ABSTRACT

An astute observer once noted, "It is possible to be an Italian in France, but it is not possible to be an Italian-Frenchman in the same way it is possible to be an Italian-American." Latin Americans, counting no Italo-Argentines among them, claim "Argentines are Italians who speak Spanish who think they are British." As the foundation for national celebrations of multiculturalism, the origins of ethnic identities and hyphens are thus worth pondering. According to David Hollinger, they originated in Americans' sense of belonging to communities of descent. Historically, theories of descent have loomed large in the construction of race, nation, and ethnicity. While colonial law discouraged or prohibited sexual relations between Africans and Europeans and slavery became an inherited status in North America, Protestants from Europe could by the eighteenth century acquire British citizenship through royal consent to a process called naturalization.