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2008

Old World/New World

I will explore how we hyphenated Americans navigate the conflicting, often contradictory, values of our Old and New World cultural heritage.

September 26, 2008

A Mother's Tongue

Maria Laurino

Don't be a mooshamoosh -- share those southern Italian dialect words!

August 31, 2008

Days of Wine and Fatalism

Maria Laurino
Days and Clouds press photo
A couple in the Italian film "Days and Clouds" tries to restart their lives after the husband loses his job.

From Carla Bruni's words to recent Italian films -- a summer revealing Italy's fatalistic streak.

June 18, 2008

The Seven Percent Solution?

Maria Laurino
Spike Lee and John Turturro in "Do the Right Thing"

DNA testing adds new complexities to the question about physical similarities between African-Americans and Italian-Americans.

June 11, 2008

Barack Obama Mamma

Maria Laurino
Photo by Marco From Houston, Flickr.com
Can the Old World embrace the New?

My eighty-six-year-old Italian-American mother enthusiastically supports Barack Obama. Could a majority of Italian-Americans back the African-American presumptive Democratic...

March 27, 2008

Losing (and gaining) my ethnicity

Maria Laurino
www.helnvein.com/werke/papier/bild/890.html
Fainting Magdalene (after the lost Caravaggio painting) /Fainting Parliament

The Italian elections make me wish (temporarily, at least) for English roots

February 20, 2008

Carla Bruni, Old World Italian

Maria Laurino
Bharat Sikka/Naive Records
Carla Bruni

Who knew that former supermodel and the new First Lady of France was also an Old World Italian?

February 6, 2008

The Original Slow Foodies

Maria Laurino
http://www.seedfest.co.uk/seeds/artichoke
The Slow Food movement wishes "to counteract fast food and fast life."

The mission of the Slow Food movement hits home for me -- probably because its goals seem similar to the life that my grandparents led.