Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II

Edited with an Introduction by Lawrence DiStasi; Foreword by Sandra Gilbert

It is a little-known fact that in California during World War II, Italian Americans were subjected to an 8pm to 6am curfew, searches of their homes, seizure of their property, and exclusion from prohibited zones along the coast. In a collection of essays, Una Storia Segreta brings together the voices of the Italian American community and experts in the field, including personal stories by survivors and their children, letters from internment camps, news clips, photographs, and cartoons.

A project of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program

Reviews

"A landmark book."—New York Times

"Al Bronzini's father lost his business and his mother lost her mind. Rose Scudero and her mother were exiled. Doris Giuliotti's father ended up in an internment camp. And Anita Perata's husband was held in a detention center and her house ransacked by the FBI."—San Francisco Chronicle Magazine

"People lost their honor, because of their last names. This is what happened once before, when Americans, in fear and at war, turned on their own."—The Providence Sunday Journal

About the Editor

Lawrence DiStasi is an editor, writer, and instructor at UC Berkeley Extension's Fall Freshman Program and has been the project director of the traveling exhibit Una Storia Segreta: When Italian Americans Were 'Enemy Aliens', since 1994. He is author of Mal Occhio: The Underside of Vision (North Point Press, 1981) and Dream Streets: The Big Book of Italian American Culture (Harper & Row, 1989). He is president of the American Italian Historical Association's Western Regional Chapter.