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Carol Lynn McKibben, Beyond Cannery Row: Sicilian Women, Immigration, and Community in Monterey, California, 1915–99 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press 2006)

CAROL MCKIBBEN's monograph tells the story of a specific group of Italian immigrants from three villages in the northwestern coast of Sicily who settled in Monterey, California, between 1915 and 1928. Her interest in this particular group derives from both her scholarly focus on immigration and her Sicilian background and desire "to understand what being Sicilian meant, and why it seemed so powerful." ( 9)

Using community studies and oral history as primary modes of investigation, McKibben's work adds to a steady stream of books on Italian immigration published in recent years, contributing particularly to the literature of Italian settlements in the west and gender analysis. Her story, however, differs from other accounts in one regard: her protagonists are neither peasants nor factory or seasonal labourers, as were the majority of Italians who settled in the United States. Instead they are fishers. They fished for their livelihood in Sicily and continued to identify themselves as fishers in California as well.

According to McKibben's research, the first Sicilian fishers came to Monterey before World War I, but the majority arrived between 1920 and 1930, when California's economy seemed to explode. The census listed 972 Italians living in Monterey in 1920. By 1940, they had grown to 3,000, constituting one-third of the total population. (17–18) Like other Italian immigrants, they came to California through migration and family networks, often landing in Monterey by way of other American cities such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Francisco, or New York.

To Sicilian fishers, Monterey was an ideal destination. It bore a striking resemblance to their native villages in climate, coastline, and landscape. But unlike Sicily where fish had become scarce by 1900, sardines and salmon were profuse in Monterey. Word had it that "the fish were so plentiful" that they "are coming into the houses." ( 16) Seizing the commercial opportunities that Monterey fishing offered, some Sicilians also purchased boats and canneries, quickly gaining a foothold in the town's economy.

McKibben argues that fishing gave the Italian community in Monterey a character and culture of its own. For Sicilians, she explains, "fishing in Monterey became a 'way of life,' a part of who they were, not merely an occupation."( 6) Fishing entailed great communal effort and solidarity, and Monterey Sicilians established widespread family and kin networks. They relied on each other for support and aid with childcare, food, and work; they promoted marriages between Sicilians of the same villages; and they organized feasts that strengthened cultural and social ties among themselves and to their homeland. In doing so, argues McKibben, they created a distinct, insular community, recalling and reinventing "their identity in a powerful way that fused ethnicity with fishing, and with Monterey itself." (1)

McKibben maintains that women played a leading role in building this community and ethnic identity. They made important decisions about migration and settlement; they contributed to the work of fishing and fish processing; they promoted kinship through countless visits to relatives and fellow Sicilians; and they arranged social and religious gatherings, such as the rosary groups, which helped promote and preserve Sicilian values and culture.

Indeed, as recent scholarship on gender and migration has made clear, Italian immigrant women were far from invisible, passive, or silent. A recent collection of essays edited by Donna Gabaccia and Franca Iacovetta, among others, shows for example that Italian immigrant women played an important role in local labour struggles and in building and sustaining the networks of working-class solidarity and political consciousness.

The women in McKibben's book, however, are far from revolutionary or politically active. They fit indeed a much more traditional profile of Italian immigrant women: conservative, religious, anti-union, overly concerned with family and their insular community. At the same time, however, they defy traditional stereotypes of submissive, docile, and reticent southern Italian wives. McKibben shows that Monterey Sicilian women not only controlled the domestic sphere, but also made important social and economic decisions.

For example, the majority of Sicilian women in Monterey worked in the sardine canneries. "Good" Italian women were expected to stay home but Sicilian Monterey wives challenged conventional perceptions of decorum and honour, insisting that "their work was both necessary and respectable." ( 49) Resisting their husbands' objections to their workforce participation, they pointed out that they needed to work for the good of the family. Indeed they were proud of contributing to the finances of their households and "felt that their labor was integral to the labor of the fishermen." (36)

Monterey Sicilian women proved also to be great entrepreneurs, using their extra wages to invest in real estate and the fishing industry as a means to access middle-class status. According to McKibben, largely thanks to the initiatives of their women, by 1951 Sicilians owned "fully one-third of Monterey's homes and small businesses." (55)

As Mike Maiorana, one of McKibben's interviewees, succinctly put it, the Sicilian woman was "the brain of the family;" she "made all the decisions" and really dominated the home. ( 20) Female power in Monterey, however, was more a result of fishing life than women's own struggle for liberation. Fishermen went to the sea for extended periods of time leaving their women to fend for themselves. In the absence of men, women were expected to make all kind of decisions and were held accountable for them. As a result they developed a strong sense of independence and determination, which they used to shape the economic and social affairs of their home and community.

World War II marked a turning point for the Monterey Sicilian community and Italian Americans at large. American entry into the war forced Italians in the United States to confront their ethnic identity and ultimately redefine themselves as American citizens. Labeled "enemy aliens," about 1,400 Italians were forced to move out of Monterey. (84) Even though they resented the humiliation of being identified as a national threat, Sicilians responded to evacuation orders with compliance and stoicism. They also tried to redeem their image by making public displays of their loyalty, giving generous donations to the war effort, joining the army, and, above all, struggling to acquire citizenship and blend into mainstream American culture.

A case in point of this transformation is the celebration of the festa of Santa Rosalia, the Sicilian patron saint of fishing. Initially meant to bring the Sicilian fishing community together and cherish native religious values and traditions, after World War II Santa Rosalia became a political feast. Whereas it was originally modest and exclusive, it became ostentatious and inclusive. As McKibben points out, it "began to look more like an American-style parade," celebrating Italian pride rather than Sicilian culture.

In this respect, the story of Sicilian fishers in Monterey is neither unique nor distinct, but rather echoes the experiences of other Italian immigrants. It is a "success" story of assimilation and upward mobility, but also a story of cultural and ethnic loss. Contrary to what McKibben argues, Sicilian fishers stopped seeing themselves as fisherpeople after they achieved middle-class status, just as Italian factory workers stopped being radical when they entered white-collar and professional jobs. After all, as the book indicates, they chose not to relocate to other fishing towns after sardines disappeared in Monterey in the 1960s. What they retained was just a sense of nostalgia for their homeland, a longing for a culture uncorrupted by materialistic concerns – genuine, simple, and communitarian.

While McKibben makes a convincing case for female power, she also underestimates the role that class plays in affecting identity. Even though she acknowledges that "class differences divided Sicilians as much as ethnicity and fishing united them," (121) she fails to explore the implications of class conflict on the process of ethnicization.

The anecdotes emerging from the oral interviews are fascinating. However, the story of Monterey Sicilians could have been enriched by other sources, such as local Italian language newspapers and immigrant literature and texts, allowing for a more complex picture of immigrant and community life.

These criticisms notwithstanding, Beyond Cannery Row is a significant contribution to the study and understanding of the processes of migration and settlement, and a compelling reminder of the crucial role of gender in shaping them.


MARCELLA BENCIVENNI Hostos Community College, City University of New York

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