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Audrey Stahrr
Dr. Aaron Martin
Honors 1000
October 11, 2016
Essay #1
It was a sunny eighty-five-degree day in 1914, as I sat outside at the local park with my
friend Alberto. Alberto was a forty-five-year-old Italian man who treated everyone like his own
children and loved to give advice. He was my neighbor who also moved to the United States for
a better income. I ended up living in the same neighborhood1 as other Italian Immigrants. This
was because we were able to continue our Italian culture together and have it feel like home.
We were discussing how life in America was different then it was in Italy, such as differences in
the culture and everyday life.
Alberto asked, Antonio my son, how is life going for you?
I replied, Well unfortunately I have bad news. I just lost my job2 and it couldnt have
happened at a worse time.
Alberto responded with a sad face and asked, And why is that?

1 According to Nelli Humbert, Newcomers tended to settle along the same streets and in
the same tenement houses according to town or province of origin, probably seeking familiar
faces, names, and dialects.

2 Rudolph J Vecoli states, the emigrants survival in America depended on his

working abilities (80).

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I sighed and replied, Well, my wife and I made a plan that I would come over to
America to find a job so that I would be able to support my two daughters3 but, now I am jobless
and it is two weeks before they should be here and I have no income.
Ahh, you have daughters? What are they like? asked Alberto.
Oh, my two daughters always brighten my day and know how to make me laugh, I
could talk about my daughters all day. Daniela is seven years old and my other daughter
Adrianna is four.
Thats the best age cause theyre just so cute, replied Alberto.
It is, I cant wait until my wife and my girls are here.
And what is your wife like? asked Alberto.
Oh shes beautiful, understanding, and caring. Plus, she is a wonderful cook!4 I smiled
talking about them.
Alberto said, Well your family sounds great, I cant wait to meet them!
I continued, yeah but now I have nothing to support them
I have the best idea Antonio! said Alberto. You should get a job where I work. The
Ford Motor Company, has good pay and even offers English classes5. Plus, my friend Michael
3 According to Edward Corsi, The new immigrant migrated alone, leaving wife and children
behind.

4 According to George Pozzetta, Pasta was a luxury, and peasants typically ate
meat only two or three times a year on special holidays."
5 George Pozzetta also states, Thus, language barriers encouraged campanilismo,
further fragmenting the emerging Italian American world (510).

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got the job and has no job experience6. I thought about this for a second and realized that this
was the job for me. Alberto gave me a copy of the Ford Manual and he even read parts to me7 so
that I could see all the benefits of this job. I knew that I was a potential candidate since I met one
of the three criteria8 that Ford gave; I was married and taking care of my family. I soon applied
for a position on the assembly line.
Two weeks later, it was my first day working at Ford. I was put on the assembly line for wheels.
So every second of the day I worked at a conveyor belt with the same group putting on the tires
of the automobiles9. It was boring on days but I never complained. I became close with the other
guys10 that I spent my days with. We had all day to work and talk; the talking helped the hours
pass by faster.
It was the day my family finally arrived to join me in America. It was late after a long day of
work and I was waiting outside. Then, they came walking up the neighborhood and we all ran to
each other and I hugged both my girls and my wife. We spent the rest of the night catching up on
6 Rudolph J Vecoli proves this by talking about the lack of skills in the majority of
these immigrants (54).
7 Pozzetta comments, illiteracy rates among immigrants often ran well above 50
percent (508).
8 According to Martelle, They had to meet one of the three criteria: be married and
living with and taking care of their family; be single and over age twenty-two with
proven thrifty habits; or under age twenty-two but providing sole support for
relatives (75).
9 Martelle states, The key innovation was Fords automated assembly line, which
revolutionized manufacturing worldwide with his concept of placing workers along a
conveyor belt, where each would do the same task for the entire shift, rather than a single
crew of workers building a car start to finish (71-72).

10 In the picture titled, Ford Motor Company Factory Assembly Line, it shows five
men working hard to add the tires to an automobile.

