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From: giacomet@haley.ecn.purdue.edu (  )
Newsgroups: trial.soc.culture.italian
Subject: Re: L'Italia vista dagli USA
Message-ID: <1991May1.215644.14641@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 1 May 91 21:56:44 GMT
References: <6nygpvj@rpi.edu> <1991May1.202210.21418@agate.berkeley.edu>
Sender: root@noose.ecn.purdue.edu (ECN System Management)
Organization: Le Bouquet d'Or
Lines: 74

In article <1991May1.202210.21418@agate.berkeley.edu> cnrdean@booboo.berkeley.edu writes:
>
>The article by Clyde Haberman was the first completely serious thing
>I've ever read about the Italian culture/government.  This is a

Well, I think they've been quite a few. Maybe you mean ... "the first
completely serious thing written in English" ?

>reflection on me.  I don't know much about the culture of Italy, the
>country.  (I know about Italian culture as it exists in the US.) I have

  Italian sausages, you mean ?

>some questions which might be explained by a better understanding of
>Italy.  I hope that someone in this group can help out.
>
>It appears that there are all kinds of Italians, many almost unrelated
>to each other.  How did this come about?  Was Italy invaded so often by

Vive la diffe'rence !!

>so many peoples that each of these groups of people made their own
>sub-culture?

Would you mind being a little more accurate ? Since 1865, I believe there
was one invasion by American troops south, and germanophone troops North.

>Why is Southern Italy so poor?  The only time I visited Italy, my wife
>and I drove to Calabria (Castel Silano).  I was amazed at the low
>standard of living, which my father told me has improved drastically
>over the last 50 years.  It wasn't squallid, but there was no heat in
>the house (there was snow nearby), no telephones, few light fixtures,...

"Il faut cultiver notre jardin" disait Candide: Why American urban centers
are so squallid outside the business districts ? Last time
I drove south through the Ohio valley and then to N. Carolina, people
looked soooo bad in their houses.

Seriously, if you don't have the A/C in the house, the phone, and the VCR,
you're almost "squallid" ? Get pair of binoculars and a life. 
I'd rather be poor in Calabria than in Detroit, NYC, or LA, even if the
house is 200+ year old, and that I have to live like my great-grand father
used to.

>My father's cousin burned a few twigs in a fireplace.  I noticed very
>few trees, few timbers in the homes, ...  It seems like there should be
>more trees in the mountains.

Here in the Mid-West, the plains used to be covered with immense forests.
Bizarre, now, there ain't a single tree. Only corn and soybean. Beeerrrrk !!

People have been living there for 3,000 year and more. They were highly
civilised when the English were still tribals living in their caves in northern
germany. D'you know ?

>Where did the castles come from?

Did you forget the smiley ? Maybe they are the remaining of some
ancient Disney World. Who knows. Or maybe, they were built by some
extra-terrestrials; or eventually, by some "international" (foreign)
invader ?

>Would the churches there have a record of births, baptisms, etc.?  I
>hope to track down my genealogy, and was thinking of trying the
>churches.  Any other advice on genealogy?

Churches are buildings. I guess to refer to the "parrochia", the atomic
administrative unit.

>Thanks much.
>Sam Scalise

Prego.
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