ABSTRACT
In September 1996 a young woman named Denny Mendez was awarded the title of Miss Italia, voted unanimously by the judges and overwhelmingly by the nine million television viewers. As immigrants become more visible in all areas of Italian life, the work of immigrant authors who are bilingual, or frequently multilingual, are challenging the borders of both culture and national identity. Prostitution as an all too obvious path to economic security is deplored as degrading to the individual and to the immigrant community in the eyes of the host nation. Madame Cohen refuses to distinguish between nation and culture: the immigrant in France must become fully assimilated, abandoning original beliefs and absorbing those of the host community: in a potent image, the child's original culture must be washed away like the henna stains on her hands. Chohra, who calls herself a woman without a 'homeland or flag to revere' witnesses and records the racism and violence against immigrants in Italy.
