Discussion n. 16: due March 5

Below are the tasks with notes turned in by Sydney. 

I don't expect everyone to do as thorough a job as she has done, but you can use it as a general term of EXCELLENCE that goes beyond minimal requirements.

 

COMMENTS: are your notes efficient in recording the salient moments of the texts you are reading/watching? Do they also contain your personal reactions and observations? What did you learn from this example?

 

Sydney Galdames

Assignment due February 26^th

Task 1: "Late assignments and / or assignments that do not meet format requirements will not be graded."

Task 2: Take notes on lecture video

–                    Professor starts speaking of “Son of Italy “ by Pascal DeAngelo

–                    The book is an autobiography, or a story simply about your own life

–                    “biography or who you are at the time of your work”

–                    We give different interpretations for some of the acts that occur in our life

–                    gives example of a first teenage relationship

–                    Our perspective changes with time

–                    Our experiences changes, and the way we would write about those events would change as well

–                    “thing happen without a reason”

–                    “we see the consequences of our paths”, “because I did this, this happened”

–                    we must find logic and a narrative

–                    “we discard the elements of our lives that do not fit into our self-perception”

–                    Example of shoplifting, and how we would include that when describing who we are

–                    Pascal was initially illiterate, and over time was able to understand and write English

–                    speaks of his adventures and hardships

–                    focal point: attempt to make sense of his life

–                    Shakespeare quote about life signifying nothing, chaos that you cannot control

–                    First page of the book speaks of the earliest memories of his life, there is structure in the very    first page

–                    First memory is when his grandmother died, speaks of a time where is got his grandmother onions.

–                    First memory is about a lost he experiences

–                    He was a frightened child, and events occur without his control

–                    He feels defenseless

–                    One peculiar character is a woman called “the vampire”

–                    Mentality of traditional societies, pre industrialization

–                    World is full of magical spirits

–                    He has to assign a reason for the things that are occurring in order to help himself (ex- child falling sick and dying)

–                    Professor recommends to practice DEEP READING, aka- reading slow, or out load to yourself

            in private

–                    Focus and underline pieces of work you find interesting, and make connections!

–                    Retain the things that provide tools to develop our own understanding of this text, make effort and read slowly to see a difference

 

Task 3: READ Son of Italy pp 1-98, Write notes and summary (not just the plot, include personal observations)

-(pg 7) D'Angelo speaks of his first memory, one of his grandmother telling him to get the onions for dinner. D'Angelo's first memory is of a woman who pasted away, this may signify a strong relationship between them.

-(pg8) D'Angelo speaks of how his family used to curl up in odd positions just to sleep on the same bed.

- He mentions a storm one night, the rain was falling onto his face and it was freezing.

(I can only imagine how startled he must have been, it is a very sad thing that a little boy had to experience this kind of mess just in order to get some rest)

-( pg8) D'Angelo also mentions how he fell off of his parents bed quite frequently because of the lack of space, he says “Avery narrow bed it was. Almost every night I fell, having my head continuously decorated with swollen spots about the size of a full ripe cherry.”

-(pg 10) D'Angelo tells a story about a child getting hurt, and him being blamed for the child's injury. He says that his own parents would not defend him against the little boys parents so there was no use in fighting the repercussions. He says “ I could not go home because I had no protection there.” (This quote is extremely sad, as a child my mother would always defend me before she even knew the situation. It was always nice to know somebody had my back and that makes me feel sorry that young Pascal felt helpless).

-(pg 16) D'Angelo gets home to realize that he is not in trouble and that the blame fell on the right boy.

Pascal is thankful but still upset so he sobs out loud.

(I too have cried tears of relief as a child, sometimes children create so much anxiousness where it is not necessary).

-(pg 19) “This man had been know as a sort of wizard. He lived alone and had nothing to do with the world”  (I am curious what Pascal means by this man being a “wizard”?)

-(pg20) the “wizard man” was struck by lightening right in front of Pascal and his mother

-(pg22) Pascal first entered school at the age of seven years old (I myself entered school when I was only 4 years old).

