My great grandfather, Domenico Cavallone, migrated to the United States from Italy in search of more opportunities in 1909. He settled in a part of Brooklyn, New York nicknamed “Pigtown” for the pig farms that were located in the area. Italian immigrant families made up much of the population of Pigtown and it was a notably poorer part of Brooklyn. Pigtown is notorious for its high crime rates as well. In Pigtown, my great-grandfather met my great-grandmother, Antonetta, who was raised in an Italian-American family. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother resided on Kingston Ave, Brooklyn, in an apartment. Once my grandfather, Giovanni, was born he too resided in this Pigtown apartment. My grandfather’s birth certificate is important to my family’s migration story. It portrays how important hybrid Italian-American culture still is to my family today. We still keep our Italian holiday traditions, but have adopted many ways of American culture, starting with our last name that has been “Americanized” from Cavallone to Cavalone. Through the adopting of American culture as well as keeping vital elements of the Italian culture, my family had successfully risen from a status of poor immigrants in a high crime area of Brooklyn to an established, large family dispersed throughout all of the New York City boroughs.

– Caroline Cavalone

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more