By
Anna De Fina
In this paper I want to describe for the
members of the Circolo della Briscola, and for other people who might be
interested in their activities, some of the findings and of the reflections
that derived from a research that I conducted between 2001 and 2003 as an
observer of the Circolo’s meeting. In particular, I would like to talk about
what my objectives were, why I was observing the Circolo players and what are
some of the conclusions that I reached about their identity and language use.
However, before I talk about such reflections, I want to underline how
satisfying and pleasurable my participation in the Circolo della Briscola has
been, and how grateful I am to its members for letting me sit at the game
tables, take part in the meals, tape or video-record their interactions and,
often, ask questions. I hope to continue observing the meetings, but, at this
point, I feel that I owe some feedback to the Circolo members, who have been asking
me what I was doing in all the time that I spent observing them. I have already
written an article on the Circolo that I have submitted for a book called Social identity and communicative styles -
An alternative approach to variability in language, edited by Peter Auer and
Werner Kallmeyer and to be published by Mouton de Gruyter. However, it will
take some time before the book comes out, and furthermore, I would like to
describe my research for the Circolo Members in less specialized terms than the
ones I use in the article. Thus, I have decided to write a summary of the main
points of my research up to now.
The
structure of this paper is the following, first I describe how and why I became
interested in the Circolo’s
activities, then I talk about the questions that I wanted to answer with my
research, in the following section I talk about the Circolo’s history and then I go on to describe its activities and
language practices the way I observed them.
First
contacts with the Circolo della Briscola
The Circolo
della Briscola first attracted my attention when I was asked by the
Smithsonian Institution to coordinate efforts to bring to the 2000 Folklife an
activity related to the Italian community in
Research
Objectives
When I first approached the Circolo I was interested in researching
the following questions:
The reasons of my interest in these questions lay in my general interest
in Italian migration abroad. I have been an immigrant (although a privileged
one) in different countries and for many years myself, and I have become
convinced of the fact that we need to cast a new look at Italians abroad. Most
versions of what Italian immigrants are like and how they live and speak, are
stereotypical and result from studies of immigration patterns and
characteristics that are often outdated and obsolete. In the case of Italian
Americans, stereotypical images are fostered by such programs as “ The
Sopranos” or films like “Il Padrino”, but few people have actually taken up the
task of observing Italian Americans as they are now, with their diversity of
contexts and experiences. I am convinced that in order to learn about these new
realities, we need to get to know them, be part of their activities and observe
them closely. My contribution is, naturally, very limited, given the size of
the Circolo and the amount of time that it takes to produce a limited amount of
data and observations, but still, this is the kind of direction that I would
like research on immigrants to take. A second reason for my interest is that,
being a linguist and a teacher of Italian, I am always eager to find out to
what extent people keep their languages alive (in this case their Italian and
their dialect), how they use such languages and to what extent they feel that
their identity is defined by their language use.
Some
background on the Circolo
Although most of the
people who will read these notes are members of the Circolo and probably know
everything about it, I still report here the information that I gave in my
article, for those who might be new members or those who do not know the story.
Il
Circolo della Briscola was founded in 1991 by Dr. Enrico Davoli. He started playing with a few friends as a
way of relaxing and spending time with them. The word that there was a group of
people playing Briscola spread and through time the Circolo grew and became an organization with members, rules and
specific activities. At the moment, the Circolo
has 48 members who meet monthly to play. However, the number of active members
fluctuates since every month players bring guests who are potential members,
and sometimes old members may leave the Circolo
for a while. Until November 2001, games used to take place at the Italian
restaurant Tivoli, and before that,
at members’ homes. The host used to cook dinner for the party of players and
the menu was published on the club’s bulletin, since there was a prize at the
end of the year for the best cook. At the end of 2002, however, the club
started meeting at Casa Italiana. Results
of the games and general information are published in the Briscola Newsletter,
published by the President.
