Saint Valentine’s Day

Saint Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and it reminds me of my lessons in Italian class that dealt with this saint and with the topic of “Love”. My unit on Italian Courtly Love Poetry coincided with the feast day of Saint Valentine which is also linked with Italian beginnings (the persecutions of the early Christians in Rome ). I would have my students give their personal definition of love and we would then read Italian courtly love poetry by Cavalcanti, Guinizelli, and of course by Dante Alighieri. ( These poets were called the Dolce Stilnovisti/ the Sweet New Stylists). I would start with Dante’s sonnet, Tanto gentile e tanto onesta ( Vita Nuova) and finish at the end of Italian IV AP with Dante’s Divine Comedy. The students would wrtie an Italian imitative courtly love poem or a modern version of this theme and they would always be spectacular. My young proteges amazed me with the quality of the maturation of their thoughts on the subject of love. By the end of the unit my students understood what true spiritual love ( Caritas) was. They understood that God is love and that for amorous love to be perfect it needs to imitate God’s love. My poetry unit would begin with the Sicilian School to the Florentine School, then to the Bolognese School and end with an introduction to the genius epic poem of Dante Alighieri, the Divine Comedy in order to illustrate the evolutionary process of man’s christian concept of love. Materialistic troubadour poetry associated with wine and pleasure transforms itself into chivalrous and courtly love and then to doctrinal and philosophical love and finally with Dante, elevates itself to spiritual love. Love becomes associated with a gentle and noble heart ( il cuor gentil) and not with noble standing in society. What a revolutionary idea that Dante incorporates and instills in western civilization! Both men and women begin to be given the dignity they so deserve from the Middle Ages onward even if man has always had struggles with this nascent idea in Dante’s sublime work. Dante was influenced by Saint Francis of Assisi and this new finding gives me great solace because as those of you who know me, also know tha I have a great admiration and love for this great saint as well as poet. It always then, befuddles me when some or most modern historians call this period the Dark Ages. How ironic is it that this dark age gave way to one of the greatest luminaries of all time…DANTE whose extraordinary christian ideas transformed modern western society in many ways. Though the secular media would have us believe that these ideas are archaic, my students for the last thirty-five years have always proved to me by their own original poems on love that Dante’s concept of “Caritas” is profound irrefutable and immutable truth for all time. Once again, a lesson imbued with “Speranza”. I will truly miss teaching this beautiful unit on Italian literature. Alla Prossima, Dorina

Italian Neorealism

As I mentioned in my first post that one of my principal mantras in life that comes from teaching Italian is “Speranza” ( Hope). I just viewed A beautiful Italian film called ” La Fuga degli Innocenti“/ The Escape of the Innocent (2004) on La Rai last week which reminded me of the several neorealistic Italian films that I used in my AP Italian IV classes throughout the years at Lyons Township High School such as Roberto Rossellini’s Roma, Citta Aperta / Open City (1945) or Vittorio De Sica’s Ladri di Biciclette/Bicycle Thief (1948). Neorealism is a movement in Italian cinema with a veristic style that began with Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione / Obsession(1942) who is considered the father of Italian neorealistic cinema. Neorealistic films have the following characteristics: ■Authentic settings in black and white ■Melodrama ■Realismo ( Verismo) ■Music that is powerful and serious ■Contrast of the tragic with the comic ■Episodes of Humanity ■Real persons, not always actors ■Dramatic scenes ■Instructional scenes ( that teach life lessons) ■ Ugliness of life not hidden We all like films that entertain us but sometimes, there are pedogogical films like neorealistic ones that do not just make us cry or laugh but that teach us profound life lessons from real occurences in human history. Both la Fuga degli Innocenti and Roma, Citta Aperta remind me of another mantra of mine that my father and mother taught me from my Italian and catholic upbringing: From the bad comes the greater good ( Dal male viene il bene). The existence of God is always questioned in these films that portray man’s inhumanity and brutality toward his fellowman. But in the end, the presence of God is finally visible through people who love completely and sacrifice their lives for the greater good of humanity. The Italian film I viewed on La Rai (The Escape of the Innocent) is about Joseph, a Jewish elementary teacher and other Italians ( both fascists and partisans) who help a group of abandoned Jewish children escape persecution during World War II. This is one of the most powerful films I have seen in a long time. Though this film and neorealistic films alike are difficult to watch, they continually teach us lessons of hope and humanity and that in the midst of evil, there is always good and there is always God. The final scene of the film is extraordinary with the last, poignantly repeated words of Joseph, “For the love of God!!!” ( Per l’amore di Dio) that bring salvation to Joseph, to the children, and to all , both in the physical and spiritual sense of the word. It must be said that this film moved me tremendously as someone who was born in a refugee camp after World War II in Novara in Piedmont after my parents fled from their home in Fiume in Venezia Giulia, fearful of being killed by the communists because they were Italian and catholic. When I say the Pledge of Allegiance or when I sing the National Anthem, I truly feel their impact in the recesses of my heart, mind and soul. Freedom and our rights and responsibilites as human beings are inextricably linked. Never take your freedom as Americans for granted! Let us as citizens of the United States protect and guard this precious freedom that we still have. We have the right and the responsibility to fight for our moral principles and for social justice. Let us always be vigilant toward this end. This cultural lesson on Italian neorealistic cinema that I taught throughout my high school teaching career in Italian IV AP reflects once more “SPERANZA!” Alla Prossima, Dorina

