Cent'Anni!

In "Cent' Anni: 100 Years," ten short sketches present three generations of an immigrant Italian family from Bari as they lurch through dooms of love to an American identity. Separating these related vignettes are Interludes, one-page snapshots of their lives in New York City and Long Island. In Italy, Northerners considered the peoples south of Rome to be barbarians: "Hide the silver," the adage goes, "They're from Bari." Even greater hostility awaited these impoverished Southern Italians in New York. To deal with it, they insulated themselves within the magic circle of their immediate family adopting a cunning silence to keep all others at bay. Despite high principles of sacrifice and care giving, some could neither forego "easy money" nor the privileges and power such money procured. Beginning with the death of Mamma in 1929, some of the stories are comic, some sad, some both, all originating from the struggle "to breathe free" in a new land.