Latest / Drawn of History / Cristina Mariani on Growing Up in Italy... and Stockton(M4A_128K)

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Cristina Mariani on Growing Up in Italy... and Stockton(M4A_128K) · Drawn of History

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  Speaker 1: You grew up in Stockton. Take me just so our
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  Speaker 1: audience knows, because some of our audience knows you. A
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  Speaker 1: lot of it does, but some of them might not.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And so take me through a little bit of that,
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  Speaker 1: if you don't mind.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so I was born in Lodi, California, but just
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  Speaker 2: born there. Then I lived in Stockton until I was
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  Speaker 2: like four or five, and then I moved to Italy,
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  Speaker 2: and then I moved back after a few years. I
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  Speaker 2: moved back when I was 11.
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  Speaker 1: And do you remember being Italian over there?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, totally.
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  Speaker 1: Really? Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, six through 11, you remember things, you know?
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  Speaker 1: Oh, wow, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And the Romans, are they Romans?
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  Speaker 2: Some of them. Not all of them. The ones in
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  Speaker 2: Rome are Romans. And then the ones in Tuscany are
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  Speaker 2: just Italians, you know?
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  Speaker 1: And how was it like being an Italian child?
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  Speaker 2: Um, you know, the kids are a lot more brutal
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  Speaker 2: in Italy. They're like wild animals. They'll just like beat
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  Speaker 2: you up, you know, here in America, they're like mean
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  Speaker 2: with their words, you know, and like, they're more psychological
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  Speaker 2: about it. But in Italy, they just are mean or
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  Speaker 2: they just beat the shit out of you.
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  Speaker 1: Really?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I remember when I first moved there, me and
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  Speaker 2: my sister went to a birthday party and I think
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  Speaker 2: cause we, you know, we're new. Um, all the kids
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  Speaker 2: started chasing us around and trying to beat the shit
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  Speaker 2: out of us. And at first we thought it was
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  Speaker 2: like hide and seek or like tag, like a kid game.
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  Speaker 2: And then we were just hiding. Like we were like
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  Speaker 2: really got really good at hide and seek. We were
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  Speaker 2: hiding under the table. We were calling our mom, like,
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  Speaker 2: please come get us. But like an Italian, cause it
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  Speaker 2: was in Italy, you know? Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But, um, so there was a level of like, So
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  Speaker 1: they got the Italians. Well, they're very handsy. Well, that's
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  Speaker 1: the thing. So I guess it goes like even if
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  Speaker 1: it's violence or love or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: That's true. Yeah, I guess so.
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  Speaker 1: They're very gesticular. You know, they use their hands when
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  Speaker 1: they talk.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally.
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  Speaker 1: And when they, I guess, do violence or whatever.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Did it feel romantic? Do you think people romanticize? Like,
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  Speaker 1: do you ever romanticize? Getting beat up?
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  Speaker 2: All the time.
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  Speaker 1: You mean like getting beat up the musical?
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  Speaker 2: Getting beat up the musical. My childhood in Italy, the musical.
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  Speaker 2: It's just me getting beat up for four years.
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  Speaker 1: So, okay, so you grew up until 11 in Italy,
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  Speaker 1: and then you moved to where?
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  Speaker 2: And then I moved to Stockton again. Wow. We moved back, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Did you ever see Nate Diaz over there?
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  Speaker 2: No, you know... I feel like every time I've been
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  Speaker 2: on Kill Tony, Tony always asks me that.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, he does, sorry.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, no, it's okay. That's the only thing Stockton's
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  Speaker 2: really known for, I think. I don't think it's really nobody.
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  Speaker 2: There's nothing else going on there. No, I never have.
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  Speaker 1: Well, how would you describe Stockton then as? Like, what
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  Speaker 1: would you say is about it? Because there's probably a
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  Speaker 1: lot of great things about it. I know there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of missing people up there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Crime is a big one.
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  Speaker 1: What else do they have? I know there's cigarettes, I know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, cigarettes.
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  Speaker 1: The King's.
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  Speaker 2: The Kings, yeah. No, that's in Sacramento. Oh, Sacramento. Wait,
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  Speaker 2: is there a Kings in Stockton? No. Basketball, Sacramento.
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  Speaker 1: Oh.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so tell me a little bit more about Stockton, then.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you kind of nailed it, I think. That
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  Speaker 2: was pretty much it. I liked it, though. I think
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  Speaker 2: when you grow up somewhere, you think that's your baseline.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's better to grow up somewhere that's not
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  Speaker 2: that great, because then, as I've moved around places, everywhere
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  Speaker 2: else has been way better.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, so.
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  Speaker 2: Um, my baseline is low for where I lived. Cause
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  Speaker 2: if you live somewhere like really pretty, like, um, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know, Aspen, then everywhere else you're going to be like,
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  Speaker 2: or Australia, like you can imagine. And then you move
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  Speaker 2: to Stockton, but I guess I went from Italy to Stockton,
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  Speaker 2: but I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: That's a crazy push.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It was a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Different for sure. I lived in the mountains. It was
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  Speaker 2: like in an isolated town.
