…………….It is well established that this country was created by IMMIGRANTS….from the first Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock escaping religious persecution seeking FREEDOM…It has also been said that Vikings were here even before them…..Of course we all also know that when these Pilgrims arrived there were many tribes of AMEREICAN INDIANS, but somehow it has become convenient to discount these people who had been here for centuries before the “white man” invaded, and literally stole their lands……..The……..”IMMIGRANTS”……..in this photo just so happen to be my GRANDFATHER, MAURO DELL’OLIO, and MY FATHER……VINCENZO DELL’OLIO…….My grandfather brought his oldest son, my dad, to this country in the early 20s through Ellis Island as so many thousands of other immigrants did who entered this country from many different countries……My grandfather was a fisherman in Bari, Italy, but when he came to this country he couldn’t find work as a fisherman so he built a wooden cart with wooden wheels, and pushed it around the city collecting paper, bundling it up and reselling it….My father would be tagging along with him as my grandfather had no one to leave him with…..Where my grandfather got the idea of collecting used paper I don’t know…..probably from some other Italian immigrants he saw doing it. My grandfather and father shared an apt with other Italian men in “Little Italy”, an area in the south part of NYC where many Italian immigrants congregated…..Today, it is in the SOHO area, but there is very little left of the original Little Italy…..just a few restaurants…….Eventually, my grandfather worked his way from literally nothing, to create a business successful enough to bring his wife and the rest of his family, four daughters, to this country….Two more children would be born in the US….My father was eventually to take the business over and grow it even larger…My oldest brother, Mauro joined my father in the “family” business and grew it even larger…..My grandfather, and father and the rest of the family did not speak English when they arrived, and my grandfather and grandmother never did learn the language, but somehow they survived because their “tribe” stayed together, and supported one another….My grandfather eventually sent my dad, and the rest of his children to a Catholic school where they leaned to speak English and eventually they all became American citizens…..At this Catholic school my father became an alter boy!!!!…Knowing my dad this is hard for me to imagine!…..My grandfather, who played the guitar, gave my father money for violin lessens…. My dad told me, as a teenager, he used this money to shoot craps with other priests behind the church!!!….He never learned to play the violin very well, but he did grow up loving music!……My grandfather became successful enough to buy a four family house in Brooklyn, which then was considered the “country”….He had quite a bit of land, and had fruit trees and grape vines from which he made wine……From the old photos I have many of the main roads, and boulevards were still dirt!…….I lived in this house until I was three years old when my mother and father and two older brothers moved to Long Island in 1951…A house boom was going on after WW11…. In our area there were still many farms. It was a wonderfully innocent place and time growing up there….so very different from today…….Soon the farmers sold their land, and new homes were built….My grandfather’s house is still there today!…My mother’s story was very similar. Her father and my Dad’s father were friends in Italy, and came from the same village. My two grandfathers traveled together with their oldest sons on the same boat from Italy, and went through Ellis Island together. so my parents knew each other as children………The point of this story is…..All of these thousands of immigrants who came to this country were ALL LOOKED DOWN UPON!!!! They were all ridiculed, called horrible names, and would be treated badly by the so called “Americans” who’s families also came to this country decades before….as immigrants too……Because of the way immigrants were treated my parents never taught us how to speak Italian. They were fearful that we would have an ACCENT, and would also be treated badly……I didn’t know this until years later when I asked my mother why they never taught us their language?….It would have come in very useful in my career with all the traveling for business I did to Italy!……It was these men and women…..these thousands of immigrants who BUILT THIS COUNTRY…………One could only wonder if they were to come to this country today would they have been let in or turned away?……..IMMIGRANTS are the people who built this nation, and continue to do so……What is happening to the INNOCENT immigrants today is deplorable!
Thank you for the story of your family, Louis. I hope that putting faces and names on immigrant history helps others understand. Except for Native Americans WE ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS and we need to respect the hard work of recent immigrants. Who picked the food you are eating or cleaned your house?
Louis, your account could be the story of millions of Americans. Most came here enduring hardships since they hoped for a better life and especially a better life for their children. Very few came because life was so wonderful in their native homeland. When I traveled with my aunt to the homeland of her parents(my grandparents), we saw a very old woman dressed in black obviously walking some distance by the side of the road after buying her basket of food(a hard life), and my Aunt said, “I’m glad they got on the boat….that could me me!” I often think what if they had not been separated from America by a LARGE body of water(They weren’t swimmers)…would they have risked overland treks to come here? Some of their children went to college, some served in the armed forces during WWII, and others worked hard all their lives for someone else….but for a better life. They even helped some escape for the Communist regime to get to America and become citizens themselves. I am proud of ALL my immigrant grandparents. Thanks for sharing your familiy’s story, Louis. We are all in the boat together. : )
Beautiful story, and similar to mine. My family came from Russia and Ukraine because of the pogroms and persecutions of the Jews. They moved to East New York where papa and nana bought a 4 unit apartment building, and we all lived together. They stayed in Brooklyn, and we moved to the Island in 1954. My mother’s family moved to the Island where they had a cleaning business for many years. All came here with nothing, and created businesses and beautiful families. So, take that Trump!! Funny how his wives and parents were immigrants too. And..your post about Maria is heartbreaking. This is where we are now as a country. It is all hate. I am glad that I am old. It is really too much to bear. We must pray that we survive.
Fortunately or unfortunately at my age….76…….I won’t have to suffer as much as the younger generations will with the damage being done to this country….People will eventually wake up to the reality that DT won’t make their lives any better. Driving so many immigrants out will only make it worse. Economists are already saying prices will increase because necessary workers are being deported and also not showing up for work out of fear they will be caught by ICE and taken away…..He hasn’t done anything to bring prices down….because he has no plan, but to punish people and to cause hatred and fear.