Playing back my interviews, I realize that there are a lot of spots without any sound. Could it be that my recorder was periodically failing? Nope. The silence indicates things that were said with hand gestures, rather than words.To illustrate my point, here's a random sample from the middle of one interview:
Me: So was he upset?
Interviewee: [Frowns and makes the cosi cosi gesture then shrugs]
Me: [Makes the capisco gesture] Would he have been happier if you had completely assimilated? Became a medigan?
Interviewee: [Laughs as we both "fare la corna" to ward off the malocchio] No, I don't think so.
The dilemna is trying to capture the "true" meaning of this exchange. Putting it all into words, the tone is a little different:
Me: So was he upset?
Interviewee: [Sure, he was a little upset sometimes; other times it didn't bother him. But what could I do about it? You know how it is, how they can be...]
Me: [ You so don't have to tell me!] Would he have been happier if you had completely assimilated? Became a medigan?
Interviewee: [O god forbid! How could you even say that?! What a terrible thing that would have been!] No, I don't think so.
I think I have hit upon the major difficulty that Italian Americans may encounter when simply making an audio recording of their interviews with other Italian Americans. Unless I switch to video, I guess I'm going to lose about half of all of my interviews. [Eh. What are going to do?]
