Rosa Romeo-Carina for Transformations Canada – For anyone else, August 20, 1967 was an ordinary day. For my parents, Filippo Romeo and Giovanna Bruzzese, it was their wedding day. Giovanna was more than happy to marry Filippo because he had a good heart. He was also living in Genoa, in Northern Italy, and he had his own barber shop there. To the bride-to-be this meant that there was no chance of ever emigrating to America!
Filippo was born in the small village of Mammola, nestled in a picturesque valley in the southern Italian province of Reggio Calabria. From a young age, Filippo started working as a barber’s assistant to learn the trade. At the age of 12, he moved to Genoa where he lived with his zia (aunt) Rosina and zio (uncle) Nicodemo. They supported him while Filippo’s father, Vincenzo, worked in Novara (in Lombardia) as a gold miner. Filippo’s mother Palmina (La Rosa) remained in Mammola to raise her youngest child Giuseppe in familiar surroundings. Filippo planned to take the trade he learned in Mammola to excel in northern Italy as a barber. In time, he opened a successful barbershop in Genoa and began living on his own.
Meanwhile in the smaller village of Chiusa, overlooking Mammola, Giovanna Bruzzese was the last born to her parents Filippo Bruzzese and Filomena Mazzone. Giovanna already had a taste of northern Italian life. She lived with her brother Natale in Genoa. While she was deciding where she should settle, she moved back to Chuisa with her parents. Filippo returned to Mammola for a visit with his family during the same time.
He met up with Giovanna’s sister Gina at the market. She mentioned to him, “My sister is back and if you are interested I would like for you to meet her.” It was love at first sight. Filippo Bruzzese mentioned to Filippo Romeo, “Giovanna is my last child to marry. I have no land to give you.” Filippo replied, “It is Giovanna that I love. I have no interest in her dowry. We will get married and live in Genoa.”
On September 29, 1968, their first child Vincenzo was born. Everything was going well in Genoa, until the eventful day came. In 1970, they received a letter from Giovanna’s brother Peppe in Brooklyn, New York. It read, “Why don’t you come to America because barbers make a ton of money in America? Let me find out what you need to do.” Filippo thought, “Well if it was better, maybe we should consider it.”
Giovanna, the traditional Italian wife, supported her husband. When the news came back from Peppe, his letter explained that Filippo would have to come to New York first, find a steady job and then at least six months later his family could join him. Well Filippo was not going to leave his new bride and his two-year-old son Vincenzo alone. He loved them too much to leave them for such a long time.
The next correspondence was from Giovanna’s sister Dina Mazzaferro in Thunder Bay, Ontario. When she caught wind of the situation, Dina wrote a letter to her younger sister in Genoa saying: “If you and Filippo still want to come, the whole family can come all together to Canada.” This idea sounded all the more appealing to Filippo. And so the adventure begins!
Filippo and his family needed to get a mountain of paperwork in order before their departure. The entire Romeo family had to go for a thorough medical examination in Messina, Sicily. Upon their return home, Filippo had to go for an interview with the Canadian Consulate in Rome. During this busy period, a travel agent was taking care of their airline tickets.
After passing the medical exams and Filippo’s interview, they finally received the green light to immigrate to Canada as a family. They also received their Italian passports. And so, the Romeo family was finally all set to go to beautiful Thunder Bay.
On September 23, 1970, Filippo, Giovanna and Vincenzo boarded a plane for the very first time. Eight hours later they arrived in Toronto, Canada. This was a new world, with a different language and absolutely no one there they recognized! There they were, just the three of them! The moment came when the immigration officer examined their passports and stamped their document with the famous words, ‘immigrant – landed’. What an emotional thing to experience.
When they arrived in Toronto, Vincenzo had the flu and wasn’t feeling well. Giovanna was thirsty and she wanted some water. Filippo tried to get some water but the waitress didn’t understand him. He pointed to a sink to help the waitress understand. As it turned out, getting water was the least of their problems! The travel agent in Italy, had booked airline tickets just as far as Toronto. The family’s final destination was Thunder Bay. An airline agent working for Alitalia helped them out. They had to purchase three more tickets from Toronto to Thunder Bay. This was an unexpected extra expense that the young family had not budgeted for.
They finally boarded the last plane from Toronto to Thunder Bay. Sitting in the first row of economy class, Filippo noticed the passengers in the row in front of him were being served better food than what he was being offered. Filippo said to the attendant, in Italian, “I’ll wait for that food.” Well he didn’t get any food at all because the food he wanted was only being served in business class.
Their arrival in Thunder Bay was greeted by Giovanna’s sister, Dina, and her husband Natale, as well as Natale’s brother, Domenic and his wife, Cathy. Upon their arrival in Thunder Bay, only one of their two trunks arrived. The second trunk, which contained all of their wedding gifts arrived later. However, everything was stolen. Imagine how they must have felt – miles away from their homeland and their families with all of their sentimental items suddenly gone.
