Two Days in the Life of Canio Nannariello

Prologue

In the latter part of the 19^th century and the early part of the 20^th century, millions of Italians emigrated from Italy and immigrated to the United States. For each immigrant it  was both an event of limited duration and at the same time was a life time effort, searching for a new life and for evolving dreams. This is the story of one of those immigrants and the enormity and impact of his first two days in the United States.

On Monday, May 9, 1921and Tuesday, May 10, 1921, Canio Nannariello, an  Italian from Calitri, Italy takes a broad life changing stride out of the 19^th century reality of Italian life in Calitri, Italy and a new step into the early 20^th century reality of life in White Plains, New York in  the United States. Millions of immigrants from Italy and many other countries in Europe and the World took that giant stride in that year.

He will be twenty years old in a few weeks, on May 31, and will have his first birthday celebration in the United States. Significant efforts have been made for the  Reader to  feel and understand the times and locations and circumstances and experiences of Canio for these two days. Efforts have been made to consider Canio’s reflections and thoughts on the circumstances of his journey and to get to understand what he is thinking and feeling and experiencing during these two remarkable days.

In this ancestrycalitri.com website initially published on May 26, 2023, Canio is one of the main characters whose individual story is part of the more complex Ancestry stories of Canio’s parents and his siblings and his future wife, Angelina Passarella Nannariello and her family. Canio will never see Italy and Calitri again. For most of the two thousand and more immigrants on the SS Patria traveling to New York City from Napoli on that day, it is a one way trip to a new life filled with hopes and dreams and significant life style changes. It is noteworthy mentioning that two and a half million Italian immigrants entered the United States in 1921.

The initial plan was to write the story using the literary nonfiction genre, also referred to as creative nonfiction. Literary nonfiction provides the opportunity to tell a nonfiction story using various literary nonfiction crafts requiring extensive research, creativity, imagination, interpretation, making reasonable assumptions, personal opinions, re-imagining, and more research. The literary nonfiction genre is particularly inviting as a means of storytelling and narrative expression when there is a shortage of oral history and firsthand accounts, and provides an opportunity to be creative within the bounds of reasonable truth and facts. However,  rigorous research was available for enhancing the literary nonfiction genre. There are no oral history sources available for Canio’s story of these two days that occurred more than one hundred years ago. Again, there is a robust effort to enhance the story by describing the time, place, detailed locations, background and the events.

The story of these two days in the life of Canio Nannariello are intended to be both a “video” showing the sweep of Canio’s life during those two days and some idea about his life before and after those two days. Also, the story is intended to be “snapshots” that highlight macro and micro facts of what happened during these two momentous days and the rest of Canio’s life. The story reflects on the enormity of the two days through Canio’s point of view. We can only try to look over the shoulder of Canio’s life and flip the pages back about one hundred years from this distant 2023 vantage point and get a literary nonfiction view of what happened in 1921.

In this story, Canio is not identified as ‘Charlie.’ which is the name given him after arriving in America and which he used the remainder of his life. Following is a speculative explanation of why and how he got the name Charlie. Charlie’s five siblings all had names that are easily translatable from Italian to their American counterparts. Grazia became Grace. Antoinetta became Antoinette. Lorenzo became Lawrence. Rosa became Rose. Leonardo became Leonard. The name Canio comes from the Patron Saint of Calitri, a Black Catholic bishop initially called Canius. It was the name given to Canio in respect for his maternal grandfather, Canio Martiniello. In America and shortly after Canio arrived, there is speculation, though no oral history, that somebody Canio worked with or worked for during his early days in America, thought he needed an American name. He became Charlie simply because his name started with the letter C and is not translatable to an English counterparts. No one really knows.

There is a quotation appearing on the first page of the ancstrycalitri.com website stating: “We are all responsible for being good ancestors.” Profoundly simple and true. Canio was a good ancestor and he did his very best. Cano in his lifetime made heroic efforts to maximize his opportunities and demonstrate a simple and steadfast focus on family, home, work, and country.

Please enjoy reading and exploring “Two Days in the Life of Canio Nannariello.”

Monday May 9, 1921 at 4 AM on the SS Patria

The day is Monday, May 9, 1921 at 4 AM. It is the 129^th day of the year and Canio Nannariello stands on the deck of the SS Patria approaching New York City Harbor. He is surrounded by people, but is alone. It will be his first day in the United States. Canio will spend the next 236 days of this year in the United States and the remainder of his life in the United States, which is about 24,500 days. Canio stands near the railing and searches the eastern vista looking for the sun to break through the horizon to greet this new and significantly special and beautiful day.

Canio is approaching twenty years old and is rather tall compared to the more typical height of Calitrani men. He acquired a nickname of “Paglia Lunga” or “long straw” among some of his friends in Calitri. His hair is straight and at this early age, the forehead has receded slightly. He has deep blue eyes, which are not typical of the dark hair and dark eyes of many Calitrani men, including his father, Luigi. His father has a full head of dark hair in his fifty seventh year. Two of his sister have hazel eyes and all have taken some genes from the Martiniello family and their mother, Francesca Martiniello. Canio is well spoken, but probably not the first to talk or to dominate a conversation. He has taken on some of the social and personal traits of his father, a work-at-home calzolaio or shoemaker, who is self-employed and spends endless hours alone at his trade sitting at a bench and cobbling. Canio is a private person and slightly and pleasantly introverted. These traits will continue for all of his life, along with both his diligence and hard work ethic.

The SS Patria traversed the Atlantic Ocean from Naples, Italy to New York City in eleven days and covered about 5,600 miles. Canio stands at the rail on the port side of the ship, reflecting about this voyage from Naples and his first time on a ship. The eleven days at sea are in many ways both physically and mentally some of the most demanding and stressful days of his life. Canio is both excited and relieved the voyage will be completed before the end of this day. His thoughts are about the miserable conditions in steerage and the food and the foul air below deck in the ship has made every day unpleasant. It appears that he was living these days in slow motion and each day seemed endless. Canio has never been on a ship before and he recalls the unpleasantness of being sea sick for a few days, starting with the second day on the ship. Many passengers were seasick and the situation and condition in Third Class steerage was not pleasant and became worse as the voyage proceeded. This morning it is pleasant standing on the deck of the ship on this last day at sea. There is a refreshing breeze and his single piece of luggage lies by his side.   There is excitement in the expectation of being in New York City harbor in a few hours.

After arising early this morning, Canio put on his only suit which he last wore on his first day embarking in Naples on the SS Patria. It is wrinkled from being buried in the one piece of luggage he carries. After awaking this morning in steerage it is a challenge to find any space or a flat surface to try to make the suit presentable. He is nervous and concerned that the odors that engulf steerage will permeate the suit. Canio packs his one piece of luggage and moves through the crowd that was awakening from their bunks in steerage. He maneuvers up four decks of the seven decks on the ship. The deck was dark except for some minimal ship lighting with small dim bulbs. The wind is significant and pleasantly cold compared to the moist dank air of steerage. Canio sniffs the suit and it appears presentable and not smelling foul.

A message on the ship announcement system yesterday was made multiple times in Italian and English, explaining the Statue of Liberty is on the left or port side of the ship for those who want a better view. The ship will arrive in New York Harbor very early in the morning, but no specific time is identified. Steerage passengers are alerted they will not be able to go back to the lower decks and must be on the deck with everything they possessed no later than 7 AM. Canio is up before 4 AM to beat the crowd and to acquire a favorable position on the deck. His early arising did not beat all of the crowd but joined many of the steerage passengers who had the same idea. The approximately two hundred First Class and Second Class passengers had a more deliberate procedure and would have breakfast in one of the multiple dining rooms and view the New York City skyline and harbor from an enclosed area.

There are about 2,400 passengers on the SS Patria and apparently many of them are now filling the decks from the rails and flowing back to the ship structures and the entrances. All are waiting to view the immensity of the New York City Harbor. Canio is sympathetic for the families with children and a lot of luggage,and the challenges to vacate steerage and have breakfast and be on the deck at such an early hour. Canio looks again to see half of the sun peaking above the horizon at about 5 AM. He gazes for a long while as the sun passes above the horizon and fully embraces the Eastern sky. The arrival time is well planned.

Yesterday, in a casual conversation with an Italian sailor speaking with a Napolitano accent, Canio received the following explanation. The various emigrant ships arriving in New York carefully plan their arrival by speeding up or slowing down the night before, to time the arrival at the mouth of New York City Harbor in the early daylight hours. Emigrant ships, which is what this ship was called, want to be first or one of the first to arrive in the morning. This would enable the ship to be assigned a tugboat and get to an early berth on the West Side of Manhattan. Canio understood the advantage of the ship being first to disembark and get its passengers to process through Ellis Island. Canio looks up and the sky is now entirely painted with daylight and the distant New York City skyline can now be perfectly seen on this beautiful cloudless day. The temperature in New York City will be about 70 degrees.

Canio Reflections on Leaving Calitri on April 27, 1921

Canio departed from Calitri for the last time on April 27, 1921 from the house where he was born on Via Immaculata Concessione 48. The temperature in Calitri at 8 AM was about 40 degrees. He carries a single suitcase. He is 19 years old and the fifth of the six Nannariello siblings to immigrate to the United States. The train from the Calitri Railroad Station to take him to Naples arrives about 9 am and departs after possibly a brief 20 minute stop. Canio and his Father Luigi and Mother Francesca and sister Rosa have all arisen early in preparation for Canio to be transported down to the Calitri Railroad Station. The train will take Canio to Naples and the port where the SS Patria awaits for the boarding of more than two thousand passengers over a period of two days starting on April 26.

The moment has come to depart from Via Immaculata Concessione 48. Canio embraces his mother at the door and is overwhelmed by the reality that he is actually leaving. Francesca hands him a mass card from the La Chiesa di San Canio with a colorful  representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Francesca holds Canio for a long while before releasing him for the last time. Then there is the final goodbye and the last touch and the tears begin to flow from both.

Canio and his father Luigi and his sister Rosa walk down the end of the cobbled stone pedestrian street in front of their home, to the street where Luigi has arranged an automobile  to take them to the railroad station. The railroad station is 1500 feet below the top of the mountain they live on, which explains the pleasantly cool summer days and the damp and often cold winter months. At the railroad station there are not more than ten passengers waiting to board the train with Canio. Luigi puts his hand into Canio’s hand and gives him a warm embrace. Rosa holds Canio close and her tearful eyes express what she is not able to express in words.  They have experienced these partings before. Rosa shall be the last to immigrate in another four years.

Canio needs to arrive at the port in Naples to board the SS Patria later this day or the following day at the latest. The SS Patria departs the next afternoon for the eleven day crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to New York City.

As the train pulls away Canio watches his father and Rosa waving goodbye. He holds this position until the train pulls around a bend in the track and the railroad station and Calitri disappear from sight. He has about a six hour journey to Naples. Canio carries a bag his mother has prepared with some pecorino cheese, a small bottle of wine, a few tangerines and bread and prosciutto. He is not thinking about food, but is thinking about the fact he may never see Calitri again. He may never see his mother and father again.

