Divided Loyalties

Some years ago the politician Norman Tebbit coined the phrase, the cricket test, in respect of which side the loyalties of immigrants lay.

Today is a rugby test for me. By dint of my forebears I am qualified to play rugby for either Scotland or Italy. That of course is only academic.

I will be watching the rugby today having enjoyed lunch of haggis ravioli and wearing my kilt of Scottish-Italian tartan.

Here is an interesting piece from the Scots-Italian website:

Scottish or Italian, a crisis of identity or best of both?

This is a somewhat peculiar question but one I often asked myself growing up. In Scotland, I was often made aware of my Italian roots and in Italy itself I was always known as l'inglese (despite my numerous but ultimately fruitless attempts at elementary geography lessons). Somehow I never really felt a 100% Scottish in Scotland or for that matter 100% Italian in Italy.

In my Cafe, the Seaview, there is Andrea Boccelli on the radio and square slice and tatty scone on the menu. A curious mix to some, comfortable to me.

Playwright Sergio Casci said in a recent interview that it wasn't until he turned thirty that he understood. Neither was he a Scot with a funny name, nor a poor relation to the locals he met when on holiday in Italy.

What he was, is a 100% pure bred Scotsitalian, part of a group with a history that spans three centuries and whose members have had an influence in business, sport and the arts that is out of proportion to their modest numbers.

I think how things have changed since our forefathers arrived in the late 19th century and what they had to endure not just to make a living but to get here in the first place.

Nowadays getting to and from Italy is a relatively easy task. Indeed many of the Italians who land fresh off the plane today are easily identifiable. Invicta backpacks for the young, long designer coats for the old and endless quest for the perfect espresso for all. Yet they as the New Italians and us in a sense as the Old have come to appreciate the same things from Scotland, the landscape, the people and the experience. In a strange twist, to some of these New Italians, (and here I'm talking about those that come to visit distant relatives or friends living here), we have become those people living in Scotland. We are that experience, or least part of that.

They take back memories of hunting "funghi" in the Trosacchs or having a chat about football with the man who has just fried them their tea.

Ultimately though I like to think I gained the best of both these worlds, a sense of fair play and good humour from my Scottish side and love of food, respect for family and tradition from my Italian side.

I suppose this is what makes me proud of my Scottish Italian roots.

Scots Italian website
What Wiki has to say about Scots Italians and a list of some notable ones that have impacted on many areas.