In Search of Abundance: Mountains of Cheese, Rivers of Wine, and Other Gastronomic Utopias
November 14 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Join the Museo and the Leonardo Da Vinci Society for a presentation of In Search of Abundance: Mountains of Cheese, Rivers of Wine, and Other Gastronomic Utopias by Luisa Del Giudice introduced by Antonella Vitale.. This fascinating book explores the myth of il Paese di Cuccagna (the Land of Cockaigne), a gastronomic utopia that Italian immigrants came to associate with America.
Luisa Del Giudice, Ph.D was born in Italy, emigrated to Canada in 1956, and has lived in Los Angeles since 1981. She is an Independent Scholar, has taught at UCLA, as a Visiting Professor Addis Ababa Univ., Ethiopia, and was Founder-Director of the IOHI – Italian Oral History Institute in Los Angeles. She has published and lectured widely, and is internationally known for her work on Italian and Italian diaspora ethnology, folklore, and oral history, and has produced many public programs in Los Angeles. In her multiple activities as academic, public folklorist, and community activist, she has successfully bridged various roles and audiences. Among her recent publications are: Sabato Rodia’s Towers in Watts: Art, Migrations, Development (Fordham University Press), On Second Thought: Learned Women Reflect on Profession, Community, Purpose (University of Utah University Press); Triangulations Within the Italy-Canada-USA Borderlands (Bordighera Press); Street Music and Narrative Traditions, edited with Sergio Bonanzinga and Thomas A. McKean (Palermo: Museo Pasqualino), La stanza degli specchi. Impegno politico-culturale e diaspora Italiana, edited with Katia Ballacchino (Special issue of journal Voci), and most recently: In Search of Abundance: Mountains of Cheese, Rivers of Wine, and Other Gastronomic Utopias (Bordighera). She has been named an honorary Fellow of the American Folklore Society and Cavaliere by the Italian Republic
