This could be related to the fact that Italians use their hands when speaking.
Religion:.
Italians and Italian-Americans are devout Catholics. In the Catholic religion, much emphasis is placed on the saints and on the Virgin Mary. The Catholic religion is very strict in its beliefs as well as in its structure of the mass, or church service. Unlike many other religions, Catholics receive communion every week, bless themselves with holy water and before and after they pray, kneel while praying, have confession, and sometimes pray to the Virgin Mary or a particular saint. .
The Italian immigrants came to influence American society, especially in when it came to religion. The Catholic faith increased as Italians, Poles, Hungarians and Slovaks joined together religiously. Such large numbers of Catholic believers greatly impacted the American society of the 1900s. Even today, the Catholic religion has a great impact on American life. Even so, the Catholic faith has adjusted to the United States. As time passed, it became more and more common to use English in the churches, even though services were supposed to be performed in Latin. The Italians largely resented this Irish-dominated American Catholic Church. As a result, they formed their own parishes and built their own churches (DePaola, 2001, para. 2).
Stereotypes- Food and the Mob:.
There are two major stereotypes of Italian-Americans that exist in society today. One of these stereotypes is true, the other is false. The first stereotype is that Italians love food this is true! Italian-American cookbooks are possibly the most popular Italian-American literature sources to be found. "Some argue that cookbooks offer unique insight into the Italian-American experience. The women who [usually] write these books are telling their stories through their recipes, through their food" (Rotella, 2002).
Food is strongly linked with family life. Mealtime is a time to socialize and spend time with family and loved ones.
