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# 69 •OCTOBER 5 , 2015
of a 2-year-old myself, I
know how important it is
to have access to material that can help develop
that connection to Italy in
our children from a very
young age.
th largest Italian American
population in the country,
the fifth in terms of percentage. I wasn’t aware
of these numbers before
coming to Boston, but it
quickly became apparent
how large the community was. There are several
dozen organizations promoting Italian language
and culture, and the Italian
Consulate General here
has been doing a great
job making sure the channels of communication
stay open.
Setting aside the commercial aspect of the business
for a moment, the space
will also be used to host
events, presentations and
small concerts. In other
words, we want I AM Books to become a little cultural hub, a vibrant center
of creativity for our community.
In general, I would say
the largest communities
To do all of this we will of immigrants hail from
need all the help possi- Campania, Sicily, Calabria
ble. We launched a crow- and Abruzzo. But there
dfunding campaign on are pockets from other reKickstarter (iambooksbo- gions, like Lazio, in places
ston.com for more info) such as Newton.
and hope to raise enough
funds to open and run the And what about the actual
store successfully. So ple- presence? Are there many
ase help us!
Italians like you, born in
Italy and only recently
Boston and its surroun- moved to Boston?
dings have always been
home to a big wave of Ita- This is a growing reality in
lian immigrants. Can you the Boston area. As more
please tell our readers so- companies — especially
mething about this?
from the high-tech and
pharmaceutical
sectors
Massachusetts has th e six- — open offices in the Bo-
ston area, more and more
professionals come here.
This wave of highly specialized immigrants is accompanied by a parallel
influx of Italians looking
for less specialized jobs
in the food or hospitality
businesses. Italians in academia are also present in
large numbers, given the
high number of colleges
and universities in the
area.
We know that there’s a
project to open an Italian
Cultural Center of Boston.
Last September 25 the Italian Consulate organized
the annual gala called Italianissimo, to raise funds
for it. How is it going on?
It’s a project that has many
in the community excited.
The organization Friends
of the Italian Cultural Center of Boston started raising funds through italianissimo! in 2012, and from
what I know it is at a good
point. Hopefully we can
soon have a large and thriving Italian cultural center
in Boston. In the meantime, I hope I AM Books can
fill that gap, even if at a
smaller scale.
WE THE ITALIANS | 37
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