ABSTRACT
Identity is largely a function of what psychologists call autobiographical mem-ory: “At the heart of what defines the individual as a person with obligations, roles, and commitments in a given society,” autobiographical memory “enables the reader to draw lessons from the people past and plan their personal future.” Semantic memory is partly a matter of fate: where one is born, where one comes to live, among whom one moves. In short, semantic memory fleshed out by episodic memory is synthesized in autobiographical memory—the ultimate source of identity. Anti-Italian prejudices have a long lineage in the United States. Today, too, foreigners granted refugee status in the United States do so under Geneva Convention rules addressing political persecution. If remembering Italian America entails building an empathy with new dia-sporic communities, it also serves to further the people transatlantic alliances. It is imbued with substance by the lessons imparted to LGEs by their first-generation grandparents and their second-generation parents.