In Naples Canio transfers from the train to a bus taking passengers to the Naples port and to the berth of the SS Patria. Canio has several hours of processing and medical checks and is directed to four decks below the Main Deck. He could never have imagined the conditions of the sleeping area provided and the food service provided. He accepts that he must dig deeply into the reserves and resiliency his father taught him over the years to accept the circumstances that he is given.

Reflections on Letters from the Immigrated Nannariello Siblings

During his eleven days on the SS Patria, Canio has much to think about his journey and reflects on the many events leading up to his immigration. Canio recalls sitting around the table in the kitchen with his mother and father and sister Rosa and his brother Leonardo at the end of a day when they had received a letter from Grazia or Antoinetta or Lorenzo. They always waited for the evening hours and would share a bottle of red wine. Francesca would open and read the letter in her soft almost musical voice. Luigi would enhance his enjoyment of the wine with walnuts or tangerines or both. All the letters were usually several pages written on one side and were read slowly. Comments were made usually by Luigi and Francesca, and occasionally their children would have a comment.

Now on the ship, Canio has no recollection of any of these letters providing any details of the voyage across the Atlantic. The references to the ship and the voyage were minimal. Canio now wondered why they ignored speaking of the dirty and unpleasant circumstances of the steerage and the endless nights below deck. With a more realistic assessment of the life on the ship, possibly Canio would have never made the journey. The first of these letters began with sister Grazia after she arrived in American in May 1907. Canio was only 6 years old and the letters were beyond his understanding. As the years passed and additional immigrations occurred it was part of family interest and business as to what was happening in America to the Nannariello siblings. There was an emotional connection with America.

On occasion after the letters were read, Canio would sit alone in his bedroom and wonder whether at least one of the siblings should remain in Italy to tend to the needs of their mother and father. The topic was never raised or discussed over the years as the immigrations proceeded with Luigi and Francesca being more alone with each immigration of a child. Canio wondered what his parents would do if they were seriously sick or in their advanced age could not take care of themselves. Again, this was not a topic that was discussed. Now, with Canio immigrating and Rosa inevitably the last to leave possibly in a few year,, the fact of Luigi and Francesca being by themselves was more of a reality. Canio struggled with these thoughts and reflections. He never discussed it with his siblings and he wondered what their thoughts were.

Reflections on Donato Nannariello and the Immigration Plan

Canio spent many daytime hours on the SS Patria sitting and walking on the deck and reflecting on aspects of his life. It was always difficult finding a comfortable place to sit because passengers in steerage crowded the decks during the day seeking sunlight and fresh air and relief from the confinement of the lower steerage decks. When it rained, they must all return to steerage or in the hallways or in the eating area. There was a day when Canio sat on a pile of tarps providing some comfort and reflected on some concerns that cluttered his mind. He felt the cumulative growing tension of this eleven day voyage. He thought about the challenges facing him, considering his disappointment and remorse that Uncle Donato Nannariello died last year, on January 24, 1920, before Canio had an opportunity to meet him. He would never meet or know Uncle Donato, who was very much a part of the life of the Luigi Nannariello family. Luigi described Donato as generous and wise and Canio wondered who would replace his generosity and wisdom in America. Canio considered his mother and father providing him the pursuit of the dream of immigrating to the United States and being greeted in the hands of Donato.

For many years, Donato wrote letters to Luigi that arrived regularly at about one per month or so and once received were read and re-read and discussed many times. A year or more before, Donato was very welcoming about receiving his next nephew, Canio. There came a time that the discussion evolved as to whether it was Canio or Leonardo who would immigrate next. Donato’s unfortunate passing at a very early age accelerated that discussion and Canio was relieved when this development occurred. He had trepidations about immigrating at that time, but did not reveal his concerns to his mother and father. However, Canio revealed to brother Leonardo his decision that he would be glad to let Leonardo immigrate before him even though Leonardo was younger. He made the offer with generosity, that he privately would prefer to wait. They approached their father together to share the idea of Leonardo immigrating next. Luigi was initially surprised about Canio’s generosity and surprisingly agreed, but only after a several days of deliberate and quiet consideration. Luigi made the decision that Leonardo would immigrate next. Leonardo immigrated from Naples by ship and arrived in New York City on December 11, 1920. Canio would have another short five months to manage his concerns and trepidations about immigration.

Canio’s sister Rose, the last of the six Nannariello siblings to immigrate, had an arrangement to marry Giuseppe DeCosmo who she grew up knowing in Calitri. She had no interest in an immigrating plan unless it included Giuseppe. It would take another three years before Rose and Giuseppe would be married; have a daughter, Michelle, who died very young; and then decide to immigrate together in 1924. The fact Rose was married made her decision to immigrate inevitable, but Rose and Giuseppe counseled with Luigi and Francesca and received their blessing. So, there on the deck Canio reconsidered the reality that six Nannariello siblings would immigrate and leave their mother and father behind and alone. The plan for the immigration of the six Nannariello siblings was complete and now it was all in the execution, and much of it planned by Donato over many years. However, the plan did not include Luigi and Francesca immigrating.

Canio Wears a Special Gifted Wool Sweater

During the voyage, Canio wears a grey wool sweater that buttons up the front and has a high and snug collar. He wears the sweater every day on the deck in the cool and sometimes cold air. Those few days when it is warm on the deck, he hangs the sweater over his shoulders or wears it without being buttoned. The sweater is a gift from his father. In Calitri for many centuries, a significant number of sheep have been raised along the hillsides and in the pastures of the mountain top village. Raising sheep is one of the significant agricultural industries. The shearing of the sheep begins in March and occasionally earlier if the weather is mild. It is always done with a concern for the lambing that occurs over the next few months following the shearing.

Soon after the shearing of the sheep, the abundance of the wool finds its way to various shops and homes in Calitri where the process continues to culture the wool into yarn. Very often the same women who create the yarn will make custom clothes and blankets and rugs. Francesca had this sweater made for Luigi many years before. It was crafted by an older women who lived several houses away on Via Immaculata Concessione. Luigi gifted the sweater to Canio several days before his leaving for Naples and commenting “Your Uncle Donato has spoken of the cold winter days in New York. You shall be warm.” Canio had admired the sweater, but never imagined that one day it would be his. Now he wears and cherishes the sweater as be brings it across the ocean to a new country.

Reflections on Life As a Passengers on the SS Patria

The lower decks of the SS Patria are naturally cool during the evenings, but the mass of people sleeping in steerage in very close quarters raises the temperature so the air becomes stifling and uncomfortable. Canio learned, as many others did, that it is advisable to go to the upper decks during the day as much as possible to get fresh air. In the evening hours steerage passengers have limited access to the decks.

In Canio’s many conversations walking around the deck, the most familiar greeting is “Where are you from” and the follow up question is “Where are you going to in the America.” From these conversations Canio learned of the hopes and dreams and aspirations of many people who seek a new life. Canio considers it is unfortunate that Italy does not provide more opportunities for the more than two thousand emigrants from Italy on this ship.

Most of the passengers on the ship are Italian because of its embarkation in Naples. Canio heard some unfamiliar languages spoken and some unfamiliar Italian accents. Italians from Southern Italy or the Mezzogiorno or the Italy south of Rome, flock to Napoli to immigrate because of its location. Northern Italians are more attracted to Genoa.

Canio can immediately identify if an Italian-speaking person is from his region of Campania or not. He knows the people from Napoli have a distinct Italian dialect that is different from Calitrani Italian and the province of Avellino, of which Calitri is a part. Also, there are many passengers from the Molise region which is the region adjacent to and northwest of Campania. On several occasions Canio traveled with his father to small towns in Molise. The railroad that passed east and west through Calitri has a major terminal in Foggia in the east of Italy. This is one of the main lines that goes due west to Naples and passes through Calitri. Immigrating Italians from the West coast of Italy would travel west by train to embark on ships in Napoli to go to the United States and other countries in South America.

Reflections on Donato Nannariello and Luigi Nannariello Immigration Plans

Canio walks the deck of the SS Patria alone recalling that for most of his life, when he was old enough to comprehend, there were discussions by letter between his father Luigi  and Luigi’s brother Donato. The topic was often about efforts for Luigi’s children to immigrate to the America with assistance from their Uncle Donato. Donato and Luigi are the last two of eight children of Lorenzo Nannariello and Antonnia Cerreta Nannariello. Donato was born in 1874 and Luigi was born in in 1868. The six years difference in age between Luigi and Donato seemed to enhance their lifetime bond. Luigi cared for his younger brother when they were younger and when they were both older they were best of friends.

Among the family, Donato was always unique in terms of his ambitions, conversational skills, penchant to learn all types of disciplines, and his personal high physical and intellectual energy. He read several books about the United States at a young age that inspired him and he acquired a passion for America and wanting to immigrate there. At a very young age going to America was his dream. Donato married Vincenza Toglia and they immigrated to the United States to Tarrytown in Westchester County New York in 1894. He was quickly successful in business and buying land and eventually producing a family of eleven children, the first three probably born in Tarrytown. There is little known about the facts of his business acumen. Thisis particularly true because the success happened so quickly and he died so young.

Donato’s passion to immigrate was contagious to Luigi Nannariello who shared his dream of immigrating, not for he and his wife, but for his six surviving children. Donato did not like what was happening in Italy in terms of politics. quality of life, limited opportunities, and particularly the challenges if living in the Mezzogiorno or Southern Italy. Donato was the enabler for this joint immigration plan and Luigi was the father committed to giving his children a better life. By way of continuous letters initiated by Donato the plan evolved that Luigi’s children would immigrate through their joint efforts. Unfortunately, when Donato died in 1920, three Nannariello’s had immigrated and the plan for Canio and Leonard and Rosa was in the planning stage. Canio knew that his immigration was a product of the good efforts and workings of his Uncle Donato. He reconsidered the fact that his being on the SS Patria in 1921 was part of a grand plan by Donato and Luigi that was more than ten years in the planning and execution.

What Canio could not know sitting on the deck of the SS Patria was that in 1931 and sponsored by all of the Nannariello siblings, Leonardo Nannariello returned to Calitri. He was supported by the shared goal of all the siblings of convincing Luigi and Francesca to immigrate and join their children in the United States. Leonardo was not successful in that effort. Several months after Leonardo’s visit to Calitri Luigi died on October 6, 1931. Francesca eventually had psychological and mental issues and died on November 17, 1935 in Naples. One can wonder: what greater sacrifice could parents make for their children than providing an opportunity for immigration and a new life. Luigi and Francesca would never see their children again, nor their approximately twenty grandchildren born in America.

Canio Getting Seasick on the SS Patria

Canio was not able to eat in the first days of the voyage. By the end of the second day of the voyage, he was seasick and could not get out of his bunk. Many other steerage passengers shared the same experience and it was an unpleasant situation being in steerage. He was in bed all day and the next day was still not well, but not as sick as the day before. He had no desire to eat any food and drinking water was a challenge. Canio tried to see the ship Doctor who was hardly ever available and people would wait in long lines to receive the Doctor’s limited care. While waiting in line many people would get sick and begin to wretch and soon others would follow. Through some good fortune, Canio managed to see the Doctor and was given a single white pill and told to drink several glasses of water. Within an hour of taking the pill, Canio lost what little he had in his stomach. Within a day he was no longer sea sick and did not have the constant headache or dizziness. However, there was a significant issue of not feeling quite himself for the remainder of the trip.

