Read the transcript…. Write 150 words What are two specific things you learned from this clip? No title page. Apa format. Need to cite and reference support answer
Transcript ot the video “A Place in the Sun” The ccite and refernce for the video A place in the sun [Video file]. (1976). Retrieved May 4, 2017, from https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=18566&xtid=3374I saw the poverty over there in Italy. And theway they lived, it’s not for me because I wasborn different. They didn’t even have toiletpaper back there. They didn’t know whatwrapping paper was. I wanted to buy a bunch ofbananas, and my cousin told me, [INAUDIBLE]don’t buy that many. I says, why? She says, wellwe could get a banana and cut it in two andgive half to one person, half then another. Well, I said, we’re in America. We don’t do that. Webuy a bunch of them here, ten, twelve. InAmerica, you have everything you want.
Whereabouts are you from then?
Agosto, Catania. That’s about four hours awayfrom where your father comes from. Right. Notme, I was born here though.
Oh, your father.
Right. Well don’t let you think I’m an Americanhere.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, California.
This was nothing but Italians here, 90%. Thiswas Italian headquarters here. They used to callit little Italy.
Most of the wharf in San Francisco is stillworked by the Italians, as it has been since theturn of the century.
My father came over here in 1890. He wasmarried here. And divorced in 1900. In 1902, hesent for another wife in Italy to come here, andmarried her. She was a widow. In those daysthey used to send photographs from Italy overhere. And if the fellow liked the person he wouldcall for her. If he didn’t like the picture, hewouldn’t send for her. That’s how they did it.
Everything was like they had in Italy. That thewagon would come selling potatoes in thestreet. The bread man would sell you breadfrom the wagon and wine and so forth. Wemade our own wine. And that’s how we lived.The same tradition they had in Italy was here.We didn’t have much, but whatever we hadhere was more than they had over there.
Immigration became a part of everyday life inItaly. A fact that was echoed in many popularsongs. This one describes the desolation of thecountryside as it appears to someone leftbehind.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Back there the poverty and the misery that theyhad was very difficult to live.
It was hard to get food. And it was hard to getany fish. They were all fishermen in that littlelocality there. And they thought there was moreof an advantage in this country than there wasin that country. And that’s what made themcome over here.
Over four million Italians poured into the UnitedStates between 1880 and 1914. In 1907 alone,over a quarter of a million arrived. They came toescape slums, bad landlords, corrupt laws, andthe sheer poverty of the soil. One young Italianin 10 left for the New World.
The desire was to come for three or four years,save enough money to return to Italy and to buythree or four acres of land so that we would nolonger be dependent on the exploitinglandholders. But then, of course, it didn’t workout that way.
The steamship companies had agents in NewYork. And we were just simply actually shippedas laborers to New York. And from theredistributed all over the country.
Angelo Pelligrini, now a professor of English,was 10 years old when he came to America in1913. With the rest of his family, he was to joinhis father, who had already settled on the westcoast. His father was working in a frontierlumber town in the state of Washington, over3,000 miles from Ellis Island. The family still hadin front of them as long a journey as they’dalready from Italy.
When we left Ellis Island and went to the railwaystation, to board the train, we were greetedwith the news that the place to which we weregoing, McClary, Washington, did not exist.Incredible, see, it was a frontier town, recentlyestablished, unincorporated. It wasn’t on themaps. It wasn’t on the time schedules. There isno such place. Well, mother would show themthe address in father’s beautiful handwriting.McCleary [? Metch-clay-arg ?] Vashington, it’sthere. So they decided that they would ship usto a central point in the state of Washington. Wewere tagged. The address was pinned to us. Andthey shipped us.
The journey across the continent took aboutseven or eight days. In crossing the continentwe had glimpses of the promised land. We saw,literally, mountain of apples on the groundunder the trees. Huge mounds of apples, andapparently no one was gathering them. When Isaw those and remembered that in Italy I oncewas nearly beaten to death by a peasant who’ssingle apple tree I had raided and got just oneapple. And he chased me and flailed me for onelousy apple. I said to myself, [SPEAKING ITALIAN], we have arrived.
The Pelligrini’s did find the town of McCleary,and their father, who was working as alumberjack. With his job went a house and land.To begin with, the new world fulfilled itspromise.
Soon we were all at work. Land, we have all that we could till. We didn’t have to buy it. A deedmeant nothing. I mean, for once in our lives, weknew the extraordinary delight of turning a sodand every shovel full was a loaf for us.
