“Ma, why are you speaking Italian in New York?”

Here’s a surprising WOL story.

I’m on a call with three Germans, discussing our peer learning project, when Kristina Bösel mentions she’s half-Italian.

“Really? Me too!” 

We shared where our parents came from, what it means to us to be Italian, and she told us a story.

For her mom’s 60th birthday, their family visited NYC. When they arrived, her mother started speaking Italian. They thought something was wrong with her.

“You’ll see,” her mother said. “We’ll find plenty of Italians here.” 

And sure enough, they did. On the street. On the subway. In restaurants and stores. Invariably, her mother’s Italian attracted someone else who spoke the language or was otherwise fascinated by Italy. 

Conversations and connections emerged, none of which would have happened if her mother kept quiet or just tried to fit in. 

Listening to the story, I realized her mother was working out loud in a beautiful way. 

This was way before social media. Her mother wasn’t trying to be “visible.” She was just giving voice, literally, to something she cared about: her culture. 

That was a contribution to the many Italians they met. It enriched her experience and theirs. And it gave her daughter a story she was still telling many years later. 

The Italian flag colors shining over NYC.

John Stepper in Piaggine, Italy (pop. 1200) to visit the town where his grandparents living before emigrating to New York.