PASQUALE LUCIANO - BENEDETTA IAFIGLIOLA MOSČ LUCIANO - GIOVANNA STRAZZERA

By: Sandra Luciano

The Luciano family descends from the Molise region of Southern Italy. Inhabited since very ancient times, as shown by a Samnite Necropolis, in the area called Morgia. The Catasti Onciari, a census ordered by Charles II Bourbon, shows Luciano ancestors residing in Abruzzo as early as 1747.

A century later, in midst of the rocky mountain slopes of the Gran Sasso, Majella and Velino, with vast forest, soft hilly landscapes and magnificent sandy beaches of the Adriatic coast, it was there that Pasquale Luciano, a sheepherder, and his wife Benedetta Iafigliola, lived and began a family together, in the village of Gildone, located in the province of Campobasso .

Pasquale and Benedetta had several children. Four of them, Nicola, Teresa, Saverio and Mose’ Luciano, transcended the boundaries of their Mediterranean birth, leaving behind the generations before them, departing from Napoli on a journey full of hope for a better life in America. Pasquale, while herding sheep, would often travel down the hilly slopes into the valley with his sons. He died very young, around 40 years, after an accident while working with his son. He had called Mose’ to toss him a rope from the bed of a wagon where he stood. When reaching for the rope Pasquale fell suffering gave injuries. Residing in a one room home, with a fireplace in the center for cooking and heat, he was confined to his bed while infection from his injuries ravaged his frail body. On Easter morning that year, Benedetta said good bye to her husband and took her children to celebrate mass at Sant’ Antonio Abate. Upon their return to the small home, they discovered that Pasquale had passed away. Mose’ was completely grief stricken and blamed himself for his father’s untimely death. Determined to provide for his mother and siblings, he set out on a path that would bring him to that. With promises to his mother, Mose’ and with his dreams of a better future, he left the tiny village of

Gildone. He departed Napoli and journeyed to the United States as an Italian Immigrant, he entered through the port of Castle Garden at Ellis Island.

After a short stay, in the Little Italy section of Manhattan, with his brother Nicola, Mose’ settled in Marlborough, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. Nicola then arranged for the marriage and travel of Giovanna Strazzera , the 20 year old girl, who’s sister had married to his cousin. Giovanna would marry Mose’ Luciano, an older man she did not personally know, upon her arrival in America.

Upon her arrival at Ellis Island Giovanna Strazzera was greeted and introduced to the man she was to marry and spend her life with, Mose’ Luciano. Unknowingly neither Mose’ or Giovanna would ever see their homeland again. They were married in Marlborough, Mass. on 6 October 1901.

Giovanna, the daughter of Giuseppa Mariantonio and Giuseppe Antonio Strazzera of Roccarosa, L ‘Aquilla, in Italy, with broken English, traveling alone, departed Napoli in 1901 and made the journey across the ocean on a ship named the Scilla. Roccarosa was occupied by the German soldiers, nearly 98% of the village was destroyed by allied forces bombing runs during World War II.

Upon her arrival at Ellis Island Giovanna Strazzera was greeted and introduced to the man she was to marry and spend her life with, Mose’ Luciano. Unknowingly neither Mose’ or Giovanna would ever see their homeland again. They were married in Marlborough, Mass. on 6 October 1901.

Typical of Italian naming traditions, Mose’ and Giovanna named their children after their parents. The first born son was named after Mose’ s father, Pasquale. The first born daughter, after Givovanna’s mother, Giuseppa (Josephine). The second born son after the Giovanna’s father, Giuseppe (Joseph). And the second born daughter after Mose’s mother Benedetta.

If you have an immigration story to tell, you can email it at hoffmannpublish@gmail. com. Within the limit of availability it will be published in this magazine in subsequent issues. Put “Our beautiful story” in the subject of the email.

It has been wile said that each country has made to itself a Renaissance after its own image. In that glorious dawn which succeeded the gloom of the Middle Ages, Italy was the first to awaken. Her clear vision, her intellectual energy, her enthusiasm for art, gave to all Europe the key note of the future. The secret of her preeminence, so willingly accepted by the world, will not be found only in her favorable situation, her language, her commercial prosperity, her political freedom, when other nations were scarcely emerging from barbarism. We shall rather attribute it to the spirit of intuition, to a nobler conception of man's place in the world, to higher aspirations ; in a word, to all that constitutes the true Renaissance. Italy created that new spiritual atmosphere of culture and intellectual freedom which broadened man's horizon, and made all things seem possible to him, in his new-born keen enthusiasm.

In the Middle Ages, scarcely left behind, the ascetic ideal of life taught that beauty and pleasure were deadly perils to the soul, and that ignorance was safer than knowledge. The Renaissance dared to rebel against this medieval preaching, to set free the reason of man, and to awaken in him a passionate appreciation of the glories of art and nature, and of all the beauty of this living