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what was happening back home in Italy. I learned who was married, who was employed, and
who had left for a better life themselves. I then caught them up on American life and what theyll
be doing here.
My wife told me, I met these two very nice girls on our trip here. They told me all about
what life in America is like for a woman.
Yeah? Were they good or bad things? I asked.
All good, she responded. I was surprised how even though they grew up in two
different cities, they talked and dressed the same11.
Yeah, youll find that here in America. I know two guys from work that could be
brothers theyre so similar but they arent even from the same state! I replied.
Since I had to get up early for work the next day and they were exhausted from their trip,
we called it a night and all went to bed.
As the days went by, I realized that I still dont get to see my family. I work such long
shifts that I feel like I have become a robot; putting tires on cars all day. I dont even have to
think about what Im doing anymore, my body just naturally does it. When I get home I am so
tired and exhausted from the long work hours and the English classes we have to attend at Ford
that I go to sleep right away.
One day Daniela asked, Daddy, can you help me with my homework?
I replied saying, Sorry honey but Im too tired tonight. Ask your mom.
11 According to Tocqueville, In America, even more than in Europe, there is only one
society The plane of a uniform civilization has passed over it. The man you left in New York
you find again in almost impenetrable solitudes: same clothes, same attitude, same
language, same habits, same pleasures (236-7).

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She looked at me with a sad look in her eye and it killed me that I wasnt able to take the
time from my day to help her.
I noticed the assembly was not only affecting me but my family as well. My days started
to all run together, working late and starting earlier. I never had time for my family anymore
since I was too tired. My kids felt that I didnt care about them since I was never around. I could
tell this caused hatred towards me. I even noticed I talked rougher to my wife since I was
stressed. This caused a drift in our relationship since we never talked. I always tried to find the
easiest and fastest way to do things. I wanted structure in the way things were done. I had
become very robotic in my life style; get up, go to work where I do the same thing over and over
and then get home late and go to bed. I could not get away from the assembly line way of
thinking.
One day I was sitting eating dinner listening to my kids talk when I realized they were
speaking English. In school, the kids were learning about American culture and language. I
realized that the American culture had taken over and they did not resemble any Italian. I
wondered when this had happened and how I never noticed. I realized that this needed to be
changed since Detroit did not provide us with the opportunities promised. We had enough money
saved to pack our bags and move north to a suburban area12 in Michigan. I got a job that wasnt
as strenuous so I was able to spend more time with my family. Every night at dinner my family
speaks Italian so that my kids can keep their real culture with them. We are now all happier as we
have a mix of both cultures and we spend quality family time together regularly.

12 Pozzetta states, many newly affluent Italian Americans left for suburban
locations and fresh opportunities, further eroding the institutions and the contadino
culture that once thrived in ethnic settlements (512).

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Works Cited
Corsi, Edward. "Italian Immigrants and Their Children." The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science 223 (1942): 100-06. Web.
Ford Motor Company Factory Assembly Line. 1913. Photograph. Detroit Public Library,
Michigan.
https://digital.library.wayne.edu/digitalcollections/item?id=wayne:CFAIEB01a020
Martelle, Scott. Detroit: A biography. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press,
Incorporated, 2012. Print.
Nelli, Humbert S. "Italians in Urban America: A Study in Ethnic Adjustment." The
International Migration Review 1.3 (1967): 38-55. Web.
Pozzetta, George. "Italian Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. Ed.
Thomas Riggs. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2014. 505-522. Gale Virtual Reference
Library. Web. 10 Oct. 2016. http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/ps/i.do?
p=GVRL&sw=w&u=lom_waynesu&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE
%7CCX3273300100&asid=9cece54cb5bb0499a31925b27a34832b
Toqueville, Alexis de. Fortnight in the Wilderness. France. 1909. Print.
Vecoli, Rudolph J. Italian Immigrants in Rural and Small Town America: Essays from the
Fourteenth Annual Conference of the American Italian Historical Association Held at

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the Landmark Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, October 30-31, 1981. Staten Island, N.Y:
The Association, 1987. Print.