Italy is a very special place for Giacomo Virdone. He grew up in a small town called Montevago, Sicily. My grandfather was 17 years old when he left Sicily and moved to Venezuela with his family. He lived there for about 4 years till he came to America for work at the age of 21. He has been living in America ever since. My grandfather has said that life was simple back then in his small town that he grew up in. He go up every morning to help his family make money when he was young by selling cheese. He had said that a typical breakfast for him would be a bowl of ricotta cheese with a sprinkle of salt and a cup of coffee. Later during the day, for lunch would be something small, whatever he could find. “A piece of fruit maybe and bread” said my grandfather. Then the traditional nap during the day would occur. His dinner would mainly consist of pasta and sauce. This was a very popular meal that would be eaten if nothing else was available. What my grandfather had valued the most of his homeland cuisine was the freshness of the produce grown in Italy. He had said for example, that the olives taste so different there and here in the US. My grandfathers side of the family owns property that consists of rows of olive trees, farms, fig trees, anything you name it! Because produce is …show more content…
Yes he said he had farms, but those animals were to sell and make money. He said that his family's economic status was lower middle class. Things didn’t come so easy for him so he had to work for everything he ate. His father had passed away when he was only 5 years old. Being the oldest brother, he had to not only provide for himself but his family. “Meat was very expensive. On occasion we will get it. You don't go to market in the Morning, you get nothing but scraps” my grandfather had said during the interview. Fish was a big part of his diet because it was easily
My parents both worked full time and most of the time we had beans and rice for breakfast, lunch and diner, however every Friday night at about 7:00 we would gather our things and head out for the taqueria at the corner of the street. We could smell the cooking meat and grilled onions before we could even see the stand. Once we arrived we sat on the worn out green seats and ordered, as I was merely three years old, I could only eat about a taco before becoming full. At the end of the night with full bellies and content hearts we walked back home, and awaited for the next Friday.
He was a photographer who brought attention to the living conditions of immigrants in america. Immigrants were living upwards of 12 people in a room. Rooms without ventilation, or indoor plumbing, the unsanitary conditions made for an unhealthy cycle of disease. Cholera, and tuberculosis were very common in this time, because they lacked the knowledge we know today. The italians had never encountered such problems as this. In Italy, while they lived in close quarters, they also spent a large portion of their time outside. Not only were there homes unsafe, but also their work places.
Michelangelo was born in Caprese, Italy on March 6th 1475. His family was politically prominent as his family had large land property. His father was a banker and was looking to his son to engage in his businesses. As a young boy, he has ambitions of becoming a sculptor, but his father was very discouraging of this. He wanted his son to live up to the family name and take up his father’s businesses. Michelangelo became friends with Francesco Granacci, who introduced him to Domenico Ghirlandio(biography.com). Michelangelo and his father got into a series of arguments until eventually they arranged for him to study under Ghirlandaio at the age of thirteen. Ghirlandaio watched Michelangelo work and recognized his talent for the art and recommended him into an apprenticeship for the Medici family palace studio after only one year of at the workshop. The Medici’s were very rich from making the finest cloths. Lorenzo, which was one of the most famous of the family had a soft side for art and is credited for helping the Italian Renaissance become a time of illustrious art and sculpting. At ...
The common people were restricted to products of wheat and barley such as batters , bread and so on . Surely in all classes they used in meals vegetables , cheeses and fruits of the season, depending of course on the region they lived within.
Italo Calvino was born in 1923 in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba. He then moved to Italy with his family were he was raised and lived most of his life. Italo joined the Italian Resistance during World War II and when the war ended he settled in Turin, and earned his degree in literature. Italo worked as an editor for the Communist periodical L'Unità and for the publishing house of Einaudi. He also went on to write more Italian fantasy books other then the Baron in the Trees, he wrote a total of nineteen short stories. Italo Calvino died in September of 1985, in Siena Italy.
Living in Italy showed me how much I had to be grateful for. I saw firsthand another culture’s day-to-day lifestyle. Italian culture isn’t as fast-paced as American culture. Their slower pace forces you to appreciate a little more of what each day offers. My job was as an Au pair which is a live-in nanny/teacher for the family’s children. Most
Throughout most of my childhood, I always gravitated towards my Italian heritage more than any other of my birthrights. My great grandparents came to Lawrence, Massachusetts from Naples, Italy in search of a better life. They found it here in America by working in the factories and mills. Sadly, I only knew my great grandparents for a brief period of time before they all passed away. I thank them and her generation for taking us here, to the United States of America.
There’s a lot more to being Italian than the typical stereotypes that we have come to know from movies, television and books. From the Catholic mobsters who kill during the week but always make it to mass on Sunday, to the “how you doin” views of Joey from the television show “Friends”, people often forget the more important parts of being Italian. It is a culture like no other, full of history, art, and most importantly, their passion for food. Italian food, in my opinion, is the best in the world. Italians put so much into everything they make that the time and effort is tasted with every single bite. One of my favorite dishes would have to be fettuccini alfredo and it just happens to be a fairly easy, but extremely delicious, dish to make. Trust me, if I can make it, you can make it.
Many of the composers have also come from Italy and gave back to the nation that they have come from. If the composers are not from Italy, by sometime in their life they have been to Italy or they compose pieces that are similar to the ones that Italians composed.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Personal cultural heritage is a significant part of who we are. In this paper, I will discuss the cultural heritage of my own family, including topics such as, artifacts, familial ties, patterns, and the influences of our heritage on our family today.
In Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," the message about the preservation of heritage, specifically African-American heritage, is very clear. It is obvious that Walker believes that a person's heritage should be a living, dynamic part of the culture from which it arose and not a frozen timepiece only to be observed from a distance. There are two main approaches to heritage preservation depicted by the characters in this story. The narrator, a middle-aged African-American woman, and her youngest daughter Maggie, are in agreement with Walker. To them, their family heritage is everything around them that is involved in their everyday lives and everything that was involved in the lives of their ancestors. To Dee, the narrator's oldest daughter, heritage is the past - something to frame or hang on the wall, a mere artistic, aesthetic reminder of her family history. Walker depicts Dee's view of family heritage as being one of confusion and lack of understanding.
Federico Fellini was born on January 20, 1920, in Rimini, Italy. After a mostly uneventful childhood, Fellini moved to Rome at age 19 after he dropped out of Law School (Encyclopaedia Britannica). In Rome he contributed to a humor magazine, Marc’Aurelio, with cartoons, stories and gags (Encyclopaedia Britannica). During World War II he became a scriptwriter and later married his wif...
Family history is very important to an individual. By knowing where you come from, you can have a better perspective of your life. Having a clear understanding of your family background allows you to better appreciate the things that you would normally take for granted. The house, the car, and the average clothing may look better when one sees the sacrifices their family has made. They will see that their family has worked very hard just so their family can experience the better things in life. A persons roots and origin is one of the most important things to explore. It alone can bring you closer to self-discovery.
As compared to us today, my parents never had TV, video, computers and jet planes. Their lives are not cluttered with so many consumer goods that we find today in supermarkets and shopping complexes. For that matter, they never had supermarkets nor complexes. They did their occasional shopping in simple shops, devoid of air-conditioning or price-tags.
For hundreds of years, life was focused on agriculture. Most people lived in countries because city development was minimal. Most families farmed their own