In his groundbreaking essay “Breaking the Silence: Strategic Imperatives for Italian American Culture,” Robert Viscusi (1990) championed an articulation of history that includes a collective purpose. While much progress has been made on numerous issues, many Italian/American associations seem to continue to work in a vacuum, moving forward alone on issues.1 Whereas, were more Italian/American groups to work in unison, the Italian/American population at large would benefit, thus encountering greater success in bringing forth a variety of projects that would contribute to an Italian/American agenda.2 To do so, as a collective, we must inevitably reconsider our own thought processes as we reexamine and attempt to promote our “Italian heritage and culture,” as many articulate the overriding sociocultural enterprise.
Let us then begin with a question: What is—or, what should be—that rallying point around which Italian Americans might find some sense of commonality? Indeed, both African Americans...
