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Members of immigrant communities, when they meet, wonder aloud whether they have "made it." Do they have professionals, business people, politicians, judges, artists,
philanthropists-all of those people who comprise the intelligentsia and power brokers. In terms of Alberta's Italian community, we do have a range of such individuals. If, as Ezra Pound says, poets and artists are the "antenna of the race," then,
Alberta's Italian community has creators who give us a heightened sense of ourselves as people of Italian descent who have lived in this place for one or many generations and have left our mark.
Alberta has a number of artists and scholars with provincial, national and international reputations. In the 1970s in Canada, writers from diverse ethnocultural backgrounds got together to publish. What united them was their sense of being "other" and, therefore, of being marginalized. Their sense of grievance went beyond the simple notion of racism, which is evident in Canadian immigration policy as well as the daily life of miners and other working people.
 It was based on the need to have their ethnicity and world view
seen as a part of the "official" culture of Canada that was not based on
the notion of founding cultures (English and French) but rather was, essentially, multicultural. William Anselmi and Kosta Gouliamos in
Elusive Margins: Consuming Media, Ethnicity, and
Culture, when referring to the publication of Roman
Candles, a collection of the works of seventeen Italian-Canadian poets published in 1978, write:
Roman Candles offered the reading public at large a selection of writers of Italian origin from across Canada, writers whose published works were in English, French and Italian. Yet the official recognition, that is, the appearance of reviews of this anthology in Canadian literary magazines had to struggle against crypto-racist attitudes against so-called minority literatures. Literary canons, as far as the reviews showed, seemed to be based on power relations of dominance and colonial practices, rather than critical assertions and analyses. This practice foreshadowed the special relation between the 'founding nations' status of Canadian literature and the literary texts being produced in various ethnocultural communities.
 Alberta artists, scholars and academics of Italian descent include Caterina Edwards, Dr. Joseph Pivato, Peter Oliva, Giuseppe Albi, Dr. Massimo Verdicchio, Dr. William Anselmi, Antonella Fanella and Dr. Adriana Albi Davies.
Ms. Edwards, Dr. Pivato and Mr. Oliva would acknowledge that their ethnicity is important to their creativity providing not only a theme but a way of perceiving the world. Mr. Albi, on the other hand, believes that he is a part of an international community of creators and that his ethnicity has little or no bearing on his artistic works. With respect to the scholars and academics, for some, the Italian community is a research subject but, for most, they are experts in certain branches of knowledge (for example, literature) that are international in scope.
The numbers of Albertans of Italian descent working in the arts and culture are small and this raises the issue of whether the struggle to get ahead and make a living, which has been the preoccupation of the community for most of the last 100 years (albeit in three waves of immigration), has worked against artistic creation. When has any ethnocultural group been here long enough to be counted? Does it matter if individual rights and freedoms are protected? These issues do not apply solely to Canadians of Italian descent. They apply to all Canadians as our country continues to re-invent itself with the arrival of every newcomer.
Related Links
-
 http://www.athabascau.ca/cll/writers/cedwards.html: An external website that features a biography of
author Caterina Edwards.
- Il Congresso Article:
Terra
Straniera!
Lina Amodio's preview article on Caterina Edwards' Terra
Straniera to be presented Edmonton's 1986 Fringe Festival.
- Il Congresso Article:
"Terra Straniera" A Powerfull Drama
Joe Pivato's August, 1986 review of the Fringe Festival,
Edmonton, performance of Terra Straniera by Caterina
Edwards. The play examines the lives of Maria and Cesare
and the bordanti (boarders) in their home.
- http://www.planet.eon.net/~albi/index.html
An external website that features artist, Giuseppe Albi, and his
work.
-
 http://www.athabascau.ca/cll/staff/pivato.htm: An external website that features a biography of
writer and Dr. Joe Pivato.
- Il Congresso Article:
"Contrasti"
La rubrica delle opinioni
Presentation of the book Contrasti by Joseph Pivato.
- Il Congresso Article:
The
Bookworm
Contrasts: Comparative Essays on Italian-Canadian Writing.
Joseph Pivato, Editor Guernica Editions, 1985 255 pages,
paperback.
- Il Congresso Article:
Associazione Scrittori, Scrittrici Italo-Canadesi. An Open
Letter from the President
A national conference of Italian-Canadian writers was hosted in
Vancouver by the Italian Cultural Centre. At the end of
this very successful five-day conference the writers decided to
form an Association of Italian-Canadian Writers with a broad
national representation.
- Il Congresso Article:
Multiculturalism
Pilot Project Announced
Grant MacEwan Community College's expanding horizons have moved
into the multicultural arena. A pilot project for
multiculturalism in the Performing and Visual Arts division is
now being headed by Dr. Roman Petryshyn. This year-long project
is the first of its kind in Canada.
- Il Congresso Article:
L'
Arte Italiana In Canada: Emilio Chisotti
This article is about the work of Emilio Chisotti, the painter.
- Il Congresso Article:
Multiculturalism and Ethnic Writers The Work of Italian-Canadian
Writers
The phenomenon of Italian-Canadian writers never ceases to amaze
the readers who have only recently discovered it.
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