Backgrounds

Bruce was the favorite. All his life he was the favorite. Oh, he deserved it—the well-behaved kid, the bright and promising kid. But it must have been hard for you to take, with your Italian background, where the oldest son normally has precedence.
-copied from 6, here. 

I know something about large Irish and Italian Catholic families! They remain "Irish" or "Italian" for generations after emigrating. At Andrea's (scroll down) mother's funeral, a very old guy in a wheelchair who looked like everyone's great-grandfather turned out to be the oldest brother. Andrea knows how to manage a cafe or restaurant just from his upbringing. He told me that one of the rules of such a family is: "This has not been forgotten! And, if there's another row, it will be the first thing to be brought up!" And his family in Italy represented every part of the varied Italian political spectrum. One thing to be valued in Britain and the US is the varied ancestries of friends and neighbors.