“My family just came here to make a better life, and it wasn’t really a better life for my great grandfather or great grandmother, they were just poor. It’s about building a better life for me and for my mom, and I think that’s how immigrants who come here now are.”
MEET THE AUTHOR: CHRISTINE SIMOLKE Oct. 20, 7 p.m. Park Road Books, 4139 Park Road. parkroadbooks.com
not as good because some employers who aren’t very scrupulous think they don’t have to provide them with the same decent treatment that other people would expect, because they have that hanging over their head, “I’m illegal, so I can’t complain.” When I was doing research I found that the government is supposed to investigate all unfair labor practices and it doesn’t matter the legal status of the workers. They’re supposed to make sure that working conditions are good for everybody and the legal status isn’t supposed to come into play at all, so I do think that that should be covered better.
CHRISTINE SIMOLKE
I think back in the ‘20s there were many immigrants from all different countries coming here. They didnt have each other’s backs, they were very competitive against one another, all the different groups. But they were all working, they all could get jobs and people looked down on them but people didn’t act like they were going to hurt them as much. Immigrants now from Middle Eastern countries, I think that people are very hard on them, and I feel bad for them because the one bad apple who might have been a terrorist makes people live in fear of all people who are from those countries originally. That’s a big difference. They have all the same prejudices and job issues and discrimination issues and poverty issues as early immigrants, but then they also have that added prejudice based on fear.
A subplot in the book deals with a secret homosexual love affair involving your great uncle Bernandino. With the near impossibility of living openly gay in the working class world of the ‘20s, was this an aspect of Bernandino’s life your family was always aware of?
Are the labor issues Luigi deals with in the book also something you think still needs more attention today?
Immigrants are still underpaid. They’re taken advantage of, particularly if they’re here illegally. Their work situations are
I had never heard that story at all until I was interviewing my aunt Evelina. I was just asking her about daily life. “Did you have electricity? What kind of food did you eat?” etc. Then she started telling me about other family members. There’s a family member that sees them off at the port in Genoa. And then she said, “And then we had an uncle who already lived in the U.S who had emigrated before and he was a little bit different.” That’s all she would say, he was a little SEE
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