SS Patria Enters New York City Harbor

The SS Patria approaches the entrance to New York Harbor and the land on both sides of the harbor entrance appears very close, but is tantalizingly unreachable and unknown to the immigrants on deck. As the SS Patria proceeds deeper into the harbor, Canio sees on the port side Staten Island reaching out to the entrance of the harbor, and farther down the port side is New Jersey. Looking down the harbor is a distant Statue of Liberty; and straight ahead is the panorama of the New York City skyline with many high rise buildings. On the starboard side is Long Island and the Long Island Sound and farther down a distant Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge. Canio, along with the many immigrants around him on the deck, sees this panorama, but they do not know the geography. They are overwhelmed by the vastness of the expanse.

A few Italian speaking sailors mingle among the immigrants and make efforts to identify some of the unfamiliar places and provide their unfamiliar names that are not easily translatable to Italian. So Brooklyn, becomes “brewk-leen” and Manhattan becomes “Mahn-hot-tune.” The sight creates great physical and emotional reaction to the many observers on the deck of the SS Patria.

The SS Patria is greeted by a tugboat and slows down to almost a halt as it proceeds through New York Harbor. The many people on the deck instinctively applaud the tugboat and the symbolism of the first contact with the United States. The tugboat is on the port side of the ship and Canio sees two men from the tugboat enter the gangway of the SS Patria and climb a very steep ladder. The captain from the tugboat will work with the captain of the ship to maneuver the SS Patria safely through New York Harbor. A sailor explains to some of the crowd, the SS Patria will be directed to a berth on the West Side of Manhattan. The passengers will disembark from the ship and go by barge to Ellis Island. This is a lot to grasp and understand by the immigrants who are trying to absorb the scope of the skyline and the harbor and the significance of the moment.

Viewing the Statue of Liberty in New York City Harbor

The SS Patria approaches very close to the Statue of Liberty and there is excitement and a very distinguishable buzz of voices among the expanse of people on the crowded deck. There are tears on many faces, including Canio, and then a spontaneous and contagious round of applause when the ship came abreast of the Statue of Liberty and the applause continues. The ship appears to slow up a little and everyone is delighted at the sight. The First and Second Class passengers all move to the port side in their enclosed windowed areas and their special deck areas and join in the applause. Canio is amazed by the immensity of the Statue of Liberty. Every immigrant on the ship understands the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty and for many who watch, there is either a spoken or unspoken thought, “I am in America.” Seeing the Statue of Liberty has validated their arrival.

In the one year of 1921, two and one half million Italians emigrate from Italy to the United States. Almost eighty per cent of them enter the United States by way of New York City. Most of them were preceded by relatives who made their heroic trips years earlier and created opportunities for others to follow. They all came by ship. Some arrived in New Orleans or possibly Boston, but so many arrived in New York.

Historical Perspective on the Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty stands 151 feet tall from the base and the pedestal is 154 feet tall for a total of 305 feet. There are 154 steps from the ground floor of the room inside the statue to the crown in the head of the statue. The crown has windows and a platformed passageway permitting visitors to look out to the harbor and New York City. The major part of Liberty Island is in New Jersey and part is in New York, as the result of judicial decisions and final Supreme Court decisions announced many years ago. The Statue was given in 1886 by France to the United States as a gift in a belated celebration of the centennial of American Independence in 1876. The planning and the construction and the financing in France took ten years longer than originally planned. The statue was dedicated in October 28, 1886 with President Grover Cleveland attending. The statue was designed and built in Paris by the architect and sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The metal frame work was built by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. The pedestal was built by the United States to specifications provided by France. The Statue is on Liberty Island and is not far from Ellis Island, and both islands inhabit the mouth of the Hudson River.

As Canio stood on the deck of the SS Patria observing the Statue of Liberty, he could not have imagined on that momentous day and his first day in America, that in 1986 his name would appear on a plaque in “The American Immigrant Wall of Honor.” It simply records: “Canio Nannariello Italy.” All of these thousands of plaques are inscribed with the immigrant name and country of origin. This program was setup many decades later as a means of raising money to support the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island which became  a joint National Park. Inside the statue, a plaque was added in 1903 and is engraved with words from the poem by Emma Lazarus written in 1883 and called: “The New Colossus.” The opening lines of the poem could not be more outreaching and welcoming to the hopes and dreams of the millions of immigrants who made the journey, as Canio and his fellow immigrant passengers did this momentous day of May 9, 1921.

 “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

History of the SS Patria Steamship

The SS Patria is a steamship that is 487 feet long and about 12,000 tons and was built in 1913. When fitted and configured as an “emigrant ship” it carried 2,240 passengers of which 140 were First Class, 250 in Second Class, and 1,850 in Third Class, also called Steerage. Starting in 1920 and before the Second World War, the ship transported many thousands of emigrants from Italy to the United States. Consider that more than twelve million Italians immigrated to the United States and many millions from other parts of Europe. One can hardly imagine the number of ships and the number of voyages that were needed to support that migration. It was one of the largest immigrations ever organized.

Steerage passengers are separated into sections for single men, married couples, and children. Single women were strictly segregated from all other passengers. During the First World War SS Patria was reconfigured to adapt to packing in several thousand troops to transport American Troops to and from Europe. . The ship was reconfigured again around 1919, when it was decided to use the ship to transport emigrants from Europe to the United States. This new reconfiguration was not done with a priority of providing comfort and space, but to maximize the number of immigrants to accommodate. However, a significant effort was made to improve the First Class and Second Class accommodations.

The steerage eating accommodations are very long tables in a narrow room and benches

along the tables. There are no seating arrangements and it is first-come type of service. The conditions are compromised to feed a lot of people and not in terms of comfort and facilities. The immigrants traveled in crowded and often unsanitary conditions in the lower decks. It was not uncommon for some steerage passengers to spend a significant portion of their voyage crossing the Atlantic seasick in their bunks. Most steerage passengers had never traveled on a ship before and it was common to be seasick. Conditions varied from ship to ship, but steerage was normally crowded and dark and damp. There are limited sanitation facilities and people were sick, and this often combined to make the steerage dirty and foul-smelling. Rats, insects, and disease were common problems.

Canio on the Deck of the SS Patria

During many days of the voyage, Canio walks the deck and sits on benches when the weather permits. It is a better alternative than being down in steerage or in the limited areas made available to steerage passengers. Canio has difficult challenges dealing with the stench and dirt and filthy conditions in the bathrooms. He can only imagine how his mother and father would handle such a voyage. Canio thought more than once, that had he known how the ship conditions were, he may never have immigrated. He could have stayed in Calitri and worked with his father as a shoemaker. Sometimes he found the voyage literally unbearable and wondered why his immigrated siblings had not spoken of the conditions in their letters to their mother and father.

The Third Class steerage passengers are not allowed in the First Class and Second Class areas. However, through windows and observation of the First Class deck areas, Canio has some idea of the comfortable conditions that were denied the steerage passengers. The First Class passengers have special area of the deck to walk and enjoy luxurious lounge chairs. One day Canio passes the open door of the dining room for the First Class passengers and can hardly believe how sumptuous and clean and large it is. There is not one restaurant in Calitri having such a dining room and certainly not with electrification. Sometimes it was much too cold or raining to be on the open deck and many of the steerage passengers hover in hallways or stair landings rather than deal with the steerage conditions deep in the bowels of the ship.

Starting the Ellis Island Immigration Processing

What became the Ellis Island of 1921 and its large processing center for immigration, was initially a very small natural island that was increased to about 26 acres through landfills and reclamations over many years. At one time the island was a military outpost called Fort Gibson. Ships requiring immigration processing would arrive at one of the many berths on the West Side of Manhattan. The immigrants in steerage disembark the ship with their luggage, and are put on barges and take a short ride to Ellis Island. First and Second Class passengers have a special and expeditious immigration process that occurs on the emigrant ship and they do not have to go to Ellis Island.

The processing through Ellis Island can take three to nine hours depending on the number of emigrant ships docked and the number of immigrants on a particular day being processed through Ellis Island. When immigration capacity is exceeded by the number of ships in the harbor, the ships remain berthed in Manhattan until time is available for the immigrants to leave the ship which could be the next day.

Canio is exposed to many languages on the ship and in the immigration center. Many of the immigration inspectors speak multiple languages and are backed up by interpreters. Canio recognizes the Italian language spoken with the accent of his province of Avellino. Also, he recognizes some unfamiliar Italian accents and cannot identify their source. He does recognize a Sicilian accent by one of the inspectors. A Sicilian had come to live in Calitri with a relative and never departed and never lost his unique accent. Canio knew him and therefore knew that accent.

Canio and his fellow immigrants are advised when departing the ship for the barges to Ellis Island, they must always watch and move their luggage. For many immigrants this is stressful. Canio has one piece of luggage, under the advice from his father and a neighbor who had once traveled to New York. Canio was advised not to overpack and advised “You can buy what you need when you are living in in New York.” However, Canio saw many people with two pieces of luggage and many with small children who had to be guided and in some cases carried. For them too much luggage or too heavy luggage was a burden for the long and endless inspection lines. May 9^th is a warn day and the mass of people in the room in which the processing begins pushes the temperature too uncomfortable high levels. There were preliminary medical inspections at the embarkation port of Naples and medical inspections were conducted on the SS Patria. Those who failed medical inspections are not allowed into the United Sates. This is the final medical inspection.

In the Main Building, Canio arrives at a line in which the immigrants are given a “line inspection. ” In the line inspection, the immigrants are split into several single-file lines, and inspectors do a rigorous check for any visible physical disabilities. Each immigrant is inspected by two inspectors: one to catch any initial physical disabilities, and another to check for any other ailments that the first inspector did not notice. In a second inspection line, Canio is asked to leave his suitcase, which he does with some trepidation. He is directed to walk a short distance under observation, and then to walk up a flight of stairs and return. Other inspections are made of Canio’s eyes and mouth. The lines are long and the checking process is deliberate and time consuming, and there is the need to move your luggage along. Canio is both tired and hungry. He continues seeing families carrying too much luggage and having tired children, many of the smaller ones needing to be carried.

Canio notices that a man in a black hat in front of him is approached by an inspector who writes with a piece of chalk a large bold single letter “F” on the man’s jacket. Canio does not know that a chalked single letter identifies a medical issue, such as “E” for eyes and “B” for back , and in this case an “F” for feet. These various codes single out the individual as having an issue that makes them possibly not qualifying for entry to the United States. The inspector moves on past the man with the black hat and the chalked “F” letter on his jacket. The man in the black hat begins an animated discussion with several of his immigrants friends. He then proceeds to take a bottle of some liquid from his luggage and with a wet handkerchief diligently rubs the chalk until it disappeared. He does this while surrounded by his friends in line to prevent any inspector observing. Later in the day when immigration processing is completed, Canio sees the enterprising man in the black hat gracefully entering the United States as he disembarks from the returning barge. Canio admires the man creatively dealing with his problem and getting rid of the “F” for a life changing decision.

