Sixty-eight years lasted the long exile of Giuseppe (Joe) Di Rezze. He left with his family in 1950, he was 9 years old.
In September on a European tour, made on the determined insistence of his wife Sharon, some days were scheduled in Rome. One was dedicated, always at the insistence of Sharon, to trace its origins in Casalvieri ... We do not know why the Di Rezze family has interrupted its relationship with the land of origin, but certainly the return to Casalvieri does not have to be it was easy for Joe, he had very few references in his memory: some foggy memories of the location of their home. The clearest image was for a fig tree, where a child climbed to catch the fruit. We also know that searching for traces of one's past after several decades can be a test, a bet that is not always easy. It is not automatic that it is always pleasant, only the rhetoric considers it so. Going away is always a fracture, almost always painful and to return their traces for many is to renew that fracture, the children are sponges in assimilating the uneasy feelings of a family that decides to cut an unbearable old life and start a new one .. That's why it is often just the relatives, unscathed to those difficult memories, to push for this journey in search of their past.
We accidentally met Joe with his wife Sharon and a couple of American friends, as reported by Massimo Benacquista taxi driver. We accompanied him by the Mayor who cordially greeted the group by making their homage to gadgets of the millennium casalvierano. We drove it to the places where we sensed it was the paternal house: Joe was able to photograph under the walls of the old house and return to the place where a new fig was born from the old, he met some distant relatives living in the area. Reflection: it would not be a bad idea if the municipal institutions of the Valley tried to establish, through a parliamentary structure, a modality of reception for this type of emigrants in search of their origins, it would be an excellent institutional hospitality, little "expensive", pregnant only of good things and feelings of memory. We have, as a duty, given a sign of the hospitality of the Valley, and perhaps we have won back tourists for the next year.
By Valcomino Senza Confini
The family before departure
"In 1950, Joe's family, his mother, his brother Mario (aged 11), Joe (aged 9) and Maria (2 years) got on the VULCANIA ship for the United States and arrived at Ellis Island two weeks later.
Fiorina's passport
Registration of arrival a Ellis Island
They stayed with their maternal nannies in Newark, New Jersey, for about 2 months, and from Newark they moved to Windsor, Ontario, Canada, where Joe completed his high school studies-graduating in 1958. He played boy hockey. While her two younger sisters were born in Canada (Lana and Olga), her family was composed of her mother Fiorina Di Rezze, her father Honorius Honored of Rezze, her brother Mario and her sisters Maria, Lana and Olga.
Fiorina with her five children in America in 1956
In 1960 the family moved to Dearborn, Michigan, in the USA. In Dearborn, and in the surrounding suburban areas, the whole family has remained until now, living all within a radius of thirty kilometers. Joe was hired by Chrysler Corporation as a designer and mechanical engineer. Despite working he continued to train and speclalize earning a degree from the Lawrence Technological Institute. In the last years of working through a company also managed a very flourishing dealership FORD, we talk about a monthly sale of four hundred cars.
Joe and Sharon in Europe
His son Anthony and his grandchildren Massimo and Matteo
Joe with the sisters Lana and Maria
The sister Olga with her husband
Sharon with a friend
With Canadian cousins
More than forty years ago Joe and Sharon got married, and Sharon, who was an only child, he found find in the sister-in-law those sisters who had not , by the son Anthony have had two wonderful grandchildren, Massimo and Matteo. Sharon was a teacher and school director for 36 years. Now, even retired, she loves reading and pushing her husband to travel. Joe practices golf, likes to take some cruises and short winter trips. His elder brother Mario, now deceased, was a self-employed and owned Marvel Tool & Engineering. The widow remains an integral part of the family. Lana is retired from the Ford Motor Company and has two sons. Olga has a son and 2 daughters, Joe for his part is always in contact with cousins in Canada, also born in Frosinone.
Near the ancient paternal house in Casalvieri
Received by the Mayor Franco Moscone
In front of the Town Hall
Joe with the millennium document of Casalvieri
It took Sharon many years to convince him to return to Italy and now that he has made that journey and has met many people and found distant relatives hopes to be able to return again, but this time to spend more time in the places of its origins.
By Sharon Di Rezze
