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Echoes of Growing Up Italian

Echoes of Growing Up Italian

By Gina Valle

Echoes of Growing up Italian features accounts of the immigrant experience as told through the eyes of fifteen women from across North America. Some were born and raised in Italy while some have only been there on holidays. Some are mothers and grandmothers and some are single. Some only know a few words of Italian, while others are fluent. But they each have a discerning perspective on what it means to live with two cultures.

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(Essential Essays)

9781771838689

200 pages |

$22.95 CAD
$22.95 CAD
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Reviews

The humanity that is present in each of these women writers’ pieces forces a reconsideration of Italian immigration to North America, as well as Italian Americans’ and Italian Canadians’ place in contemporary society.

Nancy Caronia, Teaching Associate Professor, West Virginia University

Gina Valle has collected stories in fact and fiction that are rich with the wisdom of old-world traditions, and sharp in their renderings of new-world ways.

Fred L. Gardarphé, Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies, Queens College, CUNY

The contributors to Gina Valle’s Echoes of Growing Up Italian movingly evoke a lost world still vibrant in memory, where the reader imagines—and remembers—with them.

Edvige Giunta, Co-editor of Talking to the Girls: Intimate and Political Essays on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, and Professor of English, New Jersey City University

A heart-felt and brilliant collection. Here is the lift that only the conscious written word can bring to the ache we carry for the matriamia.

Annie Rachele Lanzillotto, author of Whaddyacall the Wind? and L is for Lion

Bravo, Gina Valle, for gathering together these welcome stories, and your own—so long overdue! You’ve given us far more than echoes. You’ve given us a full choir!

Darlene Madott, author of Making Olives and Other Family Secrets and Winners and Losers

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About the author

Gina Valle’s parents were born in a small town in Calabria. Before they were 25 years of age, Domenico and Giuseppa moved to Canada and built a new life. Gina understood the responsibility that came with that decision. After completing her PhD at OISE (University of Toronto), Gina went on to found Diversity Matters where she focuses on making Canada a more equitable society for all. She is a writer, producer, editor, director and educator. She is a past board member of The Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Advisory Council of OMNI-TV. She is a Director at Villa Charities, where she is Chair of Culture. In 2023-2024 Dr. Valle is a Goggia Fellow at the University of Toronto. In recognition of her work in diversity, Gina is the recipient of the Ordine al Merito, and the Queen‘s Diamond and Platinum Jubilee Medals from the federal government. Domenico and Giuseppa‘s legacies live on in Gina‘s children.