The story of Carl Colena’s family’s arrival to the United States dates as far back as the 1800s and as recently as a few decades ago. His paternal ancestors have been in America for far too long for anyone to remember their countries of origin with certainty. Carl’s paternal grandfather was born in Berkeley, West Virginia and it is suspected that he is of Sicilian descent, although it is unknown when his ancestors first arrived in the US. His mother died during childbirth and he was raised by his father. He had been a child laborer, working in West Virginia’s coal mines because his family’s financial insecurity prevented him from attending grade school and because the state’s poor economy and high unemployment rates did not allow him to choose any other field. Some time before World War II, he moved to New York, leaving his family behind, in search of better wages and more varied job opportunities. Upon his arrival, he enrolled in the Merchant’s Marine Academy in Kings Point. He graduated and worked onboard merchant ships. When the war started, he was assigned by the Coast Guard, which was commanded by the US Navy, to work on ships that carried supplies to Russian allies under the Lend-Lease Program. He met his wife after the war.
Carl’s paternal grandmother was born in Virginia. She is believed to be of Irish descent, with her ancestors possibly originating from Galway, Ireland. As is the case with Carl’s grandfather, it is unknown how long ago her ancestors first arrived in the US. At the time of her birth, her mother already had more children than she could handle to raise on her own and her paternity was unknown, so she was taken in to be raised by a neighboring African American family. The South lacked a formal adoption system at the time so this was a common practice in poor areas. She grew up alongside her adoptive family’s daughter, whom she considered her sister. Her adoptive sister moved to New York State to study at Cornell University. After graduating, she moved to Manhattan to work in the business sector. Carl’s grandmother moved from Virginia to New York to live with her, as well as in search of better job opportunities than those that were available in Virginia at the time. Despite living in New York, she chose to marry Carl’s grandfather, a fellow Southerner, instead of a native New Yorker. The tendency to marry someone from one’s own place of origin is a common practice among early generations of immigrants to the United States. The fact that it occurred between Carl’s grandparents, who were migrants within the US, suggests that they might have felt more closely connected to other people from the South than to New Yorkers and that their regional identity might have been stronger than their national one. Because they both migrated to New York from the South more or less independently, they grew apart from their families back in their home states and Carl currently has very little contact with his extended family on his father’s side.
After they were married, Carl’s paternal grandparents settled in Jamaica, Queens, where they raised Carl’s father alongside their other three children. Carl’s father spent most of his early life in Jamaica, until he eventually moved out to Long Island. However, before he left Jamaica, he met his wife, Carl’s mother.
Carl’s maternal grandparents both originated from Mainland China but migrated to Taiwan. His maternal grandmother was from Sichuan Province, and his grandfather from Jiangsu Province. The civil war that was fought in the mainland between 1927 and 1936 forced them to move to Taiwan. They were supporters of Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Chinese National Party, and when his government evacuated to Taiwan, many supporters and refugees followed. They did not originally intend to remain in Taiwan permanently. When Chiang Kai-shek moved his government to Taiwan, he still claimed sovereignty over the rest of China, including territories that were claimed the People’s Republic, as well as some claimed by foreign governments. His presidency in Taiwan lasted for twenty-five years (1950-1975) and during that time he raised an army in preparation for an invasion of mainland China to regain control of the nation. His supporters expected him to recapture the Mainland and to return to their homeland after his victory. Carl’s grandparents emigrated from China separately and met each other after moving to Taiwan, where they married and had three children.
Carl’s mother spent her early life in Taipei, growing up with a brother and a sister. She spent her college years studying at National Taiwan University, and after graduating, went on to study abroad in New York. She enrolled at the New York Institute of Technology and lived in the dormitories in Central Islip for her first year. For the remainder of her academic career at NYIT, she moved to Hicksville and later to Flushing, Queens. While in Hicksville, she worked as a live-in assistant for a family. One of the members of the family was a woman who had lost nearly all of her limbs and required a lot of assistance with her daily functions. When she moved to Flushing, she shared an apartment with several other NYIT students while working on completing her studies. She had chosen to attend NYIT primarily because of its prestigious Computer Graphics Lab, which was reserved for students enrolled in a specialized graduate program, in the hopes of learning computer graphic animation. Many of the people who attended this program had successful careers and served pivotal functions in startup companies such as Pixar, Dreamworks, Disney Animation Studios, Microsoft, and Nvidia, among others. Unfortunately, she was rejected from this program. After completing her education at NYIT, she went on to study at the New York School of Visual Arts, where she pursued a master’s degree in computer arts. Shortly before she finished her studies at SVA, she met Carl’s father. They married and continued to live in Queens, where Carl was born.
