Book relates immigrant story of leaving behind 'la via vecchia'
For Stephen Puleo, the experience of his grandfather is "the typical story" of Italian immigrants in Boston - working pick-and-shovel labor jobs, selling fruits and vegetables from a pushcart, and raising a family.
"The real story is people arriving here almost with nothing, who built lives, built families, built a large part of the urban part of the country - street-paving, sidewalks, subways - and decided to embrace the country," said Puleo.
The story of his grandfather is included in Puleo's book "The Boston Italians," recently named a recommended book by the Boston Authors Club Awards Committee.
Puleo, a Weymouth resident whose work includes "Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919," found the roots of his latest book in the natural and economic disasters of southern Italy in the 1870s. But leaving home and "la via vecchia" ("the old way") for the United States, with no safety nets, was no easy matter. Early Italian immigrants traveled by steamship to work here, sent money home, and returned to Italy when work was slow.
Puleo quotes a well-known account of an Italian laborer who made $1.25 - and lived on 26 cents - a day. Immigrants sought the intimacy of village life by replicating it in such places as the North End, "the enclave within the enclave," Puleo said.
After World War II, Italians took part in the suburban exodus, and about 800,000 Italian-Americans live in eastern Massachusetts today.
Over the next three months, Puleo will travel around the state to speak about his book. His schedule includes appearances at the Brighton branch of the Boston Public Library May 1, the New England Historic Genealogical Society May 18, and the Union Club May 27. More information is available at stephenpuleo.com.
ROBERT KNOX 