In her most recent piece for La Voce di New York, “Looking for ‘Italia’ in Little Italies: Just How ‘Italian’ Are Italian-Americans?”, Grace Russo Bullaro asks: “How do Italian-Americans identify themselves? What is their emotional relationship to Italy and America? What are they interested in?”
This happens to be a subject on which I’ve reflected quite a bit over the years and this proves to be the perfect opportunity to voice my thoughts. Let me say it out front so that there will be no argument: I am an American, through and through. I hold no allegiances to any nation other than the United States. Unfortunately, our society is divisive enough that declaring yourself solely American is not good enough; I’ve had people look at me querulously when I only supplied the “American” response to the “what nationality are you” question.
