English 111

The Inner Works of the Irish American Culture: South Boston

Cloe Bowery
1/29/08
English 111
First draft

The infamous South Boston is known for mobs, drugs, racist actions, and most of all the Irish. There have been books written and movies made to portray the crime rate in Southie.  The advice that I was given when I first moved to Boston was “whatever you do, do not go near Southie, it’s a really bad area to get stuck in.” Ever since then I have always wondered, “is it really that bad of an area? Will something really go wrong if I stepped foot in that neighborhood.” I am interviewing my roommate whose family was brought up in Southie as well as herself. She goes back and visits as much as she can to keep in tact with her Irish background. As I interview Shawnna Smith i want to get an inside look on what the average Irish American thinks of how people portray the Irish in South Boston and the Irish in general. I want to know if it offends her that her home away from home is being portrayed as the “ghetto” of Boston.  I also want to find out her take on the typical “Irish stereotype,” if she is offended and why.  South Boston may be seen as a bad place to live in, but is it only because we are looking in and judging it as outsiders?

I sat down with Shawnna Smith my roommate at Wheelock College to find out what really goes down in Southie, to see if the rumors of the crime rates are true also to see her outlook on the common stereotypes of the Irish. Her tone of the interview is very important to me because I will be able to determine if some of the questions are touchy subjects.

Cloe: Shawnna, being an insider of Southie, do you think South Boston is portrayed as bad of a neighborhood then it really is?

Shawnna: Yes and no. I think it has a stigma to it. There are positive aspects and negative aspects of it also. Historically South Boston has always had a close nit community. They have always stuck together. There is a common knowledge of this idea of Southie against the rest of Boston. Southie has been looked down upon for years because of the single parents living there, the low socio economic class, the teen pregnancy rate has gone up, and well known Whitey Bulger impacted South Boston the most in both negative ways and positive ways depending how you look at it. Also Southie is known for being very racist and prejudice in the past. There were bus riots because they wanted to move the black kids into the white Irish school system but the parents did not want that at all mainly because that was the era that Whitey Bulger was running Southie. Now more yuppies are coming into Boston because now Whitey Bulger has no say in who lives in Boston.

Cloe: I didn’t know Bulger had such an impact on the whole South Boston community. Speaking of Whitey Bulger, I know you have read the books and have watched The Departed, The Boondocks Saints and all the movies that carry on the rumor of crime in South Boston. Do you think they are framing the real South Boston? The rumors they continue to spread, are they true?

Shawnna: Oh very much so. These issues have to been confronted. These movies and these books, you know, they depict and tell what was really going on and there was a high crime rates and drug abuse. They tell the stories how they really happened. I think these issues from the passed should be acknowledged and should be expressed. They shouldn’t be swept under the rug and ignored and has gotten better in recent years. The Departed was based on Whitey Bulger and how he influenced Southie either in a good way or bad depending on how you look at it. These books like the Black Mass, All Souls etc, have been written by tough guys who have just gotten out of jail and who were ultimately affected by the crime in South Boston. They wanted to justify themselves by telling their own story of what happened to them.

Cloe: What do you think about the drinking stereotype of the Irish? Do you believe in it? Do they offend you?

Shawnna: Yes and no. Irish people like to drink, you know. We don’t think of it as a negative thing. People might joke about it and make fun of it but the Irish are very light hearted and a very sarcastic people. We like to poke fun at ourselves and we don’t think of it as every Irish person is a raging alcoholic because we aren’t. But that’s the stereotype that was put on us and we aren’t going to sit there and cry about it, we join in and make a joke and to not get too serious about it. Everyone culture has a stereotype; we just choose to embrace ours. Life is too short to sit around wondering why people say they do, no sense in getting upset.

Cloe: If you were to give me one insider detail on South Boston to justify your native town, what would it be?

Shawnna: I would say, yeah Southie has had many low points in the past mainly because of Whitey Bulger but since he left, South Boston is trying to make a turn around so it’s a safer place to live. So its not perceived that its always going to be the way it was. South Boston will have its history, no doubt but so does any area in any town. We just have to recognize it and move on from there.

Shawnna really had a lot to say about this subject. She informed me a lot about the past of South Boston that I had no idea about. She defiantly had a very open look to it seeing that it is indeed a hard neighborhood to live in but she still has hope for the present and the future. Shawnna truly showed her expertise in the Irish culture and didn’t hold back anything. South Boston may always be perceived as a bad neighborhood but its people like her that is willing to make a change yet still have the close nit relationship with her fellow Irish. Although she comes from a very strong willed background she defiantly doesn’t share the same characteristics. The Irish have come a long way to where they are now and they couldn’t have done that with out a good heart and a good mind.

As for South Boston, I believe the town can really get on the right track and put the crime and hatred behind. South Boston will always go down in history for its Irish American culture but it’s the future that will keep the past in the past.

About the paper…
After things with this paper, I had trouble of describing how Shawnnas reactions were to the questions. I didn’t know where to put in what to make it flow nicely. Also this isn’t as long as I hoped for but I still want to ad a paragraph or two describing Southie from my own eyes like I said I would. I haven’t gotten the chance to do so but I feel like that would be a really big improvement on this paper. I’m just testing out the waters right now because I have never written a interview paper before and I don’t know how to make it flow the way it should. Also I was thinking of adding more history to it but structure is my worst problem and it goes along with the flow of the paper. I got stuck in a few areas and tried to play it off. Next draft I can see this paper really outlining a story for South Boston right now I’m putting out the important details now.

