Sport and the Shaping of Italian American IdentityGerald R.Gems. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2013.

Abstract

Sport and the Shaping of Italian American Identity Gerald R. Gems. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2013.In 1907, Carmine Calabrese left Quadri, Abruzzo, Italy for what would become his new home in a new country. He disembarked at Ellis Island, New York, and a few weeks later settled in Clairton, Pennsylvania, a steel mill town just south of Pittsburgh where he worked as a laborer. He came to America, as did other Italians according to Gerald R. Gems (nee DiBenedetto), ...in hopes of a better future,.. .to settle in a new land.. .to earn enough money to return to Italy in a more comfortable condition (11). Like so many of the Italian immigrants, however, Calabrese never returned to Italy. In 1917, he enlisted in the Army of his new country and served honorably during World War I, even surviving wounds he received during the battle of Meuse-Ar gonne. Following his discharge, Calabrese returned to Clairton, and, in 1919, he married Philomena Pasquarella. Carmine and Philomena Calabrese's first of four children was a daughter, Julia. Julia Calabrese would herself later have two daughters and two sons; the youngest of her sons was I. So, though my last name is Charles, I am the proud son of Julia Calabrese, grandson of Carmine and Philomena Calabrese, and the great grandson of Pietro and Sabia Calabrese and Frank and Maria Pasquarella. I am an Italian American, and the experiences of my mother's family echo throughout the pages of Gems's Sport and the Shaping of Italian American Identity.In honor of my grandparents and my mother, and, in recognition of my relatives' experiences in and contributions to America, I have always admired fellow Italian Americans, especially politicians, actors, entertainers, and athletes. And among the later group, I follow most closely those baseball players and boxers with melodious Italian names. They are a source of pride to me and they anchor part of my sense of self. With my family roots in Pittsburgh, I follow the Pittsburgh Pirates who have had their share of Italian American players-Garagiola, Bartirome, Cimoli, Pagliaroni, Giusti, Mazilli, Mazzaro, and Grilli. I follow(ed) the careers of great Italian American boxers Marciano, LaStarza, LaMotta, Basilio, Antofuermo, Mancini, Pazienza, and Malignaggi. A list of great American basketball coaches sounds like roll call at a Sons of Italy dinner meeting: Auriemma, Calabria, Calipari, Carlisimo, Carnesecca, Del Negro, Fratello, Izzo, Massimino, Pitino, Valvano. Is there more to my affinity for Italian Americans in professional sports and other walks of life than the accident of my birth? In a well-organized, well-re searched, and well-argued presentation, Gerald R. Gems posits answers to two key questions: why [did/do] sports have a particular appeal for Italian-American youth and [what was] the role [sports] played in the assimilation process? (xv). In so doing, through the lens of the Italian-American experience, Gems sheds light more broadly on the American immigrant experience by examining the important role that sports play in the development of a community's identity.To Gems, the development of Italian ethnic identity is more than attaining fame or notoriety in a new land. He connects societal conditions and cultural traditions in Italy to the conditions faced by Italian immigrants in America that had to be overcome in order to permit construction of a unified Italian American identity. Regional and social class distinctions held from Italy, including diverse language dialects, divided Italian immigrants when they settled in the United States. There was little by way of shared identity across the disparate groups of Italian immigrants wherever they found themselves. It is well known that hostilities between the northern and southern regions of Italy carried over to America and led to the establishment of specific region/culture-based enclaves within the Little Italies that emerged in American urban centers. …