Italianness in the United States between migrants’ informal gardening practices and agricultural diplomacy (1880–1912)

• In Event: Sowing Political Seeds: Gardens, Newcomers, and Nationalisms

Abstract

During the Age of Mass Migration more than four million Italians reached the United States.
The experience of Italians in US cities has been widely explored: however, the study of how
migrants adjusted in relation to nature and food production is a relatively recent concern.
Due to a mixture of racism and fear of political radicalism, Italians were deemed to be
undesirable immigrants in East Coast cities and American authorities had long perceived
Italian immigrants as unclean, unhealthy and carriers of diseases. As a flipside to this
narrative, Italians were also believed to possess a ‘natural’ talent for agriculture, which
encouraged Italian diplomats and politicians to propose the establishment of agricultural
colonies in the southern United States. In rural areas Italians could profit from their
agricultural skills and finally turn into ‘desirable immigrants’. This article underlines the role
played by gardening practices as an adaptation strategy for migrants to their new life in US
cities. Furthermore, the aim of this paper is to explore this ‘emigrant colonialism’ through the
lens of environmental history, comparing the Italian and US diplomatic and public discourses
on the potential and limits of Italians’ agricultural skills.

Author

• Gilberto Mazzoli, European University Institute, Florence