History lessons which are never learned.....

Flowers along the sidewalk in Austin....

History is such a bitch.  I mean, you've got dates to remember, details and names to recall.  I really suck at dates, but luckily, our professor also sucks at dates, so won't be giving us those types of questions on our tests and quizzes.  

History is written ~ usually ~ by the winners.  Look at us.  In Texas they never discuss the reasons for the Battle of the Alamo.  All we hear about is the American heroes.  We never hear about how we decided to annex through violence, a large portion of what was then Mexico.  In New Mexico you don't read about how we lied to the indigenous (& we don't call them indigenous, we call them Indians) and stole much of their land or killed most of them with war and disease.  

The same is true of immigrants.  My current class is Catholicism in America, which is more about people than it is of Catholicism.  I am enjoying it much more than I thought I would.  We are currently reading "The Madonna of 115th Street" by Robert Orsi.  I figured I would be bored.  It's a fascinating glimpse of the lives of the early immigrants from Italy in the 1800s.  If you are interested in what it was like for those early Italians, it's a book I would highly recommend.  (also cheap as a used paperback on Amazon)  Orsi discusses in detail of life in the "domus" which is a term to describe how life revolved around family and friends in the community that these early immigrants (in Italian Harlem) fought so hard to protect.  Nor is it all fun and games.  The Italians really knew how guilt and shame were powerful motivators.  He does go into the Mafia a bit too, with a view point I had never considered.  

So, at the end of class, I'm going to mail the book to one of you.  I'll let you know when.  No essay required!

Love, 

365