The people were not so generous. The Italiansspoke little English. They had darker skins andLatin ways. All this led to conflicts with the restof the population.
We were actually the first South Europeans that they had ever seen. These miserable natives, asI called them, because many of them had justcome maybe a generation before we. Maybethey were second generation immigrants, theNorwegians, and Irish, and Germans. And yet,they soon made us understand that the attitudeof the native American, as we called them,toward us was roughly what the attitude of theAmerican has been toward the blacks.
We were forbidden, for example, we young menwere forbidden to associate with Americangirls. And if one ventured to go out with anAmerican girl, number one, she would have tobe of a rather poor white trash derivation.Otherwise she wouldn’t be going with him. Andthen, being such she would have a brutalbrother, who would clobber that hell out of thisWop who dared.
In 1891, a mob in New Orleans murdered 11Italians. The chief of police had beenassassinated and a number of Italians werebrought to trial. They were acquitted, but localpeople were convinced that the mafia hadthreatened the jury. They took the law into theirown hands, broke into the jailhouse, shot someof the Italians, and lynched the rest. All over thecountry feeling ran high against Italians. TheNew York Times said of the incident, “our ownrattlesnakes are as good citizens as they. Ourown murderers are men of feeling and nobilitycompared to them.”
The Italians were the most despised of theimmigrant groups from Europe. They had totake the worst jobs. They were the ragpickers.They were the shoeshine boys. They were theknife sharpeners. They were the organ grinders.They were peddlers. Some were alwaysbeggars.
Some Americans claimed that their country wasbecoming a dumping ground for Europe’srejects. They saw the Italians as parasitesstealing food from the honest native. It washardly the welcome of a promised land.
I remember times that my father and motherwould sit and watch us. And we’d look at myfather and we’d see tears in his eyes. We didn’t have what to eat. It was that bad. Really, I thinkhe died of a broken heart because of thinkingwhat America held for him, and it was not there.And him feeling that, I believe in my heart, thathe was Italian. And in New York, at that time,Italians were not accepted as people. And, veryfrankly, people called them non-whites, Wop,Guinea, Dago.
Murderers, criminals, members of the blackhand, the mafia, that was the view of theItalians. The San Francisco Chronicle declared,“the duty of the United States is clear in thismatter. We must lock the gates and shut andbar them in the face of these conspirators andcriminals. Send them back as fast as they come.And if Italy does not like it, let her make the bestof it.”
I grew up in an Italian ghetto. And the badaspects were that we really were identified ascriminals. When I was a child, people believedthat all the criminals were Italian. I think thepoint however, is that in many ways, you wouldfind Italians are pushed into organized crime.Members of minority groups who come to theUnited States are really cut off from the normalavenues of making it in American society. Theycan’t get ahead as well as everyone else. Theydon’t have the same avenues to get good jobsas other individuals. Now, organized crime,serves as the first ladder on a very interestingway of getting out of the ghetto.
Francis Ianni has written extensively onorganized crime and the origins of the mafia.
What did happen is the Italians, the Sicilians,did bring with them this notion of bandingtogether in families for protection.
For 1,000 years Sicily was occupied by waveafter wave of foreign invaders. To survive theSicilians formed underground movements toharass and fight their oppressor. Secrecy,cunning, and vengeance became almost a wayof life. Sicily bred the mafia.
In Sicilian villages any festival is an occasion tocelebrate the island’s clannish, sometimesviolent, traditions.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
I am a Sicilian, says the storyteller. A maninsulted my wife. He has to die. He embroidersa traditional tale of vengeance for a wrong doneto the family.
This has developed, also, a very ritualistic codeof justice. It’s really a very strong sense of honorcentered always in the family. It’s most famousin Sicily as the vendetta. The idea that ifsomeone injures someone in my family, I amrequired, I am bound, to do something to somemember of your family. And families haveliterally been wiped out, down to males asyoung as 11 years of age, as a result of this idea.In Sicily, when someone carries out a ritualisticmurder of this sort, his notion is it had to bedone. I was merely the instrument of doing it. Ithad to be done because my family was insulted.
The carretti are a familiar site at Sicilianfestivals. Their hand-painted carts are covered with scenes of bloody conflict from the island’shistory. They celebrate violent resistance tounjust oppression. This tradition traveled withthe immigrants to America. An influentialmember of the Californian Italian communitydescribes the process.
