How common would they be in the early 1900s in America? Family of immigrants from Italy with teen daughter in NY.
Good question. I'm Italian-American from all sides so I'd be interested in the answer too. I suppose it would depend on what you meant by "arranged." What @jannert excerpted about Japanese picture marriages would never fly with Italians. I have nothing to back that up, but there were so many of us in the old neighborhoods that I imagine concealment would not have been necessary. I'm sure there was some heavy encouragement from the families to marry this one to that one, but actually arranging it years before they were old enough? I don't know. I'm not seeing it. You don't fuck with Italian women. The men are pussycats but the women are piranhas. That whole "stay in the kitchen" doesn't equate to passivity at all. Again, I have nothing to support this, but it's just a gut feeling from my background. I'm sure it happened here and there, so it's probably plausible enough to write about it in a fictional setting.
All Italian American here, too. In my story the bride to be is already 18 and the arrangement has come as a shock to her. She feels compelled to obey since she doesn't really have another choice. I needed to do this to shake things up, but want to make sure it's not too far-fetched.
Here is the full link to the wiki page, which includes countries that practice it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage
Here is the full link to the wiki page, which includes countries that practice it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arranged_marriage
That quote didn't just apply to Japanese people, by the way. It's just that the Japanese came up with the name for it. They called that kind of marriage a 'picture marriage' because a picture of the intended was often the only way a person saw who they were marrying until the actual wedding took place. It wasn't because they were the only culture that practiced this kind of marriage, though. I know from research I've done regarding the old west that Chinese people also practiced this. As for Italians, I don't know. But what you need to look at is not what Italians do now, but what they did back in 1900 when they were new arrivals to the USA. Were young immigrants back at that time encouraged (by their families) to choose freely whom they planned to marry? Or did the parents have a lot to say about it? Obviously in the USA there was no law that forced a marriage for anyone, but social pressure within the Italian community might have been enough to force—or coerce—a marriage. Ostracism would probably have been the punishment for disobeying and ostracism would have been very intimidating to people who just had arrived in the USA, not speaking English yet, and more or less still confined to communities from their old country. I think research is definitely needed here. This might be a good place to start, @JosephMarch . An excellent article. And arranged marriages are definitely mentioned. http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Italian-Americans.html
Don't know much about Italian or Japanese immigrants, but with Jewish immigrants it would be very common . Especially with orthodox families.
Why would it come as a shock to her if it's in her culture that families arrange marriages for their kids? And if it's not in her culture, why would she feel compelled to oblige?
