Reply to "America the Beautiful" a 'Christian anthem'?

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Reply to ""America the Beautiful" a 'Christian anthem'?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]My great-grandparents spoke barely a lick of English and maintained close ties to "the old country." [/quote]
Really?  How many trips did they make back to the Old Country?  How many times a day did they Skype or call?[/quote]

I don't know about that poster, but my family was in the same boat.  Probably on the same boat.  It's absolutely true.  The pattern is this:

grandpa comes over from Italy as a young man.  Brothers and cousins follow and then sisters.  They set up businesses in an Italian neighborhood.  For my family, they were all produce vendors near the market area.  Occupied a niche, just like different ethnic groups do today.  They learned to speak English very so-so.  As a street vendor, you have to use English so you do get some.  But if you had another job like doing laundry, then no.

Eventually all the kids are here and the great grandparents follow, because they are old and need to be taken care of.  They really do not learn the language.  They are old and there to be near family.

Then come the kids.  Some come over as children, and they will have an accent depending on how old, while the ones born here will be completely bilingual.  They have Italian names but also "American" names.  This generation will try to prove how American they are, will listen to the same music and dress the same way as their friends.   The next generation will grow up speaking only English, because they have started to spread out of their immigrant neighborhoods, and Italians aren't big enough a group to get much use outside of the house.

During this period, Italians start out as "dagos", "woos", "garlic eaters".  We are accused of allegiance to the pope, that we are taking jobs and sending money back home.  Over time it will simmer down, and we will  be ridiculed mostly for the mob element, as the population has embraced Italian food and Sinatra or Bennett.  Eventually the loyalty question dies down.  Italians intermarry enough that everyone has a friend or neighbor who is half Italian.  Catholics become less stigmatized.  And at that point we are assimilated.  The process takes about 80-100 years.[/quote]

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