Now, what happened when the immigrationstarted that land in New York, New Orleans, et cetera. They were victim of the sameoppression. They couldn’t speak. They started to call them Dago. They started giving thehardest jobs with very low pay. Workers in thesubways, if they were they might go, what’syour name? Lombardi. Lombardi? Two dollars.What’s your name? McCallister. Five dollars.Same work, same place.
And a new immigrant, he can’t speak. Hedoesn’t know the laws of the countries. Hedon’t know where to go. He goes someplaceand they’ll look at him and says, well, someDago, leave him alone. So he goes to somefriends who has a little power, who has a littleknowledge, who has been there before him. So like I said, immigrants that come, they come to me. They come to an older immigrant. Whoknows what Glen produces. It’s good for string beans. It’s good for this. [INAUDIBLE] Heconsults with someone of his own because hecan trust him. So he goes to this man who hasbeen there before him and who has a little bitprestige. And he says, look what happened tome. What’s can I do? The man says OK. We’ll fixhim. And they fix him.
So, but, the Irish had the same trouble. Thepeople from Poland they had more or less thesame discrimination. But the reaction wasdifferent. Because they didn’t have anexperience to do otherwise. That’s the way theyknew it, fight in the street, bloody nose, end up in jail. The Sicilian don’t want to end up in jail.He want to get away with it.
I’ve seen the mafia here. We’ve had it here. Butto call them mafias, I wouldn’t call them mafias.Because right here in 1920 we had 325 crab boats and they had an association. And theseSicilians all agreed with this association to gocrabbing, which was our livinghood. And if theunion said, unload one sack of crabs, thatmeant for everybody. But if some guy wouldunload two sacks in the night and we found outabout it, he didn’t unload anymore sacks. Hewas finished. And they’d have him floatingdown the river because they felt if there’s apiece of bread we’re all going to eat it. And you aren’t going to eat the whole loaf. No way. Andthat’s the way it went.
I’ve seen many men stabbed in this locality. Inthis locality, where we’re taking this picturenow, was nothing but lumberyard and dumps.And I used to hunt birds there and so forth. Andmany times we’d go fishing with my father. It was on a Saturday or Sunday. And I would see aman laying in the street and maybe he wasstabbed to death. And my father would hit us akick in the rear, keep moving. You didn’t seenothing. You don’t know nothing.
So they used the same method that they wereusing there. Underground and try to make itjustice of their own. See what the regularexpression was, take the law in their ownhands.
Organized crime became automatically linkedwith Italians. The movies, the newspapers, thebarroom jokes have hammered home themessage. It was not always fair, but Americawas a promised land for crime as for everythingelse. And some Italians came well equipped toprofit from it. But if they ever had a monopoly,it didn’t last. By the time Las Vegas was anotorious mob haunt, in late 1940s, there were plenty of non-Italians who found that crimedidn’t pay forever.
Las Vegas has become the gambling capital ofthe world. Just as the Italians can’t stop beingidentified with organized crime, neither can Las Vegas itself.
People, as long as there are people, will alwayslink Vegas, or gambling, with organized crime.And there is no way that you’re going to tellthem anything different. And I know whatthey’re getting at. Have you seen any Italian‘hoods around? Oh, is there any of them aroundhere? Well, how did you get your job? I earnedmy job. I worked hard for my job. And I think Icame a long way in the 10 years that I’m here.
As far as organized crime, or anything being inLas Vegas in 20, 25 years ago, that was true. Asfar as today, if it is here, if in fact it is here, I havenever seen it. There may be hotels in town thatdo accept it. I don’t know. I have no way ofknowing. I don’t want to know. It’s none of mybusiness. I make a living. That’s all I’mconcerned with. I don’t harm no one. I don’twant no one to harm me.
As far as an element being here, if it’s here, fine.If it’s not here, fine too. What annoys me iswhen anyone says organized crime, or the wordthey use mafia, right away there is an Italianname hung onto it. OK fine, there may beItalians involved in it. But I’m sure there’sothers involved. Why always they make out anItalian to be an animal? When someone saysthat to me, and they better have the door openwhen they say that to me, if they mean it, or even in jest, because I’m very proud of being anItalian. Very proud of my heritage.
Let us not forget that the Italian-American hasbeen an asset to this country that we built it with our backs brick by brick. We didn’t steal it.We didn’t burn it.
The Italians resent the view that otherAmericans have of them. They have formedanti-Defamation leagues to guard theirreputation. They have organized ralliesdemanding their acceptance as goodAmericans.
