Tag: italian culture

Categories
Arts and Culture

Quebec government tuition hikes put Italian cultural hub at risk

Graphic by Muriel Smith

Concordia’s Cineforum Italiano is grappling with budget cuts.

Concordia’s Department of Classics, Modern Languages, and Linguistics put out for the second year the Cineforum Italiano, a series of film screenings peppered throughout the semester followed by discussions of gender and sexuality in Italian film. 

The most recent on Feb. 23 was a screening of Una Giornata Particolare, attended by a small but dedicated group. The story tells of the friendship between a housewife and a gay man in fascist Italy. While everyone in their apartment block attends the historic meeting between Mussolini and Hitler, the two grow close despite stark political differences. The man is taken away by military police at the end of the day, leaving the housewife to continue living a dull life, forever changed. 

This film screening and many before it have been gathering places for Italian in Montreal. At the Cineforum, attendees converse in English, French and Italian alike. However, due to tuition hikes and budget cuts, the future of the initiative has become uncertain. 

Starting off last year with three winter screenings, the event’s popularity led to three more showings this fall term, and finally six this winter term. 

Cineforum Italiano has a distinctly Italian air. Most of the attendees come from Italian backgrounds, some with Italian parents and some first generation immigrants themselves. But due to the stagnating immigration rates from Italy and the passage of time, these Italian spaces are few and far between.

Lorena Serragli, a retiree with Italian parents, first took an Italian cinema class to reconnect with her roots, then began attending the screenings. She said that Italians in Montreal used to be concentrated in the east, but as the second generation grew up, they dispersed. 

“I don’t find there’s an area now that’s really remained predominantly Italian,” Serragli said.  

Due to this decentralization of the Italian community, many attendees only speak Italian and interact with Italian culture during the Cineforum Italiano. 

“I don’t really interact with the Italian community,” Serragli said. “My parents, my aunts have passed on and the cousins that I have now, we all interact in English. We’re all more Canadian than Italian. And so it just felt kind of nice. It’ll put me back in that atmosphere and that culture and that mode.”

Though it started out as an educational initiative about film, it also serves as a hub for the Italians of Montreal and is one of many small events in the city that keeps Italian culture alive. 

Additionally, Concordia university itself is a gathering place for second and third generation Italians. Through the university’s Italian language program, it is drawing in Canadians and Americans with Italian ancestry in order to connect with their heritage. 

As a teaching assistant, Meneghin has seen many students get engaged through Concordia’s Italian program and related initiatives. 

“I notice a lot of Italian surnames. The successors of those immigrants or those people that scattered all around the city, they kind of congregate here,” Meneghin said.

The film screenings and the Italian program welcome Italians and non-Italians alike. However, the film screenings are at risk of being another casualty of budget cuts born from tuition hikes. Since they are free, they rely entirely on the departmental budget, and they might not be able to continue, according to Elena Benelli, the director of the Italian program, due to an almost eight per cent cut to the university budget.

“I don’t think universities give enough space, resources and importance to the humanities in general,” Benelli said. “I think that the humanities have their place in this world.”

Categories
Arts and Culture Community Culture Student Life

Resisting the threat of cultural dissolution: Associazione Casacalendese di Montréal.

Members of l'Associazione Casacalendese di Montréal, including the President, executive committee members and winners of the annual scholarship program. Photo by Jon Carlo Santangelo.

Many of Montreal’s Italian associations are disbanding due to a decline in communal participation, yet one in particular thrives amidst adversity.

On Nov. 11, 2023, sounds of laughter, clinking glasses, and gleeful reminiscing danced across the walls at Roma Receptions as a room of nostalgic  countrymen honoured their cultural heritage and celebrated l’Associazione Casacalendese di Montréal’s 99th anniversary. 

During a speech, Jon Carlo Santangelo, the group’s president, highlighted the strength of membership and attendance within the association, praising the community and wholly attributing their successes to the people’s efforts. “We are 100 percent self-financed… we’re not open to the public, and we are restrictive in membership, and there is a stigma that these associations are your grandparent’s associations. But in the last two years, we have been building ourselves up, and people are joining and coming back around after Covid. Last year was our first banquet post-Covid, and we had 120 people. We had 175 this year,” he said.   

While members of this Montreal-based Italian association celebrate their collective prosperity with food, wine, music, and good company, members of many other associations within the city have been adapting to a life devoid of such celebrations. 

Most associations in Montreal representing a specific Italian town/area were founded between the 1940s and the 1980s to financially support Italian immigrants with no ties to this city, allowing them to bond with people from their hometown. Not only do the members of Italian associations share regional ties, but many are genetically linked and discover deeper genealogical roots through the exchange of cultural insight and anecdote. 

Today, Montreal’s Italian community is in a transitional period as the older generations that have defined the community and held such an essential role in its survival are passing away. With their passing comes the passing of traditions and practices that the younger generations are not actively preserving. As a result, membership rates across Montreal have drastically decreased in the last 10 years, with eight associations from the Southern Italian region of Molise alone shutting down in a period of five years. 

While Santangelo’s association celebrated in November, Angela D’Orazio, a former member of the Grupo Recreativo Montenerodomo from the province of Chieti, Abruzzo, is still processing the demise, after 51 years, of her association that once hosted its own gathering in the basement of the Mount-Carmel Church. “We threw a last party [a few months ago] and the turnout was amazing; it was one of our biggest turnouts. You know, we used to go to halls, get dressed up, buy new outfits, gun blazing, and here we were, in the basement of a church. Everyone knew it was the last meeting, but all the old members came—they came in wheelchairs—and I was in tears,” D’Orazio said.. 

