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| Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams dancing to Goo Goo Muck by the Cramps |
Wednesday’s child is full of woe. [1]Try as I might, I cannot fully escape the gratuitous sex and violence or the unwanted political and social commentary by online dullards. The negativity is ubiquitous and inevitably creeps into my timeline. The same also goes for vacuous celebrity news and gossip. Normally, I pay them no heed and scroll right past the inanity, but the recent controversy concerning actress Jenna Ortega's identity caught my attention and I thought I would briefly weigh in on the topic.
For those of you who are unaware, some irate internet trolls with nothing better to do have taken to calling Miss Ortega a “fake Latina” and a “gringa” because she is not fluent in Spanish. The American-born actress responded to the offensive accusations by saying she felt “shame” and commendably expressed a desire to be more “in touch” with her Hispanic (i.e., Mexican and Puerto Rican) roots. Unfamiliar with her work, all I know is that she played Wednesday in the titular Addams Family spin-off released on Netflix in 2022. From what I gather the show was quite successful and very popular with young people. I attempted to watch it for this write-up, but it was a little too jejune and girl-bossy for my taste.
So what does any of this have to do with us? Like the pochos (American-born Mexicans), we Italian Americans take a lot of abuse from our kinfolk back in the old country, many of whom vehemently despise and disavow us. In our case, this is mostly due to "embarrassing" cultural differences, but also for not speaking the language properly or at all. Can’t say I blame them in some cases, I find many of my ethnic compatriots to be shameful and undesirable myself, but this has nothing to do with language. At the same time, let's not pretend that Italy was spared the corrupting scourge of Western Modernity. The degree of subversion may vary, but neither side emerged unscathed. Globalism is doing to the Italians what Americanism is doing to the diaspora.
It should also come as no surprise that people often try to make me feel ashamed for not speaking Italian. What’s curious about this is, Italian is not even my ancestral tongue. My ancestors left Italy for America at the turn of the twentieth century and very likely only spoke their native Neapolitan and Sicilian languages. If by some miracle my family did not assimilate and were able to pass their languages on to me, Italian would in all likelihood not have been one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I'd prefer to be multilingual and it would be better if I was, but I'm not and I don’t feel any less Italian for it.
Born and raised in America, the blood coursing through my veins is still Southern Italian (Neapolitan and Sicilian). My nationality is American, but my ethnicity is Italian. People can learn a language but they can't change their ethnicity. I didn't magically turn into an Englishman just because I speak English. For the same reasons, Miss Ortega is Latina (Mexican and Puerto Rican), whether she speaks Spanish or not. [2] Italian and Spanish speakers may not like it, but it doesn’t change the reality. Now, if I were of mixed ancestry (some would argue that being Neapolitan and Sicilian is mixed ancestry), that would be a whole other conversation, and I'm not prepared to wade into that hornet's nest just yet.
Now culturally, I am a hybrid. I was raised to love my Southern Italian heritage and folkways and I jealously guard the customs, values, and traditions that were passed down to me as best I can. At the same time, my parents exposed me to other cultures in an attempt to broaden my horizons. Because of this, I've adopted many customs of these United States and I'm an unabashed Anglophile (not to mention Francophile, Hispanophile, et al.). I know it's an unpopular opinion to harbor today, but I have a deep admiration for the founding stock of our country and by extension the British Isles. Too complex to explain here, I will happily expand on this at a later date.
I don’t know where Jenna Ortega stands on any of these issues, nor do I care. I also don't care what any of the naysayers think. Petty gatekeepers be damned, we're Duosiciliano Americans. Our lineage and culture hails from Southern Italy and we should do everything in our power to strengthen ties and work with our brethren back in our ancestral homeland and scattered around the world. We are an organic outgrowth of ancient peoples and embody the noble spirit of our forbears. Our faith, traditions, and ancestors are our identity. Without them we are nothing.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, September 3rd, Feast of St. Pius X
Notes
[1] Excerpt from “Monday’s Child,” a nursery rhyme by an unknown author first published in 1838 in A.E. Bray’s Traditions of Devonshire, Vol. II, pp.287-288. Being a Wednesday child myself, one of the few things I enjoyed about Netflix's Wednesday was the discovery of this poem:
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace.
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go.
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for a living.
And the child born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, good and gay.
[2] You can argue that she is not really Mexican or Puerto Rican because she is mixed, but she is undeniably Latina. The Oxford Languages definition is clear: "a woman or girl of Latin American origin or descent."
