Computers, Catholicism, and Italian Heritage
An Annotated Bibliography
What would my life be like if my family had never left Italy? What is Catholicism? What was the Digital Revolution? I hope to find the answers to these questions and more through this bibliography. My overall goal is to fill in the gaps of what is not already known. For instance, I mostly know the reasons my ancestors came to America, but I want to know what they saw and heard before they immigrated. In terms of Catholicism, it would be beneficial to learn why my family has been Catholic for so long, and to see how Catholic values have shaped my family as a whole. The Digital Revolution is also important because it’s when my grandparents became prosperous, which directly impacts how I live today.
In this bibliography, there will be sources that will discuss Italian culture, Catholicism as a whole, and the history of the Digital Revolution. However, I’d like to begin with Catholicism. I’ve been going to Catholic Mass for as long as I can remember. My aunt and uncle became my godparents when I was baptized as a baby. My entire childhood was centered around being Catholic, which made my devout grandmother extremely proud. No matter which way I take this project, it would be unjust to not learn more about Catholicism, as it’s deeply rooted into my family. All of the sources will provide me with an outlook on my family history that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I want to find anything that will help me form a more complete and detailed picture about my family.
“Mother Teresa Is Made a Saint by Pope Francis”
Povoledo, Elisabetta. The New York Times. 3 Sep. 2016.
Mother Teresa is well respected by many, she is one of the most well known Catholics in recent history, and because of this I wanted to learn more about her. I scoured through a few articles on the late Mother Teresa before I landed on this one from the New York Times written by Elisabetta Povoledo. While this article isn’t as detailed as other articles, it best displays the amount of impact that she had on people’s lives around the world. It accomplishes this by discussing the day of Mother Teresa’s canonization, where nearly twenty years after her death, she became Saint Teresa of Calcutta. Thousands of Mother Teresa’s supporters traveled to Vatican City to see the ceremony, and it was a major event within the Catholic church.
Mother Teresa became known for her generosity and holiness by beginning the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, a religious order based around the idea of helping those who live in extreme poverty. In her town of Calcutta, she opened small hospitals where the less fortunate could go in order to recieve aid if they were sick or needed a place to stay. Since 1950, the Missionaries of Charity have grown from only Mother Teresa to around 4,500 religious sisters involved in several different countries. The impact of what Mother Teresa did cannot be truly known, as she touched so many people’s lives and continues to do so through her religious group. However, she was not without controversy. Many saw her views on abortion and contraception to be regressive, while the Catholic church applauded her for her viewpoints. Some others have accused Mother Teresa of not providing adequate care to those who were ill, but even if it were true, the good that she did considerably outweighs the bad.
I was told about Mother Teresa a lot growing up, considering I lived in a Catholic household and went to Catholic school from kindergarten to third grade. The only thing I had ever really learned about her was that she was a kind, loving person, but I wanted to find out more. After reading more about Mother Teresa, it’s almost eerie how similar how her and my grandmother are a lot of ways. They both are extremely sweet and would do anything to help those less fortunate then them, and they both share the same values. Also, because of this article, I now understand why my mother and grandmother both love Mother Teresa so much, which gives me a new viewpoint on Catholicism.
“A Closer Look at Catholic America”
Lipka, Michael. Pew Research Center. 14 Sep. 2015.
In this article about Catholicism in America, Michael Lipka discusses the current political and racial demographics of Catholics today, and how they’ve changed in recent years. According to the article, Catholics make up about one-fifth of the American population, though there has been around a 3% decrease in the past 10 years. Racially, Catholicism is similar in diversity as America as a whole, with 59% being white, 3% black, 3% Asian, 34% Hispanic, and 2% being another race. The only major difference between the Catholic population and the American population is that 12% of America is black and only 15% of America is Hispanic. With Hispanics making up 34% of Catholics, Catholicism has the highest percentage of Hispanics out of any other major religion in America. 28% of Catholics are first-generation immigrants, 15% are second-generation, and the rest are third-generation or higher. Confusingly enough, only 97% of Catholics believe in God, and only 58% consider Catholicism to be very important to their lives. 52% of Catholics stated that they have never read the Bible, which I would believe. From what I understand, Catholics tend to put less emphasis on the Bible compared to Protestant religions. Politically, 48% of Catholics want smaller government, while 47% want bigger government. In terms of abortion, the same trend follows. For most of the ethical and politcal issues posed, Catholics are about 50/50 on all of them. The only real outlier is the views on homosexuality, where 70% say it should be accepted.