These various medical inspections are managed by inspectors, guards, interpreters, and clerks maintaining and updating hand written registers. It is all very efficient considering the endless thousands of people being processed. An immigrant in line speaking Napolitano Italian advises Canio they were fortunate because there was another ship that entered the harbor shortly after the SS Patria. They were fortunate to be first.

Completing the Ellis Island Immigration Processing

Canio waits in line in the Registry Room for further interrogations conducted by the U.S. Immigrant Inspectors to determine if each newcomer is eligible for admission. In addition, any medical certificates issued by physicians are considered. Aside from the U.S. immigrant inspectors, the Bureau of Immigration work force includes interpreters, watchmen, matrons, clerks and stenographers. Immigrants who pass the initial inspections spend two to three hours for these final interviews. They are asked a few dozen questions, including name, occupation, and the amount of money they carry. The government wants to determine whether new arrivals will be self-sufficient upon arrival, On an average they want the immigrants to have between $18 and $25 US dollars. This would be worth between $565 and $785 as of 2023. Also, some immigrants are given literacy tests in their native languages, though children under 16 years of age are exempt. The determination of admissibility is relatively arbitrary and determined by the individual inspector.

According to long standing myths, immigrants are unwillingly forced to take new names or modify their names, though there are no historical records to support this idea. Rather, immigration officials simply used the names from the manifests of the steamship companies. These served as the significant immigration records for those entering the United States. Records show that immigration officials often actually corrected mistakes in immigrants’ names that were made on the manifests.

The long day continues as Canio completes the immigration processing and he is now in the process of being released among the approximately two thousand steerage immigrants on the SS Patria. Canio returns by barge to the Manhattan West Side area where he can officially enter the United States and be met by his friends and sponsors.

Canio can now say to himself that he has arrived in the United States.

Meeting Leonardo Nannariello and Lawrence Nannariello

Canio and so many others that day of May 9, 1921 complete their approval process at Ellis Island. That includes the approximately two thousand two hundred immigrants on the SS Patria. All are physically and possibly emotional exhausted by the required process, but this is a momentous day at its conclusion. The barges used to ferry the immigrants to Ellis Island are filled up to return to the special disembarkation pier in Manhattan. About 4 PM Canio stands on Manhattan for the second time in one day. Italian speaking guides direct them to the exits from the berth area where the immigrants will be welcomed by family and friends.

Canio’s carries his suitcase and it seems heavier than it was earlier in the morning, but he is no longer tired. A huge crowed surrounds the exit gate and many hold signs with the names of the person they are waiting for. Canio continues walking and moves closer to the crowd, but he suddenly stops for a moment to search the sea of faces and signs. Then he sees two hands above a head holding a very bold “Nannariello ” and it is rather close to the front of the crowd. He walks toward the sign and sees standing next to the man holding the sign his brother Leonardo. They run toward each other and both are in tears as they share a large hug. Leonardo repeats many times “Canio” and hugs Canio multiple times. At the same time the young man holding the sign arrives, hugs Canio and introduces himself as Lawrence Nannariello. He is the oldest son of Donato Nannariello at 21 years of age. He appears older than his years, possibly having assumed a lot of responsibilities since the death of his father over one year ago.

Leonardo has many questions about the voyage and Ellis Island; and he make some comments about his going through the immigration processing less than a year ago. Lawrence grabs Canio’s luggage and guides the three of them toward the street. Canio is attentive to Leonardo’s comments, but is overwhelmed and distracted by the buildings and the cars and the people and the sounds. They escape the crowds and get to the street which is crowded with many cars passing by and going very fast. Lawrence waves at an automobile and it stops in front of them. The automobile is yellow and looks like no car Canio has ever seen among the few cars that arrive in Calitri. Leonardo explains to Canio that the Yellow Cabs patrols all over New York City and can take passengers any place in the city. The three of them got into the back of the Yellow Cab and Lawrence insists that Canio sit on the side so he can better see out of the window.

As they drive through the busy streets, Lawrence explains to Canio they must drive to a train station and then take a train to White Plains. Canio looks out the window to see what appears to be thousands of buildings and thousands of cars and thousands of people in the streets. He sees glass-fronted stores with an endless variety of items behind the glass, many of which he is not able to identify. Canio half gasps when they pass one street and looking up he see a train passing above their heads and traveling at a tremendous speed. Leonardo tries to explain the idea of elevated trains inside of New York City and explains they do not have them in White Plains. Leonardo asks Canio about their mother and father and an update on anything and everything new in Calitri. Canio carefully looks at Leonardo and though Leonard has only been in America for less than a year, he sees a lot of change in his face and certainly in his clothes.

Catching the Train at Grand Central Station

The Yellow Cab arrives at Grand Central Station. Canio is slightly overwhelmed by what he sees and hears during his first taxi ride. Lawrence explains to Canio that Grand Central Station is the largest train station in the world. Canio looks up at the massive structure and then the buildings around it. He has seen some photos of New York City before, but the reality is literally overwhelming. The three of them walk into the station and down a flight of stairs that provides a view of the massive Main Hall and people walking across the floor in all directions. Canio imagines all of the people in Calitri could be put inside the main station. Lawrence and Leonardo provide a continuing narrative of what Canio is seeing. Canio is overloaded with sights and sounds and information that too often is not comprehended well when translated into Italian.

Lawrence explains their arrival at Grand Central Station is timely because they can catch a train in a few minutes. They walk across this main room of Grand Central Station and enter a gate. They continue down a broad ramp that is rather dimly lighted and enter a tunnel of concrete and stone. Canio sees many tracks with many trains and the trains are all lit up on the inside. It is amazing to see all of this and rationalize it is underground. Lawrence guides them to enter a train on the same level as the platform and the three of them sit in two seats facing each other. Canio takes a deep breath and recalls that he woke up at 3 AM this morning and carried his luggage from steerage to the deck to see the sun rise. He saw the Statue of Liberty! Processed through Ellis Island! Now he sits in a tunnel full of trains! He is in America!

Canio has stepped into a new version of the Twentieth Century that cannot be imagined!

Taking the Train to White Plains from Grand Central Station

The train pulls out of Grand Central Station and begins moving through the tunnel and going north to White Plains. Looking out the window, Canio can see other trains passing, some going in the same direction and others going in the opposite direction. He is bewildered. For a moment he thinks he will get dizzy from the inexplicable movement of trains and lights. And after what appeared to be ten minutes or so, the train bursts into the sunlight and eventually is above the streets below. The streets are filled with people and cars and there are endless buildings on each side. The train is at the same level as what appeared to be the second or third floors of building after building.

Leonardo and Lawrence understand this is a time to be quiet and provide Canio the opportunity to calibrate what he is seeing. Leonardo has seen all of what Canio is seeing for the first time, less than a short year ago. Minutes and miles later the busy streets below and building become transposed to lovely fields of green with many trees and a river wandering along the railroad tracks. The train stop at five or six towns and people get on and off the train. Canio listens as Leonardo and Lawrence explain what they are seeing. The train stops at places with unfamiliar names like Bronxville and Tuckahoe and Scarsdale. Most of the people exiting and entering the train are traveling to and from New York City and live in the suburbs. Canio could not know or imagine that he would work for more than thirty years in a diner in Scarsdale starting during the Great Depression. Lawrence explains they are traveling north of New York City and they will soon be in White Plains. They continue to ask Canio details about his voyage and his experience on Ellis Island.

Arriving at White Plains Railroad Station

The White Plains Railroad Station was completed by the New York Central in 1915. It is a large and grand railroad station for a city like White Plains. The inside of the building has the feel and architecture of a very small version of the New York Grand Central in New York City. This new station was built in conjunction with the New York Central Railroad line being redirected from several blocks west of its original path and raised above ground level. The building of the new station triggered the development of Railroad Avenue which evolved into the central shopping area and eventually was renamed Main Street. The grade and tracks were raised so the trains cross a bridge over Main Street and other streets, rather than intersect with the local streets. Abutting the New York Central bridge that straddles Main Street, is the three-story building at 21 Main Street that Donato and Vincenza Nannariello built and where Canio Nannariello will sleep his first night in the United States.

Leonardo and Lawrence and Canio stand for a long moment at the front door of 21 Main Street. It is a three-story frame building with a store and café on the ground floor that is operated by the Nannariello’s. The entrance to the floors above the street level is a single door leading to a steep flight of stairs. The building stands erect next to the New York Central Bridge. The predecessor to this building was there before the bridge was built in 1915. One wall of the railroad bridge is literally next to the building. Lawrence  approaches Canio and gives him a generous embrace. Before the three of them enter the building, Lawrence simply says as his eyes watered, “On behalf of my father Donato, we welcome you to our home and welcome you to the United States.” He continued, “I wish my father was here to greet you, but God had other plans for him.” Canio felt the enormity of what Lawrence had spoken.

Leonardo moves Canio in the direction of looking up Main Street which is east and explains that tomorrow they will walk Main Street from one end to the other. “You will see sights that you could not have imagined in Calitri.” Lawrence explains that his mother Vincenza and his brothers and sisters await them. It has been a long day for Canio since he has arisen before the sunrise over the Atlantic this morning.

Canio Meets Vincenza Nannariello and Her Eleven Children

They proceed up the narrow stairway towards the first flight. Standing at the top of the stairs is Vincenza Nannariello, a short women with graying hair parted down the middle with a bun at the back and a lovely and gracious smile. She provides a quick and warm smile and waits at the landing with outstretched arms. Canio reaches out and in the emotion of the moment he becomes tearful. Vincenza hugs Canio multiple times.

Vincenza guides Canio into the kitchen and to a long rectangular table. The table has generous amounts of cheeses, prosciutto, olives, beautifully crusted Italian bread, and  bottles of wine. They all sit at the table and there is much in the way of conversation and questions and laughter. A main topic is Canio’s mother and father and what is happening in Calitri. There is a great interest by Vincenza hearing from Canio about his voyage and the ship. Canio responds carefully and avoids sharing how much he disliked many aspects of the voyage and the ship. Donato and Vincenza have gone through this routine of welcoming four of Canio’s siblings over the past ten years. Glasses of wines are poured and Vincenza offers God’s blessing that Canio is here in their home and safe.