-(pg24) Pascal stopped going to school at the age of 12 in order to work and get money to help out the family

-(pg25) “We were very poor people. We rarely had meat, and our food was of the poorest kind. Yet we were happy.” ( This quote is very meaningful and beautiful to me, as I too growing up was poor. My mother was on food stamps when I was a child because my dad had left and was not supporting me. My mother worked very hard to provide for me, and my childhood was still a happy time in my life regardless. People do not consider the importance of relationships in children's lives and how a strong family relationship can benefit a child tremendously for the rest of their lives.)

-(pg27) Pascal speaks of witches, wizards, and vampires. These people to him are so terrible that he must pretend they are not fully human in order to accept it. (I now realize why he called the man who got struck by lightening, a wizard).

-(pg33) Pascal speaks of a sick baby who could not get better with medicine that was provided. Pascal says “In our valley a baby who cannot be relieved from an immediate illness will be at once classified as an innocent victim of the vampires.”

 ( This quote just reinforces the belief that when these people cannot come up with an explanation for terrible events, they blame a make believe source to cope. )

-(pg 41) “her eyes seemed to gaze through me as through a crystal to some point far beyond. Beyond the skies” 

( when I read this quote I imagine this woman to be blind. I have worked with blind elderly people before, and they have this same gaze when you speak to them. It always makes me feel a little sad when I am speaking to someone who is blind and I realize that they cannot see the faces of people who speak to them.)

-(pg47) the mother says “I cannot blame him. He works so hard and never seems to get any better” (This quote to me is the sad truth behind the middle/lower class of people living in America today. Unfortunately sometimes no matter how hard you work, the rich just seem to keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer.)

-(pg53) D'Angelo describes the crying wife with her “multitudinous tear” and I can visualize this woman and her sobbing.

-(pg59) Pascal describes a woman looking at him with a sense of pity in her eyes. He said that “he wondered if he should stand up and bow to her”.

( this line is very sad to me, that a young boy felt the need to bow down to a woman because she was looking at him like he was less than, or unfortunate.)

-(pg62-64) Pascal describes the men in the town. The men all sound like decent people, who are not involved in any suspicious activity. Even though these men are nice guys, I'm sure they will be discriminated against because they are immigrants.

-(pg69) Pascal describes the American woman as fat and ugly, I wonder if she really was “ugly” or if Pascal has a sort of resentment towards the americans, because they were not nice to him. 

-( pg78) A gold chain in America was only 49 cents. Pascal was shocked to hear how cheap gold was in America, much like I was to read that gold was only 49 cents!

-(pg84) The banana price is 3 for one penny. That is quite a bargain

-(pg88) Matteo is in a fight with an American boy and things get ugly. When they go to the police station, the officer is treating Pascal and the others with no respect, even telling them to shut up.

-(pg 93) “In a sonorous Neapolitan dialect” I did not know what sonorous meant until I googled it. It means “deep and full sounding”

-(pg98) finally after searching for three more men to share the fee with them, the guys are on their way to a new job. Things are looking up for the Italians.

 

 

 

Task 4:

(xviii) – The introduction speaks of lynching, and why is it that the lynching of African Americans is the only thing that comes to mind when we hear the word “lynching”. Why is it that schools only teach about this specific group of people, and not of the other minority groups that deal with lynching? ( It is a very strong argument, and I myself am also unsure as to why schools do not teach us about these lynching’s, I believe it is discriminatory against the Italian immigrants and their history.)

(pg 6) –“Massacre at Aigues-Mortes, in the Camargue, a region of southern France” -A large number of Italians were killed in France, due to people competing for jobs.

(pg 9)-

“Bloody explosions of brutal wickedness are now to be found in states like Washington, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware, Indiana, Alabama and Virginia. The phenomenon is now beginning to worry even Americans who still do not seem to be fully conscious of the shamefulness of such barbaric acts.”

