Bloggers

La Ruota della Fortuna, Niki de Sainte Phalle's take on an Italian Garden

Laura E. Ruberto

Il Giardino dei Tarocchi

Looking at the undercurrents of Italian migrant identity in Niki de Sainte Phalle’s Giardino dei Tarocchi.

Among Roman Ruins, the Italian Communist Party’s School

Laura E. Ruberto

La Scuola di Frattocchie, The Italian Communist Party's Political School, outside of Rome

Remembering Maria Margotti (1915-1949)

"Per te mondina" (Cgil-funded pamphlet)

Eulogy for Maria Margotti, fallen mondina, May 17, 1949

A rice worker, a partisan, a woman, a mother, Maria Margotti was killed sixty years ago by carabinieri during a strike on May 17, 1949.

The Invisible Victims of the Abruzzo Earthquake

Samuele Pellecchia/Prospekt, for The New York Times

L'Aquila, The Dome of Santa Maria del Suffragio, destroyed by the April 6 earthquake

An unknown number of documented and undocumented immigrants in Abruzzo have died or lost their homes because of the recent earthquake.

Italian American Romance in the Era Before Roe v. Wade

The 1963 film Love with the Proper Stranger dealt with the limited choices faced by an Italian American woman a decade before abortion was legalized in the U.S.

Fabricating Women’s Histories

Italy’s construction and memory of International Women’s Day.

Zamboni!

Laura E. Ruberto

Berkeley Iceland today (closed since 2003)

A little diddy about California’s role in the Italian American invention of an ice-resurfacing machine.

The Eternal City of Champions

Fabio Ruberto

Constructing a Steelers Logo Sign (2006)

A few comments on the connections between Pittsburgh, Italians, and American Football.

I’ll Have Some Pancetta with My Mob Reference, Please

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Leon Panetta

With Leon Panetta’s potential return to Washington, comes a new focus on his Italian connections.

The Rocks of San Francisco: Authenticity, Ethnic Neighborhoods, and Going Blog Crazy

Laura E. Ruberto

Nuova Porziuncola, North Beach neighborhood, San Francisco

Ethnic construction and sacred place, the replica of the Porziuncola Chapel in San Francisco’s Italian neighborhood.

“Ti abbraccio teneramente,” Christmas from Prison

Antonio Gramsci

A selection of Antonio Gramsci’s Christmas letters from prison.

The Other Rocky Movie

Paul Newman’s turn as an Italian American boxer leaves me wondering where all those gum machines went.