Growing up Italian Australian

By Virginia Moschella

Growing Up Italian-Australian is a collection of funny tales that has no qualms about parodying my Nonni, my childhood, Sicilian morals, and archaic Sicilian traditions in contemporary Australian society. These comical parodies are dedicated to my Nonna who turned ninety and to the memory of my Nonno.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jan 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452588438

Virginia Moschella

As a young Australian girl, I was raised on Italian-Sicilian archaic principals in the 1980s. New social and technological trends emerged in the eighties that impacted on the Italo-Australian culture that has redefined the position and public perception of Italians in Australia.

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Copyright © 2014 . Virginia Moschella.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-8842-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-8843-8 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/25/2014

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Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

The Arrival Of The Italians

An Encounter Of The Third Kind With Australian Customs Officers At Sydney Airport 1970S

The Italo-Australian Dialect

A ‘Wog’ In The 80S

Italian Home Life

Nonno’s Backyard

Cooking With Nonna

Watching Tv With Nonna And Nonno

All Italians Shout!

We Are Not Yelling, We ‘Re Sicilian

Nonna The Tax Man!

Driving With Nonno

My Italian Christmas

Paranoia Activity – The Sicilian X-Files!

Nonna And The Chinese Massage Therapist

Nonna And Technology

‘Growing Up Italian - Sicilian

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all the Italo-Australians

and to the children of the migrants.

Growing Up Italian - I remember back in the 80s when we all were proud of being a ‘WOG…’

First we hated it, then we embraced it!

PREFACE

Growing Up Italian! A collection of tales that has no qualms about parodying my Italian – Sicilian heritage and how the Italo-Austalians adapted to the Australian culture. The stories are a collection from my childhood experiences living with my Nonni, who lived by Sicilian morals, archaic Sicilian traditions in contemporary Australian society during the 1980s.

Introduction

The book includes a collection of short stories from friends and families who have shared their growing up Italian experience with their own grandparents and relatives.

The Italo-Australian culture is unique and as diverse as the regions of Italy throughout Australia, however, this book focuses on the Italo-Australians. As children and grandchildren of the Italian migrants, we learnt that being Australian as opposed to being Italian, that somehow through our naivety we were part of a social change within Australian cultural history. Our cultural values were being challenged and these were represented through Australian society that was based on ensuring that the Italian migrants adapted very quickly to the Australian way of life.

The Italian migrants learned how to adapt to Australian social customs with great difficulty, especially when they were seeking employment in order to