The Land of our Return Diasporic Encounters with Italy April 23–25, 2009 John D. Calandra Italian American Institute 25 West 43rd Street , 17th floor, Manhattan (between 5 ^thand 6 ^thAvenues)             For Virgil’s Aeneas, Italy was “the land of our return” (in Robert Fagles’ 2006 translation), the place his ancestor Dardanus left generations earlier. The Aeneid is thus an epic recounting of the Trojan hero’s return, or nostos , to Italian soil. This poetic conceit offers numerous possibilities to explore the political, economic, social, and cultural impact of historical and contemporary travel and communication by Italian emigrants and their descendants to Italy .             Italian emigration was the largest movement of free labor in world history with over twenty-six million people emigrating from the 1870s to the 1970s. Italian emigrants’ objective was, for the most part, to make enough money and return home. Close to half the emigrants traveling to the Americas returned to Italy between 1905 and 1920. According to historian Donna Gabaccia , “The paese (town) had created its diaspora, but the diaspora in turn transformed the paese .”  What was the impact of returning emigrants and their descendants on the home society?             The political dimensions of return are evident in the transnational movement of anarchists, as well as Risorgimento and later anti-fascist refugees. Religious belief and practice have long been a critical aspect of emigrant return, with remittances sent as donations pinned to the processed religious statue and post-World War II laborers visiting the hometown during the annual festa .             After World War II, Italian Americans journeyed to Italy increasingly as tourists and by the 1970s travel agencies began catering to this “ethnic roots” market. There, Italian Americans experienced the disparity between personal connections to an ancestral paese and the ever changing reality of the larger nation. In recent years, a growing number of descendants of Italian emigrants are reclaiming their Italian citizenship.             The imagined and actual “return” has historically been a source of creativity in all artistic genres, from comedian Eduardo “Farfariello” Migliaccio’s 1917 song “Pascale e’ Turnato d’all’Italia” to author Helen Barolini ’s 1979 novel Umbertina , to director Frank Ciota ’s 2002 film Ciao America .             The John D. Calandra Italian American Institute’s second annual conference addresses the theme of “return” during its three-day event. Thursday, April 23, 2009 6:30–8:30 PM Welcome and Reception Anthony Julian Tamburri John D. Calandra Italian American Institute Queens College , CUNY James Muyskens Queens College , CUNY Francesco Maria Talò Consulate General of Italy in New York Friday, April 24, 2009 9–9:30 AM Coffee and Pastries 9:30–10:45 AM Conference Room: Italian/American/Jewish/Israeli Chair: Dawn Esposito , St. John’s University Comparative Experiences from Different Parts of the Diaspora I Cristina Bettin, Ben Gurion University Comparative Experiences from Different Parts of the Diaspora II Maria Mazziotti Gillan , Binghamton University , SUNY You Want to be Americano? Robert Zweig , Borough of Manhattan Community College , CUNY 11 AM–12:15 PM Conference Room: Routes of Return Chair: Donna Chirico , York College , CUNY “Took a Bird to the Boot”: Hip Wop and the Digital Diasporic Consciousness Joseph Sciorra, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY No Longer Innocents Abroad: Ethnic Tourism’s Influence on American Leisure Travel Maria Lisella , journalist Fuori in Italia : A Gay Grandson Encounters la madrepatria George De Stefano, author La Galleria: Language of Return Chair: Maria Enrico , Borough of Manhattan Community College , CUNY Returning with Standard Italian and the Question of Italian Linguistic Diversity Christina Tortora, College of Staten Island , CUNY Study Abroad Programs: Language and Identity as an Experience of Return Elisabetta Convento and Laura Lenci Writing on Water: The Non-existing Language of an Italian-American Would-be Intellectual Peter Carravetta , Stony Brook University 12:15–1:30 PM Lunch on your own 1:30–2:45 PM Conference Room: Return Migration and the New Politics of Belonging in Italy Chair: Christine Gambino , John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY Governing Diasporas: The Italian Case Guido Tintori, FIERI, and Francesco Ragazzi, Science Po Film: Merica (2007) Federico Ferrone, Michele Manzolini, and Francesco Ragazzi, directors Film: Orizzonti e Frontiere (2007) Ernesto Morales, director La Galleria: The Textuality of No Return Chair: Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY Forms of Return as a Process of Creativity Vincenzo Pascale , Rutgers University On the Impossibility of Return Paolo Giordano , University of Central Florida Immigrant versus Emigrazione: A Tale of Laceration in  Tommaso Bordonaro’s La spartenza Giulia Guarnieri , Bronx Community College , CUNY 3–4:15 PM Conference Room: Re/claiming Italian/European Citizenship Chair: Robert Viscusi, Brooklyn College , CUNY Why Italian Americans Should and Must Reclaim Italian Citizenship Karen Tintori , author, and Lawrence S. Katz, attorney La Galleria: Canadian Voices Chair: Joseph Sciorra, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY The Disappearing Sicily Maria Francesca LoDico, author On Leave Takings and Monuments Darlene Madott, author Of Death and the Immigrant: A Journey Michael Mirolla, author 4:30–5:45 PM Conference Room: Absence and the Emotions of Separation across Time and Distance Chair: Donna Gabaccia , University of Minnesota Longing for Kin and Country: Family, Nostalgia, and Nation through the Practices and Processes of Long Distance Caregiving Loretta Baldassar, University of Western Australia When the Letter was the Only Tie to their Love: Exploring the Connections between Longings, Separation, and Imagination in Postwar Italian Migration to Canada Sonia Cancian, University of Minnesota Bridging Emotional Distance Through Television: The Montreal ’s Teledomenica Experience Bruno Ramirez, University of Montreal Longing, Loss and Love among Rural Italian Migrants at Home and Abroad, 1880-1920  Linda Reeder , University of Missouri Saturday, April 25, 2009 9–9:30 AM Coffee and Pastries 9:30–10:45 AM Conference Room: Textual Returns: Celluloid and Paper Chair: Mary Jo Bona , Stony Brook University, SUNY Italian-American Persephone in a Sicilian Setting: Susan Caperna Lloyd ’s No Pictures in My Grave (1992) Theodora Patrona, Artistole Unviersity of Thessaloniki The Poetics of Migration Houses: Return, Land, and Architecture in Camilleri’s Maruzza Musumeci Teresa Fiore , California State University Long Beach / New York University The Odyssey of Ideal: Lamerica/Litalia Nicoletta Delon, College of Staten Island , CUNY 11 AM–12:15 PM Conference Room: Religion, Politics, Commerce Chair: Nancy Carnevale , Montclair University The Soul of a Stranger: Italy , America , and Italian-American Protestants Dennis Barone, Saint Joseph College Italian Merchants and Consumption during the Age of Mass Italian Migration Lizabeth Zanoni, University of Minnesota The Political Dimension of Return Migration Stefano Luconi , University of Rome “Tor Vergata” La Galleria: Metaphors of Return Chair: George Guida , New York City College of Technology , CUNY Fumetti as a Vehicle of Return to Italy Gil Fagiani , The Italian American Writers Association “We don’t have enough men to dance”: In Search of Our Music and Dance Roots Celest DiPietropaolo , independent scholar The Tenacity of Heritage: The Promise of Festival Foods and Parish Cookbooks as a Return to Italy Susan M. Rossi-Wilcox, independent scholar 12:15–1:30 PM Lunch on your own 1:30–2:45 PM Conference Room: Memory and Imagining Home Chair: Paolo Giordano , University of Central Florida Memory, Nostalgia, Geography: Looking at the Homeland from a Distance Patrizia La Trecchia , University of Florida Imagining the Home Country: Intersecting Memories of Class, Generation, and Gender Christa Wirth, Harvard University Le Piemontesi in Argentina between Memories and Visits Home Maddalena Tirabassi , Centro Altretalie La Galleria: The Poetics of Return Chair: Vincenzo Milione, Calandra Institute Poets of Return : Emanuel Carnevali and Joseph Tusiani Daniela Gioseffi, author The Quest for Home Joanne Tangorra, High/Scope Education Research Foundation 3–4:15 PM Conference Room: Reclaiming/Reinventing Chair: Edvige Giunta , New Jersey City University Returning, Retaining, Reinventing the Homeland Patricia D. Valenti, University of North Carolina An Essay on Reclaiming, Reconnecting and Giving Robert DiGiulio, Johnson State College Presented by Matthew DiGiulio “Bells to Saint Michael”: A Short Story Tiziana Rinaldi Castro, author  La Galleria: Seeing and Performing Return Chair: Fred Gardaphé , Queens College , CUNY Observing Contemporary Italy as a Semi-Insider Blaise Tobia , Drexel University Return as Artistic Performance LuLu LoLo, performance artist 4:30–5:45 PM Conference Room: Ethnographic Approaches to Return Chair: Anthony Julian Tamburri, John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY “Io mi considero tambien argentina ” : Returning Emigrants and New Immigrants in Campania Laura E. Ruberto, Berkeley City College “When they all came home”: The Experience of Return Migration on the Amalfi Coast Ailhlin Clark, Lancaster University Between Italy and Argentina : Parents and Children’s Departures and Returns Laura Gambi, independent scholar 6–6:35 PM Closing Comments All presentations are free and open to the public. SEATING IS LIMITED.