Boycott those who call us mafia. Hurt them in the pocketbook. On July 4th we will buy nonewspapers and July 5th we will buy nonewspapers at all. We need your support. That’swhat’s wrong. Everybody who wants to use usfor a tool. Well, the comedian is done. The toolusing is finished. And if you, the Italian-Americans do not band together and work foryour Italian-American bretheren then youdeserve what you get. You deserve to stay at thebottom of the totem pole. This is not an anti-American crowd. This is Italians wanting theirplace under the sun.
The Italian peasants, particularly here in theWest, the ones who were resourceful,ambitious, and industrious, whose husbandrywas impeccable, went ahead and had a goodlife. The ones who, in addition to that, hadcunning, and that extraordinary endowment ofthe peasant, of the acquisitive man, but whenthe peasant has it cunning is something elseagain.
When we came in from fishing, we’d haveplenty of fish on the boats. And we had to stayon the boats or the seagulls would eat the fish.They’d take it away from us. And we had to stayin the boat and we put a little charcoal fire andcooked our meal on the boat. And I’m talkingway back now where we had none of this bigrestaurants on the wharf. And we had a littlecioppino. Buy a cioppino, we get a couple ofpotatoes, a piece of fish in a tomato sauce, andcook it on this charcoal fire. We tied a piece ofstring on a jug of wine and threw it overboard tokeep it cold in the water. The fumes of thiscooking went up on top of the wharf, and somepeople were looking down. There’s one thingabout the Sicilian, he’s got a big heart. And weinvited some of these people down. And theystart eating, by the time they ate all up. Wesays, well wait a minute now, some guy got abrain idea. And a Sicilian says, well jeez, if weput a restaurant here, maybe it’ll go.
The brain idea went with a bang. And today thewharf is a tourist wonderland of restaurantsand other attractions. The Italians made theirmark on the west coast. AP Giannini foundedbank in San Francisco called the Bank of Italy.It’s immigrant customers prospered. So did thebank. Today, it’s called the Bank of America,and it the largest in the world. By 1920, theItalians were the largest immigrant group in SanFrancisco. As the west grew rich, they were busyturning their immigrant dreams into Americandollars.
The garbage business in San Franciscodemonstrates the classic American dream ofrags to riches. San Francisco is the only majorcity in the world whose rubbish is cleared byprivate companies. The people who run, andwork in it, are mostly Italians from the North.The early immigrants became rag pickers out ofsheer necessity. Today their descendantscontrol a multi-million dollar industry. AJ Campi has seen this happen in his lifetime. Hisfather was a rag picker.
I went out with my dad one time collecting. Andthis lady came to the door and he tipped his hatand she knew him. She went back to get themoney. Meanwhile, her son come out and hejust bawled my dad back and forth. And calledhim dirty dago and a lot of different names. Andmy dad didn’t say nothing. I was boiling. I wasabout 12, 13. And when the lady come out andpaid him, my dad tipped his hat and says, thankyou, and he walked away. When we got downthe bottom of the stairs, I says, dad, I says, doyou take that? He says, forget it, he says, I gotthe money.
The Genoese are known as people of very hard,industrious workers. They’re very frugal.They’re very conservative. In other words, theyused to– this is a slang term I’m using– they used to say they’re the Italian Jew are the Genoese people. And the industry being what itwas, hard work, long hours, not too much pay,they went at it. I can recall my dad cominghome at 10 o’clock at night sometimes. I canalso recall that at noon my mom and I wouldhave a big pot of soup and meet my father up in the corner lot and give him a little soup and alittle wine, and then him go on to his work.
Our Italian heritage goes back to the day whenno one else wanted the business. We’ve stayedwith it. And we’ve tried to create the sametraditions and incentives, and pride in the work.I don’t think that anyone in San Francisco todayis ashamed to admit they work in the garbagebusiness. Years ago, it was a case where therewas some say, ethnic prongs put out and say,well, you’re Italian and you’re a garbage man.You have a strong back and a weak mind, andthat’s why you’re in the business.
You might go down the street and see nine or ten garbage companies, which was a horse and a wagon picking up garbage in the same block.So the Italians said that, well, why should tentrucks pick up the garbage in the same streetwhen one could do it more efficiently. So theyformed together this cooperative. And puttogether this business, which was called theSunset Scavenger Company.
All of a sudden the world, I say the world, notSan Francisco, but the world realized thateveryone makes garbage, whether they’reCommunist, socialistic, or capitalistic.Everybody makes garbage. It touches everyhuman being in the world. We changed thename to Solid Waste Management. And I thinkthat our company is very proud of the fact thatwe’ve been instrumental in developing thesystem, primarily through experience,knowledge, and really a gut feeling for theproblem of garbage. And relating thatexperience to the city officials, and in turn,we’ve worked together to develop what wehave today.
