Afro-American Soldiers and Italian Women during WWII: from Racial Laws to Interracial Marriages

Women's participation in Second World War was expressed also in the ancient topos of the encounter with soldiers, an encounter almost inevitable. The conflict created a favorable situation for relationships and during this period – in Italy and all over Europe – many women, most of which had never left the towns where they were born and grew up, had the opportunity to meet “the other”, the stranger, sometimes even the exotic. Hanging out with American soldiers often meant to dare, to explore a completely unknown world, to access unacceptable pleasures (or dangers), according to social codes and traditions of their communities. Often those who dated American soldiers did it out of the parental control, challenging relatives, claiming their independence. “Ambivalence”: here is the word able to describe the relationships between Italians and Americans in this difficult period of war, occupation and liberation. Mixed feelings, torn among sympathy, gratitude, opportunism and fear of being judged: it was hard, for a small Italian community, to conceive the familiarity of its members with foreign soldiers. A bit of sugar and few cigarettes, shirts, soap and blankets too often represented "the price" at which it seemed they could sell their women and everybody honor. To further complicate the relationships between US citizens and Italian girls during WWII we have to add the event that the couple belonged to different ethnic groups. The Racial laws promulgated in Italy under Fascism had posed serious impediments to mixed unions. With the end of the War, all instructions issued by the regime for the defense of the race forfeited: interracial marriages could be celebrated and were deemed valid. Not so in twenty-nine American States where segregation laws were in force: marriages contracted in Italy could not be considered legal in United States. But it was not just a “plain” bureaucratic matter. The whole situation was also strictly connected with suspicion and prejudice. In the chronicles, relations with black soldiers were often described as “contaminated", morbid, and it was almost inevitable that they had the focus of attention and became a source of tensions. How the Afro-American soldiers were perceived by the Italians? Simply “American soldiers” – even if with a darker complexion – or too different to be acceptable? And Italian women would have been able to manage not just cultural differences, but even ethnical ones? Not all interracial love stories had an happy ending, as well as many relationships with white American soldiers, but the "real difference" was probably made by the result of these unions: children who, because the color of their skin, were particularly "visible." A child born out of wedlock – branded as “illegitimate” or “bastard” – was a shame, but a black and illegitimate child could become a real tragedy.