Italians and Food Continued

I would like to continue to talk about Italians and Food. Besides freshness, quality of food and taste, a deeper aspect to the Italian food tradition is deeply rooted in religion. At Christmas and Easter, Italians celebrate with some basic dishes, breads, dessert, and wines that capture Italy’s Judeo-Christian roots and its rich history with the Catholic Church especially. The concept of breaking Bread as symbolic of the Sacrifice of the Mass is part and parcel of the breaking of the bread and the drinking of wine in daily life as well as in a more grand scale for Natale and Pasqua. Preparation of meals for these religious holidays is not only a tradition involving family and taste but a fundamentally spiritual one as well. Many Italian traditions are deeply rooted in Catholicism. Devotion to one’s family is one of those traditions. Family is connected to the concept of the Holy Family: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We [Italians] try to emulate that love in our familial lives. We equate love for family with Christ’s love for humanity, a love that sacrifices and endures for those we love. Consequently, mothers like my dear mother worked very hard every day to prepare a beautiful meal for us from scratch with love and sacrifice. The careful and time-consuming process of preparing food now becomes a kind of reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice and love for us. These religious principles are deep at the heart of Italian identity. Therefore, in my cultural lessons on Italian food, I always highlight that modern-day fast food is deleterious to society on many different levels. Italian food identity is cultural, historical, spiritual, and even philosophical in nature: Everyday life is filled with our cultural gastronomic identity. It is a ritual for us that is very important. We have to eat together as a family all the time. We need to eat wholesome food for our bodies that we respect as temples of God. We therefore, demand that our food be fresh, the best quality, with the eating of many fruits and vegetables every day. We do not generally like fast food for the many reasons I have just described. We revert to the ancients and humanists and then by the Judeo-Christian values and then by Renaissance man’s quest for exquisite eating which Catherine De Medici spread to France and then to the rest of the western world. Our cuisine is treated as an Art. It is connected to family and therefore, it is very individual. Each family has its own recipes that reflect Italian culture in very complementary ways. Italians have wonderful casual trattorias that are divine but they also have elegant fine dining in restaurants, but what makes eating such an Epicurean delight is the charm and warmth of the Italians as they serve it because the desire to share it so animatedly is what people remember about them so vividly. Traditions surrounding food and cultural identity are inseparably linked at the most basic level for most Italians. Italians also value and take pleasure from carefully prepared food. We as Italians are very social beings and we love pleasurable things; and good food is one of the best pleasures in life for us when prepared with love and care. Producing quality food is an important duty of the woman in the Italian household and is one that she takes a high amount of pride in. Today, men as well participate in this very important aspect of life. My husband does a nice job to help in this area of our marriage and family life. Will Fast food threaten Italian tradition and cultural identity? For me, fast food is a small threat because Italians will always, to some extent retain their love for tradition and for family that is connected with eating if [they] remember that the breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine at the table is a spiritual act that reminds us of the sacrifice of the mass. If Italians can look to the past and hold onto their traditions as only they can do, fast food will not disturb the Italian identity in the long run. If, however, the Italian people ignore their traditions and cultures, their identity is destined to be twisted by the epidemic of fast food, as so many other cultural identities already have been. I have been so blessed to receive and experience my loving parent’s traditions and values “A Tavola” and I hope to continue them with my family and share them with all who come my way. Alla prossima, Dorina