La Mamma: Italian Mothers Past and Present

Donne in the Vineyards: Italian‐American Women in the California Wine Industry

“…As many scholars have pointed out, the cultural construction of the mamma italiana model, while tracing its roots back to previous centuries, was consolidated after the Second World War and constituted a particularly relevant stereotype which is still very much present today in representations of the Italian and Italian-American family and womanhood. 49 According to Colleen L. Johnson, the mother represented for Italian-Americans the 'centre or heart of the family: without her, the family would cease to exist', and as such her figure was the object of a real veneration, defined as motherholotry, 'because of the special status she maintains in her children's lives'. 50 The repercussions of such a vision, even free from its more caricatural aspects, were also documented in the attitude towards Italian-American women within the wine industry.…”