Assimilate, or go back

Those of us who are children and grandchildren of Italian immigrants are perhaps the most likely Americans to lose patience with immigrants who choose to remain outside mainstream America, then complain about being treated as different. We have even less patience with the children and grandchildren of Latino extraction who resist assimilation to the point of demanding ballots be published in Spanish.

In Michigan, early Italian immigrants, for example, eagerly embraced Henry Ford's "English School," where they learned "English and American customs and financial acumen." Italian language newspapers (three of them in Detroit alone) covered their native culture, of course, but also intentionally served as vehicles for assimilation. In the first year of America's entry into World War II, Michigan's Italian-Americans volunteered for military service -- despite being labeled "hostile aliens," and being under FBI surveillance, and not being allowed to carry or use cameras, short-wave radios, or firearms.

I learned about the FBI thing only after living in Michigan.* In my native Cleveland, our Italian community retained its fondness for "the old country" but -- without deserting our heritage -- was simultaneously so obviously mainstream that we were not subject to such restrictions or suspicions. One reason, perhaps, is that by then we already had compatriots as politicians and prosecutors and judges bridging our mainstream and cultural universes.

Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.