‘Potentially Dangerous’ an eye-opening look at treatment of immigrants
Did you know that 600,000 plus Italians and Italian-Americans, many of them living in the United States for decades, were declared “enemy aliens” during World War II, had their movements limited, were “relocated,” banned from their workplace, placed under curfew, required to carry special identification and that some were even detained in internment camps?
You probably did not or knew only vaguely, even if, like me, you are ItalianAmerican.
The story told by Zach Baliva’s eye-opening documentary “Potentially Dangerous” is truly shocking. The film is part of today’s lineup at the 2022 Boston International Film Festival at the Majestic 7 in Watertown, beginning at noon.
Imagine being forced by the government of the country that has been your home for decades to close your market, which is your family’s source of livelihood, because it is within a socalled “prohibited zone.” Many have chosen to forgive and forget what happened to their families during this dark time in American history. But some, such as the people Baliva gets to speak on camera, have not.
According to a 2010 story in the Mercury News, Italian-American fishermen in Monterey, Calif., “lost their boats and were forced to board up their homes and had to evacuate inland.” Opera singer Ezio Pinza was accused of communicating with Mussolini using modulations in his singing voice.
Many of us know the story of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Fewer of us know that some ItalianAmericans and GermanAmericans suffered similar treatment.
According to Baliva and his witnesses, including Anthony Rosati and the daughter of Nicola De Luca, this treatment created a sense of fear and shame among Italian-American
families, causing them subsequently not to teach their children to speak Italian in the misguided hopes of making them “more American.” I know firsthand about that terrible and misguided mistake.
The 600,000 who were
declared enemy aliens were Italian-Americans who had lived in the United States, in some cases for decades, without completing the “naturalization” process to become American citizens. But they were home owners and business owners and a
part of the largest immigrant community in the U.S., and they suddenly found themselves visited by the police and the FBI.
Many were carted away and taken into custody without being charged with a crime. They were forced to prove their loyalty (How?) and that they were not “potentially dangerous” before a judge. Some blamed themselves for what happened. Some even committed suicide while in custody. About 250 people were interned for up to two years in “War Relocation Authority” camps in Texas, Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee. All enemy aliens were required to surrender their cameras, shortwave radios and firearms. Many had close relatives serving in the U.S. military.
Baliva has assembled stock footage, along with present-day interviews with survivors and minimalist reenactments. He directs us to “Una Storia Segreta: When Italian Americans Were ‘Enemy Aliens,’ ” a 1994 exhibit at the Museo ItaloAmericano in San Francisco.
In 2001, the U.S. The Attorney General released a report of treatment by the U.S. Government of ItalianAmericans during World War II. “Potentially Dangerous,” a cultural and historical artifact that was funded by Kickstarter and a grant from Joe and Anthony Russo of “Avengers” fame, puts names and faces on it.
(“Potentially Dangerous” contains mature themes.)