Filippo Salvatore is the author of a play called La Fresque de Mussolini, the fresco in question being one painted on the vault of the Montreal church, Madonna della Difesa, showing Mussolini on horseback surrounded by his supporters. To learn more about the relation between Mussolini's fascism and the Italian community in Montreal, Salvatore conducted interviews with thirteen people, among them Hugh MacLennan, Maurice Riel, and John Ciaccia. Several events, such as the erection of a statue to Giovanni Caboto, are used as reference points, but the central event occurred immediately after Italy's declaration of war on the Allies: some 700 Italian men (whose names had been furnished by paid informers) were arrested as fascists and interned in camps at Petawawa and Fredericton. Those not arrested were registered as "enemy aliens" and suffered significant hardship because of it.
Throughout the 20's and 30's, the parishes had served as propaganda outlets for fascism. Parishioners were encouraged to see in Mussolini's rise the renewal of Italy itself. This identification of fascism with italianità was furthered by the Italian government through its consulate: emigrants were now to be known as "overseas Italians", constituting "a Nation outside of the Nation". The majority, then, were simply misled and were far from being committed, let alone dangerous, fascists.
"I would like to speak about your memories; it doesn't matter if they are accurate." Thus the tone is set with the very first interview. These eleven men and two women may not remember everything clearly (some were too young at the time); nor do they always want to go where Salvatore directs them. A few accounts flatly contradict each other. The interviewer's preoccupations are easily detected in his questions. Some of the interviewed are intent upon constructing their own memorial. And so forth. In general, though, such imperfections are the grain of "oral history", the best of which communicates a sense of shared experience, however varied may be the perspectives taken. In this respect Fascism and the Italians of Montreal is quite successful.
I found Salvatore's introduction instructive but made too long by its many quotations from the interviews that follow. Preferrable would have been a strictly factual introduction, giving little more than the history of the period and postponing any summary or synthesis of the interviews for an afterword (an afterword that would not leave me wondering whether the federal charter referred to on p. 191 is the same as the one referred to on p. 211 and if so, which of the two sums-$20,000 or $600-was the true cost). I would also like to have seen a concise biography of each participant at the beginning of his or her interview, especially as several of them are relatively unknown.
These are mere quibbles to set beside Filippo Salvatore's obvious accomplishment in recording, on occasion with great difficulty, voices that would otherwise have been lost to us. He has contributed in no small part to the history of both Montreal and its "Italianese" population.
Bernard Kelly