Mimma Scarola, a former member of l’Associazione Maria Santissima di Merllitto from the region of Grumo, Appula in Bari, echoed D’Orazio’s sentiments. Her association shut down 10 years ago, after participation had been in steep decline during the last five years of its existence. “My family was so involved, so our younger generations loved to go—we enjoyed it. My kids still ask me about it now, but it wasn’t like that for everyone. There were a lot of people from the association who didn’t participate as much, and you couldn’t even get them to come to the parties. When they [older members] started dying out, their kids didn’t come,” Scarola said.  

Francesca Sacerdoti, assistant director at the Congrès National des Italo-Canadiens (région Québec), has seen a substantial increase in interest regarding the Italian culture in Montreal, but not necessarily from Italians themselves. Being an organizer of the annual Italfest, a two-week celebration of Montreal’s Italian heritage in the heart of the city, Sacerdoti noted that the festival is growing in attendance every year. However, she acknowledged that members of the Italian community are generally less active than they used to be. 

Sacerdoti’s  colleague, Terry Lorito, believes the cause for declining participation is that the younger Italian generations are “too integrated into our society.”  “They’re Canadians, they’re Quebecers, and their Italian comes third,” Lorito said.

Despite the dwelling concerns, President  Santangelo has high hopes for the future of l’Associazione Casacalendese di Montréal. “As long as the Italian identity is alive, people will want to flock to it, but we need a rebirth, and I think that’s what we’re successful in with the association.” The association brings  in youthful participation through their scholarship program. They also encourage families to attend events by blending the music at parties for the young and old, marketing their celebrations across social media, and tailoring their  efforts towards the future. “I think if we can keep it real but pivot just a little bit, then I think we should be okay,” he concluded. 

Did you hear? It’s Zeppole season, baby!

Let’s celebrate San Giuseppe, the unofficial patron saint of pastries

It’s March, and you know what that means? Zeppole season has finally arrived in Montreal. Now, the Italian community might disagree on where to get the best zeppole. However, I would like to go back a little bit and explain why the Italian community enjoys this treat at this time of year.

As a third-generation Italian myself, I’ve indulged in this pastry quite a bit. But, I have always been curious about the history behind this dessert.

Zeppole (or zeppola in the singular) are pastries made from a choux pastry base. They are either shaped in a doughnut shape or the more traditional fritter, which are in a rounded shape. The Fine Dining Lovers explain them as such: “It looks more like those trendy cronuts, puffy and torqued, like a braided churro, with deep-fried choux pastry providing a nest of your choice of topping: old school butter and honey, ricotta and chocolate chips, cream, jam, zabaglione — you name it.”

From the day after Valentine’s Day until March 19, St. Joseph’s day, you can enjoy this delightful pastry. According to the New England Historical Society, “St. Joseph, or San Giuseppe, is the foster father of Jesus and the patron saint of Sicily. The story goes that a severe drought struck Sicily in the Middle Ages. The people promised St. Joseph they’d cook a big feast for him if he brought rain. He did, and the tradition was born.”

As outlined in the article, Pope Gregory XV first declared March 19 as the feast of Saint Joseph in 1621.

The zeppole wasn’t always central to the feast. Instead, it was the fava bean that was initially served at St. Joseph’s Day feasts; the fava bean saved the Sicilians from starvation after St. Joseph brought rain to the region. Eventually, the Sicilians transitioned from the fava bean to the zeppole.

According to Fine Dining Lovers, “Some cite the convent of Santa Patrizia in Naples as having first made zeppole (a baked version, rather than deep-fried), back in the 16th century.” However, a baker in the region of Naples, by the name of Pasquale Pintauro, started popularizing the dessert by selling it every March 19.

I went around and visited three local bakeries in the Montreal area and purchased the classic flavors from each place.

My first stop was at Patisserie San Marco, located at 1581 Jean Talon St E. I ordered three ricotta-filled zeppole and three custard-filled ones. When I looked inside the box, the zeppole looked like rounded dough balls, which I wasn’t used to seeing.

Afterward, I made my way to San Pietro Bakery, located at 1950 Jean Talon St E. I was able to talk to Connie Calderone, one of the owners of this family-owned bakery, about the week of Saint Joseph and what it means for her bakery.

“During the Saint Joseph time, we make about 1,500 dozens of zeppole. We also have many restaurants and stores that just buy the empty zeppole shells from us,” Calderone explained, referring to the pastries themselves before they are filled.

I was also permitted access to the back of the bakery where I watched one of the bakers pipe out a whole tray of zeppole.

“Our popular flavors are definitely the ricotta, custard, and pistachio-filled zeppole. However, the pistachio isn’t a traditional filling,” said Calderone. “It means everything to this bakery to keep traditions like selling the zeppole, it’s priority number one. It’s an old-school bakery here, it’s what works and we aren’t going to go backward.”

Finally, I ended my journey at La Conca D’Oro, located at 2550 Jean Talon St E. I purchased two ricotta-filled zeppole, each garnished with a strawberry.

I strongly encourage everyone to support these local bakeries during this time. Remember you don’t have to be Italian to enjoy these delectable treats.

 

Photos by Dalia Nardolillo

Exit mobile version