By: Victoria Palmeri
My grandmother, Concetta Tranchina, shares her story about what it was like living in Italy and coming to America at a young age. She talks about how she started working, how she met her husband, and how it was different to raise a family in the United States of America. She also shares the hardships that she faces today when dealing with her husband’s disease.
Concetta “Gina” Tranchina was born and raised for the first 10 years of her life in Serradifalco, Sicily. She is the second oldest of five sisters, three in which grew up with her in Italy. Concetta is named after her grandmother, however she has been called “Gina” since birth by everyone she knows. Living in Italy, she expresses how there wasn’t much to do, but to go to school, find ways to entertain herself, and help the family. There were no bathrooms, no refrigerators, and no cars at this time, making everything more difficult and done manually. In Italy, her father was a farmer who worked very hard in the country to raise his kids, while her mother made the food, clothes, and did what she had to do to raise a family. At the age of 10, Concetta travelled with her family to the United States in 1956. Luckily, Concetta already had a family member here in the United States, her aunt Josie. Josie was able to fill out all of the paperwork for Concetta’s family to go through Ellis Island and live in America. It was a 12-day journey, where she explained how they were “sick as dogs” on the boat.
Her aunt Josie was able to rent an apartment for the family on Knickerbocker Avenue. The apartment only had two bedrooms, making her and her sisters take shifts sleeping on a bed and a pullout sofa. Concetta and her sisters resumed school in America, but found it difficult because they only spoke Italian. Luckily, Concetta had a teacher that gave them special attention to learn the English language. Her mother continued to run the house, while also having a job in a dress factory and her father took a job as an ironworker. At this time, they didn’t own a car, therefore they had to walk everywhere. Her father had to walk from Knickerbocker Avenue all the way to Flushing to work and provide for his family. Transitioning to American life, Concetta stated, “We still had the same mentality. We would come home from school and start cooking, washing the clothes in the bathtub, do our homework, and stay in the house.” At 16 years old, Concetta’s father made her and her older sister, Penny, drop out of high school to help the family buy a house. She found a job in a sweater factory and made fifty dollars a week. The family would also visit Josie from time to time, yet the sisters were still put to work around her house. Concetta expressed that her father was very strict when she was growing up. The older Rizzo sisters weren’t allowed to go to the movies, date, or any dances and had a ten o’clock curfew until marriage, only allowing them to experience work and come home.
However, Concetta’s life would take a turn when she met her husband, Angelo. Since she wasn’t allowed to date or go anywhere, Concetta was only able to go shopping on Saturdays. At that time, many young men were coming from Italy. While shopping on Knickerbocker Avenue, Concetta passed various coffee shops on the corners of her neighborhood. One day while shopping, Angelo spotted Concetta out on the streets. He asked his friend Joe, who would later become their child’s godfather, if he knew who she was. Fortunately for him, Joe’s father and her father were very good friends. In those days with her father, a man wouldn’t come up to date, but to be serious and get married. With that, Angelo came up to their home to have a cup of coffee. After meeting for the first time, Concetta was asked by her father if she wanted to continue the relationship. She joked that she was interested in him because he was taller than her and that there were too many short guys. Concetta stated “Before my father let us go out, he had to by me a ring to show him that he was serious about me.” After that, the two became serious and 11 months later they tied the knot. A year and a half later at the ages of 24 and 30 they had their first child, Andre, and would have their second child, Josephine, four years later.
Beginning her own family was very different than how she was raised. She indicated that her children had more opportunities than her, by stating, “In Italy, there was no karate, no dancing classes, no gymnastics in my day.” Her children were able to do different activities, rather than staying home and taking care of the house, like her own childhood. Even with her own children, she had the same mentality. She would make her own clothes to save money and being smart with her finances to buy a house quickly. Once she had her first child, Concetta was able to stop working. When asked about her husband’s work, she stated “he was a Jack of all trades to tell you the truth.” When they first met, Angelo was a beautician. When they were engaged, he got a job working in a liquor warehouse at nighttime for four years, leaving Concetta and Andre at home. After that job, a family member helped Angelo get a job as a carpenter. His final job was working for the city as a plasterer. He retired at about age 50. Once they bought a bigger house, Angelo began gardening various plants and vegetables and often went hunting. Concetta has only been to Italy once since moving to the United States for her son’s wedding. She remembers having a boring life in Italy, but she was able to make her own family traditions here in the United States. Like her mother, she also made some of her children’s clothes and continued holiday celebrations. Concetta would have the whole family come to her house every Sunday to eat dinner together, which she continues to this day.
Nowadays, Concetta is faced with multiple challenges when dealing with her husband’s disease, as well as her own health problems. She has lung problems due to the secondhand smoke she has encountered over many years. Over the last ten years, Angelo has struggled with Alzheimer’s disease. However, he started to get worse about six years ago. Concetta is devastated watching her husband become less like himself. Her husband does not remember who his children and grandchildren are, and most of all he doesn’t remember her. She stated, “Nobody is prepared for something like that, it just creeps up on you.” Fortunately, this year her load has lessened a little because she has an aid to help her take care of him. They no longer are able to do things as a couple, such as going out together, going on vacation, and visiting people. She now must take over everything that her husband once did. She expressed, “All of his words become slurred that you can’t make any sense out of it. Even if I understand a word, it has nothing to do with what he’s trying to say.” She believes he will be remembered as a great husband, a great father, and a great grandfather.
Looking back on her life, Concetta says that there is nothing that she would change or do differently, except maybe one thing, changing her name. Although she was named after the grandmother, no one called her Concetta. She said, “I don’t remember anybody calling me that name. Since I was born, my father started calling me Gina and everybody started calling me Gina. Even my grandmother that I have her name, she was calling me Gina.” However, there was amount in time where her sisters called her “Connie.” Since everyone knew her as Gina, she even put “Gina Rizzo” on her wedding invitations because no one would know her as Concetta. Today, Gina continues to cook and bake during whatever free time she has. She and her sisters still live near each other in New York and continues the tradition of Sunday dinner. Over the years, she has been able to keep in touch with her family in Italy. Even through the ups and downs in her life, Gina has persevered and has always been strong. Gina leaves her grandchildren with some advice, she says, “Be close to one another and love one another. Don’t let anybody interfere with your relationship.” Family is always important, even through thick and thin.