Sons of our race! Help your motherland! Buy Italian! Italian propaganda through food ads among Italian American ethnic communities at the turn of the century

This essay will focus on the political meanings about foodconsumption among Italian Americans at the turn of the Centuryunderlining how and where these meanings were spread andaffected the idea of‘italianness’. Food advertisements publishedon ethnic newspapers reported political messages and theimages of great Italian personalities, such as Giuseppe Garibaldi,Cristoforo Colombo or Dante Alighieri, fostering the sense ofnostalgia among migrants. Similarly, some brands were namedafter personalities such as D’Annunzio and Mussolini, toemphasize political affinity to the motherland The groceries andother small food shops that sold these goods represented notonly a place to buy things, but also a hangout for the ethniccommunity and depicted the landscape of the ethnic neighbor.Often the owner came from the same village of his customersand became a symbol because his origin ensured the authenticityof the products. Go to a particular shop and buy a particular foodcould represent a political choice. Italian Governments, and aboveall Fascist Regime, forced migrants to demonstrate to be loyalpatriots and kin with the family left in Italy buying Italianproductsfirst.