The activities
One first task that I set to myself
was to try and characterize the different activities of the Circolo and the way
meetings were organized in order to observe any regularities in the use of
language and in the members’ behavior. I
noticed that Club meetings follow a fixed ritual. Members gather to have some
hors d’oevres and wine at about
The members of the Circolo> are all men. The admission of
women has been voted and rejected numerous times, and the official explanation
for it is that men want to spend the evening by themselves, or, as somebody
said, “with the boys”. Most of the members are between the ages of fifty five
and sixty five, so many of them are retired. There are very few younger
members. Men’s social background is middle and upper middle class. Some of them
are professionals such as architects, medical doctors, others are public
employees, school teachers, travel agents etc., Members of the Club are second
or third generation Italian immigrants who have settled in American society,
have reached a comfortable economic level and are mostly assimilated, or first
generation immigrants who have come to the United States either after the war
or much more recently and who are also well assimilated.
The reason why I give this background on the
Circolo members is that I think that in terms of identity, language and
dynamics of the game, it is important to keep in mind that the Circolo has a
double composition: that of Italian born and American born players. Italian
born members came to the
Language, languages and the Briscola
One
thing that I immediately noticed when I started observing the Briscola games
was that language plays a pivotal role in the life of the Circolo, as it does in many human activities. Within the languages
spoken by members of the Circolo,
Italian (and, as we will see, also Italian dialects) has a central position. As
mentioned, not everyone speaks Italian and not everyone speaks an Italian
dialect, while all members speak English. However, I have observed that the
interest and identification with Italian as a language of origin is immense.
Such interest is reflected in the attempts by different Circolo members to
learn it, even at an older age. I have heard of many stories of members who
took a course in Italian at a local college, or tried to practice Italian with
friends at home or over the internet, or looked for occasions to perfect the
language in their trips to
Example
(1)
X: I’ll get a couple of extra extra large,
for my son.
J: ((to F)) How do you say Camisa?
X: Camicia
J: Camicia
O: In that case it’s a maglietta you know
Y: T shirt yea
O: It’s
a maglietta
X: No
it’s it’s it’s a polo shirt!
As
it can be observed everybody is interested in establishing the right
translation for the word “T shirt.” These kinds of examples are common in the
data that I transcribed, and I think that they show the genuine interest of the
Circolo’s members towads the Italian
language.
Interest is, however, not the only word to
describe the attitude of the Briscola players who are not fluent in Italian
towards the language. Italian also plays an important role in defining the
nature itself of the Circolo. Thus, while exchanges in Italian, English,
dialect, or a mixture of all of them can be heard during most activities (but I
will go back to this point below), Italian is consistently used to refer to
Briscola/game related items and activities and to food items. So, although
people generally choose the language they want to use in reference with
different topics, Italian is preferred when talking about these two topics. A
reflection of this preference is found in the Briscola News, where most of the
announcements are in English, but selected words are in Italian. See the
following examples:
Example (2)
Well, without a
doubt, this year's Awards Dinner was a wonderful
success, thanks to all of you who participated. I truly appreciate all
your kind remarks, and thought you would like to share some of the
photos taken mostly by XY. (For those who don't have e-mail
[yet] I'm preparing a print-out of this message to distribute at our
next partita [game].
Example (3)
Don't forget our next partita [game],
this coming Wednesday, January 15th, at
Casa Italiana. In addition to YX Ziti al
Forno, ZZ is supplying dolci [cakes] (my mother's Calabrese cookies) for dessert, and her
housemate, MN, Lasagna
avellinese.
As
we can see the term partita is in
Italian in both texts and the other Italian words all refer to food items.
What does this choice of language imply? One
implication is that food is seen by the Briscola players as one of the defining elements of
their Italian identity, i.e. that they consider being Italian as fundamentally
characterized by their adherence and enjoyment of a certain cooking tradition,
and that, at the same time, the food they prepare or enjoy constitues a strong
link with their past, their families, their early life experiences. The
importance of food for identity is also underscored in other ways. The choice
of food and the way the food is cooked are important topics of conversation
before (and sometimes even during) the games. Circolo members take pride in
bringing traditional food or drinks and in comparing the traditions of their
region with other regions.
On the other hand, the choice of Italian for
“Briscola talk”, is also significant of the fact that playing briscola is not
simply seen as a way of spending a nice time together playing a card game
learned at home, or related to one’s Italian ancestry, but that playing
Briscola is in some sense, reviving that Italian ancestry, that feeling of
being Italian. Thus playing Briscola is one of the many ways in which members
of the Circolo present themselves as Italian American men, not just players who
happen to be of Italian origin. I hope the distinction between the two
attitudes is clear.