It was all those poor people that turned around and came over here and just worked andworked and worked and work. I think that’swhat made this country successful. It wasn’tjust the people that were here. Because a lot ofEuropeans came over here and they had a lotmore brains than the American people had. Andthey made a lot of places and changes in thiscountry. But they all did it by hard work. That’sall they knew. They didn’t know anything else.
Nelu Ferrarri has come a long way from theslums of San Francisco where he was broughtup. Today, he has his own motor repairbusiness. He soon learned about America. His parents found it more difficult.
They figured America was a golden place. Sothey came over here in 1912. And they figured they were going to make nothing but money.But they didn’t. My father was a truckman forthe Southern Pacific. And my mother was aseamstress. And they both had to work just tomake a living. He said that over here was twiceas good as over there. Over there it was real,real bad. They didn’t have this, and he went towork when he was nine. The whole story, poorpeople all over Europe. He always told us, wewere lucky we were eating. Things were rough,blagga, blagga, blagga. So we didn’t say anything. We weren’t allowed to say anything.You were seen and not heard. That’s the way it was.
And the big excuse was I don’t have aneducation. You don’t need an education. Justdon’t have to have an education to make adollar. All you got to do is work. But in thosedays there their big excuse was I didn’t have aschooling. I only went to one, two years inschool and my father threw me out. And I thinkit reflects back to their father. What their fathertreated them like Italy, they treated us overhere. That’s what it seems. It was run down theline.
They lived by a code that was a lot of malarkey.We have to abide by it until we can get out of there. And that’s what I did, I got out of there.When I was a kid, I used to watch mechanicswork on cars. They wouldn’t let me near them.And I used to think, look at that guy, he fixedthat car. Maybe he only made $20, but $20 to uswas big money, right. So I turned around andthought, well if he can do it, why can’t I do it?That was my theory.
I seen too much hardships and I figured I didn’twant to sit there making $40 a week. I wantedto make $80 a week. So that’s what I did. I usedto work eight hours a day in a gas station, andthen work eight hours at night for nothing in amechanic shop in San Francisco. He didn’t giveme a nickel. But he told me he’d teach me thebusiness. And that’s what I did. And that’s how Ilearnt it. And that’s why I’m in business today.
To this day, or until the day my dad died, hewould never let me touch his car. Even though Iknew I was good at it. He wouldn’t ever let metouch it. That’s my son, I don’t want himtouching my car. Til the day he died, nevertouched his car once.
Nelu got ahead by rejecting much of his Italianbackground. Many Italian Americans see this asa danger. [SPEAKING ITALIAN] San Franciscohas its own television programs for Italianssponsored by local Italian businesses. Theprograms are run by people who are trying tokeep alive in America the traditions of theItalian community.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
Alvaro Bituci, a high school administrator, runsthis show in his spare time. The Italian soccerresults come by courtesy of a local pizza house.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
There is always a message from the local priest.The language is Italian, but the audience isAmerican. Al Bituci realizes that the twocultures are not yet reconciled.
An immigrant, or a first generation, has a choiceof what he wants to be. He could either runaway, go to the Italian ghetto, and becomeItalian. And become quite influential in thatenvironment. Or he could run to the otherextreme and become, I hate to use the word, anAnglo-Saxon with an Italian name, manychanged their names, and become American.Or you can choose the difficult road of being inthe middle. But hopefully you get the best fromboth sides. You’re not one of either one, but youget the best of both, and, I think, it makes you abetter individual in the long run.
The Bituci family live Italian style. Threegenerations share the same house. And Italianis the only language permitted at home. And itwasn’t fair game.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
When I’m with Italians, at times they say, wellyou’re Italian. I say, no, I’m not. I’m anAmerican. I was born here in the United States.And yet, with the Americans, where I want to beaccepted as an American, I’m not really 100%accepted. I remember not too long agospeaking to an educator saying, I’m sorry Al,you’re a great person, but I’ve been brought upagainst unions, against Catholics, and againstItalians. It is just as simple as that.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
In Italy, the family, the son, the daughter, very,very close. And maybe no good. No good. InAmerica, I don’t know.
She says that in America people tend to thinkabout themselves first. Where the Italianbackground, or Latin background, it’s thefamily. The pressures come from all over,especially those that have not become involvedwith other communities or other races. Buthopefully rather than they educating us ofbreaking away from our past, I hope that wecan educate them to see the good qualities ofhaving all the differences and keeping our owntraditions and cultures.