Vincenza tells Canio she wants him to meet her other children. She calls down the hallway. Obviously, the children have been instructed to wait until Canio met their mother and had an opportunity to relax for a while. The first two children appearing at the kitchen door are five year old Florence and seven year old Grace, both exposing shy smiles and initially some hesitation to approach Canio, who stands waiting for them. Canio embraces them and asks their names and ages. Then 18 year old Mike who has a resemblance to Lawrence appears and gives Canio a big hug. Then there is an avalanche of children crowding through the hall and offering handshakes and kisses. Canio is overwhelmed. There is Teresa at 18 and very pretty; 16 year old Mary who had an obvious resemblance to Vincenza; Joe is 15 and Louis is a year younger than Joe. Then there is 12 year old Donato, named after his father and is called by his middle name of Anthony; John is 9 years old and identifies Canio as “Cousin Canio.” They all speak with interest to Canio and alternate between English and Italian. They soon correct themselves to speak Italian to accommodate their new cousin Canio. The home language is a mixture of Italian and English, but a lot of English is spoken to the children by Vincenza.

Canio is overwhelmed by the bright smiles and the hugs and the kisses and handshakes and his tiredness disappears. Everyone joins around the kitchen table and literally fills the kitchen. Lawrence opens the bottles of wine and partially fills many of the

non-matching glasses. The younger children are given glasses of cider. Then Vincenza speaks: “I drink this toast to Luigi and his wonderful wife Francesca, for sending us their son Canio. Now we have Grazia and Antoinetta and Lorenzo and Leonardo and Canio. We are blessed.” Then she speaks of Donato’s dream that his brother Luigi’s children would one day all be here. She speaks with tearful eyes, but never loses control. Vincenza continues by saying that her hope is one day Luigi and Francesca would be able to come to the United States. When Vincenza finishes speaking she raises her glass to drink and says “God bless Canio.” And spontaneously many of the children rush to touch and hug and shake hands with Canio again.

Canio is overwhelmed and moved by the greeting. Vincenza puts her hand on Canio’s shoulder and strokes it multiple times, and announces that now it is time to eat. Several of the children help Vincenza as she prepares dinner which had been cooking on the stove. Lawrence and Leonardo grab Canio’s luggage and walk with him to the third floor. Each floor has several rooms and each room has two or three full sized beds. Canio learns that he will sleep in a bed with Joe. No one has their own bed. Canio has the opportunity to open his suitcase and put some of his clothes on a table and make use of water and soap and a towel on the table. He looks into a faded mirror and sees a very tired young man.

Everyone returns to the kitchen and Vincenza is ready to serve the linguini with a deliciously pungent smelling tomato sauce that has been cooked for many hours. Two benches are pulled from against the walls to the table and a few chairs appear from the other rooms to be placed at the ends of the table. The older children populate the chairs at the end and the younger children sit on the benches, Canio is flanked by Aunt Vincenza and Leonardo. In the center of the table is a large bowl with meatballs and sausages and pigs feet and braciola, and all bathed in the wonderfully pungent tomato sauce. Plates are filled with linguini and those within reach can select meat from the center bowl. The little ones are served the meat because they cannot reach and each prefers meatballs. There is endless talking in English and Italian and often the children begin speaking English and Vincenza reminds them to use their Italian. Canio is pleased that he understands the Italian that is spoken, though some of the Italian is strained and not so clearly spoken by the children. Canio tastes pasta just as his mother would cook it, and enjoys the excellent wine that flows so gracefully down his throat. He savors his very first meal in America. His days on the ship have denied him good food and wine, and now he is rewarded. He thanks Aunt Vincenza multiple times.

Reflections about Donato and Vincenza Nannariello

Donato and his wife Vincenza Toglia were both born in Calitri in 1874. They married in Calitri and immigrated to the United States in 1894, specifically to Tarrytown, New York in Westchester County. As a young man Donato had experiences that caused him to conceive  very large dreams of immigrating to the United States at a very early age. He  read a book about the United States and was fascinated by the immensity of the country and the diversity of people and their accomplishments in a short two hundred years. He learned about the history of many countries supporting the growth and expansion of the United States by “exporting” their people as immigrants. Donato’s dark and piercing eyes seldom wandered from engaging and connecting with everyone he spoke to. He was both a good speaker and a good listener. At an early age, through his engagement with older people and his commitment to reading everything he can about the United States, Donato became committed to immigrating to the United States. Before he and Vincenza married, she accepted the inevitability they would immigrate together at the first opportunity.

Donato and Vincenza immigrated in 1894 and located in Tarrytown, New York because of contacts and connections he had with Calitrani that lived in that town on the Hudson River. In a matter of less than ten years, Donato prospered and owned land in Tarrytown; had the first three of his eleven children in Tarrytown; sold some land in Tarrytown to a brewery at a significant profit; and moved his family from Tarrytown to White Plains where he again purchased land. The source and details of these accomplishments at this time is not known. He apparently was a self-employed entrepreneur and had no particular additional occupation. In White Plains, he purchased land on both the east and west sides of the New York Central Station on Railroad Avenue, which was to become Main Street. He was soon operating a café which prominently displayed his Nannariello name. Later he got into the hotel business and operating a bar on his premises. His accomplishments provide insights into his character and ambitions and he was obviously successful. All his accomplishments and large family did not deter him from a continuing plan to support the immigration of the six Nannariello children of his brother Luigi. Unfortunately, Donato died in early 1920 at 45 years of age and leaving Vincenza a young widow with eleven children.

Canio Nannariello Completes his First Day in America on Monday, May 9, 1921

After dinner Canio has a long conversation with Leonardo and Vincenza and Lawrence about Calitri and his parents, Luigi and Francesca. They are very curious and interested about the most detailed facts about what is going on in Calitri. Vincenza departed from Calitri over twenty five years ago with Donato and her interest and curiosity has never lapsed or faltered. Later in the evening Vinzenza takes Canio aside and suggests that he go to bed after this long first day in America. Canio thanks Aunt Vincenza and Lawrence and walks through the rooms shaking hands and hugging the children who are still awake. Canio and Leonardo hug and Leonardo explains that he will be back tomorrow with Lorenzo and Grazia and Antoinetta. Canio returns to the third floor room and undresses for bed and lays down. He has experienced an extraordinary day and has literally entered a new world. He is certain he will never be able to sleep this night because his mind is racing. He lays his head on the pillow and in one fleeting moment, instantly falls into a deep sleep for nine hours straight.

Canio has completed his first day in America on Monday, May 9, 1921.

Canio Nannariello Begins His Second Day in America: Tuesday May 10, 1921

When Canio awakes the bedroom is empty and the light from the single window in the room catches his eye. He realizes everyone is downstairs in the kitchen eating breakfast. He lays in bed for a long moment in this unfamiliar place and circumstances. He gets up and looks out the window and sees the railroad tracks that pass parallel and very close to the building. He hears the sound of a train and in a short time the train appears outside the window and slowly passes by. He waits until it disappears from view and he can no longer hear it. He is amazed!

He sits on the edge of the bed. He thinks of his mother and father and wonders if he will ever them again. Not knowing, unfortunately, that he never will. He wonders why these thoughts of his parents fill his mind after being away from them for only a few weeks. Possibly, it is the reality that he is the next to last to immigrate before Rosa Nannariello becomes the final one to immigrate. Canio wonders again, as he had before his immigration, why the plan did not include his mother and father. His father and Donato worked on this immigration plan for years, and yet there was never any discussion about his mother and father immigrating. Canio prepares to dress and go downstairs to join Vincenza and her family for breakfast. Canio has some final early morning thoughts about his siblings he will meet later this morning. When Grazia immigrated in 1907, Canio was six years old; when Lorenzo immigrated in 1910, Canio was nine years old; when Antoinetta immigrated in 1913, Canio was 12 years old. And now he is joining them at his current almost twenty years of age. Canio considers the elapsed years between their last contact and Canio’s youth at the time. The many years have put significant distance between their lives and the years of lost sibling bonding. He finishes with a positive thought and some confidence that with time and efforts they will resolve those missed years and differences in age.

Canio joins Vincenza and some of the eleven children in the kitchen. Vincenza offers an embrace and the children gather around or sit in place with a “good morning.” Canio is glad he has most of the names of the children aligned with the faces, though they were all new-to-him with American names. The two youngest, Grace and Flo, are particularly responsive and engaged with him as their new guest.

Vincenza explains to Canio that his siblings will arrive together later in the morning and that Leonardo has done all the organizing. Canio’s siblings all had spent their first night at 21 Main Street and many nights after that when first immigrating. Donato was there for the arrival of the first three Nannariello’s and rigorously planned each of their arrivals. Also, Donato made plans for their finding jobs and a permanent place to live. Vincenza explains to Canio, that he can stay in her home as long as necessary to adjust to his new life. She informs him, there are many jobs that he can do while only speaking Italian, because many of the workers are Italian that work in places where they will help him find work. She reassures him that he will learn English sooner then he can imagine at this time. Settling within the fraternity of ethnic immigrants, is one of the many ways that immigrants survive whether Italian or German or Jewish. They have their sponsors and welcoming families and neighborhoods and job networks. Many immigrants travel alone to get to the United States, but are not alone upon arrival. Later Canio wonders how some of the very first immigrants survived who had no one waiting for them and how enterprising they must have been.

Canio Greets His Three Siblings: Grazia, Antoinetta, Lorenzo Nannariello

Later in the morning, Canio’s four siblings arrive together at 21 Main Street. Canio is enjoying his second cup of coffee and listening attentively to Aunt Vincenza. She always speaks just a little more quietly so the listener has to be attentive to hear her. It is a communications skill she has learned from Donato. Canio imagines that Vincenza intentionally had that in mind when she spoke. Lawrence runs up the stairs and into the kitchen and his voice precedes his arrival, “The Nannariello’s are here,” he repeats several times. Canio stands and takes a final sip of coffee. In an instant the door is filled with Grazia, Antoinetta, and Lorenzo and Leonardo not far behind. They all have huge smiles and an avalanche of repetitions of “Canio.” All the initial laughter turns into tears. Everyone is crying including Vincenza. Canio is overwhelmed by the once familiar faces that he has not seen for years and now have significantly changed.

For the first time in years, five of the Nannariello siblings are together as they have not been for many years. Embracing Canio is Grazia who immigrated in 1907 at the age of 16 and now is 30 years old. Canio hardly recognizes her and particularly her clothes and makeup. They embrace as Grazia cries. There is Lorenzo who immigrated at 16 years old and is now 27 years old. He has a shock of very black hair and a very large smile and he barrel hugs Canio with his big shoulders. There is Antoinetta who immigrated in 1913 at the age of 19 and is now 32 years old. Canio vividly recalls Antoinetta leaving Calitri and their mother cried for days after she departed. Antoinetta at that time was a very mature and intelligent young lady, clever beyond her years, very helpful and dedicated to her mother and father. Canio recalled his mother often mentioned how much she missed Antonetta and her helping hands and companionship.

It appears to Canio that everyone speaks English very fast and the words seem to run together seamlessly and the language does not have the musicality of Italian. Canio thinks to himself that he will never learn to speak English. It seems to be an impossible task. There are many questions and laughter and Canio soon realizes he does not have to say much because there is so much talk around him. He listens and when needed responds to questions about Calitri and there are many questions about Mama and Papa and their health. Grazia observes with tearful eyes the fact that their sister Rosa will one day be the last to immigrate, and Mama and Papa will be alone. There are brief discussions about the need to arrange for the immigration of their mother and father.