This article helps me to better understand where my family falls within the demographics of the Catholic church. I do find it interesting how different Catholics are politically. I would’ve expected that a majority would be conservative, only because Christians are typically conservative. Despite this, I can now compare what Catholics tend to believe versus what my relatives believe and see how much influence Catholicism has in their daily beliefs.
The Godfather
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James
Caan and Diane Keaton. 24 March 1972.
The Godfather is a film that I only watched just recently. My dad has always told me that I need to watch The Godfather, as it’s number two on his favorite movies list, only behind Pulp Fiction. Going into the movie, I didn’t anticipate to enjoy it. It does feel dated in some parts, but it more than makes up for it with the acting, story, and cinematography. I now understand why so many people suggest watching The Godfather.
The movie tells the tale of an Italian-American Underground crime family known as the Corleones. Head of the Corleone family is Vito Corleone, fantastically played by Marlon Brando. Vito Corleone gets shot in the streets by a rival gang member, and a war breaks out among the different crime families. By the end of the war, Vito’s son Michael takes over the family business. Thematically, the movie focusses on the importance of family and how family should stick together. Along with this, there are also Catholic values portrayed in the movie, with one of the coolest scenes occurring during the baptism of Michael Corleone’s child.
This movie fits well with my project because it has the themes about family, and staying true to it, all while following Catholic beliefs. More importantly, watching this movie will help me finally understand my family in the best way possible, through their obscure movie references. The Godfather is definitely the most referenced movie in my family, so it’s nice that I’ve finally seen it after all these years.
“Enzo Avitabile infiamma ‘Sentieri Mediterranei’”
AV Live. Youtube. 8 Sep. 2018.
One of my goals is to find more information about what Italy was like in the 1900s and what it is like today. While researching, I found out that there is a festival that occurs every year in Summonte, Italy. Summonte is important to me because it is where my great-great grandparents immigrated from and where my great-grandparents lived as children. The festival I found is known as the Sentieri Mediterranei (Mediterranean Trails in English), and it just recently occurred in September. It’s been difficult to find more information on the festival other than this video and a few websites, due to how relatively small the the festival is and how every website about the festival is in Italian.
However, I’ve gathered that the festival is held to celebrate the music, food, wine, culture, and craftmanship of the area. It last for multiple days, and there are many different music acts performing. This video is specific to the musical artist Enzo Avitabile, but there is more shown in the video other than him. The current culture shown in Summonte, Italy looks amazing. One day I hope that I can travel to Summonte and experience at least a sliver of what my ancestors experienced living there in the early 1900s. This video gave me greater appreciation for the area and it allows me to visualize the sights and sounds that my ancestors might have experienced, and helps me feel what they felt.
“How America became Italian”
Cannato, Vincent J. The Washington Post. 9 Oct. 2015.
This article by Vincent J. Cannato from The Washington Post is only an opinion, but I enjoyed the perspective put forth by him. Italian-Americans were once one of the most hated ethnicities in America. After the influx of poor Italian immigrants to America in the late 1800s to early 1900s, contempt began to grow. Underground crime gained notoriety, and Italian-Americans were considered to be criminals. Derogatory terms such as “spaghetti bender” or “garlic eater” were coined and used because of the food that the Italian-Americans ate. This contempt against Italian-Americans lasted for many years, until World War II began. Suddenly, America had a uniting drive to go against the Axis powers, and Italian-Americans joined the army to help. Around this time, a change of heart occurred. Italian culture and cuisine began to be accepted among non-Italians in America. Frank Sinatra, an Italian-American musical artist, rose to stardom. In 1972, The Godfather released to praises among movie critics and moviegoers alike. The stigma against Italian-Americans slowly dwindled, as Italian food worked it’s way into the mainstream, where it became the favorite food of many Americans.
