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History / World War II
"DiStasi…skillfully weaves personal testimony from the victims with his own prose to tell a shameful story. The vital part of this volume is the secrets told, the secrets brought to light."—Choice
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Una Storia Segreta: The Secret History of Italian American Evacuation and Internment During World War II Edited with an Introduction by Lawrence DiStasi 352 pages (6 x 9), with b&w photos, timeline, further reading A project of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program 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. Una Storia Segreta, the secret story/history of Italian Americans, brings a new perspective to the history of wartime violations of civilian populations. The book's scholarly essays detail which parts of the Italian American community were targeted, where internees were sent, how the communities reacted, and what some of the long-term effects have been, and analyze government actions and motives, both stated and secret. With material that has been previously published and some that has only recently come to light, Una Storia Segreta brings this rarely discussed history to a larger public, adding significantly to the materials and dialogue about wartime injustices, both in California and nationwide. |
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"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 full review... "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 full review... "The importance and timeliness of Una Storia Segreta must be applauded by readers in the general community as well as by those whose Italian heritage is enlarged by the book’s most interesting exposition of a difficult and heretofore hidden chapter in our Nation’s history."—L’Italo-Americano "DiStasi…skillfully weaves personal testimony from the victims with his own prose to tell a shameful story. The vital part of this volume is the secrets told, the secrets brought to light."—Choice |
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Introduction: One Voice at a Time by Lawrence DiStasi |
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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. |
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