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  Speaker 1: In Italy?
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  Speaker 2: In Italy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: There's like 300 people. Corfino.
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  Speaker 1: In Corfino.
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  Speaker 2: Nobody even knows about it. I feel like, uh, When
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  Speaker 2: you look it up on Google, it used to say
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  Speaker 2: human settlement. It didn't even say like town or village.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, that's it?
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: Nope, it's not. See, they always think it's in Abruzzo. No,
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  Speaker 2: it's in Tuscany.
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  Speaker 1: It's in Tuscany, man.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is wrong. See, there's an I. It's N-O.
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  Speaker 2: It's in Tuscany, man. Yeah, but that's how tiny it is.
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  Speaker 2: It always brings up that one. Got it. It's the wrong.
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  Speaker 2: It's an imposter.
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  Speaker 1: No. 300 people live there?
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  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
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  Speaker 2: But as a kid, that was awesome.
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  Speaker 1: It's a perfect amount.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. The whole town was basically like we could play
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  Speaker 2: hide and seek in, which was good for me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. With the violence. Do you remember leaving it?
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  Speaker 2: Not really. It was really sudden. Our house is still like...
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  Speaker 2: When I go visit, it's still my room when I was, like,
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  Speaker 2: nine or ten. There's still my toys.
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  Speaker 1: You still have a house there?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, my parents still have the house we grew up in.
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  Speaker 2: But it's still, like, untouched. It's like a time capsule.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's crazy. I go back, and I was
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  Speaker 2: still playing with, like, Barbies, and they're still out. And
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  Speaker 2: it's just there, and it's crazy, kind of.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, that's Stranger Things. Mm-hmm. Dang. And so why did
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  Speaker 1: your family move?
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  Speaker 2: I think my dad, he's really— ambitious he's always been
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  Speaker 2: a real like project starter and it's just a tiny
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  Speaker 2: town and he got stir crazy i think and so
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  Speaker 2: he was like i can't do this anymore um then
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  Speaker 2: he wanted to move back yeah i think also um
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  Speaker 2: just in those tiny towns you know people are in
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  Speaker 2: each other's business all the time and i think he
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  Speaker 2: got sick of that yeah yeah It makes sense to me.
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  Speaker 2: It makes sense to me, too. I don't think I
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  Speaker 2: would want to live there now. I think if I
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  Speaker 2: were to live there, it would be when I'm, like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, retired.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: It's really pretty. You know, like I could write up
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  Speaker 2: there a book or something.
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  Speaker 1: You know?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I always romanticize writing a book somewhere. Yeah. Oh, I'll
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  Speaker 1: write a book.
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  Speaker 2: What would you write a book about?
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  Speaker 1: I would probably write a book just about... I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I thought about two guys that aren't married that just
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  Speaker 1: keep giving each other shitty advice about like, like they
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  Speaker 1: keep being each other's like, I'm going to help you
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  Speaker 1: find somebody type of thing. Okay. That'd be a funny
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  Speaker 1: thing to write about. I would write about growing up.
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  Speaker 1: Just people that I knew stories from home, things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Things that I thought about things that I think about now. Um,
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  Speaker 1: I will write a book, maybe a cook. And so
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  Speaker 1: some of it would be words. Some of it would
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  Speaker 1: be recipes.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: A little bit of that.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe words and recipes.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: A book is kind of like a bunch of words.
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  Speaker 1: Because sometimes I'm reading, I get hungry.
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  Speaker 2: That's a recipe.
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  Speaker 1: Huh? Sometimes I'm reading a book and I get hungry
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  Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh. Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, I get that. It's kind of like watching a movie,
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  Speaker 2: then you get hungry. It's because your brain's preoccupied and
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  Speaker 2: it's nice to do something while you're. Right.
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  Speaker 1: I want to do two things at once.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know? Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But also, if you're reading or get hungry or you're,
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  Speaker 1: and a recipe's right there. Or a movie had a
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  Speaker 1: recipe right in the middle of it.
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  Speaker 2: So you're saying like if.
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  Speaker 1: Like a recipe movie.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, so it's not like Die Hard and then in
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  Speaker 2: the middle there's just a recipe for some reason.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is that.
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  Speaker 2: He stops to like.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is that.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, like that. So he stops and he's just like, okay,
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  Speaker 2: let me make some food or like just read the
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  Speaker 2: recipe or does he go through with it? Then he
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  Speaker 2: goes back to killing German terrorists.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, does, now if you could get, that would be cool.
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  Speaker 1: If the person in the movie. Yeah. Like Daniel Day-Lewis
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  Speaker 1: is suddenly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, helping you make like a tuna tartare or something.
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  Speaker 1: I think something like that would be pretty wild, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Or he's helping you make like a bouillabaisse or some
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  Speaker 1: kind of, you know, like a nice soup or something.
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  Speaker 1: Or Koi spot or gazpacho or something. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Or like in Taken, you know, he's looking for his daughter,
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  Speaker 2: but he has to eat still.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, now he's looking for ingredients in his cupboard.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, now he's looking for all the ingredients.
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  Speaker 1: That'd be cool. Yeah.