Imagine making the excruciating decision to leave your family. Spending all of your meager savings for a one-way ticket. Enduring a physically exhausting journey in cramped and putrid conditions. Arriving in a land where you don’t know anybody and don’t know the language. Imagine how bad conditions must be to make that decision.
Ultimately you decide to come because hope outweighs the fear. You hope to find work despite uncertainty and discrimination. You hope to find a safe place to raise a family. You hope for something better than the violence, unemployment, and poverty of your homeland. You hope for a better life.
This is the story of America. This is also the story of what my Italian-American grandfather, Gaetano Rossi, endured 110 years ago to come to the US.
Gaetano was born and raised on a sharecropper farm in southern Italy. In return for working the farm, his father and uncle received less than half the product to split among their families. The landlord took the remainder. Gaetano never went to school. His father needed him in the fields.
In 1913, at the age of 21, Gaetano decided to leave that life of poverty for the US. He endured a ship ride in steerage, then entered through Ellis Island, similar to 3 million Italians between 1900 and 1914. The next year he was recruited to serve in the Italian military by agents who lured him with a free trip and the chance to see family. Gaetano went, not knowing he wasn’t compelled to go. Fortunately for him, one of his jobs in WW1 was taking care of an officer’s horse, away from the worst of the fighting. My uncle used to tell a story that when Gaetano was discharged in 1919 he was offered a suit, a trip to America, or a “cannon”. He took the trip, grateful for a second chance.
After a few years, Gaetano sent for his fiancé, Anna D’Angelantonio. My grandmother arrived in 1922 at the age of 20. She married my grandfather before leaving Ellis Island. Together, my grandparents had 5 children – 4 boys and a girl who died at age 3. Unlike Gaetano, Anna attended school for a few years and could read and write. She learned English and taught her husband how to sign his name.
When Gaetano arrived back in the US in 1919, he kissed the ground, made the sign of the cross, and vowed never to return to Italy. Gaetano never broke that vow, even in his later years when his sons tried to convince him to visit family. He thought he was being tricked again and didn’t want any part of it.
By that time, Gaetano knew plenty about being taken advantage of as a poor illiterate immigrant. Over the years he was in and out of work in the steel mills northwest of Pittsburgh. He took a few turns buying drinks at the bar for the boss and his friends in order to get hired. It worked one time. Another time it didn’t, and he lost the little money he had saved with nothing to show for it. After becoming a citizen in 1929, he voted Republican because the boss did, thinking that would let him keep his job. After 40 years of work, he was cheated out of his small pension by a failing corporation and an ineffective union. Through it all, he cultivated a garden of tomatoes, beans, and lettuce, as well as grapes for wine, knowing that the family at least had food if he was out of work.
Because of the decisions he made and the suffering he endured, Gaetano was able to give his children and grandchildren a life he could not have had. My father, Ernest Rossi, the third child, was the first in his family to go to college. He went on to receive a PhD, become a political science professor and chairman, and associate dean at a university. My grandfather often remarked that his son went to work in a white shirt. To Gaetano making a living without sweating was a remarkable achievement.
My grandfather’s story isn’t unique. My Irish, Swiss, Belgian, and German ancestors also immigrated to the US. Little is known of them beyond names and dates, with other details lost through the generations. But they could easily have the same story as Gaetano with the same struggles and hopes. Your great-grandfather or great-great-grandmother could easily have the same story as Gaetano. In fact, unless you are one of the 3.7 million people (1.1% of the population) whose ancestors were all in this land before the Europeans or one of the roughly 44 million (13%) descended from Africans who left their country in chains, stories like Gaetano’s are why you are here.
Let me repeat – some version of Gaetano’s story is the reason most of us are in the US.
Today’s immigrants come to the US for the exact same reasons as my grandfather. They come to escape violence, starvation, and persecution. They separate from their families, enduring horrible conditions along the journey. They gladly take jobs that nobody else wants, while facing daily discrimination. They clean buildings, care for your elderly parents, and work in construction and roofing – today’s versions of coal mines and steel mills. They endure this great sacrifice for the chance of a better life and for their children.
While my grandfather’s story is one of determination, struggle, and decisions, success was not a foregone conclusion. His story – my story – where I am today – was only possible due to luck, timing, and geography. Luck – because he could have understandably given up and returned to Italy like many others, or been injured in the war. Timing – because he didn’t have to break rules to get a chance to come here. Timing – because a few decades earlier transatlantic transportation was not as affordable or common. Geography – because if he had been born in China, to name one specific case, coming to America would have been forbidden via the Chinese Exclusion Act. Geography – because if he had been a Native of the Americas, his life might have been restricted to a reservation.
