[extropy-chat] italian football victory

[P.J. Manney & E. Gruendemann]

spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:     Please offer me some insight if you have one. It appears that Italian
Americans are proud to be Italian, but French Americans are not proud to be
French. Why is that? Those two countries are neighbors, genetically the
people are about the same, they have similar population and standards of
living. Why the asymmetry?

spike 


   
   
   
    Okay, how about this:
   
    Italian Americans came over to the US in huge, communal waves of immigration over a century.  They settled in areas with other Italians, in some places creating "Little Italys."  Sometimes, entire villages emigrated and settled together, like the town of Middletown, CT, where I went to school, although they were technically Sicilian.  Italian customs and traditions were maintained.  Italian was spoken at home.  Ties with their former country were maintained.  Hence the self identity as "Italian Americans."  When Italian Americans return to visit Italy, they get a very warm welcome (this from my many Italian American friends who have done this).

   
  The French did not immigrate to the US in the same numbers or waves.  They didn't have the same economic or social imperatives.  They did not create "Little Frances" or keep their traditions.  They assimilated as individuals.  (My father's mother was one of these French-Americans.  There was no incentive to marry a Frenchman -- she couldn't find any in her new country!  She married a Russian immigrant instead and my father's upbringing was in no way "French.")  Of course, there was much French immigration to parts of Canada, since it was once a French colony until the British won it by force.  And Quebec is a proudly French cultural province.  But unfortunately, the French have no love of their Canadian or Tahitian or any other colonial descendants.  The impression I have received is that the French consider their colonial brethren inferior -- and they speak bad French (to the Parisians, of course)!  Unpardonable!  So why should French immigrants be proud of France?
  
Having said that, there is a French Festival in Santa Barbara this weekend for Bastille Day.  But why Santa Barbara, I have no idea... it's Spanish!  Since I'm going up the coast this weekend, I thought I might stop by, if for no other reason than to laugh at the Poodle Parade -- I kid you not.  http://www.frenchfestival.com/  If this is what they think French culture is, I'm not surprised that there are no proud French Americans!
   
  Respectfully,
  Patricia

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