Many of Vincenza’s children appear in the kitchen and the adjoining modest living room is crowded. Canio has seldom been in a room in a home with so many people all at one time. Meeting his siblings after many years is both exciting and pleasantly strange and he is aware there will be a process of getting to know them again. As the Nannariello siblings and their first cousins, Vincenza’s children, talk the conversation often turns to all English and unfortunately, but not intentionally, excluding Canio. Canio is pleased to listen and study their faces and mannerisms and their clothes. He tries to imagine how he will look and talk and dress after being in the United States for a few years. His imagination is not able to deal with the speculation.

Canio is aware of most of the major developments of his siblings from the letters they wrote to their mother and father over the years. Lorenzo married Flossie Ruggiero in September of 1920. He has spent part of a year in the American Army stationed in the Massachusetts. He works in various bars and has ambitions to own a bar one day. Grace married Dominic Trotta and they have three children. Antoinette married Pasquale Locatelli and they have two daughters. It is an engaging morning of talking and Vincenza provides a wonderful spread of food and drinks for lunch. Later in the afternoon, Lorenzo and Grazia and Antoinetta leave and there is departing talk about the family getting together in the next week or so. Everyone agrees it is a wonderful reunion and an appropriate introduction for Canio to the United States. After the final goodbyes, Leonardo remains and he and Canio and Lawrence sit and share a glass of wine.

Leonardo and Lawrence and Canio Walk Main Street in White Plains

The Nannariello home is on the West Side of White Plains, and is literally the first house on Main Steet. Donato purchased undeveloped land on the other side of the New York Central railroad bridge near the Bronx River. The Bronx River flows from the northern part of Westchester County and flows due south to The Bronx. The river became the defining route the New York Central Railroad followed when initially building a railroad from New York City to White Plains. A future parkway, called the Bronx River Parkway, would follow a similar route many years later. When built, the Bronx River Parkway enjoyed some fame because it is the first parkway of its kind in the United States.

Lawrence and Leonardo tell Canio they want to give him a tour of Main Street. Canio saw a small part of Main Street when they arrived the previous day from the Railroad Station. The three descend the stairs and walk into a beautiful day with the afternoon temperature about 70 degrees. Lawrence guides Canio and in front of the Nannariello home points to one of many metal poles, each with four globes of light on the top. Lawrence explains these light poles are on both sides of the street for the length of Main Street and are lit up every night. Leonardo explains the length of Main Street by referring to locations in Calitri such as the Il Borgo and the La Chiesa di Annunciata and Il Castello to give him a sense of the distance that Main Street flows. Leonardo explains to Canio that people walk the street at night when it is lit up. Leonardo explains that this afternoon they are walking the length of Main Street to show Canio the best of White Plains for shopping and eating and the Court House and many new types of shops that are not found in Calitri. They commence walking east on Main Street and Canio is immediately overwhelmed there is store after store with a variety of products displayed that he could never have imagined.

Historical Perspective on the Electrification of Main Street

What Michael did not explain and should not explain to Canio at this time is the history of when and how Main Street became electrified and how it was celebrated a few short years ago in 1914. He just wants Canio to enjoy the moment and the experience.

Electricity was introduced to White Plains many years before Canio arrived in White Plains. Electricity was initially provided to a limited number of homes and businesses and in very modest quantities. It required many years of building and investment to “wire” and electrify the city homes and businesses. This activity was occurring in many thousands of cities and village throughout the country. Everything was wired above ground on poles. Initially, everyone was happy to have a light bulb in every room in their homes and businesses. Businesses were especially delighted to light their stores to assist in selling their goods. The idea of lighting the streets at night was more the venue of large cities and it had not happened in White Plains for many years. None of the many small villages in Westchester County had their main streets lighted.

White Plains started the electrification of the streets by electrifying Main Street with iron posts and with multiple lights on top. The posts were set 100 feet apart on both sides of the street and staggered so that every fifty feet there was a pole. Each pole had four large tension power lights suspended from metal struts. People made comments later that you could read a book on this street in the middle of the night. It was amazing and incredible for the time and was a step into the future evolution of many towns and cities.

Monday September 3^rd, 1914 was set aside in White Plains for the celebration of the electrification of Main Street. Thousands of people arrived by wagon, trolley, automobile, and many on the New York Central trains. It was a festive day with over 30,000 people participating and was bigger and grander than any event ever held in White Plains. including any Fourth of July. Many of the 30,000 people got there on the New York Central train from as far away as New York City and all of the many stops on the railroad line south of White Plains. People strolled up and down Main Street, that runs from Mamaroneck Avenue on the east side to the New York Central Railroad Station on the west side, starting at 21 Main Street and Donato Nannariello’s homestead.

The parade started at 9 PM in the dark and led by Police Captain John Harmon. When the parade arrived at the Court House it stopped at the grandstand. The switch was thrown and a tremendous outburst from the crowd of 30,000 filled the air. There were 3,500 men from 15 Westchester communities including local bands and the military. The 30,000 people lined Main Street and many of the intersection streets. Many people celebrated with parties and balls in public places. Some of the crowd had no choice but to leave early, because of the limited return train schedule on the New York Central for those arriving by train. It was a grand day and a giant leap for technology and an ambitious step into the Twentieth Century.

Leonardo and Lawrence and Canio Walk Main Street (Continued)

Leonardo and Lawrence and Canio continue their walk up Main Street initially on the North side. However, they soon cross back and forth on the street when there is interest in the other side. There are literally shops after shops with an endless variety of goods. The stores have glass window fronts to display the goods available. Canio is delighted and overwhelmed by the window shopping experience. He often asks questions about the stores and wants to enter many of them. There are shops for pastries, shoes, women’s clothes, men’s clothes, pharmacies, furniture, butchers, produce, household goods, bakeries, radios, appliances, and so on. They see a “Five and Dime Store” and it takes a bit of an explanation from Leonardo to Canio about the denomination of the money and the fact these stores sell a wide variety of very inexpensive items. They stop in an Italian pastry shop and each has a pastry: Canio a napoleon, Leonardo a cannoli, and Lawrence an eclair.

Main Street is intersected on both sides with various streets. Some of the stores overflow into these side streets as an extension of Main Street where there are more stores and more shopping. Starting on the North side of Main Streets, the intersection streets are: Bronx Street, Orawaupum Street, Lexington Avenue, Brookfield Street, Spring Street, Grove Street, Williams Street, Grand Street, Court Street, and finally Mamaroneck Avenue, which ends the shopping area of that time. The downtown of White Plains grew over the years as the streets adjoining Main Street and Main Street itself had endless renovations and innovations.

There is a shop that has pictures of a car and inside the shop is the actual car. A salesman outside the store directs Canio into the store, which sells Model T Fords. Canio hesitates and Lawrence talks to the salesman in English and soon Canio is sitting in the front seat of the car and is confused in thinking the car will move. They all have a laugh and Canio shares the laughter. Lawrence translates when the Salesman explains that the car cost about $300 and is about $1000 cheaper than most cars being sold at that time. When Leonardo translates the cost to an approximate cost in Italian lira, Canio receives a good laugh when he responds in Italian, “I will buy two of them.” Of particular interest is the seventh version of the Westchester County Court House. White Plains is the County Seat of Westchester County and has earned having this grand County Court straddling Main Street. It is six stories high and commands attention with it massive Roman style column. Its grand façade and large walkways and extensive grand stone stairways, provide a venue for people to walk and sit and loiter on the benches and low walls. Canio is seeing a Main Street that has revealed a world beyond his imagination.

And so the day proceeds walking the length of Main Street to Mamaroneck Avenue. They enter into many stores and it is literally an explosion of information and insights into this new world that Canio is seeing on his second day in the United States. They stop at a small outdoor sidewalk café that serves hot dogs and potato chips and sodas from a counter bordering the sidewalk. Canio has never seen a hot dog before and did not know what it is. They sit at a table and bench on the sidewalk and Canio eats his first hotdog. He also tastes Coca Cola for the first time and likes it. Lawrence and Leonardo translate the names of stores and tell Canio how much the items cost in Italian lira. Canio repeats many times to Leonardo and Lawrence that, “Everyone in America must be rich.” They continue their walk to the end of Main Street and to Mamaroneck Avenue. Canio views Mamaroneck Avenue and sees a wide street of fine homes and no shops. He will live in White Plains long enough to see it become a shopping street and an extension and overflow of Main Street. Canio will see the day when RKO Keith’s will have its foot print at the intersection of Main Street and Mamaroneck Avenue with seating for one thousand and more and will have vaudeville on Tuesday nights. Just a little bit of New York City.

Visit to the White Plains Rural Cemetery

As Leonardo and Canio stand and talk at the end of Main Street, Lawrence wanders off and approaches a truck parked nearby and speaks to the man in the truck who is obviously a friend. Lawrence calls Leonardo and Canio over and introduces them to Rocco, his good friend. He explains they are going to the cemetery where his father Donato is buried. It would have been a long walk, but is a short ride away by truck and his friend Rocco will take them there. They pile into the truck and proceed north on Broadway which was the center of White Plains at one time, until the New York Central Railroad Station was built and started the migration of businesses to Main Street.

After a short ride in Rocco’s truck, they arrive at the White Plains Rural Cemetery. The cemetery is on the outskirts of White Plains. Its history goes back to the Revolutionary War. The west side of the cemetery is bordered by a stone wall and the Bronx River; and the east side is bordered by Broadway. The entire cemetery is laid out on a gradually inclined hill and generously populated with trees and many narrow winding dirt roads meandering around the cemetery. The truck enters the cemetery and proceeds at the direction of Lawrence through a maze of dirt roads until they stop on an inclined road, which the late afternoon sun is brightly lighting. Getting out of the truck, they follow Lawrence a short distance and finally stand together by Lawrence. He explains the headstone stone at his feet and surrounded by grass and flowers is the headstone for his father Donato Nannariello. The stone reads “Donato Nannariello 1874-1920.” Lawrence makes the sign of the cross and the others follow.

Here lays the man in his final resting place whose name Canio has heard about all of his life from his mother and father. He is the man who made it possible for five Nannariello siblings to immigrate to America; and the man who died much too young at the age of 45. and not much more than one year ago. Tragically, leaving his wife Vincenza at 45 year old a widow with eleven children. Donato immigrated at 24 years of age; arrived in America with so little and accomplishing so much; fathered eleven children; changed the life of so many others. Lawrence kneels and everyone follows and Lawrence simply says, “God Bless Donato Nannariello.” Each of them individually repeats the blessing.

Rocco says that he has a surprise and returns from the truck with a bottle of wine, a red chianti. The bottle is passed around several times as each takes a long swallow. It is Leonardo’s turn to take the last swallow. He hands the bottle to Canio for the last drink. Canio speaks: “God Bless Donato Nannariello.” He has begun the long process of learning English with two new words and very appropriately “God Bless.” They stay for a while sitting on the grass, and Lawrence shares stories and anecdotes about his father and many of the stories generate laughter. Then they must leave and all say their goodbyes privately to Donato. Canio promised he will return another time.

