some Italians?
answer
The american consul in catania was shocked when he spoke to men in their 50's and 60's bc there was such a disparity between the expectations of america (golden, abundant, etc) and the reality of america
question
Who were the birds of passage?
answer
the emigrants who planned to spend only two or three years in America, so they could make enough money to live comfortably in Italy. There are no official statistics about the number of Italians who cam back to ital.. Statisticians estimated around 50% reached that decision
question
Who was Pascal D'Angelo? What did he do when his father left the U.S?
answer
-Wrote in his memoir Son of Italy (1924) -that he arrived in the US when he was 15, together with his father -After 4 years in which they both worked as manual laborers they were barely able to support themselves and saved no money -The father decided he wanted to go back to Abruzzo. Pascal decided to stay •From Son of Italy: -Something was keeping me in this wonderful, perilous land where isuffered so much and where I had so much more to suffer -shows that pascal had a sense of opportunity -He blossomed into an American Poet
question
What did the Italian feminist Irene De Bosis say about the condition of Italian women left in Italy?
answer
-the typical woman left behind was young, strong, healthy, married only a few years and often only a few months at the time of her husbands departure. frequently she was pregnant or with small children, and prey to the malice of village gossip -Often women had to work in the fields to sustain the family and to pay the debt incurred by the emigrants
question
How did the Italians who came back to Italy were called?
answer
An Italian who went back to Italy was nicknamed "Americano" by the other Italians. Two kinds of Americans: -the successful one, who came back with much more money than all of his neighbors, new ideas, new clothes -unsuccessful one, sometimes defeated by poor health or lack of money. Derisive implication here
question
Did the Italians who came back to Italy after being in America change? Did they have a different perception of themselves?
answer
-often came back with a new degree of self-confidence and an appreciation of human rights -in towns where educational facilities were not adequate, they demanded that schools be built -what socialism had been unable to achieve, emigration was going in a most natural manner
question
What happened in San Demetrio (Calabria) as a result of the emigration?
answer
• San Demetrio in Calabria at the turn of the century was so depopulated at the turn of the 20th century that no one was left to light the street lamps -the original inhabitants had been albanians who fled the vengeance of turkish oppressors -natives were still speaking greek-studded dialect -approx. 2000 people had left for america
question
What did the experience of Toretto (Apulia) tell us about these changes?
answer
-lost 4000 of its 7000 residents in a decade, but the roots were strong -nearly all of them planned to return for permanent residence and there were frequent visits during the winter -a steady flow of remittances averaging more than 1 million annually - that money was used In 1908 when 200 <> were built, with good sized windows and separate rooms for children (this was an entirely new town) -that distinguished toretto from other towns was a strong communal concern -there was less immigration from apulia to the US than there was from any other southern region
question
Article: Mental Tests for Immigrants: how are the immigrants coming from Slavic and Latin countries considered? How the author describe the immigrants in the so called D class? According to the author, what Americans should do about the problem of "worthless" immigrants?
answer
they think they are illiterate/ignorant/ degenerate. worried that if they don't take the smartest immigrants who they believe are capable of higher education and make them smarter then they will become like sicilians (class d people). think people who are dumb cant rise to higher intelligence D class: stage between simple tasks beyond power education of 5th grade - illiterate bad attention spans and memories not soldiers simple, honest, content (dont strive for anything, dont think about tomorrow- live in the moment)
question
Article: "The Sicilian Mafia" What was the name of the Mafia organization widespread in Italian American neighborhoods? How does the author of the article describe the vast majority of the Italian Americans?
answer
-"The Black Hand" -many italian/sicilian emigrants came to america to get away from the mafia. but there are some still apart of the mafia
question
Article: Who's Untouchable? Why the Italian American community is criticized in the article?
answer
they are being oversensitive. a lot that happened is true there are officers with italian names (not all criminals)
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