Thank you for including the hardships and not being "white" when coming to America. My family endured many hardships and because of their treatment they insisted on us speaking English and not learning Italian but being an American. All my uncles and my father fought in wars as Americans and my grandparents were treated like traitors because they were not American citizens. America has a very harsh reality when it comes to racism in all forms. It is a sad truth. We were "black" then and "white" now at the cost of losing our culture. This is just very sad. Thank you again, Tia, for always telling it like it is and informing us all. I watch all your videos.
It shocked me to find out a lot of different groups of people weren’t considered white, I think one of the worst things I’ve read about that happened was the Italian mob lynching, its crazy and literally they didn’t do anything at all they were just a family trying to get by. It’s so gruesome and unjust beyond words it makes me heated.
My brother lived in Japan for two years you have no idea what it means to be ostracized from society. They not only completely act like you don't exist they openly discriminate against you to your face. This is now and not 100 years ago either. America is the most welcoming place on earth. People like myself are quickly replacing whites and they welcome it. It's strange but nice. Everyday there are more of us and less than them. Karma I guess.
@@maniswil2 it’s pretty rude to say someone who definitely got discriminated against doesn’t know what being ostracized is, one persons experience doesn’t cancel out the experience of another, just because one situation is worse doesn’t mean the other situation is invalid. Lots of different people get discriminated against in lots of parts of the world, for their religion, for their skin colour, for their disabilities, for their sexual orientation, it’s a real problem and you shouldn’t dismiss the problem and pretend it’s doesn’t because you think your experience is worst.
@@Emilyprowell Having a couple people sneer at you vs and entire society that shuns you and cuts you off at the heels at every point is a big difference. Go to a shop in the USA where they say literally no foriegners allowed. This is not uncommon in Japan. Especially around the bases where the Americans frequently rape the locals. They are especially harsh to blacks. China is 10x worse.
Maybe the first generation, but very little, nothing after that. i am 100% italian american(adopted), and no one has discriminated against me, or any italian american (2nd generation on).
É stupefacente vedere quanto tu sia diventata una persona realizzata e un'attenta osservatrice del mondo, da quella ragazzina molto "americana" arrivata un po' spaesata in Italia per studiare e presa dallo shock culturale di un paese che avevi visto da dietro le lenti di ciò che avevi iniziato a conoscere in USA con gli studi della lingua italiana. Vedo i tuoi video da molto, e mi fa molto piacere vedere quello che stai realizzando nella tua vita. Continua così :)
We generally think that "cohousing" is a modern concept while it has been existed for centuries and in Italy it was called "corte" (i.e. court), especially in the North, with their own names and sometimes families living in there were identified with the name of the court itself. 😄 We still could see some of these beautiful enclosed courtyards, even if most of them deeply modernized and separated, in a lot of Italian towns (and also big cities) with their beautiful big entrance hallways. It's a pity that many tourists can't actually see them, since they are mostly private houses, so they can hardly see the entrances if not closed by huge ancient doors.
Hi Tia, I am in italian living abroad, and I have been a long time follower of yours. I found your channel because I was just curious to know about how people from other countries experienced Italy, and I loved hearing such an objective description from an outsider's perspective. After 10 years, you are probably more of an insider than me at this point, but your curiosity about the culture is as alive as ever and this series has been super interesting so far! I'm learning a lot of new facts I did not know about Italy's recent cultural history, - thanks to accurate research work you clearly put behind each video- coupled with your own thoughts and insights about the evolution of society, both italian and not, and the careful exhamination and discussion of stereotypes! Your videos are always a source for refelection! (P.s. if I may..I would love to see a bit more stuff going on while you speak to keep the pace of the video a bit more entertaining, like pictures, sounds, word definitions...but that's just personal preference. Other than that, amazing work! )
So interesting! Do you think you can cover Mafia and why Italians are so against the Holiwood representation of it in one of your videos for Unpacked? It would be incredibly interesting to hear your perspective
I'll tell you why: the mafia kills people! Dissolve children in acid, detonate bombs killing people including police and magistrates! they ask for "pizzo", a tax on people who have a business. They create networks and infiltrate many Italian companies with the aim of laundering money or taking money from the Italian state. The mafia is the evil of this country and I hate those who romanticize it in movies, series or books. If a movie, a series or a book talks about the real mafia I have no problem, but if it starts talking well about it, even romantically like it happens with some book series, then it's not good. It sucks for everyone who has had to deal with or continue to suffer and hide from the mafia.
