The opportunity to respond? Not with JLS.

Apparently, the people at the Journal of Lesbian Studies feel that they can’t be sued for what was said about me in Mazzucchelli’s article and that’s all they care about. They didn’t even offer to let me claim my own identity by writing a response. I guess they thought it would be too embarrassing for them.

 

And who said anything about suing? I just don’t like being invented. I don’t like being misrepresented in Mazzucchelli’s lie-infested article.

 

But if these people don’t care about how I feel, they should at least care about whether or not the articles they print make sense, whether or not what they print stands up, whether or not what they print is logical, thoughtful and insightful. Mazzucchelli’s article is none of these things and makes their journal look as though it’s put out by a bunch of ignorant little girls who want to play at being academics.

 

I don’t have an official opinion of JLS. I only read this one article and I didn’t even know the magazine existed until a friend sent me the article. But the above is the impression I get from this one article and also the e-mails they sent me. In one of these e-mails, one of them says that the matter has to be discussed “to” the director. Give me a break. Learn English before you start working for an English-language magazine. Mazzucchelli herself uses a plural verb with the noun ‘news.’ If she reads enough to be a college professor, she should know by now that ‘news’ is used with a singular verb. We say ‘the new is,’ Mazzucchelli, not ‘the news are.’

 

This essay is more about me than my poetry. She only used my poetry to invent me. Mazzucchelli wrote what you could call a mini-biography of me without even checking her facts. She just made up stuff to suit her own ideas, her own stereotypes, her own prejudices.

 

She says: “Rose Romano’s work needs to be inscribed in the complex historical and cultural climate of her time...”

Of my time? Did I die? But maybe the use of this expression is just another result of Mazzucchelli’s limitations in English.

 

She says: “Romano’s poetry celebrates pride in her lesbian identity, but it also explores the difficulties engendered by her sexuality.”

 

And then: “In fact, Romano’s poetic project particularly focuses on the difficulties engendered by her sexuality.”

 

I try to be as precise as I can. I have fourteen dictionaries. Difficulties are not engendered by any oppressed group. Difficulties are engendered by the oppressors. I do not accept the blame for my own oppression. You might as well go ahead and say that Afro-Americans cause racism and the Jews are responsible for the Holocaust. Where is the logic in that? Where is the sanity in that? If you try to resolve a problem, and you go looking for it in the wrong place, you’re never going to resolve it.

 

She says: “Romano’s first collection of poems Vendetta is also dedicated to her daughter, with a bitter-sweet explanation that leaves no room for doubt as to the poet’s degree of awareness of the familial expectations of Italian-American culture: ‘to Megan, my daughter, / for proving I can do what’s necessary.’ ”

 

‘Also?’ Without a referent, that word means very little. ‘...bitter-sweet’? ‘familial expectations of Italian-American culture’?

 

My dedication was not bitter-sweet. It was intended, like all dedications, to show gratitude. The complete dedication is:

“To Emilia, my grandmother,

for showing me it’s good to be Italian [notice it doesn’t say ‘Sicilian’];

to Beatrice, my mother,

for teaching me to write my name;

to Megan, my daughter, for proving I can do what’s necessary.”

I dedicated my first book to these three women because they each gave me something very important. I raised my daughter completely on my own, with no help from my ex-husband or my family, and when I saw her growing up, not only normal, but strong and able (which is what the word ‘Megan’ means), I was damned proud of myself.

 

Taking seriously the raising of your children is something normal parents do in all cultures. It’s considered a joyful responsibility. Raising your children is not a dreary chore. I’ve known people who think it’s the most important job in the world—and some of them weren’t even Italian.

 

She says: “Adrienne Rich’s famous formulation—the ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ of her community, as proved by her marriage.”

 

I don’t know what ‘compulsory heterosexuality’ means. I was completely oblivious to my sexuality when I married my husband. I married him because I loved him and, because I thought I was straight, I thought the relationship meant marriage, sex, the whole kit and caboodle (Look it up, Mazzucchelli).

 

In any case, an act (marriage) cannot prove a feeling (lesbianism). Reality doesn’t work that way. This is just another example of Mazzucchelli’s limited ability to think things through.

 

She says: “However, Rose Romano’s relationship with the multicultural lesbian community was fraught with difficulties and conflicting feelings. The issues were mainly about her notion of Sicilian Americanness...”

 

I don’t have a notion of Sicilian Americanness. I don’t have a clue about Sicilian-Americanness.

 

I am Neapolitan. I was raised by my Neapolitan grandmother. I grew up surrounded by my Neapolitan family. Like any child, I wanted to be like my family. Mazzucchelli should be aware that children want to be like their family, many of them even when they get into their teens. What planet is this woman from?

 

She says: “Because of all the above reasons, the process of identity construction in Romano’s poetry involves the recovery of her Sicilian heritage.”

 

Where does she get this crap from? I have no Sicilian heritage to recover. This is something she made up in her own head.

 

If Mazzucchelli knew as much about Sicilian-American literature as she wants people to think she does, she would be aware that there is a Sicilian-American writer who identifies very strongly as Sicilian, in spite of the fact that she’s half Northern. Lots of people are aware of this writer. She’s also a lesbian, which means that, if Mazzucchelli had included her instead of me, she wouldn’t even have lost any points towards the gay vote and could have gotten an article about her in JLS.

 

But even if Mazzucchelli is that ignorant of her own field, it would be easy to find this woman on the internet. Go to yahoo or google and search for ‘Sicilian-American lesbian writer.’

 

Let me reiterate: I am Neapolitan and if you don’t like it, tough shit.