As I have done in the past, and just for completely no reason, I am going to post my History 109 Essay. My topic for this paper was “You are an Italian immigrant coming to Ellis Island in the 1890s. What do you see, smell, and hear? What are your plans for your new life and how to cope with the move?” I found out some rather interesting facts over the course of the research, and below I present you my essay of a fictional immigrant journal.
February 14, 1891
As I have decided migrate to New York City in America to work with my cousin Vito. Vito has written home with many stories of the money he has been able to make, and while leading a simple life, he hopes to save up enough to return home to our village of Napoli to help make a better life here for our family. Vito has spoke of how construction is a great opportunity for Italians like ourselves who are fine craftsmen with marble and granite work. I don’t know how I will like the simple living Vito has talked about, as it sounds very hard and different from the life I am accustomed to, but with such opportunity to be able to bring money back home I must take this opportunity that Vito has extended to me. I leave tomorrow for the voyage to Ellis Island.
March 2, 1891
I have arrived safe in New York and Vito met me yesterday as I got off of the boat. Vito has spoken that we will meet with his padrone tomorrow to find some work for us over the next few weeks. There is talk of a new bridge that needs construction workers to help erect it. Vito’s apartment is small and we live with a few other Italians. Vito said this helps us save more money, and as I plan to return home in the fall this sounds like a good idea to me. However, the cramped conditions are not much to look forward to coming home to. I am not sure how Vito has been able to adjust to living like this, but he seems to cope rather well. He was supposed to return home last fall, but I think he decided to stay over the winter to earn extra money, but the way he talks I wonder if he plans on returning to Napoli at all. I fear this will take some time to adjust to this new home life as this is quite different than the life I thought it would be. From the parts of the city we saw today, this doesn’t seem much like the land of opportunity that I have heard so much about. Instead I saw filthy streets from the many factories around the city. People are quite against us coming here to work. Vito told me about how some Italians were recently beaten up by some Irish workers who were upset that the Italians were “taking their jobs”.
March 3, 1891
After speaking with Fredo, Vito’s padrone, we are told to report to the construction site tomorrow morning. We will be working on the bridge project as Vito had hoped. It appears we will be helping lay the bricks that will compose the bridge. It should last the entire summer and I should be able to earn twenty cents a day. Hopefully I will be able to earn enough money to travel back home this winter and rejoin my family. This was the last day I had to explore the city, as Vito talked like construction work will be long hours and exhausting work. I can only hope the construction site is in a bit cleaner part of town, as our neighborhood is quite dirty. The apartment building shares one bathroom with the entire floor and it is quite disgusting. The streets in our section of town are also quite filthy. We went to the local bar for a glass of wine as sort of a celebration of the job tomorrow. The wine here is quite different from home, it is no where as good as the wine we make in Italy.
March 4, 1891
I am so exhausted from the first day of construction work that this entry will not be very long. We worked about 14 hours today Vito said. Twenty cents for this amount of work does not sound like such a good deal any longer. Vito told me that it will get easier after a few days. I can only hope, as this is not what I imagined when I agreed to this trip to America.
March 11, 1891
The end of the first week of work at the bridge site is completed. Vito was right, today seemed easier than the first day of work even though I think we actually worked longer today. There is not much else to do after work as we work such long hours and have to be up early for the next day’s work. Another Italian man was talking to the workers at the site today and I overheard him mentioning his Uncle’s business and how they are looking for delivery boys that pay up to forty cents per day! I don’t understand how a delivery boy can make so much, but he assured me if I was interested he could probably help me get a job doing that instead. He also alluded to a lot easier days than we were currently working. He told me to meet him there tomorrow morning if I was interested. I don’t know if I should tell Vito about this as the gentleman mentioned there were not many positions available and that his uncle preferred to hire new Italians to the city as the job will help them learn the city and his uncle believes quite passionately about l’ordine della famiglia.
March 12, 1891
I decided not to tell Vito about the meeting, and instead I meet the gentleman from yesterday outside the construction site this morning. Apparently no one else was interested as I was the only one who took up his offer. I cannot understand this because 40 cents a day seems like so much more money for what Salvadore had explained as simple delivery work. I met his uncle sometime later that morning and he explained to me what my job would consist of. Basically I would wait around his store, and either run a package to an address or go to an address to pickup a package and deliver it back to his store. He simply explained that the most important rule was that I never look into the package or accept any money from the people who I deliver or pickup a package from. He said as I get faster at deliveries I should be able to earn even more than 40 cents per day, and that they will pay me at the end of every day. He also explained to me that they would help me get some nice clothes to wear as his business catered to a more upscale class than my current clothing depicted. We talked about old Italy and he actually is from Napoli as well. He explained to me that the old family rules of home meant more to him than the rules of America, and that in this job family would come first. He explained that I would be working for him for the next week then he would ask me if I was interested in a permanent position in his business family. I cannot wait to return home as at this rate I will be able to really bring quite a bit of money back home!
The fictional journal entries above depict the life of a new Italian immigrant who might be falling into the wrong crowd of an organized crime family. While this is the image most people would have when you mention Italian-Americans from this era, however, the US Department of justice estimates that only .0025 percent of Italian born Americans have anything to do with organized crime whatsoever. This image was mainly perpetuated by the high profile gangsters like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Salvatore Marazano and Vito Genovese.
Most Italian migrants returned home after they were able to earn some money in America. The vast majority never had a desire to stay permanently, however about 60% did end up never returning home. About half of all Italian immigrants took manual labor jobs, a greater percentage than any other ethnic group. One would be hard pressed to find an Italian neighborhood without an abundance of excellent marble and granite craftsmen who were able to produce buildings whose insides marveled that of Renaissance Italian heritage.
References
Kennedy, David, Lizabeth Cohen, Thomas A. Bailey. The American Pageant. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.
Barone, Michael. “Chapter VI. The Essence of Italian Culture and the Challenge of the Global Age: Italian Cultural Identity and Migration” THE ESSENCE OF ITALIAN CULTURE AND THE CHALLENGE OF A GLOBAL AGE.
The Making of Ethnic America. Hist 3317. 11 November 2005. University of Houston. 11 November 2005. http://www.coe.uh.edu/projects/ethnic_america/italian_am_lecture.html