Morgan Salvesen
Dance and culture
October18, 2010
Life History Interview
There are so many different culture, and people all over the world with so many different
religions and ways of life. For my life history interview I interviewed my best friend’s mom. Her
name is Donatella Winward, she is from Italy she life in Italy until the age of twenty then she
move to the united states learned English then got married, she has four children and works that
the college tutoring Italian students. As we got talking I learned so much about her culture
compared to ours her, Most of the Italian people are native born ranging from German Italians in
the south, French Italians, and Slovene Italians in the north, and Albanian Italians and Greek
Italians in the south. The Italians stick close the religion, the main religion is roman catholic,
with some others mixed in such as protestant, Jewish and Muslim. Some regional differences do
persist mainly because of natural geographical boundaries. Italians consider themselves the
descendants of the ancient Romans and are very proud of their cultural heritage.
Music and art are a big part of Italy and its culture, from the olden time to modern time
Italians have made and designed some of the world most admired sculptures, architectural
masterpieces. They also are very well known for their music, one of the most well known is the
opera, they also are very talented in writing literature and there paintings. The culture in Italy is a
lot different than here in the United States, they all have a few set religions and ways of life but
here we get people coming from all around the world and so many different cultures and
religions the mix together.
In Italy the northern part is not as big as the south, but the north is a lot richer. In the
north there is a lot more industries than the south. The Italians live in the urban areas, a lot live in
the apartment buildings unless they are very wealthy then they will live in single family homes,
and those who are poor live on the outside of the town. In the family most children live with the
family until they are married after they get married the will look to buy an apartment close to the
apartment of their family. Family is a big part of the way of life in Italy; they are all really close
to each other and do whatever they can to help out. In most cases the grandparent will look after
the little children why they parents go to work unless the mother is able to stay home. In Italy the
way they live is a lot like here in the United States, but is also different. Family is also a big part
here in Utah but she said that the biggest change was where people live a lot of people don’t live
down town salt lake unless they are rich, and in Italy she grew up living in the city.
Italian food is a common food that we eat in the United States; they eat a lot of
pasta and soups. There are different kinds of pasta depending on the regions that you are in. They
eat different kinds of food at different time such as pizza here that would be a meal for us but in
Italy it is a light snack that they will eat after school, when here we would just eat a cookie or
something. They also eat fresh fruit as a desert, here we would go for a bowl of ice cream and
fruit is just a snack or something we eat with our lunch or any other meal. As I have gone over to
her house and stayed for dinner I have noticed a lot of things they done eat a lot of meat most of
their food is pasta and they make it all from scratch they don’t just go to the store and buy
noodles and have to cook them. And they don’t have a set dinner time, in my house I have grown
up where dinner is at five o’clock they just eat whenever dinner is done or they feel like cooking.
They traditionally have wine served with every meal other than breakfast. Cheese in Italy is a
major food that they eat they have so many different types of cheeses and they put some of it on
all of the food that they consume. Italian cheese is famous all over the world as she was growing
up she remember people who would come to Italy just to try there cheese and that was something
normal for them. But if someone said that they came to Utah to try our cheese I would have a
good laugh about it.
In Italy there schools are run a little differently most all of the children go to public
schools, they attend school from the age of six to fourteen. After that they will attend three years
of junior high and then move on to high school where there are many different programs that you
can study in high school. After they graduate there are many different universities that they could
attend they have 47 public universities. Getting a good education is very important for Italians, it
is here in the U.S but it is our choice. She didn’t have a choice to continue her education her
family chooses for her but she is very thankful for it today as she works at the college helping
other students.
The way of life here is different than it was in Italy she said but there is nothing she
would change about either place, she love growing up in Italy and she has love raising her family
her in the united states. She still caries a lot of the traditions that she did in Italy with her family
today she also still makes real Italian food for her family, and she also still speaks Italian and has
taught it to her children so they will be able to communicate with her family. Her family all still
lives in Italy so they go back there quite often, she is of the LDS religion the rest of her family
isn’t because the main religion there is Roman Catholics, she didn’t get converted to the LDS
church till she move here. One of the biggest changes she said was the religion because so many
people in Utah are of the LDS religion, and attend church every Sunday in Italy only about thirty
percent of the people attend church on a regular basses. In Italy most of the baptism and funerals
are done out of the churches the same way it is done here.
Italians love dancing, when they get together for any big event there is always dancing
she said that a lot of their dancing is just done for fun and when they are at a party there dance
does not consist of a lot of moving around the dance floor they stand in place and move their
hips around sometimes they move around the floor when they are dancing with someone or the
party gets out of control. Sports are also a big thing in Italy that is done for fun, Italy’s biggest
sport is soccer. Every major city in Italy has a professional soccer team, sitting and watching a
soccer game is a big thing but on the weekends everyone gets out and plays soccer. Italy’s parks
are filled with children and adults all playing soccer games.
As I have interview her there where many things that I learned, I thought that I was
starting to catch onto a lot just being over at her house all the time but there is so much you don’t
know unless you sit down at talk with a person from another country. There are a lot of thing that
are the same as here in the united states but there are also may thing that are very different. It is
very important that we understand alto of different cultures and not just our own because a lot of
things that we have in the United States are originally from the United States. But everyone bring
something unique with them such as their food, culture and the way they live, there music and art
work and there way of dance it all comes together and that is why the united states is so great
because we have such a mix of diversity. I enjoyed doing this interview so much because it gave
me a greater understanding about the things that they do, and I thought, I already knew a lot
because I am over there all the time but when you actually sit down and talk about specific things
you learn so much more. As I have done this it has really made me want to travel to Italy and
visit all the beautiful places that they built long ago and just get to interact with the people of
Italy. So we should always stay opened minded about others and their culture because we can
come to love it and there are so many things that are the same that we never think about.