When anyone in my family talks about my great-grandmother, they must mention that she was an extraordinary woman. My grandmother's life is a similar blueprint to what most Italian immigrants had to endure. Her life was completely changed as she made her long and terrifying journey to the United States. These immigrants, along with my great-grandmother, were thrown into an American society that was alien to them all. But through all their anguish and successfulness, Italians never forgot their families. They valued their tightly knitted households more than any other ethnic group did.
Around the early nineteen hundreds, my great grandmother Lucy Fattizzi's parents decided to make the journey to the United States of America, the land of opportunity. At this time, Italy was greatly overpopulated and my grandmother's family was suffering from economic difficulties. When she was four, her family left for America and left her behind with her grandmother on her father's side. The family did not have enough money to send for her until much later.
The next few years were very painful for my great-grandmother. She was treated horribly. Her grandmother never liked her so she took her frustrations out on this poor young girl. Lucy went for days at a time without food and there were many nights where she was forced to sleep outside on the cold slates. She hated her grandmother and she desperately awaited her father to send for her.
Finally, in 1910, her father did send the money for her trip. She departed as quickly as possible to the United States. She was an eight-year-old girl travelling all by herself thousands of miles with a bunch of strangers. One could not even imagine what she was going through at this time. She was scared and confused. The boat trip to the United States was a complete horror show. They traveled on an extremely low boat. These boats were poorly constructed and not effectively designed for their purpose. Whenever they encountered rough water, the waves crashed onto the boat. The deck was drenched all times, as well as the people on the ship. People frequently became sick from the constant dampness. Luckily, since my great-grandmother was a young girl, she was able to sleep in the corner that was not as wet as the rest of the boat. This was the least of her worries.
During the trip, she traveled with a man who supposedly was her uncle. My great-grandmother never met this terrifying human being before her departure. He mistreated her throughout their journey. Since the trip was long and boring, he amused himself by holding my great-grandmother overboard. He would say in Italian, "How about that Lucy, I will feed you to the fishes." My great-grandmother remembered her deathlike voyage to the Americas until the day she died.
Lucy Fattizzi arrived in Ellis Island around 1911 after her one-month journey. She had high hopes for this land but her first impressions would symbolize her life to come. Her first memory was that of her mother, Frances. My great-grandmother's mother was a very pretty woman. She had high cheekbones, dark hair, and a beautiful face. This was how my great-grandmother remembered her mother.
When my great-grandmother stepped off the boat, there was a strange looking woman before her. This pale, frail, and sickly looking woman claimed to be her mother. My great-grandmother could not believe that was her mother. She asked herself, "What happened to the beautiful woman that I once knew." This, in fact, was her mother. She was extremely ill and run down. Lucy's future would be symbolized in this deathly woman's face.
What my great-grandmother saw that day was what her life would lead to. Her experiences of America were not good. As soon as she was in Brooklyn, New York, she had to work. Since her mother was sick, my great-grandmother was forced to take care of the family. She woke up before the sun rose to collect coal, to heat up the stove. Coffee had to be made before her mother and father awoke. Soon her little sister rolled out of bed and Lucy had to make her breakfast and send her off to school. At the age of ten, she was doing the work of a twenty-year-old woman.
Her parents did enroll her in school, but she only attended up to the third grade. She had to stay home and take care of her sick mother and her sister. Chores like cleaning the house and serving her father eventually seemed commonplace. It was impossible for her to go to school. She learned how to read from the newspaper. Although she could read, she could not write. All she could do was sign her name. She was not booksmart, but she knew how to survive and be a good wife and mother.
My great-grandmother married young, just as many of immigrants did. Lucy Fattizzi was married to Nicola DiCostanzo at the age of thirteen. It was an arranged marriage and he was ten years older than she was. This was one of the saddest parts of my grandmother's life. She never had a childhood. She basically went straight from an infant to a mother. She took care of her sister and her mother and now she is taking care of her own family.
Lucy DiCostanzo had five children with her husband whom she did not even know. Her hardships continued. Her husband was the landlord of apartment buildings, but when he became sick, my great-grandmother was forced to do his work. She had to shovel a ton of coal into the furnace everyday, and take out all the tenants' garbage. Most of the jobs she had to do were too stressful and hard for a woman.
Everything Lucy did was on her own. She begged for her sons to help her, but they often forgot. They were still very young at this point. After the apartment chores were done, she had to wash two loads of wash by hand and then hang them out in the airshaft. Tired and soar, Lucy cooked dinner for the family as well as the child she babysat. Finally, she was able to sleep for a few hours and do the same thing he next day.
This eventually lead to a nervous breakdown. In her mid twenties, my great-grandmother could not take the stress anymore. All of her responsibilities were just too much for one person to handle. This sickness lasted for three years. She was basically unable to function, and cried most of the time. That was about all my great-grandmother did for three years. She thought her life was pointless and that it was time to give up. But she had a family to take care of and in her mind, this was her first responsibility. Her purpose in life was to make the lives of her children better. When she realized this, she was able to continue on living. It was still hard to live a life when it seemed there was no one there for her.