This point brings me to another observation
about the relationship between language use and activities. While English was
mostly spoken during those moments of the Briscola meetings when official
business was discussed, in more personal individual conversation the preference
of language was dictated by individual ability to speak one or the other
language, topic, interlocutor’s preference,etc. However, most players made a
point of using some Italian during Briscola games. The amount and type of
Italian used varied, again, according to language preference and generation of
the players, but being able to use the Italian words to name the cards and some
of the moves was consistently seen an an important part of one’s identity as a
player. Thus, I have witnessed many occasions in which new players who needed
intructions on the rules of the game, were at the same time given instructions
on the language of the game. These instructions did not necessarily come from
fluent Italian speakers, but often from other English speaking players who had
gone through the same learning process.
I
give an example of this kind of exchange below, where C is trying to learn the
game, but his companions make him learn to recognize the Italian cards and to
pronounce their name too:
Example
(4)
01 C: ((pointing))
That’s three,
02 P: Three.
03 C: That’s
two ,
04 P: Two
05 C: ((Shakes
head)) Why don’t you use American cards?
06 P: That’s
not=
07 C: =What’s
that thing?
13 P: That’s
not tradizionale! ((laughs))
[traditional]
08 C: ((annoyed
but laughing)) What’s that thing there?
09 P: That’s
the ace of spade, spada.
10 C: That’s
ace?
11 P: Now
this is (.)
12 A: A horse.
13 P: cavallo, cavallo di
spada
Notice that when C asks why American
cards are not used, P points to the fact that it’s not “traditional”. Notice
also that after a while C starts using the names of the cards in Italian. This
is also true for words like “carico”, “briscola”, “briscoletta”, etc. that are
routinely used by all players independently of whether they are fluent in
Italian or not.
Again, the use of Italian and the fact
of teaching Italian to new players underlines the identification that is felt
in the Circolo between being Italian
and playing this traditional game. In fact, once this feeling was very
effectively expressed by Dr. Davoli during an
interview that I did with him. Let’s look at the exchange:
Example (5)
A: E secondo te che ruolo ha il fatto
dell’italianità in questa cosa, c’entra molto? Secondo te è importante per loro
che questo sia un gioco italiano e che gli altri siano italiani eccetera o::::
[According
to you what role has the fact of being Italian in this thing, does it have a
lot to do with it?
According
to you is it important for them that this is an Italian game and that the
others are Italian, etc. Or....]
E: Beh, come si può dividere il gioco ed
essere italiano o il gioco essere italiano, noi essere italiani? Non si può dividere!
[Well,
how can you separate the game and being Italian or the game being Italian from
our being Italian? You can’t separate it!]
Let us go back to my
initial questions to summarize what I have discussed up to now. My questions
were: How is the identity of the Circolo related to Italian identity? And, what
aspects of the activities of the Circolo are explicitly or implicitly related
with
But,
what does it mean being Italian for Circolo members ? This is a more difficult
question because no one explicitly discusses this topic. However, I went back
to analyze some of the more formal speeches made by the President or by other Circolo members about important events
or questions and I found some clues on the values that, according to people in
the Circolo, are important and
defining of Italian character. One important source of reflection for me were
the speeches given by the President and other Circolo members to remember Joe Di Sandro, a member of the Circolo
who died suddenly and prematurely. When commenting on Joe Di Sandro both the
President and his close friends commended his ability to enjoy life and to have
a good time, his easy, cheerful personality, but also his loyalty to his people
and to his family. These words, together with many conversations among the
Circolo members that I witnessed, pointed to the importance of family values
and of active participation and
enjoyment of social life for members of the Circolo, both Italian and American
born. This attitude is also significant of the fact that values that are
traditionally associated with being Italian are maintained and underscored as
constitutive of a collective identity in the Circolo.
I will now go back
to another set of questions that were asked at the beginning of this paper,
namely:
What languages are used, how, and when?
Such questions have been already
answered in part, but I would like to add a few points to what I have said
above. As mentioned before, English, Italian and Italian dialects (or minority
languages like Friulano) are all heard during the Briscola meetings. Usually
English is preferred in activities that are felt as more “official”, like
discussing future meeting or activities, introducing new members, planning the
games, etc. However, switching into Italian is accepted at any moment and many
members, even those whose Italian is not fluent, like to use Italian for
greetings and leave taking. See an example below:
Example (6)
04 B: Tutto
bene?
