Bryant's Impact
One of the most prominent and influential writers to come from the Bay Area Italian American literary scene is Dorothy Bryant. A native to the Bay Area and the daughter of Italian immigrants, Bryant's works, which include a plethora of novels and plays, reflect the intersectionality of her Italian American identity and her engagement with broader social justice issues. Her exploration of familial relationships and the pursuit of identity resonates with readers, offering a nuanced portrayal of the Italian American experience. Through Bryant's lens, readers are invited to reflect on their own lives, relationships, and the broader human condition, apart from resonating with Italian origin. Her narratives transcend the limitations of a specific cultural context, making her themes universally relatable while preserving the distinctiveness of the Italian American experience. Ms. Bryant sadly passed away in 2017, but her legacy lives on through the preservation of her works by her daughter, Lorri Ungaretti. I had the privilege of speaking with Ms. Ungaretti, who so graciously provided me insight into Ms. Bryant’s life, the work she created, and how her upbringing as a first-generation immigrant shaped her to be the outspoken and driven writer and educator she was.
Bryant’s parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all born in a small village in Northwest Italy called Balangero, but all ended up immigrating to Silicon Valley at various points of time throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, Bryant and her sister were born in America. According to Ungarreti, Bryant didn’t necessarily embrace her Italian heritage until later in life. “It’s very interesting because my mother’s parents came [to the U.S.] when they were children and raised their children to be American. … My grandparents didn’t have them speak Italian at home; they were kids when they came so they learned English … It wasn’t until my mother was in her 50s, that she decided to go meet the relatives in Italy and she had to take an Italian class because she didn’t speak.” (Ungaretti). Regardless of that feeling of inherent cultural connection, she does credit her unique upbringing to shaping her to be adept with literature, as well as outspoken on social justice issues that faced many in the Bay Area at the time, especially women’s rights, racial injustices, and segregation, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. “She wrote about discovering the [mission branch of the San Francisco Public] library, and that is one memory [I have of her], and that isn’t an Italian thing. She loved books, she loved to read, and when she discovered [the library] it was heaven for her….I can tell you much more about who she was as a woman.… She never communicated [about facing social injustice] with an Italian background, as the mission was primarily Italian and Irish and so that was all around her, but the gender where she did [face injustice]. She was a feminist long before anyone ever thought about those terms, so some of what she wrote down was far ahead of her time and did many things that were extraordinary for that time period” (Ungaretti). Bryant was someone who used her experiences as being a woman in a time where sexism was so prevalent to show empathy to others, fighting for the rights of minority groups, and contributing to an overall more inclusive society.