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# 69 • OCTOBER 5 , 2015
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THE ITALIAN WAY:
Addressing the Italian
Stereotypes, Myth 11
One Italy, Many ItALIANS
By Elda Buonanno Foley, PhD
The topic of this article
has been triggered by a
recent conversation with
an American student who,
while addressing Italian
identity, asked me if the
song “‘O sole mio” sang
by his grandparents, immigrants from Italy, was
the official Italian anthem.
While pondering which
angle to take to address
my reply, the first image I
thought was of “one Italy in this article) but mainly
with many Italians”.
linguistically and the popularity of the Neapolitan
With this statement, I spe- song, sang so often by the
cified to the student that student’s relatives, testiwhile Italy was unified in fied to an important reali1861, the people of Italy ty.
still remained divided, not
only for political and so- Italy is one of the few councial reasons (the story is tries in the world, where
too long to be shortened
52 | WE THE ITALIANS
www.wetheitalians.com
not one but many languages cohabit together. The
dialects of Italy, in fact, are
not simply real expressions of peculiar local and
regional identities: they
are “languages”, real and
vibrant testimonies of customs, uses and identities
deeply rooted in the local