The Price of Children
Maria Laurino
Author and journalist
From journalist for the Village Voice to bestselling author on the Italian-American experience, Maria Laurino has had a fascinating writing career. We talk with Maria about her latest book—an expose about how thousands of children were taken from unwed mothers in Italy and sent to America for adoption as “war orphans” in a program run by the Vatican.
INTERVIEWED ON: August 21st, 2024
Books discussed:
The Price of Children
A powerful church. An acquiescent government. In The Price of Children, investigative journalist Maria Laurino details the shocking story of mothers and children deceived and exploited as directed by the highest levels of the Vatican.
Were You Always an Italian?
Maria Laurino sifts through the stereotypes bedeviling Italian Americans to deliver a penetrating and hilarious examination of third-generation ethnic identity. With "intelligence and honesty" (Arizona Republic), she writes about guidos, bimbettes, and mammoni (mama's boys in Italy); examines the clashing aesthetics of Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace; and unravels the etymology of southern Italian dialect words like gavone and bubidabetz. According to Frances Mayes, she navigates the conflicting forces of ethnicity "with humor and wisdom."
Old World Daughter, New World Mother
In the second-generation immigrant home where Maria Laurino grew up, “independent” was a dirty word and “sacrifice” was the ideal and reality of motherhood. But out in the world, Mary Tyler Moore was throwing her hat in the air, personifying the excitement and opportunities of the freedom loving American career woman. How, then, to reconcile one’s inner Livia Soprano—the archetypal ethnic mother—with a feminist icon?
