A Gaetano in America E-Book

Raymond A. Vaudo

• Herausgeber: Ali Ribelli Edizioni
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

This is the untold story of a proud Italian named Pietro Paolo Vaudo who was born in Gaeta, Italy, in 1915. Through his memoirs, he recalls his early years of schooling and some memorable misadventures that lured him into the workforce at an early age. He recounts his family’s fishing business and his contentious relationship with his oldest brother. Although he learned to fish as a young child, he grew increasingly dissatisfied with the prospects of living his whole life as a fisherman in the small town of Gaeta.
He joined the Italian Navy shortly before his twentieth birthday for a tour of 28 months. At that time, he had no idea of the true duration of his military service and of the harsh and perilous events that were to come. As World War II raged on, Italy extended his naval service, and he was subsequently captured by the Germans as a prisoner of war. He shares with us his unexpected travels and remarkable events as a prisoner of war with incredible detail. As his captors moved him from place-to-place, he shares with us his thoughts of survival as he holds out hope of returning home to his birthplace - Gaeta, Italy.
Not long after his return to Gaeta, he told his mother and family that he was “going to America.” He details his travels to America and his unusual “Italian style” courtship with his wife-to-be. The journey to America and his courtship were also not flawless undertakings. He persevered and made it to America, married, and had a son to carry forward the Vaudo surname and family lineage. He stayed in “America” the rest of his life but chose to remain an Italian citizen residing in the United States.  

Leseprobe

A Gaetano in America. My unexpected journey from Gaeta, Italy to the United States

by Raymond A. Vaudo

Publisher director: Jason R. Forbus

Graphic design and layout: Sara Calmosi

Published by Ali Ribelli Edizioni, Gaeta 2023©

Fiction – Memoirs

www.aliribelli.com – [email protected]

Any reproduction of this book is strictly forbidden, even partially, with means of any kind, without the clear authorization of the Publisher.

A GAETANO IN AMERICA

My unexpected journey from Gaeta, Italy to the United States

Raymond A. Vaudo

AliRibelli

Contents

Preface

Forward

Vaudo Family Background and Surname

Background and Setting

My School Years – 1922-1926

Working In the Family Business – 1927-1934

I’m in the Royal Italian Navy Now – 1934

Recalled to the Royal Italian Navy – August 1939

The Armistice Is Signed – Italy Surrenders to the Allies

Movement into Russian Occupied Territory – January 1945

Final Destination – Italy

I’m Going to America!

I’m Staying in America?

Working in the Meatpacking Business

When Are You Going to Get Married?

Beyond the Memoirs

Solving the Mysterious Time Gap

From Surprise Immigration Visit to Legal Resident Alien

A Gaetano’s One Way Ticket to America

APPENDICES

Map of Overall Prisoner of War Journey (Begins in Vlore – Bottom Center)

Pietro Paolo Vaudo Family Tree - Immediate Family

Preface

I am honored to have the opportunity to write the preface for this remarkable book, which tells the captivating story of Pietro Paolo Vaudo, or as I fondly called him, Paul. As I reflect on the events that brought us together and the experiences we shared, I am reminded of the indomitable spirit of the people from Gaeta, Italy (Gaetanos) who sought a better life in the United States.

I was born in Gaeta, Italy in 1932, and became part of a wave of Southern Italians who ventured across the Atlantic to improve their living conditions. At the age of seven, I traveled on a passenger liner with my mother to join my father, who had already established himself in Somerville, Massachusetts. We lived among the many Gaetano families that had already settled in the East Cambridge and Somerville areas of Massachusetts.

One evening in December 1947, my father traveled by train to Brooklyn, New York, to reunite with Paul, a relative from Gaeta who had recently been hired as a merchant seaman on a ship bound for foreign ports. When Paul routinely got off the ship that evening to have dinner, his co-workers told him to stay ashore as they had secretly arranged for my father to come pick him up and to take him to our home in Somerville.

The following morning, as a fifteen-year-old boy, I met Paul for the first time, a man over twice my age. Over the next several months we spent a lot of time together as he became acclimated to the surrounding areas. He shared with me aspects of the extraordinary life he had led—growing up in a family of fishermen, serving in the Italian Navy, and enduring two years as a prisoner of war.

When Paul first arrived in America, he did not expect to stay. However, with the urging of co-workers and my parents, he was soon convinced that he could pursue the American dream alongside his fellow Gaetanos. Guided by my father, who worked in the meatpacking business, Paul sought employment in the same industry. However, opportunities were scarce during the winter season, prompting him to join me in clearing snow from neighborhood homes to earn a few dollars.