Return to 21 Main Street and Aunt Vincenza

Rocco drives the truck back through Broadway and then west on Main Street. Canio is seeing the length of Main Street for the second time, and for him it is equally amazing and overwhelming from this new viewpoint of the truck. He cannot imagine that he would ever drive a vehicle through Main Street with the cars and trolleys and people apparently moving about without a plan or guidance. Rocco parks in front of 21 Main Street and Lawrence thanks him and invites him to join them upstairs. Rocco has other obligations and after exchanging hugs with everyone he drives away. Leonardo explains to Canio that he is leaving and will return tomorrow. Canio hugs Leonardo and he departs.

Lawrence and Canio sit in the kitchen with Vincenza. She prepared a large meal that awaits them. Lawrence asks Canio to tell Vincenza about their day on Main Street and the White Plains Rural Cemetery. Vincenza did know they were going to the cemetery and is extremely pleased when told. Canio is animated and excited to share this new world he is seeing for the first time. He struggles to find the words to explain his experience on Main Street. Vincenza smiles continuously and enjoys listening to his stories and share his excitement. Finally he narrates about their time in the cemetery and seeing Donato’s resting place and head stone. Vincenza holds Canio’s hands in her hands. Canio shares his grief and disappointment for her loss of Donato and the fact he has not known his benefactor who made his immigration possible. He shares his disappointed not being able to share Donato’s wisdom and counsel that his father so often spoke of.

Canio is overwhelmed by this extraordinary day!

Lawrence Nannariello and Canio Return to Main Street at Night

Later in the evening, Lawrence explains to his mother that he is taking Canio outside to Main Street to observe the nightly lighting of the street which occurs sometime after 8 o’clock. Vincenza agreed it would be a perfect way to end the day for Canio. The evening has cooled and Canio puts on his grey sweater that his father had so generously gifted him as part of his departure. Lawrence selects the time perfectly so that about 10 minutes or so before the lights go on, he and Canio are outside awaiting the street lighting to greet the darkness. Again, despite the long day and with the efforts of so many to make him welcomed, Canio is excited about the lighting, They do not speak as they look east up Main Street and wait. Then in an apparent blink of the eye, the lights on top of the poles slightly flicker and then burst from the sentinel of poles filled with light as far as one can see on Main Street.

One must see this light spectacle for the first time and try to capture the magic of that moment. There is only one opportunity to see the spectacle for the first time. And Canio enjoys his first time and there will never be a first time again. Lawrence and Canio proceed down the street observing the same stores they had seen earlier in the day, but now with the magic of the lights and the reflections of the lights on the various store fronts. Canio looks at the glass fronts of the stores and sees the reflection of the stores across the street. There are people walking Main Street and certainly not in the number they had seen this afternoon. All the stores are closed. It is a time for the street and people and the stores to rest. Lawrence and Canio and turn around after walking the length of Main Street and enjoying the final view for a few blocks around Mamaroneck Avenue. Lawrence suggests to Canio they return home after this long day and Canio agrees. They return to 21 Main Street and take one last look up Main Street. Canio repeats two new words he has used many times in the last two days: “Thank you.” He has learned and spoken another two new words and is now only several thousand words away from having a working knowledge of English.

Canio and the End of Day Two in America May 10, 1921

In the kitchen, Canio expresses appreciation to Vincenza and Lawrence again. Some of the children are in their rooms and sleeping or talking. Some are in the parlor sitting on the floor and listening to the radio. Canio bids Vincenza and Lawrence a good night. Aunt Vincenza says, “Maybe tomorrow we can go to Mt. Carmel Church and light a candle of thanks that you have arrived here safely and another candle for your mother and father.” Canio agrees that he would like to do that. Aunt Vincenza’s final thought is: “Canio, I hope you find your dreams in America.” Canio kisses her on the cheek. Canio walks up the flight of stairs to his room and prepares to go to sleep and slips into the bed.

The day is Tuesday May 10, 1921 at 10 PM. It is the 130^th day of the year and Canio Nannariello is sleeping at 21 Main Street in White Plains, New York. He is surrounded by people, but is alone. It is the end of his second day in the United States. Canio will spend the next 235 days of this year in the United States and the remainder of his life in the United States, which is about 24,500 days.

Canio lays in bed thinking he will never sleep with the events of the last two days filling his head. He is physically and emotionally pushed beyond any expectation of what two normal days should be. He reflects about his mother and father and their generosity to make his immigration possible along with the efforts of Donato and Vincenza. He thinks of the impact of stepping into this new world that he could never have imagined. He wonders about his mother and father after sister Rosa immigrates, the last of the Nannariello siblings. He puts his head on the pillow and attempts to manage the ideas flooding his mind and appear to prevent his finding the much needed sleep that he craves.

Canio reflects on the past two days in his life. He reflects on Aunt Vincenza’s comment, “Canio, I hope you find your dreams in America.” He recognizes that finding his dreams is an abstraction to him and in no way are his dreams formulated. He considers: the odd clothes that he wears; and the hand-crafted shoes on his feet made by his father; and his inability to speak English; and his naivete and ignorance about the common place things of this country; and the new technology in this new world; and his ignorance of the rules of engagement to live in America; and his personal fears that he silently harbors. He does not know these are all signs and beacons of his personal immigrant bravery and the bravery of every Italian immigrant in 1921. And all the immigrants through all the years! All the immigrants from all the countries!

He and so many others will engage in creating the accumulative dream power of the two and a half million Italians who will immigrate from Italy in this year of 1921. And whatever dreams are achieved or lost or forgotten, their residual power will nudge the needle of progress in America forward. And the source of the power is their collective bravery. And their descendents shall be their beneficiaries.  

He lay in bed and his thoughts and ideas metamorphosed into something beyond his imagination. And in slightly more than an instant, Canio is sleeping.

He will awake on Wednesday May 11, 1921, his third day after arriving in America.

Reflections on the Plan for Luigi and Francesca Nannariello Immigrating

The span of years for the migration of the six Nannariello siblings was from 1907, starting with Grazia Nannariello, to 1924 and finalizing with Rosa Nannariello, or about 17 years. It was the joint efforts of Luigi Nannariello and his brother Donato Nannariello that these immigrations were achieved. In 1924 when Rosa departed Calitri with her husband Giuseppe DeCosmo, Luigi and Francesca were about sixty years old. They were alone in the home where they had ten children and six of them immigrated and four never lived to adulthood. Their children in the United States collectively had a plan to have their mother and father immigrate to the United States. The details of this plan are not known.  There would be a concerted effort among the Nannariello siblings, all now living in the United States to encourage Luigi and Francesca to immigrate. The Nannariello siblings selected Leonardo, or possibly Leonardo volunteered, to make the return trip to Calitri to share their plan with their parents.   

Leonardo Nannariello returned to Calitri in 1931 to visit his mother and father, traveling from New York City on the SS Roma to Naples. Leonard stayed a few weeks visiting his mother and father and friends and other family. It was eleven years since Leonardo had left Calitri. His parents listened to this collective proposition from their children. It appears that clearly and emphatically they did not want to immigrate. Luigi and Francesca had spent their entire lives in Calitri. Their children had immigrated at very young ages, which is a much different experience than the one they were offered. They decided to remain in Calitri. There can be only speculation about the death of Donato in 1920 at age 45 having an impact on their decision. There was an intense bonding and relationship between the Luigi and Donato in planning the immigration of Luigi’s children. We cannot know what conversations the two had about plans for Luigi and Francesca immigrating. We cannot know what commitments they had embraced. Possibly there never was a commitment for their immigration. Also, Donato was not there to facilitate and support it.

After his brief visit to Calitri, Leonardo returned to the United States from Naples on the ship SS Augustus and arrived in New York on March 13, 1931. He reported to his siblings the decision their parents had made. Shortly after Leonard’s trip to Italy, Luigi Nannariello died on October 6, 1931, a short six months after Leonard’s visit. The cause of his death is not known. We do not know if Luigi’s health was a factor in his decision about a possible immigration. Francesca was alone and oral history indicates she had some psychological and mental issues. Again, it is not known if this was a health factor along with Luigi’s medical issues. Francesca was sent to Naples for some type of treatment and died there in 1935.

The home they lived in at Via Immaculata Concessione 48 and where all of their children were born, remained in the family for some years after her passing. The home was later sold by mutual agreement of the six Nannariello children. There is no information of exactly when the house was sold. Luigi is buried in the cemetery in Calitri.

Historical Perspective of the World and America in 1921

This is the world Canio entered on May 9, 1921.

Canio was born on the cusp of a brand-new 20^th Century when he was born May 31, 1901. His immigration to America in 1921 is in the midst of significant change in both the decades before and after his arrival in the United States. Canio will spend the rest of his life as an American citizen while the world around him changes. One rare piece of oral history he shared with his young sons, possibly when he was about 50 years old or so in the 1950’s was the following observation. He revealed there was a time that he considered returning to Calitri. He did not clarify the reason and the time frame or his state of mind when he had considered that idea as a young man. We shall never know the gap between his idea and his taking serious actions. Obviously, he did not return to Calitri.

Following is the world that Canio entered in 1921 when leaving Calitri and immigrating to the United States; and the several decades following.

At the turn of the new century, the population of Italy was about 33 million and the population of Calitri was about 4,000. Victor Emmanuel III (1900-1946) was the Italian monarch. Italians, along with workers from many other countries, had discovered the effectiveness of the “strike” and the power of workers being unified by numbers. There were more than 1,600 strikes in Italy in1901, but we do not know if there were any in Calitri. It was a new century of change. Pope Leo XIII occupied the Vatican and issued an encyclical on Christian Democracy. Prime Minister Zanardelli spoke of investments made to improve the economy of Naples. Two new railroad lines were announced to be built between Rome and Naples. Italy. Much of the world was becoming industrialized, but there was no industrialization in Calitri. Feudalism was dying, but it was a slow death.

In 1901,Giuseppe Verdi died at the age of 87. In Milan Verdi’s life was celebrated with a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini performing “Va pensione” with a chorus of over 800. An emigration law was passed in Italy limiting emigration from Italy, specifically from Naples, Genoa, and Palermo. The purpose was to protect exploitation by shipping agents and to prevent the loss of a work force to support the early industrialization of Italy. People were a resource to be managed and there was competition among the many emerging countries.

Consider what had happened in the United States before and after 1921. Electrification changed the visible and working and living world. The First World War ended in November 1918. During the War many tens of thousands of Americans soldiers crossed the ocean to see Europe for the first time., The Spanish Flu ended in1920 and killed 50 million people around the world. Movies created a visual awareness of the world that Americans and the world had never seen before. Silent movies would become “talkies” in 1927 and going to the movies every week was routine for many people. Clothes fashions changed and evolved significantly. The way of speaking and dressing evolved from what was seen in the movies. In 1921. The United States was starting the decade that would deliver the Roaring Twenties and Prohibition and the Great Depression and women’s right to vote. Henry Ford paid his workers five dollars a day, so they could afford to buy the cars they were manufacturing. In the Tulsa Race Riot of June 1921, whites killed blacks and destroyed part of a city and continued the cycle of racism that followed the Civil War.

