All Italian-Americans are like this

by phil on Sunday May 9, 2010 4:11 PM
regionalism

I loved the episode when the Sopranos celebrate Columbus Day as an expression of Italian pride. I actually hadn't thought to link Columbus and Italy before, since I had mixed him up with Spain and Queen Isabella, who I'm now looking up was actually a queen of Castile. I was tickled even further when the character Furio, a recent immigrant from Italy, comments: "But I never liked Columbus. In Napoli, a lot of people are not so happy for Columbus, because he was from Genova. The North of Italy always have the money and the power. They punish the South since hundreds of years. Even today, they put up their nose at us, like we're peasants. I hate the North."

The episode simultaneously becomes an expression of stereotypical Italian-American behavior and an examination of our stereotypes.