Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

History General

The Leamington Italian Community

Ethnicity and Identity in Canada

by (author) Walter Temelini

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2019
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773554696
    Publish Date
    Jul 2019
    List Price
    $75.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773555860
    Publish Date
    Jul 2019
    List Price
    $65.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

The Leamington Italian Community intertwines personal and family stories with both empirical and intuitive writing to offer new historical insights into the complex social, economic, and psychological causes and effects of the migration phenomenon. Walter Temelini meticulously reconstructs the history of immigration and settlement in Leamington, Ontario, of Italians from the southern regions of Lazio, Molise, and Sicily. He explains how, despite their regional differences, three generations between 1925 and the 1990s forged a cohesive, socially conscious, and unique agricultural community by balancing their inherited values and their newly adopted Canadian economic opportunities. Temelini's groundbreaking research draws on testimonial and documentary evidence gathered from in-depth interviews with hundreds of residents, as well as on original archival information and Italian-language histories translated by the author and previously unavailable to English-speaking readers. He concludes his study with an investigation into the award-winning novel Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci, one of the community's most celebrated descendants. Drawing parallels between Ricci's narrative and the development of the community, Temelini demonstrates that ethnicity can be transformed successfully into a powerful universal archetype, and a creative force of identity. A pioneering and authoritative work, The Leamington Italian Community creates an intimate portrait within a global framework, delving into issues both timely and timeless, that will interest and inform the general and specialized reader alike.

About the author

Walter Temelini is professor emeritus of Italian and multicultural studies at the University of Windsor.

Walter Temelini's profile page