Modernization of buildings and homes made indoor plumbing and heating and eventually air conditioning available. Also, now available was the electrification of homes and factories and the availability of a myriad electric appliances. Many of these factors produced products that created massive increases in consumption and consumerism because of the availability of products and services previously unknown to consumers. Jazz continued its migration from New Orleans and the South as Blacks migrated to the North and in particular to Chicago and New York City. The migration of Blacks to the North was more challenging than Italians migrating to the United States from Italy.

The third decade of the Twentieth Century was described by the economic historian Gene Smiley as “the first truly modern decade.” The Emergency Quota Act established quotas on immigration with a significant impact on Eastern Europe in the early 1920’s. Many Italians were limited by the immigration opportunities that Canio and his siblings had enjoyed earlier by the new quota system in the United States. Radio was broadcasting for the first-time religious programs and baseball and music and radio dramas. Listeners heard the voices of people previously only known in photos and the written word. White Castle hamburger restaurant set the stage for the world’s first and eventually ubiquitous fast-food restaurants.

In 1921, Prohibition was in its second year and illegal drinking helped define and welcome the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition fostered the battle between the “wets” and the “dry’s” and begat organized crime. Prohibition was the portal by which organized crime found numerous ways to intervene in business and consumer needs and the greed of government officials. In 1920, the final ratification of the 19^th Amendment rewarded the Women Suffrage movement with the vote and provided working and social freedoms for women that went beyond the vote. In Italy, it was not until provided 1924 that women could vote only in local elections, and finally in 1945 Italian women were granted full suffrage.

We must all take an historical deep breath and imagine Canio’s world in the United States and the world he vacated in Calitri. It was a challenge making comparisons to Italy and more precisely Southern Italy or the Mezzogiorno as to what was happening in the United States. The two countries were evolving on two completely different tracks in terms of the actual events and the pace of the change.

Twenty-year-old Cano, departed a village of about four thousand people that would wait for many years for these changes to arrive in cities of Italy, and more years before arriving in rural and mountainous and impoverished Calitri, deep in the Mezzogiorno. Calitri had survived many centuries with slow and deliberate changes in the economic and social order. The vestiges and aftermath of feudalism still existed in Europe and many parts of the world.

Canio was not thinking about all of this on Tuesday May 10, 1921, the second of his two momentous days on in America, as he fell into a deep sleep. . However, he would live the reality and participate in many of these momentous changes.

Poem for Canio Nannariello

This poem was written years ago by Canio’s son Richard, in an attempt to explore the mindset and circumstances of Canio and his life before and during his immigration to the United States in 1921. It is an impossible task and challenge to do that, but one can try. The poem was inspired by a family photograph taken in Calitri in 1919. It may be appropriate to consider this poem in the context of having read the story of the two momentous days of May 9 and 10, 1921 in Canio’s life. Through the poem we can speculate and imagine, but obviously cannot know what Canio was thinking at that time in his life. However, we can apply that approach to millions of immigrants from Italy and other countries who under a wide variety of circumstance made the choices and immigrated to the United States.

God love them all for their bravery and the dreams they pursued.

There he stands in the black and white photograph
Beside a sister and a brother standing to the side
Mother and father sitting and unsmiling
Innocent of the journey he would take two years later
The family photograph is faded and posed
With stern and not smiling faces
He is slim and his glance slightly avoids the camera
Seeming to stare into the distance
Avoiding the camera’s searching eye
Possibly he is reflecting or searching for a new dream
Or remorseful about an old dream lost
Or a new dream not properly conceived
He seems comfortable in his double-breasted suit
Round collar and thin tie
He was hardly nineteen
As the world completed the second decade of the Twentieth Century.

He left the Italian hills of Campania a year or so later
Walking down the steep dusty dirt road of Calitri
The town sitting on the mountain top
Entwined by twisting roads
And foot paths traveled for centuries
By sheepherders and sheep and donkeys and town folks
With alacrity and toughened legs
How certain were his steps traveling
To the railway station hugging the lower hill
He would never stride up that mountain again
Or feel the warm embrace of his mother and father.

He would be a cobbler like this father
A calzalaio
The maker and fixer of shoes
Shoes lathered by the dust and fields of Calitri
Shoes worn out by the sometimes erratic village cobblestoned streets
Shoes compromised by the smell and stain of sheep droppings
He descended that mountain for the last time
At the beginning of the third decade of the twentieth century
Traveling through Benevento and Avellino to Napoli
The home of kings and pizza and opera and Caruso.

In Napoli ships gathered desperate and hopeful men and women
And unknowing children
Searching for dreams not completely formulated
Their pockets lined with more hope than money
More dreams than reality
Often following and trudging the paths laid by relatives
Who sent encouraging letters from across the ocean
Professing various versions of the roads and dreams paved in gold
For those hungering for useful work and higher expectations
They would sit silent deep in the bowels
Of nameless ships crossing the black Atlantic waters
No one at the Naples dock to acknowledge or anoint their pilgrimage
Or bless their journey.

During his sweaty and fitful dreams
Did he regret leaving his mountain retreat
Did he taste fear on his tongue and in his heart
Did the past words of a brother or sister
Who traveled before him reassure him from their disembarkation
Did the new language unknown and not understood
Isolate him from expressing any anxiety or failed hopes
Many thousands made the journey and few returned.

Living in a boarding house
That ignored privacy
He traveled so far and only to live so harshly
He worked slavishly every day
For endless weeks with no definition
And no weekends
Mastering and learning this new language
Without the soft consistent vowel pronunciations of Italian
His words came from his lips for his life time
Guttural and deeply accented
Like so many before him and after him
He came and he saw and did not conquer
But he survived.

In his photograph he is forever young
And he will be forever ageless
In the hearts and memories of his Mother and Father
The hopes of his unknown journey still lingering
In his distant stare
He embraced a new country and a new life
Never to see the hills of Calitri again
Never to see his parents again
But indelibly marked in his heart and soul
He is a Calitrani.

Epilogue

The two days of May 9 and May 10, 1921 in the life of Canio Nannariello have been explored in abundant detail in order understand the man and the times and these seminal two days in his life. Therefore, there is much we now know about Canio and the places and circumstances of these two days. Also, there is so much we do not know. The effort was made with a literary nonfiction approach to explore and to be enlightened by research, creativity, imagination, interpretation, reasonable assumptions, re-imagining, and more research.

Canio leveraged these two extraordinary days into a wonderful life. Following is a summary of some of the significant events of Canio’s life.

Canio was born on May 31, 1901 in the family home at Via Immaculata Concessione 48 in the village Calitri, Italy, the province of Avellino, and the region of Compania. He was the son of Luigi Nannariello and Francesca Martiniello Nannariello. His twin sister, Vincenza, died before she was two years old.

Canio was baptized in La Chiesa D’Annunciata in Calitri several days after his birth. In 1911 the church was destroyed in an earthquake.

Canio was given the name Canio from his maternal grandfather Canio Martiniello. St. Canio was a Black Catholic bishop from Africa and the Patron Saint of Calitri. The name Canio was used by the Nannariello family in previous generations.

Canio is one of six surviving siblings: Grazia (1891-1960), Antonia (1896-1989), Lorenzo (1898-1969), Rosa (1899-1966), Canio (1901-1988), Leonardo (1904-1971).

Canio had four other siblings who did not survive childhood: Mariaantonia (1888-1888), Lorenzo (1890-1890), Lorenzo (1894-1894), Vincenza (1901-1902).

Canio arrived in New York City as an immigrant on the SS Patria from Naples, Italy on May 9, 1921.

Canio slept his first night in America on May 9, 1921 at 21 Main Street, White Plains, New York in the home of his Aunt and Uncle, Donato and Vincenza Nannariello. Note: Donato died in January 1920 before Canio arrived in the United States.

Canio’s immigration was arranged by his father Luigi Nannariello and his uncle and aunt Donato and Vincenza Nannariello, as were the immigrations of Canio’s five siblings.

Canio Nannariello met his future wife Angelina Passarella Nannariello Circa 1925.

Canio married Angelina Passarella Nannariello on September 24, 1927 in Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in White Plains, New York. They were married 61 years until his passing in 1988.

Canio became a proud American citizen on November 9, 1927 in White Plains, New York.

Canio lived his entire life in the United States in White Plains, New York, initially in numerous rental homes. From 1943 until his passing in 1988, Canio and Angelina lived in three homes they owned in White Plains, New York.

Canio and Angie had two sons, Louis Stephen Nannariello (1927-2018) and Richard Robert Nannariello (1933-)

Canio never returned to Italy and Calitri after his immigration in May 1921.

Canio had a plaque placed in August 1989 on “The American Immigrant Wall of Honor” on Liberty Island at the base of the Statue of Liberty. It simply reads: “Canio Nannariello Italy.”

Canio worked most of his life in diners in Westchester County (i.e. White Plains, Scarsdale, Hartsdale, Thornwood, Mamaroneck) as a short order cook and counterman. He was extremely skilled and competent at his work and for many years had boundless energy and worked long hours.

Canio started a Liquor Store business with his nephew, Stanley Fusco, in White Plains in the late 1940’s; and eventually turned over his interest in the business to his son, Louis Nannariello.

Canio and Angie were blessed with six grandchildren, five boys and one girl: Lynn (1953), Steve (1956), Gary Nannariello (1960) from his son Louis Nannariello and wife Nancy Guardino Nannariello; and Richard (1956-), Robert (1957-1992), and John Nannariello (1962-) from his son Richard Nannariello and wife Antoinette Mercatante.

Canio swept the street in front of all the homes that he owned, just as his mother and father would sweep the pedestrian street in front of their home at Via Immaculata Concessione 48 in Calitri, Italy. He never understood why his neighbors did not sweep the streets in front of their homes. Some traditions are not easily surrendered.

Canio displayed the early stages of Alzheimer’s around 1984; was taken care of by his wife Angie for the first few years at home; and spent the last year of his life at the Ruth Taylor Institute in the Alzheimer Ward in Grasslands, New York where he passed on September 11, 1988 at 87 years old.

Canio went to his final resting place in Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla New York in a mausoleum overlooking green fields, a pond and a small chapel. He and Angie had selected the burial spot many years before.

Canio and Angie were married sixty one years when he passed in 1988.

Canio was joined by Angie several years later, when she passed at 88 years old on January 29, 1996 in White Plains, New York at her home.

Canio was born in Calitri, Italy a proud Calitrano and proud Italian, and died a proud Calitrano and a proud American citizen.

Charlie was part of the many rainbows of immigrants of many nationalities and colors and origins who collectively and vastly contributed to building the America we know and now enjoy.

Hopefully, this story provides some insights into the challenges and joys of immigration; the story of one particular immigrant; some insights into the stories of all immigrants; some clarity and understanding of the particular times and places and circumstances of this one immigrant, Canio Nannariello.

God Love Canio Nannariello and Angie Nannariello.

Thank you for reading Two Days in the Life of Canio Nannariello.