Months passed, and Paul began to doubt whether his American dream would materialize. Yet, with my father’s persistence, he finally secured a job as a sausage maker—a role he quickly mastered. With stable employment, Paul was able to support himself, find lodging, and gradually build a life in American.

Over the next few years, my parents encouraged Paul to consider marriage to an Italian woman of Gaetan descent, preferably one born in the United States. While Paul initially brushed off the idea, fate intervened when he was introduced to Josephine, a woman of Gaetan descent working in the same clothing factory as my mother.

Their relationship blossomed and they soon decided to marry, but it was not without challenges from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, particularly during Paul’s seasonal work as a commercial fisherman in San Pedro, California. Eventually, in March 1952, they exchanged vows at St. Anthony’s Church in Somerville, with me serving as the Best Man. With his marriage to a U.S.-born woman, Paul secured permanent residency in the United States.

With immigration hurdles behind them, Paul and Josephine welcomed their son, Raymond, in April 1954. I was deeply honored when I was asked to be Raymond’s godfather, and I witnessed the joy of his baptism in June of the same year. Several years later, Paul and his family made the decision to relocate to San Pedro, California—a place that evoked memories of our beloved Gaeta. There, he resumed his work in the meatpacking industry, the trade introduced to him by my father.

Reflecting on Paul’s journey and the role I played in his assimilation to American life, I am reminded of the incredible resilience and determination displayed by the Gaetan people who crossed the ocean seeking a better future. Paul’s dedication and hard work enabled him to find satisfaction and success in America, all while leaving an enduring mark on his adopted home. Although he physically left Gaeta in 1947, it is clear that he carried a piece of our cherished hometown with him to the United States.

I am immensely grateful that this book now immortalizes Paul’s fascinating and extraordinary life story. Through the pages of this book, readers will come to know a man who overcame adversity, embraced opportunity, and became an integral part of two worlds—the one he left behind and the one he embraced with unwavering determination.

May Paul’s story serve as a testament to the enduring strength of the human spirit, the power of community, and the potential for dreams to take root and flourish, no matter where life’s currents may lead us.

Cosmo Capobianco

Civil Engineer, Retired

Arlington, Massachusetts

Forward

I assembled this book to capture and share my father’s story, a request that he made to me in the late 1990’s prior to his passing. It chronicles his personal stories about growing up in Gaeta, Italy in the early 1900s, his military and wartime struggles to survive, and the achievement of his post-World War II goal of venturing beyond his birthplace and “going to America.”

The vivid details and experiences are taken directly from my father’s written memoirs and audio cassette recordings. Since my birth, my father only spoke to me in the Gaetan dialect. Although it’s now commonly referred to as a “dialect,” it was essentially the “language” spoken in the Gaeta area, as Gaeta’s history pre-dates the establishment of the now standard Italian language. Our spoken dialect became somewhat frozen in time to the late 1940’s when my father departed his homeland for the last time. In our home, the Gaetan dialect was our only language. My mother’s family was also from Gaeta and my mother also grew up speaking the same dialect with her parents and other family members.

While growing up, my father would occasionally attempt to tell me interesting stories about his life. But the stories, filled with many geographical locations, details, and names of people, were complicated and difficult to understand. Throughout the years, I “half-listened” to bits and pieces of his stories when they spontaneously popped into his mind. Since I lacked the full context and understanding that he gained through his life experiences, I felt like I would have to put together a complex 500-piece jigsaw puzzle without having a reference image of the completed puzzle. Also, since only a handful of random puzzle pieces would be verbally given to me at a time, it was obvious that I would never be able to put together the full “picture” that he wanted to convey.

When he entered his early eighties, in the mid-1990s, he realized that his health and energy were beginning to wane. He told me that he really wanted to verbally share some events and experiences about his life with me. Most of his “sharables” were vivid memories and “virtual” images that had already been stored in his mind for over 50 years. I quickly realized that it would be difficult for me to listen, translate the information from the Gaetan dialect in my head, and write down my own detailed notes in English. Not only would it take many hours, the level of frustration and certain fatigue would cause our Italian tempers to flare-up and bring the storytelling to an abrupt end. Since his story would surely jump around as expanded memories entered his mind, we desperately needed a planned and orderly approach for this family project.

