Have you ever wondered about your grandparent's history and how your family ended up living in America? I have an Italian mother who makes the best food I've ever touched my lips to, and that alone made me wonder about my heritage. When I found out she had lived in Italy for a year and a half as a child, I felt like I had to leam how her family immigrated from Italy to America.
A couple years ago I asked her how her familyhad come to live in America. Since I knew that my great-grandparents had always lived in Italy, I knew it wasn't them who came to America. I asked her to tell me the story of how my grandparents, Theresa (Ma) and Ezio. first met.
It all began when my grandfather, who was born and raised in Italy, was drafted into the Italian Army during World War II. He served in Africa where his job was to drive a truck at night distributing supplies to the soldiers. Unfortunately, he was captured by the Americans and brought to Boston where he was held as a prisoner at Columbia Point (the current location of the JFK Museum). Later he was moved to Peddocks Island in Quincy Bay. He performed many different jobs on the island. My grandmother was the daughter of an Italian immigrant family living in Oorchester. They had a great admiration for the prisoners who protected their beloved country, Italy. My grandmother never lived in Italy while she was growing up. but she often visited there with her mother. Because of their great love of these prisoners, they would wait for two hours on the dock in Hull each week for the ferry to pick them up. It brought them to Peddocks Island to visit the Italian Prisoners of War. That was where my grandmother met Ezio. She visited him with her mother every weekend, and eventually they fell in love.
Although the Italian Prisoners were treated very well, they felt as though they were overworked. Ezio was moved to Arkansas for protesting that he and the others were too overworked. My grandparents continued writing to each other every chance possible. As time passed, they fell deeper and deeper in love. Ezio's job in Arkansas was working in the swamps and cutting down trees. It was difficult and dangerous work. When the war was over, the Italians were sent back to Italy. They still wrote to each other. Ma was fluent in Italian, French, and English, and studied these languages with JFK. She had no trouble writing letters to Ezio at all. Eventually. Ezio asked Ma to marry him. She accepted, but her mother insisted they wait a year before she journeyed off to Italy. She wanted to make sure they were truly in love. A year later Ma arrived in Milan, Italy, where Theresa Josephine Cotta and Ezio Dante Cotta were married.
They later returned to America and started a family including my mother Judy, her older brother Billy, their younger brother Johnny, and the two youngest twin girls. Mary and Anne. They lived in a triple decker in Dorchester with Ma's parents and brother. To this day, that house of many generations still stands. It still has a wine cellar where my blind great-grandfather (Nono) made wine.
Unfortunately, I never met my grandfather Ezio, but I've always told my mom how much I'd love to have met him. In all the pictures of him, he looks so handsome and kind. My mom has told me that he was such a kind man and very talented too. He was a self taught man who didn't have a college education but was so creative that he invented part of a Polaroid instant camera (the SX-70).
He died at age fifty-five, long before I was born. Even though I didn't know him, I love him very much. Two years ago. I visited Peddocks Island with my family. We learned a lot about the Italian prisoners there so we could get to know him a little. I was lucky enough to meet Theresa, my grandmother, but she died when I was two. I don't remember her, but I do remember when she used to hold me on her lap in her wheelchair. . . And the Rest Is History .
There is a really important lesson to be learned from this true story. It's about the journey that my grandfather took. He had bravery and heroism to come to a new country against his will and the courage to protest against being overworked. Later he left his family in Italy to start a new family in America. If you believe in yourself and try hard enouqh, you can get to any place you want. I think my grandfather believed that to be true as well.
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