05 L: Tutti
bene stanno, tu, come stai tutti bene?
06 B: Oh
yeah, they’re fine. How’s the young married guy getting along?
07 L: He’s
getting along too well. He’s got a good girl! He got a good
girl. She works very hard.
Thus, Italian, especially when it’s not
the preferred language of the individual because the individual is not fluent
in it, seems to be more of a “language of the emotions” since it is often
associated with friendly or more intimate talk, and often also with making fun
or being witty. In the case of speakers who are more fluent in Italian than in
English, these functions are often absolved by the dialect, when they speak
one. So, it can be said that there is a little bit of a division of labor
between English as the most neutral choice and Italian as a more significant
choice of language in the Circolo.
I have also already
commented on the role of Italian in the games. The choice of language is,
however, always negotiable, since not everybody speaks Italian, and we can see
that in the frequent switch between the two languages at all moments during
Briscola evenings. See an example below:
Example (7)
01 E: ((beats
the table with his hand and laughs looking at C))I’m not
02 gonna say anything C. !
03 C: No:::!
04 ((to
P.)) Cosa fai? Ma cosa fai? Adesso che hai messo giù la carta hai
05 fatto così o
hai bussato? [What are you
doing? But what are you doing? Now that you have put that card down did you do
that or did you knock?]
06 P: Ho // bussato!
07 E: // Ha bussato!
08 C: Ok,
good! Quello che vogliamo sapere noi.[That’s what we want to know]
In this conversation, recorded during a
Tressette game, speakers freely switch between English and Italian even though
in this case English does not appear to be the strongest language for E and C.
Such easiness of alternation indicates the obvious fact that English has become
a dominant language in the life of both American and Italian born players and
that therefore it is in some sense the “natural choice” in normal interaction.
However, in the same
way as Italian has been shown to have its own place in the Circolo’s
repertoire, dialects or regional varieties of Italian also play a role in
communications among Briscola players. Knowledge of dialects varies a great
deal among the members of the Circolo since some are fluent speakers, others
heard the dialect at home and understand some, but are unable to carry out a
conversation entirely in it. Still others do not understand or speak any
Italian dialects. Knowledge of a dialect is sometimes proudly proclaimed. For
example, the Friulano speakers (note
that Friulano is classified as a
language, not a dialect) talked to me openly and proudly about their dialect,
gave me examples of how they say and pronounce words and spoke to each other in
Friulano. In other cases, dialect
slipped in the interaction without open comments on the part of speakers.
However, it seems clear from what I have observed that dialect is related to a
sphere of interaction which has to do either with more intimate talk, or with
teasing and joking. The instances of dialect that I have found are often
embedded in exchanges of this nature. See for example the following fragment,
in which Sicilian is used to complain about the game, but in a jocular way:
Example (8)
03 R: Che briscola è?
[What kind of trump is it?]
04 ( )
05 L: No no you are right, by god you are
right cu cavaddu cu cavaddu hai
[with
the horse with the horse
06 hai vinto cu cavaddu sai?
you
won, you know?]
07 J: All right?
From
what I have observed, a complaint with is uttered in the dialect seems to be
less aggressive than a complaint uttered in Italian. This in turn indicates
that the dialect is more easily associated with kinds of interactions that are
not neutral or businesslike, but have
more to do with the personal sphere. In this case, the player uses Sicilian to
jokingly reproach his adversary for his winning move.
I have not touched, in this summary of
observations, questions about other identities besides the Italian identity,
and how they are managed. I have been observing, for example, how members of
the Circolo define themselves in terms of their profession, or their attitude
towards the game, their gender, etc., but I feel that my work in that area
needs a little fine tuning. Also, I don’t want to expand this paper too much.
To conclude, meetings of the Circolo della
Briscola have been a source of great interest for me as a researcher involved
with Italian immigrant communities. I have been confirmed in the idea that
Italians abroad find creative and ever changing ways of being Italian, that
they keep their traditions alive, that even when they do not speak the
languages of their families of origin, they are still able to maintain them at
some level, and that they are engaged in interesting and lively redefinitions
of who they are.
Thank
you all for your hospitality.
Anna
De Fina
[1] In most examples I will use letters to identify players since I do not know whether they wish to be identified. The only exception will be the President, identified as P., since it’s very hard to hide his identity.