To begin the project, I encouraged him to hand-write his own notes in an orderly fashion, telling me the biographical information that he desperately wanted to share. As he was now in his early eighties, he certainly had a lot of time on his hands. He agreed to undertake the project and, little by little, he summarized his life beginning with his early childhood years in the early 1920s and continued through the early 1950s, when he was in his middle and late thirties. Since I was born in 1954, he figured that I already had a grasp of the significant activities and events that occurred after my birth.

He meticulously wrote his notes in exceedingly small handwriting, in standard Italian, in over twenty double-sided pages! One day, proud of his accomplishment, he handed the notes over to me and said, “Here is my story!”

I glanced at the notes, looked at them more carefully, and said, “This is great, but I can’t read standard Italian and it’s difficult to read many parts of your handwriting!”

Having progressed this far, I had to devise a solution that would meet the intended goal of “accurately capturing his story and passing it on to others.”

Somehow, I had to have him share his story in a manner that would enable me to later translate it into English. Asking him to write or tell me his story in English was not an option since he did not have a good enough command of the English language. So, my only option was to have him orally tell his story in the old Gaetan dialect that he could speak and that I could understand.

My solution was to provide him with a basic cassette recorder and a stack of blank tapes. I showed him how to use the cassette recorder and told him to read a small section of his notes to himself and then record what he read in the Gaetan dialect. At times he struggled with the cassette recorder, but he managed to record about a half dozen 90-minute cassette tapes, using his handwritten notes as a guide. Also, since he was now able to share his experiences verbally, he was able to expand upon what he had written in his notes by adding his “thoughts and feelings” to the situations that he described.

When he died in June 2000, at the age of eighty-five, his original handwritten notes and the cassette tapes were boxed up and stored in our attic, which would get quite hot during the summer months. It was not until 2015, when we were getting ready to visit Gaeta for an extended time, that I pulled out the tapes to make sure that they were still in good enough shape for listening. They were and I quickly had the tapes professionally transferred to CDs, as I was worried that the old cassette tapes would soon deteriorate.

In summer of 2015, I hand-carried a copy of the written notes and the CDs to Gaeta to share with my cousin Erasmo Vaudo, since he has always been an academic type and served as the President of the Centro Storico in Gaeta (local historical society) for decades. Interestingly, although Erasmo grew up speaking the Gaetan dialect in his early years, his understanding and command of the dialect had significantly faded through his formal schooling processes and concerted efforts in Italy to have people speak and write only in standard Italian. Also, Erasmo indicated to me that he had difficulty reading the tiny handwritten notes and he indicated that they were not always written correctly in standard Italian.

Little by little, Erasmo worked his way through the notes and later told me that he had not known the details of my father’s military years and he was truly amazed about what my father had experienced. Using what he learned, Erasmo nominated my father for recognition of his military service by the President of the Republic of Italy. In January 2016, my father was presented with the symbolic Medaglia d'Onore (Medal of Honor) and Erasmo traveled to Rome to accept it on behalf of our family. He later mailed the medal to me along with a special plaque from the mayor of Gaeta commemorating the special recognition. Later, he was one of the World War II Gaeta Internees (POWs) featured in a publication by the Centro Storico Gaeta Culturale.

In 2020, and now in my mid-sixty’s, I retrieved the materials and realized that I had better put this book together since no one in my immediate family (nor anyone else) would be able to translate the written notes nor understand the Gaetan dialect spoken on the tapes and CDs. My father’s story would be lost forever, as the source materials would be boxed up again and likely thrown out in the future as merely “worthless clutter.”

With the completion of my delayed efforts, we now have the curated story about the life and perilous adventures of a Gaetano (a person from Gaeta, Italy) who struggled and found his way to America. I hope that you enjoy it. I waited too long to learn these details and to fully grasp the challenges of my father’s journey from Gaeta, Italy to America and, eventually to San Pedro, California.

Raymond Anthony Vaudo, his only child

San Pedro, California

Note: I hope that this book is also your “wake-up call” to capture and preserve your family’s history. Do not assume that someone else will. I cannot begin to count the number of people that have told me that they wished they had notes of stories or events, and most importantly, audio or video recordings of their loved ones that have passed away.

Image 1: President of the Republic of Italy – Medal of Honor

Image 2: Mayor of Gaeta Recognition

Vaudo Family Background and Surname

The history of our Vaudo family, for several hundred documented years and perhaps hundreds before that, is deeply rooted in Gaeta, Italy. Gaeta is a city on the west coast of Italy, south of Rome and north of Naples. My great grandparents, grandparents, and parents – on both the paternal and maternal sides – were all born in or very near Gaeta.

Image 3: Location of Gaeta, Italy