Eh, Paesan! : Being Italian in Toronto

Shouts of ''Forza Italia!'' rang out along St Clair Avenue West each time Italy won a game in World Cup 1994. But is a soccer tournament all that almost a half-million Italians in Toronto have in common? What does it mean to be Italian in Toronto? In this book Nicholas DeMaria Harney invites us to explore with him the symbols and sites of Italian culture in Toronto. Ethnic identity, we discover, is a process - it is constantly being remade and reproduced. Do Canadians look beyond the stereotypes that picture Italians as peasant construction workers, members of organized crime, and soccer fanatics to see the diversity of Italian life in Toronto? Second-generation Italian Canadians, familiar with Italy''s fashion, sports, and design worlds have new images to confront. In today''s global economy, ideas and products arrive rapidly from Italy, targeted at markets among people of Italian heritage and nourishing Italianit+, spaces of Italian cultural life.

While the familiar greeting ''Eh Paesan!'' is commonly used by young Italian Canadians, Harney leaves no doubt that their Italianness and that of their parents is rooted in Toronto.