Growing Up Calabrese and Other Stories: A Memoir (Paperback)

Growing Up Calabrese is the life story of a third-generation Calabrian-American seeking to reconnect with his Calabrian roots. Despite growing up in an Italian neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, the author grew up monolingual because of assimilation. Growing Up Calabrese tells the story of his ethnic struggle and determination to be an American and a Calabrian at the same time. Little by little, the author learns Italian, conducts family research, visits his family's ancestral village, re-establishes contacts with his Calabrian family, and teaches Italian during the last ten years of his university career. To this day, he still cannot speak the Calabrian dialect of his grandparents and my ancestral family, but is determined to master it before his death.