(How ironic, many Americans STILL to this day turn their heads and pretend to not be affected by barbaric acts that happen. What comes to mind is the killing of innocent black men by police officers, and many people pretend that there is nothing wrong with this.)

(pg13)-  “The most common argument used to justify lynching was the almost total certainty that the victim was guilty”

(I believe that this argument is faulty. It is the same argument people jump to conclusion these days, without ever finding out if a person is “guilty” or not, lynching is brutal and inhumane.)

(pg14)- Tampa Bay Times refers to the lynching of the two Italian men as “a lynching and a lesson” , How disgusting is that ! A public newspaper feels secure enough to publish such hateful words.

(pg 21) - “A rigid and uniform norm on naturalization was imposed on the states only after the lynching of five Italians in Tallulah.”

(Of course it was imposed only after the murder of five Italians)

-Money was distributed to the families, as if that was going to heal their broken hearts from losing their loved ones!

(pg22)- In the case of the lynching’s, the Americans would try and claim the immigrants already had U.S citizenship in order to prevent the Italian government from defending them.

How sneaky and disgusting of them.

(pg 28)-  “the New York-based Italian newspaper L’Araldo screamed its outrage against the acceptance of indemnification by Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Prinetti, accusing him of a “state crime” and attacking him with never-heard-before words”

(I am glad that the Italians living in America had some type of news source to defend them at that time. I am surprised America didn't try and shut it down.)

(pg 36)- “This is history that for the longest time many tried to erase.”

(I completely agree with this quote, it is so completely accurate when discussing lynching in general, but especially the lynching against the Italians. Before this class I had NEVER heard of the lynchings of Italian men.)

(pg 44)- “The atmosphere had become even more tense after the acquittal a few weeks earlier of an American citizen who had killed an Italian, defined by the Progresso as “the poor Tironi.”

(This quote reminds me of NYC after the acquittal of the police officer that killed Mike Brown, and the police officer that killed Erik Garner. The hostility on the streets was insane, and the anger soon unfortunately turned into the murder of two police officers, this was a time I will never forget living in NYC.) 

(pg 50)- “Corte wrote in a letter to the ambassador — only to a point the irritation of the population and the bloody outburst, but I cannot understand how the educated class could become the leader of such a shameful assassination.”

( It is a hard lesson in life to learn that sometimes education and logic can hold NO power over ignorance and racism. This is a lesson I myself have learned very well since the election of Donald Trump.)

(pg 55)- “In particular the New York-based L’Eco d’Italia, in a special edition issued immediately after the news of the lynching on March 14, 1891, came out with the headline 7 Sicilians butchered in New Or- leans, reporting with horror the killing that took place following the not-guilty verdict.”

(I am glad that the L'Eco d'Italia published this information right away after the lynching. The people deserve to know the truth, and they deserve to know it ASAP.)

(pg63)-  The acquittal of the officer is described to have “happened with premeditation and with the complicity of law enforcement officers.” That does not surprise me at all, it almost seems obvious, and that is quite scary.

(pg63)- The quote given by Mr. Corte is what I had predicted would happen before I read about it. In order to silence the cries of the Italians, the Americans took away their voice by forcing Mr. Corte to leave. Corte stated ““I am now threatened by a request for my recall by the United States government”. As a punishment for acting openly and undiplomatically in defense of the Italian colony, the consul was “sacrificed”

(pg73) - A very powerful quote that stuck out to me was a quote by Saint Martin, he said “This acquittal represents a danger for the future. It is universally known that the New Orleans lynching was the consequence of the acquittal of the murderers of Chief of Police Hennessy, an acquittal that was obtained in a way similar to the recent one, and that was considered a success for Mafia.”

(pg 77)- Italians were given the worst of the worst job positions. They were desperate for money so they did what they had to, but when compared to white people the Italians were struggling. This reminds me of some Mexican immigrants I see around NYC. They work so hard day in and day out, while white men complain that they're stealing “our” jobs, jobs that the white man would NEVER apply for.