Gaetano’s story – and all of our stories – are impacted by policy. Policy that decides winners and losers. Policy that in Gaetano’s time let immigrants come to this country and become citizens with few restrictions. Policy that a decade ago determined that Afghanis and Haitians and Hondurans could come to the US because their lives were in danger, but today forces them to leave, security be damned. Policy that last year said your green card or work permit or student visa allowed you to live a valuable, productive life that helps the community, but today revokes these legal documents at will. Policy that means that even with papers, you can be taken from the street, deported, or sent to a faraway prison with no explanation or recourse. Policy that today says if you have 5 million dollars, the door will be wide open for you regardless of where you are from.
These policies are heartbreaking and infuriating. And I don’t mean only the policies of the current administration. Immigration policy was broken long before that.
Immigrants are real people. Real people like my grandfather and grandmother. Real people like your ancestors.
I can’t help but wonder what Gaetano would think of today’s immigrants. I hope he would want them to have the chance he had. I hope he would have compassion for immigrants in the exact same situation as him. I hope he would forgive that sometimes you have to bend the rules to save your family. I hope he would say that today’s immigrants aren’t hurting him, rather, they are helping society. I hope he would say that America is better as a melting pot.
And I hope he would be proud of me for working with immigrants, for helping them secure status, obtain work permits and green cards, and become naturalized. I see every day how hard it is, how determined people have to be. I see women like my grandmother who aren’t hurting anybody, but instead are often the victims of crime. I see men like my grandfather break down in tears when the paperwork finally arrives, after waiting decades for their claim to be processed.
For those that would argue that immigration is all well and good, but immigrants just need to wait in line, I would encourage you to understand the immigration process beyond the sound bites. I would encourage you to understand LPRs, DACA, TPS, and U-Visas. I would encourage you try to complete an I-485, I-130, I-864, I-918, and I-765. I would encourage you to see if you can pass the background checks and invasive questions. I would encourage you to see if you know enough American history to pass the Naturalization test. All while working multiple jobs, caring for small children, learning the language, and trying to stay under the radar.
If you do nothing else, read this analysis on why legal immigration is so difficult.
I have few memories of my grandparents. Nana died before I was born, and Tata died at age 80 when I was 6. I do remember the summer Tata stayed at our house in Michigan. I remember him speaking Italian with Dad, baking bread every day, and pitching the baseball endlessly to me and my brother in our backyard. There wasn’t much for him to do when Dad was at work. He couldn’t drive and our community had few Italian speakers, still he wanted to stay at our house. He would tell my father that “any place you go is America” – meaning it doesn’t matter where you live because every place is good. There is opportunity and freedom that doesn’t exist in Italy. Even when times were bad, Gaetano’s favorite toast was Sempre cosi e qualche volte piu meglio. “May it always be like this and sometimes even better.”
This country needs sound, fair immigration policy. This country needs policy that has compassion for those here for decades, who have built a life, who are part of our communities, and who want nothing other than to work and raise their family. This country need policy that allows new immigrants to come here much more easily. We owe it to our ancestors.
But beyond that, we need immigrants to keep the country strong. If not, we are going to find out soon enough what the country is like without them. The country has relied on foreign-born labor throughout its entire history. Today is no different.
Immigrants made this country better. They did in Gaetano’s time. And they do now. Let’s make this country welcoming for them.
References:
Rossi, Ernest E. “Any Place You Go Is America.” Italian Americana, vol 29, no. 1,2011.
Traficante, Tony. “The Great Arrival and the Dawn of Italian America.” October 8, 2019.
Library of Congress. “The Great Arrival.”
David J. Bier. “Why Legal Immigration Is Impossible for Nearly Everyone.” CATO Institute. June 13, 2023.
Center for Immigration Studies. “Historical Overview of Immigration History”.
American Immigration Council. “How the United States Immigration System Works.” June 24, 2024.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Resistant to Reform? Improving U.S. Immigration Policy Through Data, Evidence, and Innovation.” August 28, 2024.
Wikipedia. “Native Americans in the United States”.
American Ancestors. “Introducing the 10 Million Names Project.” August 24, 2023.