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# 70 • OCTOBER 19 , 2015
ceded them. But World
War I also challenged national identity as Italians
who migrated to the USA
and even their children
were still considered to be
Italian citizens, who could
be and were drafted to
serve the Italian military.
Many others voluntarily
returned to Italy to fight,
while others entered the
American army as national identity remained in a
liminal state, not fully one
or the other.
Mussolini continually nurtured an Italian identity by
sending emissaries, such
as Italo Balbo and others
to the USA, establishing
Italian language schools
in Catholic parishes, and
appealing to Italian Americans for financial aid in
his imperial endeavors in
Africa.
It was not until Italians
adopted the American national game of baseball
that they gained greater
acceptance in American
society.
While distance racing was
an early favorite, the second generation promoted their Italian American
identity through the American sports of baseball,
football, and basketball.
Some of the boxers fought
under aliases to disguise
their Italian ancestry, and
the first Italian baseball
star Anglicized his name,
for which his father disowned him. Many Italian
parents saw sport as a frivolous activity, when children should be working
and helping to support the
family; but they changed
their minds when their
sons who became professional athletes brought
home more money than
they made working. When
Willie Pep (Papaleo) presented his father with his
winnings from a boxing
match, the overjoyed father told him to see if he
could fight two times the
next week. Others won
enough money to buy homes for their parents and
provide a better life than
they could ever have hoped for in Italy.
Which were the most popular sports among the Boxing in particular fit
Italian Americans, and the physical lifestyles and
why is that?
mental dispositions (habitus) of Italian peasants.
48 | WE THE ITALIANS
www.wetheitalians.com
It was an individual sport
that required strength,
toughness, stamina, and
self-discipline, all qualities
characteristic of their lives
in Italy.
Baseball, however, became the sport which most
assimilated the Italians
into the American culture.
They came from a communal society which emphasized the family first;
while American culture
promoted individualism.
Baseball enabled them to
merge both perspectives:
as all nine players had
to work together when
playing defense, just like
their family, if the team was
going to be successful;
but when on offense each
player acted as an individual when he got a chance to hit the ball. Like the
American capitalist economic system, the player
(or worker) who produced
the most as an individual
got paid more than the
less productive ones. The
game also taught respect
for authority that American bosses cherished.
Many Italians who had to
endure foreign imperialists, landlords, and their
harsh supervisors, adopted radical political views