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From Portugal to America

Jennifer Devanna
January 30, 2009
English 111

Many people might think that foreigners came to America because it was by choice; that they dreamed of coming here. In many cases that is the actual idea. But it is not always the case. Maria, my mother-in-law, came to America because she was forced to. She was fourteen years old and loved her country, Portugal. The school she attended was an academy and it was the most depressing thing for her to walk away from. It was her family outside of her family and her most prized memories of growing up. She attended the academy since she was a baby and was finally old enough to start caring for the young ones.

Her mother had gone to America along with other family members in for a better life. When they finally realized what America had to offer, she immediately demanded her daughter, Maria, . Assuming she would most likely come back,  left for America on November 21, 1978. “It was like a zoo to me. I hated it. I never even liked it.” Maria said trying to explain her first emotions when entering America. She had come to Cambridge, Massachusetts to reside with her family.

Maria wasn’t too crazy about coming to America to stay with her mother and fifteen other siblings. Portuguese families are very large and women do not hold a mother-daughter bond that many Americans can talk about. They don’t show much affection towards one another. (I want to find out why her mother wasn’t affectionate.)

Learning English isn’t an easy language to learn, nor is any other language other than one’s first. Maria slowly learned English by just picking up on it in conversations. She thought she knew everything, until her first day of school came. Her teacher had asked her what her name was, “Portland Street.” She replied back. He was confused and asked again her name, but again she replied with her street. He started to ask her where she lived and replied, “Maria.” She said she felt like she was flipped upside down and thought that she knew everything. It wasn’t until her son, Steve, was three months old that she started to learn English more. Steve had seizures at a baby (three months) and it was then that she realized she needed to learn English to understand the doctors more. It felt like a wake up call in America for her to finally learn English.

“I remember my first day in American and will never forget it. It was the day I met Manny (her husband). He was wearing a white shirt and red shorts and I saw him from across the room.” It was really difficult for Maria because everyone around her spoke English and she couldn’t. The only thing she could say to Manny in English was a simple ‘hi’ and nothing more. Manny was Portuguese as well, but for some reason he just made her speechless.  That was until later on that day he called her house to speak to her.

In the Portuguese culture, it is known that a boy must ask either the father or mother for permission to date their daughter. If not, then… (I want to ask what happens if they do not ask). It was on December 31, 1978 that many asked Maria’s mother for permission to date her daughter. Permission was then granted and they married five years later on April 23, 1983.

It didn’t seem easy to be Portuguese and dating that long. They were not allowed to hold hands, kiss, or have premarital sex. Someone was to stay with both of them at all times in order to make sure they do not take part in any of these activities. If they went somewhere simple, such as the mall, they were not to even stand close to each other because it could be a sigh of holding hands. They always had to keep their distant. “When I went to see her I had to leave the house by seven at night and six on Sundays.” Manny explained.

If Manny wanted to go and see Maria at her home, they had to ‘window talk.’ Manny was to stand below her window and yell up to her for all to hear. This allowed others to hear their conversation so Maria’s parents can know what they speak of. There is no privacy allowed because it could mean that something could be going on that should not. It is said that if a woman has premarital sex, then she would be punished for all to see in her wedding. She would not be able to walk down the isle in white, but rather beige.

If one is to get caught kissing or just holding hands, then it was said that they would get a beaten up. “There was one day that I was home with Manny sitting on the couch. My sister was watching us and wasn’t feeling good. So she had to keep running to the bathroom.” Maria began to chuckle and tell, “When she finally ran to the bathroom Manny said to me ‘Maria… there is something there on your face.’ He leaned forward as I asked what and as my sister came walking out of the bathroom he said ‘there’ and kissed me right on my lips.” A year into the relationship was the first time they ever kissed and they got caught. Her sister kept saying how she is going to tell her mother when she gets home, but Maria begged her not to tell because she thought her mother would kill her. From a simple peck, Maria picked up her sisters choirs for two months straight. Luckily her mother never caught on, but she was caught.

Portuguese girls are not even allowed to wear make-up. Again, Maria rebelled against her mother wishes. When she got to school, she would apply makeup on in the bathroom before class and remove it before she left school. Her mother would pick her up everyday from high school, just to keep an eye on her. There was one day that Maria forgot to remove the make-up and her mother picked her up. “I got smacked all the way from my high school ‘til my house.” Said Maria explaining how strict her mother was.

“I was so stupid,” Maria stated, “I thought my mother would never go through my things. And in my pocket book I kept a pack of cigarettes.” Portuguese teenagers were not allowed to smoke. When the parents found out, it was like the end of the world. Maria had disobeyed her mother by smoking. But Maria did  take the blame just yet; she told her mother it was her friends. So off they traveled right then and there to her friend’s house to tell her friend’s mother. Maria says that just because she involved her friend, her mother didn’t kill her.

Maria started to work in America as soon as she could, but never once seen a penny from her paycheck. It is in the Portuguese culture that a child living under the roof of their parents must hand their check directly over to their parents. “I worked two jobs and my mother took all my money. I never even seen one penny I make.” The Portuguese believe that it is a way of showing their children to save their money. Maria also took her son’s paychecks away from him when he first started his job. However, unlike her mother, Maria put his checks inside of a savings account and gave him the booklet when he turned eighteen.

“It’s different here in America from Portugal. In Portugal we work for our selves. We work at home just for our selves, but here in America we work for other people and they give us money to use for ourselves.” It isn’t the same in Portugal as in America. They don’t work for money as a living, but rather they work for a living by working alone. Portuguese families work together and unite as one with one another.

Coming to America isn’t always dreams come true, sometimes not a dream at all. People love and take pride in their countries, but are sometimes forced to come to America for a better life style. It isn’t easy to learn English and adapt to the ‘American way’, but that doesn’t mean that when you come to America you need to leave your culture in your country. America is a free country and you can bring all your dreams here.

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