Even though the article is an opinion, I like that it explains why and how Italian-Americans influenced today’s American culture. It’s very interesting to think how much Italian culture has melded with American culture of today. Without researching, I never would have guessed that Italian-Americans were once seen as the bottom of the barrel for ethnicities in America. It’s an interesting perspective on why people had such contempt for Italian-Americans, and I can try to understand what my great-great grandparents and their children must’ve gone through after immigrating to America in the 1920s.
“The Digital Revolution and its Impact on Industry, Consumers, and Government”
Harsh, Anurag. Huffington Post. 11 Aug. 2016.
The United States is undergoing one of the most significant and radical societal, cultural, and economic revolutions of its short history — quite possibly of all human history.
This article by Anurag Harsh begins with this bold statement of a revolution currently occurring in America, and I agree. The Digital Revolution is the term for how the world has changed and is still changing since the introduction of computer technology. Today in America, it is nearly impossible to go a day without seeing or using some sort of computer device at least once, and it’s only been this way for a relatively short period of time. The technology boom really began gaining momentum in the 1960s, during the first stage of the Digital Revolution. Instead of tiny smartphones, the only computer devices available were so big that they filled rooms. The article discusses how computers have changed over time, and how we have reached the current technology of today.
The article also goes into detail on the impact that computers have had on the world. There are reports showing that in this new age of technology, productivity has increased, but at what cost? People now entrust their entire privacy to private companies that are worth billions. Just recently, Apple reached a $1 trillion market cap, making it the first company to ever do so. Millions and millions of people use Google every minute, and Google keeps track of everything that is searched. Social media runs people’s lives, and in-person socializing has become dominated by people being glued to their phones. However, on the bright side, people are more connected than ever before, and news can travel across the world in nearly an instant. There are a lot of pros and cons for and against technology, but I believe that the good outweighs the bad, especially considering where technology will reach within the next few years.
It’s very cool for me to read this article, knowing that my grandfather was a computer salesman for IBM in the 1960s, right at the forefront of the Digital Revolution. He used to sell computers that were worth over $100,000, and he would make a commission on each one he sold. This article fits in perfectly with my overall goal of this project to see how the choices of my ancestors led to my life today. Without the Digital Revolution, who knows what job my grandfather would’ve ended up with. My life could have been very different, and it gives me a much greater appreciation for technology as a whole. I’ve always enjoyed computers, but now I enjoy them just a little bit more.
“Housatonic Run in Ninth Snaps Scoreless Chain at 36”
O’Gara, Roger. “Housatonic Run in Ninth Snaps Scoreless Chain at 36.” The Berkshire Eagle, 14 July 1952.
My great uncle, Anthony Aquino, otherwise known as Dutch, passed away before I was born. While doing this project, I’ve tried to find sources that also detail the bond between my grandfather and his late brother. This article is from The Berkshire Eagle, which is a newspaper that’s based in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. My grandfather grew up only twenty miles away from Pittsfield, in his hometown of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. While searching through the old The Berkshire Eagle newspapers, I found many that mentioned my grandfather as he was an avid sports player, but I enjoyed this news clip the most.
The article details a heated match between two baseball teams in Great Barrington, the undefeated Pittsfield and the 5–1 Housatonic. During this game, Pittsfield reached 36 innings in a row without being scored on, until a young Anthony ‘Dutch’ Aquino scored on his brother’s, Pasquale ‘Patsy’ Aquino, fly ball. In the same game, according to the article, Patsy Aquino missed an easy loft by colliding into his teammate, Kinmond. The game was also a popular one, with over 300 coming to watch because of the free admission. During the game, a total of $50.46 was collected, which would be around $481.83 currently in 2018. That means that if every had person donated at the game, the average donation would’ve been around $0.17 in 1952 or $1.62 in 2018.
