L’Italia Oggi: An Analysis of Bilingual Articles in Attenzione Magazine
The monthly magazine Attenzione circulated throughout the United States in the first half of the 1980s. As a lifestyle magazine, it captured a unique moment in the history of the Italian American community: Italian Americans had reached unprecedented levels of affluence (and cultural integration), while simultaneously maintaining close connections with Italian culture and heritage. In Attenzione, bilingual articles titled “L’Italia Oggi” by Fernanda Parrini catered to this dual reality with topics ranging from fashion to politics and healthcare. The articles appear to have been a later addition, possibly replacing the “Report from Italy” that was a featured “Department” on the table of contents in the magazine’s early years. The magazine was sold in 1982 due to a lack of profitability and many of the original staff resigned with Attenzione’s first publisher, Leda Sanford.
This paper, therefore, attempts to understand the motivations behind including Italian language articles in the magazine’s later years from both the perspective of readership and circulation numbers (Attenzione ceased publication in 1987), and the possibility of shifting interests within the Italian American community. Attenzione was a singular publication not only because of the community it served, but also because of the manner in which it addressed them. By forging genuine connections between Italy and the US, Attenzione seemingly avoided the trap of maintaining tradition. Italian language articles may have been a final attempt at maintaining authenticity as the Italian American community’s relationship to Italy continued to grow and change.
Marcella Martin recently completed her PhD in Italian Studies at New York University with a dissertation titled Curating Italian Modernity: Art, Fashion, and the View from America since 1945. In 2023, she curated the exhibition Made in Italy | Sold in America: Fashion in Attenzione Magazine, 1979–1987. An article on this topic, “Addressing Italian Americans: Fashion in Attenzione Magazine, 1979–1987,” will be published in Italian American Review. Since graduating, she has appeared as a Co-Host on the Italian American Podcast and is currently working on two book projects: the first developing her dissertation into a study of Italian political economy and image creation within a transnational context, and the second exploring the global dynamics of the Made in Italy brand from the perspective of artisanship.
