Family
They Came From Spain
Julianne Ortega blogs about her family’s emigration story, the S.S. Heliopolis, and life on a Hawaii sugar plantation.
View They Came From Spain »Mancini-Sforzini
Much like the Anayas and Ponces, the Mancinis (and Sforzinis) left their European homeland in the early 20th century for the chance to share America’s prosperity. My great-grandmother Eugenia “Jenny” Mancini (later Sforzini, then Stefani) arrived at Ellis Island on April 15, 1911, aboard the SS La Savoie. She accompanied her father Leone and brother Ugo,…
View Mancini-Sforzini »Portland
Philip’s First Steps
Rosario Di Giorgio’s Discharge Papers
Typically, the eldest son was exempt from military duty and the second oldest was expected to serve. Rosario's elder brother Joseph was already running the family fruit business in the U.S., so Rosario enlisted in his stead. After earning a medal in the "African Campaign," Rosario Di Giorgio was honorably discharged in 1897.
View Rosario Di Giorgio’s Discharge Papers »Harry Sforzini Reports from Europe During WWII
I am writing this letter to you through special permission of my Commanding Officer. It is of my own free will and my own experiences
encountered in this combat zone. As for the truth, you can only take my word for it.
The Mafia’s Attempt to Blow Up Joseph Di Giorgio
CeCe dug up an interesting article from 2006 in Baltimore’s City Paper (no longer available online). Here she recounts the bizarre tale of how Joseph Di Giorgio escaped death at the hands of his banana-importing rivals.
View The Mafia’s Attempt to Blow Up Joseph Di Giorgio »Carmen Ponce Sforzini
Carmen was born in 1919 in Santa Clara as a first-generation Spanish-American. She met her future spouse, Harry Peter Sforzini (a first-generation Italian-American, born in 1916), at Fremont Union High School in Cupertino, CA. This high school is still standing and looking as lovely as it did all those many years ago. Harry courted Carmen for…
View Carmen Ponce Sforzini »Carmen Beatrice Ponce Sforzini
Ethnicity/Culture Carmen is of pure Spanish heritage, as both of her parents were born in Spain. Carmen’s mother, Mary Anaya, was born and raised in a small village of white adobe hillside homes in Benagalbon, which was founded in 1776. It lies in close proximity to Malaga in southern Spain. Carmen’s father, Francisco Ponce, was…
View Carmen Beatrice Ponce Sforzini »