One thing that comes to mind when I think about my family’s Italian history is our squid salad recipe. A famous recipe in our family, the salad comes from my great great grandmother. She came to the US to Ellis Island with my great grandfather when he was 4 years old. I was able to get very close to my great grandfather until his death a few years ago. He would spend hours telling me amazing stories from his lifetime of 99 years. He came on a boat with his mother to the US a few years after his father only to learn that his father had died in the Spanish Influenza. He lived in an apartment with his mom in NYC and became a very successful chemist. He traveled and lived around the world, and we have numerous objects he collected from different countries in our house now. 

My dad loves to bring our squid salad recipe to all events and makes it often. He also tells me about visiting his great grandmother, who would make pasta and hang it from the fire escape of their apartment in NYC. I am grateful for the close relationship I had with my great grandfather, as well as his incredible life story. Through being built up from nothing, he continued the principles taught to him from his parents. These morals were taught to me by my dad and I hope to pass them on to later generations of my family. I hope to teach my children the importance of compassion, gratefulness, and integrity. 

– AB.

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