I appreciate two main things from this source. First of all, I love that my grandfather and great-uncle worked together to get the first run on Pittsfield in 36 innings. My grandfather mentions his late brother often, and it’s almost surreal seeing an article from seventy years ago discussing my grandfather and his brother in a situation where they were both involved. The second thing I enjoy from the article is the fact that my grandfather collided into a teammate. It’s interesting for me, because it’s a newspaper clip from over fifty years ago about my grandfather when he was a teenager. Also, I now can bring up how he once collided with his teammate in a baseball game whenever I see him, which is the greatest perk of all.
The First Meeting of Mother and Son in 20 Years
Watson, John B. The Berkshire Eagle, 24 September 1948.
While searching through old newspapers, I found one other notable thing about the Aquino family from September of 1948. My great-grandmother, Pasqualina, did not want to come to America and did not stay very long, at least according to my family. However, I haven’t been able to find much that supports this besides the 1930 census showing that she was not with her husband Antonio and their three children at the time. This small snippet from The Berkshire Eagle finally gives me proof of when Pasqualina left.
The newspaper snippet says that my great-grandfather went to visit his mother nearly twenty years after she left to go back to Italy. Pasqualina must have only stayed in America for a short time, as she arrived in 1928, and the article was written in 1948. I originally assumed that she had left around 1929–1930, sometime before the 1930 census was taken, but this has changed my timeline. I also know that Pasqualina took a ship back to Italy around her sixties, meaning that she must have stayed for a few years once arriving back to America.
This newspaper snippet blew my mind. It’s one thing to see a ticket or look at an old census from the 1900s, but actually finding a newspaper casually mentioning how my great-grandfather went to meet his mother twenty years after she left is hard for me to grasp. This snippet has created a longing to speak to the both of them. I want to know why Pasqualina left America, and the reason she came back when she did. It’d also be fascinating to see what the two of them did when they met after twenty years, and what was spoken.
A Documentary History of the Italian Americans
Moquin, Wayne. A Documentary History of the Italian Americans. Praeger, 1974.
Between 1870 and 1900, the Italian economy faltered. According to this book, due to the overworked land, overpopulation, and large taxes on the poor in Italy, the economy of the country began to fall, especially in the southern regions. The entire book is centered around why Italians decided to come to America, and what happened when they arrived. The book splits up large sections with a general overreaching topic such as “Immigration and the Patterns of Settlement, 1850–1929,” and then within those sections are smaller, more specific writings. The writings in each section are from the time period, and the one that stuck out most to me was on page 150, from World’s Work in December of 1920, which was one year before Antonio Aquino arrived in America.
“If I am to be frank, then I shall say that I left Italy and came to America for the sole purpose of making money. Neither the laws of Italy nor the laws of America, neither the government of the one nor the government of the other, influenced me in any way. I suffered no political oppression in Italy. I was not seeking political ideals: as a matter of fact, I was quite satisfied with those of my native land. If I could have worked my way up in my chosen profession in Italy, I would have stayed in Italy. But repeated efforts showed me that I could not. America was the land of opportunity, and so I came, intending to make money and then return to Italy. This is true of most Italian emigrants to America…”
I like this quote because of its relevance to my family. As I’ve found out, it’s obvious Pasqualina never really wanted to come to America, but Antonio did so to make money and provide for his four children. At the time when Antonio was first here, he was extremely poor, and he would not have to come to America unless he believed that he could make more money doing so. I’m almost certain he felt the same way as this quote, where he would’ve gone anywhere had it meant more money for his family.
I have enjoyed the majority of what I’ve read in the book. As I research more and more, it has become easier for me to see the past as actual events that occurred, rather than something that was just written down. The book details more than I have explained, such as the rise of organized crime, or the need for Italian workers in the south after the abolishment of slavery, but I tried to pick out the things that were most relevant to my family. Despite some of the things not being relevant to me personally, I liked learning more about the history of Italian American immigrants.
“In Italy Election, Anti-E.U. Views Pay Off for Far Right and Populists”
Horowitz, Jason. New York Times. 4 March. 2018.
Having learned about some of the history of Italy, and why Italian immigrants came to America, I decided I wanted to know more about the current political climate of the country. In March of 2018, Italy had a major election where an upset occurred, akin to the 2016 election in America. I had heard about the election due to there being controversial candidates akin to President Trump, but I had not researched much into it. This article goes into detail about the election, but one quote from the article interested me the most.
