I have Italian ancestry and I’ve always found these guys to be cringe, but I also get why they do it . Many people in the United States yearn for meaning and interpersonal connection in their lives. “Being an Italian” provides a prepackaged, very commercialized possibility of community with little effort required - you’re just born to it, so instant acceptance, right?
The reality is often less Soprano’s chic and more “nonno and nonnina were illiterate farmhands who moved to the US for a better life. Nonno died from mystery cancer and all of nonnina’s bones dissolved after birthing her 15th child at 24. Now chew nonnina’s birthday cake for her”.
In no particular order, I have French, German, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, and a teensy tiny bit of “my great great great great grandmother was native American and we actually have the proof but nobody could ever tell without a DNA test so it only gets brought up when talking about obscure family genetic lineage”
Maybe it’s because my family is super midwest-usa-bible-belt, and I never even found out about most of it until a genetics test when I got married to my now wife (we wanted to know if kids would even be a medical possibility with our various issues), but I don’t identify with any of the places my ancestors lived in, so there isn’t a particular culture I’d like to be part of. And to be perfectly frank I’m not sure I want to be part of any culture, I just want to tend to my forest with fair Goldberry my wife.
You do make a good point though, if you’re looking to be part of something or feel particularly drawn to a culture after being immersed in what you think it’s really like, I could absolutely see this happening with 100% sincerity.
I have Italian ancestry and I’ve always found these guys to be cringe, but I also get why they do it . Many people in the United States yearn for meaning and interpersonal connection in their lives. “Being an Italian” provides a prepackaged, very commercialized possibility of community with little effort required - you’re just born to it, so instant acceptance, right?
The reality is often less Soprano’s chic and more “nonno and nonnina were illiterate farmhands who moved to the US for a better life. Nonno died from mystery cancer and all of nonnina’s bones dissolved after birthing her 15th child at 24. Now chew nonnina’s birthday cake for her”.
In no particular order, I have French, German, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, and a teensy tiny bit of “my great great great great grandmother was native American and we actually have the proof but nobody could ever tell without a DNA test so it only gets brought up when talking about obscure family genetic lineage”
Maybe it’s because my family is super midwest-usa-bible-belt, and I never even found out about most of it until a genetics test when I got married to my now wife (we wanted to know if kids would even be a medical possibility with our various issues), but I don’t identify with any of the places my ancestors lived in, so there isn’t a particular culture I’d like to be part of. And to be perfectly frank I’m not sure I want to be part of any culture, I just want to tend to my forest with fair
Goldberrymy wife.You do make a good point though, if you’re looking to be part of something or feel particularly drawn to a culture after being immersed in what you think it’s really like, I could absolutely see this happening with 100% sincerity.