(pg83) – The events that occurred in Colorado are explained. An American man was murdered and an Italian man named Lorenzo Andino immediately confessed. He and five other men were arrested, but before they could get to the prison they were gunned down. Two of the men were arrested and when in prison they were attacked and killed. Regardless of if these men were criminals themselves, the prison guards did not uphold the law and the killers avoided detection from the guards.

(pg94)- “three defenseless Italians whose safety should have been guaranteed by this Country’s justice system.”  The key words in this quote are “should have” unfortunately the rights these men were entitled to be not given to them, just because of their ethnicity.

( pg98)- Describing the events in New Orleans there is a quote that talks about the incident. “Over three hundred armed people removed the three prisoners and hanged them from the trees in the prison’s courtyard. Still not satisfied, they started looking for the other two. They found them and they hanged them in a slaughter- house nearby.” This entire description makes me sick to my stomach, it is so painful to imagine.

(pg106)-“recommends that we inform privately and confidentially our counterparts that if the

American government offered an indemnity to the Tallulah victims’ families, the Royal

Government would not consider itself authorized to deprive them of such benefit.”

(pg107)- Describes the situation in America to be rather embarrassing. Embarrassing is a polite way of describing the shadiness of the U.S

(pg110)- “The truth was that, by asking for the standard indemnity of $2,000 for each victim” $2,000 is not good enough for the murder of a family member of mine. There is no price tag on human life.

( pg113)- L'Alrado said in a interview that the lynching in America was an incurable disease. Lynching in America was eventually “cured” but other discriminatory killing still occur today.

( pg116)- Minister Prinetti- “This is in line with the traditions of the South where lynching is not considered a crime and where anyone trying to track down the assassins would be exposed to the danger of re- prisals.”

(pg117)- “The minister also underlined a new aspect that made this case even more egregious than the previous ones: the Italian victims had not been charged with any offense” I did not know the definition of “egregious” so I looked it up and it said it meant “outstandingly bad” which makes complete sense in the sentence.

(pg128)- “We also know that the filthy savagery of the America people will not drop the enjoyment of killing Italians.”  This would change eventually, due to the hard work of these men, continuing to fight the discrimination against the Italian people.

(pg 138-139) – The event that occurred in Mansura Louisiana is described “his house was targeted by a volley of bullets shot by several firearms that left forty or fifty bullet holes in the walls. The boy and three other young Italians living in the house survived by throwing themselves on the floor.”

-This event was started out of pure jealousy that the Italians were successful and they were not.

(pg145) - The event of what happened in Pittson, PA are described and it mentions that “The citizenship immediately reacted with threats of lynching.” The fact that lynching was used to threaten criminals is super unethical.

(pg 151) - “They have thrown stones against trains and finally there was the attempted killing of Joe Cosio, a Spaniard, who was mistakenly identified for his brother who is vice president of the manufacturers’ association.”

(pg 152)- “The description of the lynching and the plan set in place to actuate it constituted a major accusation against the lynching mob but most of all against the public authorities that did nothing to prevent it”

(pg160)- However, once it was determined that one of the victims was a foreigner, the federal authorities had the right and duty to act directly and take serious, punitive measures” Punitive: Intended as punishment

(pg 163 )- Cusani stated that ““the weak spot of our protest in comparison to the New Orleans lynching, when it could be proven directly that the police was at fault.” And I would definitely have to agree with him. They should have fought more to prove the police were guilty.

(pg 168)- “After several cases of lynching of foreigners remained unsolved, the federal government felt the need to take the jurisdiction over these crimes away from the local courts and from local prejudices.”

-Finally! What took so long to decide this?

(pg171)- “The statistics presented by Senator Gallinger showed that just in 1901 there were 135 lynching’s, not a very high number in comparison to other periods, such as 1892, when there were 235 lynching’s.”

-It is crazy to me that there was a time where 135 lynchings was considered to be “not a very high number”, it's very sad and eye opening to see these numbers.