Deciding to Leave
While Italy was home to my great-grandparents for their youth and adolescence, they decided to leave for America to pursue economic and social opportunity for themselves and their children. Shortly after the birth of my grandfather in 1928, my great-grandparents, Albert and Christina Coppotelli decided to leave their home in Pisa to an uncertain future across the Atlantic. Around the same time, Patrick and Adeline Cuda, newly married, made a similar choice to start their family in America. This choice meant leaving behind family, friends and familiarity. Their decision also came shortly after the process of Italian unification which, along with a declining agrarian economy, placed many families in financial hardship. While I was never able to speak with my great-grandparents about their decision to leave, my grandmother has reflected on their memories of Italy, which they saw as a place of comfort and fond memories but without opportunity. While the interview below is not with a member of my family, woman speaking, who immigrated later than my great-grandparents, expresses many of the sentiments that they seemed to have about leaving Italy.
