The Letters of the Perfect Immigrant: Antonio D’Ambrosio

In preparing for my book, Italians in Chicago:1945-2005, i interviewed Antonio D’Ambrosio in his dining room. As he told me his story, he went into his bedroom and retrieved a box of photos, documents and LETTERS. To a professor of Italian American Studies, immigrant letters are pure gold! The book presents to us the letters a primary historical documents directly contemporaneous with the daily lives of a post World War II immigrant and the family that he left behind. There are no sources more authentic for understanding than these letters. I immediately took them to the Casa Italia Library, scanned them, and uploaded them on to the Internet.

They were used as the basis of an article “Le due donne” by Maria Scagliotta DiMarco in the 2013 book we published at Casa Italia, Italian Women in Chicago: Madonna mia! QUI debbo vivere? It was issued in an Italian version published by Fondazione THE DREAM per non dimenticare and Casa Italia in 2015. The translation was co-ordinated by Maria Rosaria D’Alfonso and Maria DiMarco. D’Alfonso also contributed a short interview with Antonio D’Ambrosio to the Italian version.

In the book that you are reading now Professore Maria Rosario D’Alfonso does a deep dive into the letters and focuses on the letters and Antonio D’Ambrosio’s unique mastery of the “twoness” that challenges the identity of every immigrant. Poet Joseph Tusiani asked himself “Am I a Man, or two strange halves of one?” An examination of Antonio’s letters reveals Antonio as a transnational, comfortable in both American and Italian society, spending time with family, working, and managing his social life on both sides of the Atlantic.

Dominic Candeloro

Casa Italia Library

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