One thing that's sure is that history is never static and change is the only constant variable. What was tradition a century ago won't be anymore in another century. Some people imagine golden pasts and long for a return of the "good old days" forgetting that most of the times those days are a mix of nostalgia and myths and every era has its ups and downs. Grazie mille per i tuoi video, Tia!
Vivo in argentina, sinceramente credo che la percezzione degli italiani attualmente sia molto americanizzata, non ho notato grandi differenze per quanto riguarda gli stereotipi. Non sono al corrente della storia degli italiani che migravano qui, ma ora l'italiano e' visto con molto affetto e dato la quantita' di famiglie italiane presenti nel territorio alcune parole italiane si sono persino mischiate nel linguaggio comune. Per esempio l'espressione "tener polenta" (letteralmente: avere polenta) significa aver forza/essere duri di carattere. Invece di dire "trabajo" (lavoro) molti dicono "laburo". Per chi e' interessato, queste espressioni che mischiano italiano e spagnolo si chiamano "lunfardo", ce ne sono tantissime molto simpatiche.
Ti adoro Tia. Ho trovato il discorso molto interessante e fluido. Non ero a conoscenza di certi dettagli e mi hai trasmesso ancor più consapevolezza della situazione italiana oggi. Grazie ❤
Thank you for this video! It's so true that peoples' vision of what an Italian American family is has been frozen in the past. I also think that it puts pressure on some of us. For example, I am an Italian American woman and when people hear that I don't have children they say things to me such as "But you're Italian! Your mother must be distraught!" or "What does your mother think of that?!". My grandparents', great parents' and even my parents' generation in several cases did have large families. The older generations are sad about the the decision of some in the generations below them not to have kids and therefore, the shrinking family size. There is a reluctance to this kind of change in the Italian American community among older members. At least this has been my experience.
Hi Tia I have a suggestion for you to be the "Lex Fridman" of 🇮🇹. I believe you will be good enough to interview some Italian characters because of your American intellectual views and excellent command of the 🇮🇹 language.... 😃
Hello Tia, beautiful video, thank you. I'm glad that a video adressed specifically at americans talks about this topic and especially talks about how and why italian american culture is so different from italian culture today. I remember watching an interview of an italian-american girl on youtube and she kept talking about her typical "italian" family in which she grew up, I was very perplexed of how many misconceptions she had about Italian culture and you could also see the confusion in the eyes of the italian that was interviewing her. I was also quite saddened when she talked about her father not letting her or her sisters go out as much as her brothers or as much as her american friends, describing it specifically as an italian family trait... I am sure this is still the case in many italian families, but I think it is also the case in many non-italian families. I don't think that a lot of italian-americans realise how much the necessity of sticking together in a hostile and racist society as the US of the late 1800s, has crystalized their culture to the customs and family structure that they had originally when coming from Italy. This was done I think in order not to lose their identity, while Italians in Italy, who didn't have this worry of losing their identity, changed many of their beliefs and, of course, their family structure, in order to adapt to an industrial and modern society.
Another interesting topic to cover, which is sort of linked to this one is Italians vs. Italian-americans. Lots of Italians feel strongly about this topic, it'll be useful to unpack this too 😀
Great video! I'll just want to add that another important factor was the heavy influence of the Catholic Church on every aspect of family life, from divorce to abortion to female emancipation.
I was shocked when my Italian father in law died several years ago. Turns out that in Italy if real estate is not explicitly co-owned by a couple, the surviving spouse has to split real property with the children 50-50. As an American, I found this shocking. Italians very much have the mindset that they are responsible for and to the next generation (My wife once mentioned to someone that we saving money to do something and the person was puzzled as to why we didn't just go ask her mom for the money .... I'd be a bit ashamed to run to my folks for $$$ as we're middle aged). Families will save money and hold onto empty apartments for years with the idea of a child taking it over at some point. So if your mindset is that you have to set your kid up with an apartment and job prospects, it is natural that you'd cut family size. My wife's family tree is a stick whereas I have two dozen first cousins. My son's Italian high school class also bears this out. Only children are the norm.
I'm Argentinian and Italian on my father's side. My greatgrandmother was from Genova, and our family back in the day was kind of tightly knit. We did gather around a big table to eat Milanese and pizza, but in a way that's the argentinian way which obviously was greatly influence by italian culture. I was closer to my greatgrandmother than my grandma on my father's side, and she would tell me stories of Mussolini and how he made dissenters drink castor oil. I live in Spain now and the extended family here is different. It does not have so much importance in my opinion. I think sometimes the extended family can be a blessing, my greatgrandmother was the kindest person I ever met, and for kids its also a blessing to have people other than their parents around, it makes them stronger in adulthood imo.
