Document Type
Honors Project
Abstract
My project re-examines dominant historical narratives of Christopher Columbus and assimilation of southern Italian immigrants to the United States. Arguing that such narratives partly result from historic anxiety surrounding southern Italians’ unstable whiteness, I challenge masculinist, white-washed histories by centering and contextualizing a history of Italian immigrant garment worker and labor leader Angela Bambace (1898-1975). By weaving my own exploration of my Italian immigrant ancestors’ pasts throughout, I ultimately encourage other white descendants of European immigrants to explore their histories in a critical and loving way that "resurrects" histories without sanctifying historical figures or their white descendants to racial innocence.
Recommended Citation
Anastasi, Kathryn N., "Ways We Remember: Rethinking Symbols of Italian American History and Imagining Alternative Narratives" (2015). American Studies Honors Projects. 14.
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/amst_honors/14
Included in
American Studies Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Labor History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons, Women's History Commons
© Copyright is owned by author of this document
