Posted by meghan on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

Living in Los Angeles my whole life, I have grown up in one of the most renowned epicenters of diversity in the world.  From Little Italy to Chinatown, nearly every ethnicity, race, and culture is represented to varying degrees. When driving through LA, it is impossible not to notice the Hispanic immigrants selling fruit and flowers at almost every freeway exit as well as at many major intersections throughout the city.

In a similar manner, Sicily’s ancient history of being constantly invaded by foreign groups as well as the current refugee crisis from neighboring African countries has created an overall “melting pot” as described by many textbooks, tour guides, in addition to local Sicilians themselves.

While lounging at the beach this afternoon, I became particularly transfixed by the African and Middle Eastern men selling tapestries, jewelry, and trinkets on the beach as well as the abundance of Asian women selling their massage services.  Soon enough, I had convinced myself to buy both a tapestry as well as a massage by justifying such purchases in the name of academia and cultural analysis.

As I watched the men and women peddle their goods and services along the beach, I immediately connected them to the Hispanic fruit vendors that I had grown up seeing at home.  By pure observation alone, I noticed that both groups were dressed in tattered, worn clothes and appeared to be living quite poorly.  Watching their interactions with tourists and each other also proved very similar in nature to the Hispanic fruit vendors in Los Angeles; many beachgoers, similar to drivers stopped at red lights, quietly ignored the vendors or shooed them away absentmindedly.  With this said, the Sicilian immigrant vendors also exhibited much more aggressive behavior in both their sales tactics and their interactions with each other.  In fact, many bidding wars would break out for the same good sold by two or more vendors, resulting in  screaming matches in their native tongues directly in front of the tourists on the beach.  However, I did notice that, unlike the U.S., many European customers were very firm and even degrading in their attempts to lower the prices of the goods.  During one scenario, I cringed as I overheard one woman comment, “you immigrant peddlers are all the same anyway.”  Fortunately, in my experience, I have not witnessed this type of behavior toward the fruit vendors in Los Angeles. On the contrary, I have often seen many cars give a few dollars or extra change to the vendors even when there is no purchase, presumably out of compassion and respect for the vendors’ taxing work efforts under the blazing sun.

In stark contrast to the fruit vendors of LA, every vendor at the Sicilian beaches seemed to speak English and Italian with relative proficiency and ease.  In Los Angeles, many of the vendors speak primarily Spanish with limited and broken English.  Due to the large population that speaks Spanish in Southern California, it is often the case that English is not explicitly necessary for their survival.  However, from my observations, I have concluded that the immigrants to Sicily must learn other languages, particularly Italian, in order to survive in a relatively homogenous region of Sicilian language and culture.  Despite the fact that the latter attempt to learn Italian is a choice made for business purposes, it can also be said that the immigrants to Sicily may be more willing to assimilate in this aspect of Sicilian culture.

Overall, witnessing such behavior has led me to question to what degree this “melting pot” buzz phrase is true in Sicily.  I do see physical diversity, but am still unsure as to whether or not I see true blending of cultures and people, namely the immigrant populations, in modern day Sicilian life. This is something I will continue to observe and analyze before I can arrive at an educated conclusion.

 

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