POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS

Potentially Dangerous

Followed by Q&A with filmmaker Zach Baliva

Q&A moderated by Evelyn Ferraro, Assistant Professor of Italian Studies at Santa Clara University

With the participation of Luca Signore, SCU Alumnus and History teacher at Lynbrook High School

About Potentially Dangerous

During World War II, the U.S Government restricted the actions and freedoms of 600,000 Italian residents of the United States. All were declared “Enemy Aliens,” and many were placed under curfew, banned from their workplaces, evacuated from their homes and communities, and even placed in internment camps.

Many of these people had been in the United States for decades, had children born in their adopted country, and had sons serving in the U.S. Military.

During that era, Italians made up the biggest foreign-born group in the country. As the Department of Justice would later say, “The impact of the wartime experience was devastating to the Italian American communities in the United States, and its effects are still being felt.”

Interned Italians were not charged with a crime or allowed legal representation. They were subjected to “loyalty hearings” and held for the duration of the war. The United States government considered them “Potentially Dangerous” not based on anything they had done, but on where they were born.

Most Italians refused to speak about what happened to them. Even 80 years later, many have remained silent. Until now. Hear their stories for the first time in Potentially Dangerous.

Sponsored by:

Sponsored by the Depts of Modern Languages & Literatures, History, Sociology; Dr. Victor and Julia Botto Vari Italian Studies Initiative; Center for Arts & Humanities; da Vinci RLC, Office for Multicultural Learning; SCU Library

Free