“Nadia Urbinati, a political theorist at Columbia University and the author of the forthcoming book “The Age of Populism,” said the country [Italy] had been “split in two” between traditional establishment voters on the right and left, and everyone else.”
According to the article, Italy is undergoing political changes akin to the 2016 US election. A man by the name of Matteo Salvini won the election for the role he was running, making him the new Deputy Prime Minister of Italy. Matteo Salvini is very Trump-like, with him saying, according to the article, that southern Italians smell. Politically, Salvini and Trump are also very similar. Salvini is anti-immigration, anti-EU, and a populist. Despite the article, it is difficult to truly know what Salvini believes without having an understanding of Italian.
Italian politics are interesting to look at not only for the “what if” factor, but also because of some of the similarities to the United States. Looking at it historically, two things were interesting to me. From the article, where Salvini said that southern Italians smelled bad, it reminded me that there has always been tribalism between northern and southern Italians. The other thing was when the author mentioned that the Five Star Movement, a right-leaning party, appealed to the poorer southern regions of Italy. I find this notable because one of the major reasons Italians came over to America in the early 1900s was because of the impoverishment of southern Italy after World War 1. One of the major reasons that my great-great grandparents immigrated to Italy is still a topic of discussion today, which amazes me.
“Korean War, a ‘Forgotten’ Conflict That Shaped the Modern World”
Stack, Liam. New York Times. 1 Jan. 2018.
The Korean War is a very important aspect of my family’s story. At the young age of eighteen and right at the end of the Korean War, my grandfather joined the Army. He did so when he heard that he could collect veteran’s checks after only two years of service if he joined through the Army Reserve. Two years after joining, he was released from the Army. My grandfather made his way through college on his veteran’s checks, which ultimately led to him getting a good job at IBM. Indirectly through the Korean War, I have benefited immensely.
Just recently in 2018, a historic summit took place between the United States and North Korea, where the leaders of both nations met for the first time. Negotiations are being made to finally put an end to the Korean War, and North Korea just recently extradited the remains of US soldiers back to the USA. The article gives context to the current political situation by being a conglomeration of information about the Korean War, which allows for a quick familiarization of its history.
What’s most notable to me after reading the article is how relevant the Korean War is today, nearly fifty years after the armistice was signed. For me, it’s also given me a realization on how the Korean War has affected my life personally and my life through politics. I’ll now most likely pay closer attention to politics when it comes to Korea, as I have a personal connection to it.
“IBM Raises the Bar with a 50-Qubit Quantum Computer”
Knight, Will. MIT Technology Review. 10 Nov. 2017.
A new revolution in computing technology is coming, and it’s in the form of quantum computing. Companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft are racing each other to be the first to master it. Quantum computing is so important for the future because it’s an entirely different kind of machine than a traditional computer. While a traditional computer holds bytes in the form of 0s and 1s, a quantum computer can hold quantum bytes that, according to the article, “exploit two phenomena — entanglement and superposition — to process information differently.” This means that the power of a quantum computer could become leagues higher than any current computer or even supercomputer of today, and what we can do with a quantum computer could be something that never could be possible with a traditional one.
The article that I linked talks about a new advancement in the world of quantum computing, and it comes from IBM. IBM recently announced that they have created a 50 qubit quantum computer. 50 qubits are more than any other quantum computer previously, and bold well for the future of the technology. Qubits are different than traditional computer bits, as they have a specific lifetime that they can survive. Not only has IBM created a 50 qubit quantum computer, but they’ve managed to up the life time of the qubits to 90 microseconds, the longest of any quantum computer.
As I mentioned previously when discussing the Digital Revolution, my grandfather once sold computers the size of rooms for a living, and now people have computers thousands of times faster in their pockets. I believe that quantum computing is the next big step for computer technologies, and over the next fifty years, there will be major advancements akin to the advancements that have been made with traditional computers. Also, the similarities between the computers my grandfather sold versus the quantum computer in the picture are striking. The computers my grandfather sold were massive and nowhere near being at its true potential, and the same applies for the current state of quantum computing.