Lucy never asked for asked for help. This was an aspect of my great-grandmother that even I remember. She never wanted to impose on anyone. She never asked people to visit her, and in her later years, she did not like the live-in help that she had. Throughout her entire life, my great-grandmother suffered. The extraordinary aspect is that she never complained. There was never a time that I or anyone in my family heard my great-grandmother regret something that she did. She was happy to see her 26 grandchildren, 48 great-grand children, and 5 great-great-grandchildren, grow up.
Family was everything to her. The best was that she remembered everyone. Even in her last days, she was able to recall everyone's name and she recognized their faces. It was sad to see what seemed to be an endless part of my family pass on in August of this year, she was 94 years old. Her death was a great loss to our family, but she was able to pass on her life story to others. Lucy DiCostanzo symbolizes my Italian heritage. By describing Lucy's life, one can see a common thread that was woven into many immigrants’ lives. She lived through hard times in both Italy and in America. There were many reasons to leave Italy in the nineteen hundreds, but my great grandmother left because of economic difficulties.
The Italians are responsible for one of the largest exoduses in history. A large amount of Italians flocked to the United States. From 1876 to 1924, more than four and a half million Italians arrived in the U.S. A vast majority left to escape economic hardships in their barren homeland. Most of them came from southern Italy, which was where my great-grandmothers home town, Bari, was located. This was one of the most depressed areas of Italy at the time (Gale).
One must still ask, why did so many people leave this beautiful country? The wave of immigrants to America began after the nation achieved full unification during the Risogimento of 1860-1870 (Gale). The north prospered due to the unification, but the south remained barren. This was detrimental because of the agricultural economy of the south. People had small farms that contained unfertile soil (Steel 125). The northern part of Italy advanced dramatically, both socially and economically. This progress was very slow to influence the southern part of Italy. The poor population worked mainly as artigiani(artisans), contadini(sharecroppers), and giornalieris(farm laborers). Families were forced to work together in order to survive. The people lived from day to day barely supporting their families (Gale). The result of this poverty in the south was naturally immigration. These peasants had no reason to stay in this fruitless land. They needed opportunity and the only thing they had was hope. Thousands went to America to find a better life in a land that they knew very little about.
At the time of the mass immigration there was only 1,862 Italians living in New York City. This great city would soon become home to millions of Italians. Italian newcomers believed in the old proverb, "Chi esce riesce." This meant, "He who leaves succeeds." They were all looking to make money and to hopefully start a new life somewhere (Gale).
The first phase of the great migration consisted only of men moving to the United States. They only sought temporary homes because their goal was to make money and then return to Italy. Their ages ranged from fifteen to thirty-five, which was the optimum age for the working class. Almost half of these single males returned to their native villages. Money had to be earned to establish themselves before any others could come over to America (Gale). Later in the great migration, especially around 1910, woman and entire families began to immigrate the U.S. Almost all of the Italians came through Ellis Island, and more Italians resided in New York City than in the Italian cities of Florence, Venice, and Genoa combined. My great-grandmother did the same. She was questioned and examined in Ellis Island and she eventually called Brooklyn her home (Gale).
As if the trip to the United States was not bad enough, now the immigrants had to work. Many had jobs secured before they even came to the U.S. They found work as industrial laborers, longshoremen and construction workers. Italians held these positions longer than the other immigrant groups because they lacked the education. Just like Lucy, the average Italian child did not make it passed the third grade. They were put to work as soon as they were old enough (Steel 126).
Life and work was hard for all of the immigrants, but one thing kept the Italians going, their families. Italians' most precious aspect of their culture is their family. They have large amounts of relatives and they all stay tightly knitted. Even today it is the same. I have so many relatives that I can't remember their names. They attend everything. Every holiday there is at least twenty to thirty people at my house, and if something goes wrong someone will always be there for you. Italians believe that families work together to accomplish everything.
Their roles in the family were always the same no matter what Italian household. The father was the head of the family. He was the one who went out and made the money, but did very little in the house. The mothers role was to cook, clean, and take care of the children. When the children were old enough to work, they did, no questions asked (Wall 36-37).
Because the families were so close together, Italians stayed in the same areas when they came to the U.S. They were able to keep their culture intact while adjusting to American culture. Entire villages would migrate to America to form "Little Italies." These small villages were sanctuaries from the hostilities that were faced in the cruel American society. Italians were despised a minority rooted in the working class (Gale).
Just as my great-grandmother fought out of her depression, Italians worked hard to climb out of their basement of hopelessness. Many fought in World War II and were able to find better jobs after the war. Education and professional training also became more commonplace and helped to raise the standards of the Italians in the United States. Soon with hard work, Italians were able to become successful people in society. Through all of this, Italians never lost sight of the most important aspect in their lives, family.
Lucy DiCostanzo as well as most of the immigrants in the early nineteen
hundreds, were not excepted with open arms into the United States. Hostility,
poverty, unemployment, and starvation welcomed them at the gates of Ellis
Island. Hope was one aspect that every immigrant embodied, but there was
one thing missing from their lives which all Italians valued greatly. No
other immigrant group valued family life like the Italians. This is what
helped them succeed in this foreign land, and it is what made my great-grandmother
survive until August of 1998.