Bellissimo video complimenti! Ho imparato un sacco di cose tra l'altro dovrò anche recuperarmi il documentario sembra davvero interessante! Per caso vedi ancora delle differenze tra come gli italiani mediamente si rapportano con i familiari/amici rispetto agli americani?
a good analisys, my compliments! just one question: why you used a american dictionary to explain what fascism means? I think that talking about italian family, society and history, it was better to use a italian dictionary. Anyway your video is amazing good.
Population goes up and down. Personally I would like Italy to embrace the fact it is a really modern nation, and to starting welcome more people from other places. Things change and that is good :)
Thank you for the history lesson that fertility rates are directly a result of the level of industrialization. People seem strangely confused as to why women are having fewer kids these days in all kinds of diverse countries around the world! And until the boomers decide to stop hoarding wealth from people of child producing age, I can't see fertility rates turning around any time soon. Immigration is cool, but if there are few jobs, that will lead to social unrest.
Un'altra curiosità assurda sul periodo del Fascismo: le famiglie venivano ricompensate se chiamavano i figli con nomi patriottici come Italo, Benito e simili. Video comunque interessantissimo!
Until the first half of the 20th century in Italy it was customary for young widows, who maybe lost their husbands in a war, to marry the unmarried brothers of their dead husbands.
Hello Tia, I have been following you for many years and love your videos! I would like to give a feedback on this one, which I did not enjoy very much, because it looks very scripted. I follow you for being you and give your opinion and point of view on things, this looks like a Wikipedia page collection of facts, very unpersonal 😅 if this is the goal, great job (visuals and editing always on point), if not, I hope this will help 😊
It is kinda sad that the birth rates have been declining in Italy. At the same time, people have to do what makes them happy and can't be forced to have kids if that's not what they want. It would be interesting to see what the role of religion has to do with that? I was raised Roman Catholic and always thought I would get married and have children but as I got older, I got less involved in the church. I have a partner but we don't feel that pressure to get married and have kids.
It has also to do with the slow declining of the Church influence, many people that are baptized here are actually agnostic or atheists, so that impact how you see your role in society and your priorities, but also our economical situation forces even people that would like to have kids to be really thoughtful about it, cause it's hard to find a stable job and life is getting more expensive. Marriage is not seen as a necessary step by many, but there are people having kids with a stable partner they're not married with.
While I totally agree with you, I think that economical crisis also definitely has something to do with the birth rates going down. I'm italian, and I have multiple friends that have always wanted 2 to 4 kids but in time changed their minds because it would be too difficult to support them (financially speaking). Also, italians tend to have kids a lot later than americans, which makes it more likely that we also end up having less.
@@Viola-bk3yu that's quite interesting. I can definitely see how economical issues would deter people from having kids. Although in many parts of the world, it seems like many people who have financial issues still have the desire to have kids and some even regard having kids as something that brings hope in their lives, despite living in poverty. I don't understand it but everyone has the right to do what they want. There are probably many factors for declining birth rates. Climate change, change in priorities, health issues, etc. In terms of economic factors, does the government in Italy provide any incentives for people to have kids and stay in Italy?
@@coolbreeze5683 It's a developed vs developing world issue. In developed countries there is a standard that we expect when raising our kids (and also laws) and often those standards cost money, from time spent with the kids to the education they receive, to the lack of affordable or available early child care, etc, etc. In many developing countries that standard is different and involves a lot less things while also still including a lot of close extended family that provide free childcare that lets parents work or has families that are agrarian where the work is on a family farm of some type where the kids just exist with the adults. That's the economic side. The other side is easy and culturally normalised access to contraception. In many poorer and more rural areas sex ed is non existent and contraception is either impossible to get or heavily stigmatized. This means families keep having kids even if they don't want more. Combine that with a lack of education opportunities and a lack of women's rights and you have families having lots of kids that are both cheaper to have and also inescapable. It's also what contributes to the cycle to poverty.
I agree, it has a lot to do with the life standards we are expected to give to our kids. I have travelled to several places and believe me, life standard in Italy is HIGH! (And not just compared to developing countries)... In general, it's not that people in Italy don't have kids because they really don't want to, but because subcounsciously it's seen as against nature to give your own kids lower life standards that yours, and now with economic crisis every now and then, climate change, higher cost of living etc. We percieve that risk, so we usually stuck with one child and we think twice before having more.
An american advising to adopt a social democratic model? You are doomed to hell!! (Just kidding, I live in finland and i think you are absolutely right.)
Omg I always forget the fact you're a MARRIED GIRLLLLLL! 😭 Ahh, time flies I swear. Seeing your pink hair era videos while you were still studying at uni feels like yesterday! 🥺