I’m proud of being Italian, but that doesn’tmean that I’m proud of what I was, or how I wasbrought up. I’m proud of what I made myself. Iwon’t eat any pasta. Forget it, I had that stuffedin me since I can remember, and I don’t want it.I just hate the stuff. The priest’s got everythingto eat. Priest come into the door and they weregone. And you knew it’d happen, if there wasany good stuff the priest got it. Right now, weeat more American stuff in our house. If that’swhat my son wants a steak, he gets a steak.What the hell? That’s the name of the game.Which, if I wanted a steak, I’d have gottenprobably a clock in the head.
Anyone that really strives hard, in all colors orcreeds, really wants to make it, they can.Because it is a country, economically speaking,and so on that, you can get ahead. But then ithas to be the push from within. And I think thisis one thing that Italians have. Be it in theghetto, or wherever, the push from the family,the sticking together. And I had this from mymother and father.
A neighbor of the Bitucis, Selena Cerquetinni isabout to make her first visit to the village inItaly where her father and grandmother camefrom. She was born in San Francisco, but stillfeels Italian.
The people that see me, the first thing they’llsay, you don’t look like an Italian. I’ve alwaysfelt that I do look like an Italian. And I speakItalian, so, right there, there shouldn’t be anyquestions. My sister’s mother-in-law was therejust before she passed away. And she said shewas really surprised they do still live the way,because it’s so remote from the big city. That’ssomething I’ve always wanted. I’ve wanted togo from the time I was about 13 years old. Ican’t wait.
Lena had only two days in Rome. She was on ahectic package tour of Europe. But she wasdetermined to find the time to drive the 200miles to her village. The tourist attractionscame first.
Around here I can tell that they are muchsharper people and really out to make a buck asfast as they can get it. They’re not at allembarrassed about asking the highest pricethey can possibly get for things. I did ask forCoca Cola in English. And I heard him say inItalian to the bartender to charge us so muchbecause we were touristas. So I knew werebeing taken, but we were so thirsty.
Lena has no family left in [INAUDIBLE], the tinyvillage which the Cerquetinni’s left over 60 yearsago, but the house is still there. And so are thetenants who have lived in it since her family leftfor America. Lena became the absenteelandlord. So the visit of the americana is veryimportant to the tenant, Olivio Olivanti
It’s more beautiful than what I expected, butItaly has got to be the worst country aboutripping people off. I mean, they practically stealthings right off of you. And I know we werewarned in the hotel about our passports rightaway when we got there to put them in thevault. Don’t carry them around in the streets.
Olivanti’s wife is also concerned to make a goodimpression. She and Olivio have lived rent freefor years. She doesn’t understand that theAmerican’s visit is largely sentimental.
I think I could picture the house. The stonewalls and it’s like a village.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
I didn’t expect to see anything new or modern. I was surprised to see such a modern bathroom.And I noticed a freezer in the house, which wasa surprise. They have a little freezer.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
He mentioned the fact about that property, buthad we decided to sell or what was going on.And I told him, we aren’t sure yet because wejust lost my father and that would have to behandled through the estate now whatever. Shewas more concerned about it than he wasabout this property. To make sure when I gothome to get them started.
[SPEAKING ITALIAN]
These people have been earning some kind of aliving. And not caring enough to paint theirhouses, if nothing else, at least to brighten uptheir little village. If you’re going to have to sitthere and look at walls, you’d think you wouldwant to brighten them up and clean up thearea. I think it’s laziness too. Just closing downand taking a siesta for four hours. I can’t believethat. When you’re missing out on earningmoney. You have American money, you want tospend it, and you can’t spend it because herethe shops are closed. I mean, what is it? Is itlaziness or the I don’t care attitude? I mean, it’sjust unbelievable.
I just wanted to see it and now I feel I’msatisfied. I have seen it and I can understandwhy my father never wanted to come back.Because he had a better life really in the UnitedStates.
I’m real happy my dad came here. That’s whyI’m here. I don’t how I would be living in Italy.Ever since I was a kid, all I’ve ever heard it wasnothing but a disaster area.
So far as we knew, none of our ancestors hadever ventured farther than his legs could carryhim. We had always lived there. We alwayscontinue to live there. And the only move thatwe were certain to make was to join ourancestors in the cemetery one mile away. So faras I was concerned, and all my classmates inthat community, the possibility of rising aboveour birth was so remote actually as to be non-existent.
