A Crazy Emigration Story

One of the more dramatic stories in my family's history is that of my great-grandmother who emigrated from Italy to come to the United States. She was a bit of an unpredictable cannon for her family, and she did not conform at all to the standards of a “lady” at the time. This prompted her mother to decide that she belonged in a convent and hoped that that might put her on the right track.

It did quite the opposite, in fact, as she ran away from the convent and caught a ride across the Atlantic Ocean to New York in order to visit her sister. On the boat ride over to America, she met my great-grandfather who was also coming from Italy. She came from the north of Italy, near Florence, and he came from much further south, near Naples, and their Italian dialects were so different that they had a lot of trouble understanding each other. But apparently they fell in love, like deeply in love, because she couldn't stay put in New York and eventually ended up following him to Pasadena, California.

And that's how they ended up settling in California, making a life for themselves in America, and starting their family. That in itself would make a fairly interesting book. From what I've heard, my great-grandparents were quite the characters. My great-grandfather was infamous for his ability to curse in the most flamboyant manner. For him, a curse was not a single word. It was a volley of fragmented sentences, invoking as many saints or holy personages possible, while gesticulating wildly and throwing things on the ground and stomping on them. On the other hand, my great-grandmother was a stern, composed, supposedly awe-inspiring and terrifying woman who owned a ferocious German Shepherd. Sounds like a pretty interesting household!

My great-grandfather was a jeweler and watch-maker, and he worked on the bottom floor of a two story house in Pasadena. Bored, and seeing wasted space, my great-grandmother decided to open a restaurant in the back of the shop. This was during Prohibition, but no proud Italian will run a restaurant without wine, so my great-grandmother made her own and sold it. To get away with it, she bribed the local policemen with free wine and they kept their mouths shut.

If I made this into a story, it would be about my grandmother though. Hearing her talk about her childhood, it's amazing to think that not much has changed in the immigrant's story. My grandmother grew up with her parents speaking Italian in the house, but her school pressured her to speak only English, so that now she is taking Italian classes to relearn the language. She lived in America during WWII, during which time there was incredibly hostility towards Italians in the public discourse, which translated to discriminatory treatment in her everyday life. I think the story is really her story, with the backdrop of these bizarre and memorable parents who have such an interesting emigration story.