I’ve always considered myself Sicilian more than American. Growing up in Baltimore in the mid-20th century, that old world setting blended slowly into modern society. Timeworn traditions crashed into the space age of plastic, planned obsolescence. Nothing lasted. Throw it out. Buy now, pay later, the layaway plans of consumer heaven.

A place where no matter what you did, how foul and despicable you were, god will always forgive your sins as long as you could afford them. As many Italian-Americans assimilated ethnicity became erased, less meaningful than becoming a good citizen of the USA. Being Sicilian felt different from regular Italian heritage. The war against the Sicilian mafia, and the world wars that spawned today’s fascist ideologies. You can’t help but wonder if, in many ways, somehow it was all connected.