th
# 70 • OCTOBER 19 , 2015
read more #interviews
THE INTERVIEW:
Gerald R. Gems
Sport champions, true heroes among
the Italian American community
Sport is a very important
topic in our trip around the
US looking for how, when
and where Italians have
left positive contributions
to the growth of the American society. Sport champions are often true heroes, especially in the US:
and some of those heroes
have been Italian Americans, inspiring a strong
and justified sense of pride in those fellow Italians
who didn’t get the same
positive consideration in
everyday life.
Prof. Gerald R. Gems has
written a very interesting
book about this topic: he’s
the perfect guest to talk
about this, and we welcome him on We the Italians
Prof. Gems, in your book
you analyze the role of
sport in the formation of
46 | WE THE ITALIANS
www.wetheitalians.com
By Umberto Mucci
the Italian American identity and
then through the
decades. Please
tell us something
more about this.
When Italian immigrants came to
the USA, (mostly
between
18801920) they had
no sense of an
identity. Italy had
only been liberated from foreign
powers after 1860
and although the
country was nominally united under Victor Emmanuel II, the king of
Piedmont, most people,
especially in the Mezzogiorno and Sicily, did not
see themselves as Italians.
Their loyalty was not to
the new government, who
they perceived to be just
another occupier and tax
collector; but to their families and paesani in their
villages.
When they migrated to