Raphael de Nicola de Maria left Bares Italy around 1909 to come to America. At the tie two of his brothers were already in the US and had told him to come over. Obviously they had found more opportunities and thus more money in the US. At the time Italy was in a economic crises and to further add to the troubles of a poor Italian farmer, universal male suffrage, just male suffrage was not yet a thing. This meant that he was poor, and his government nor him could do anything about it. So like many in Italy around this time the family slowly immigrated to NYC, in waves that allowed the family to remain economically stable and to still get to America. In order to do this Raphael left his wife and 8 kids in Italy, leaving with the intention of one day making enough money to get them to America. The hope was simple to find more economic stability as a farmer, (there was more land to cultivate outside NYC then) and to get the rights that Americans had.
The ride to the US was brutal, the hopes and dreams that he had started with were difficult to keep up with. America isn’t paved with golden streets. My great great grandfather understood that, especially because he already had two brothers living in the US. But he felt that if he tried hard enough those dreams and hopes could some true in America, that the country still allowed for such dreams to come true. Just that the country was not going to spoon feed you it. But the boat ride was indeed brutal. Many died on the way and some were so sick that upon arrival to Ellis island his name was changed and many around him were turned down simply because they were deemed ill. Immediately he was dealt with a major language barrier. There was this rush around Ellis Island, and a heightened level of chaos, so the story goes. My great great Grandfather got off of the boat and was asked for his name. He responded “Raphael de Nicola de Maria” the official looked at him, paused for a moment and said “Ralph Marino, okay.” My great great grandfather was confused. Then he had to find his way off of the island. He looked to the city and saw the huge, towering metropolis. He knew he had to find a way to the main island, and to his brothers. But no one really understood him that could help him, and many did not want to. The first couple of hours in the US were filled with confusion and fear, not exactly the best start.
After a while my great great grandfather got settled in NJ and would later move to NYC. Once he got enough money he sent for his entire family to come back to the US. They slowly became used to living in America, they began to attain more and more money and also had two more kids. Yes they had ten kids overall (surprisingly common back then). One of the two kids was my great grandfather. They also had to become used to something else, other than culture and language. The weather in NYC was completely different from that in Italy. The massive snow storms and the scorching summers filled with humidity. Only in NYC would you have to get used to the weather(the North American continent meteorologically is more extreme than any other part of the world) . Then came the roaring twenties and my great great grandparents and great grandparents, like everyone else in the US lived off of the massive economic growth, and loved it. For them they had finally begun to realize the dream that they had when first coming to the US. However, by 1931 they had lost everything, my great grandfather had to build from the ground up and then began what many did after the great depression. He would hide money everywhere, even in the stock market. He invested in companies like AT&T and Bell and several others that would boom in the future. But then WW2 came and he decided it would be best to pull those investments and just take the money and keep it for his family. He stayed stateside because of him having a young child, my grandpa. The money never really did come back like it did in the 20’s and then my grandpa experienced his recession in the 70’s and lost everything his father had left for him from the stock market (he didn’t pull everything out of his investments).
During the 60’s my mom was born and at a younger age moved from Astoria in queens to Bayside. My grandpa worked for the airlines and worked more than one job. Even decades after my great great grandpa arrived on the shores of NYC my grandpa still found it overly difficult to make money, not even he could yet accomplish the dreams and aspirations that have stayed with the family since the 1900’s. It was proof that the immigrant life style is not one that is easy, in almost every way. My great great grandparents did not receive help from outside their own family, and the prejudice against immigrants back then would ensure that it would remain difficult to get jobs and skills in the future, or even for future generations. At least in the past 100 years progress has been made in terms of our family as we slowly rise up the social ladder from immigrants, to descendants of immigrants, to Americans.
There are other immigrants that I am a descendent of, but on my Irish and German side, and they came here around the 1850’s. So on that side much of the story is lost. I know not whether they fought in civil war. I only have a basic understanding of why they came (Germany: revolutions, Irish: potato famine). I know that their descendants would fight in WW1 and almost WW2. But other than these stories there is only one thing I am certain of from all accounts. That they were all proud to become American’s, to joining a country with such rights and such aspirations. They all truly believed in democracy, and the spirit of patriotism, and for them, it was for a land they were not from, but wanted so dearly to be, for it respected them, and allowed them to dream.
