When Niccolo Machiavelli penned his masterpiece, The Prince, Italy was a land divided and besieged by many foreign forces. In his last chapter, “An Exhortation to free Italy from the Hands of the Barbarians,” he calls for new weapons and formations to be used in warding off intruders and to prepare for new leadership of Italy. In many ways, the current state of Italian/American culture is in similar straights. We need new tools and new alliances to bring a sense of unification to our culture so that we can ward off the siege of total assimilation.

For many years, Italian/ American culture has been preserved in the homes, and over the years, more likely than not, in the basement or what Italian Americans have come to call the “basciument,” where grandpa made wine, where grandma had a second kitchen, and now where we store our material legacies and memories. Outside celebrations such as religious feste became the most important public presentation of Italian/ American culture, but these annual events were never frequent enough to protect Italian/American culture from the regular mass media bombardment of negative stereotypes.