Presentation to CU meeting 2/8/07 by Rosaria Heitekemper about her emigration from Sicily
Question: Is Sicily -
a. a country
b. an island
c. a city in Italy?
This was the second time someone from Rosaria Messina's family came to the US. This time it worked out better. Her great-grandfather emigrated from Sicily in 1912. Her great-grandmother came later with their six-year-old daughter. At Ellis Island, mother and daughter were refused entry because the little girl had measles. They turned around, went back to Sicily and never saw or heard from Rosaria's great-grandfather again.
Rosaria (Sara) Heitkemper's journey also began in Sicily, in Caltagirone near Catania. Like many of her relatives, who left to find employment in more prosperous northern European countries, Rosaria's father went to Germany to work when she was only a year-old. She and her mother and siblings remained in Sicily until she was 16, when the family moved to Germany to help her father open a restaurant. They stayed four years, but by then Rosaria had married an American soldier. So instead of going back to her home in 1981, she came to Louisville, Kentucky. Rosaria had learned to speak German; her early Catholic school education had taught her Latin & Greek, but she knew no English. As she describes it "I thought I was coming for a vacation and then going home!…I had to integrate and unlearn my culture of 20 years." She didn't drive and she didn't have enough English language skills even to talk with her obstetrician. "I learned English with my oldest kid and by watching lots of closed caption soap operas on TV!"
By 1995 she was divorced and had three children. Her parents begged her to come home. To them "the moon was closer than the United States." Even when she had thyroid cancer, "no one came. I was on my own with no one to guide me." Rosaria decided to stay, to "give my kids a better chance. Nobody in Sicily had a job and I knew this is a better place for girls. Even if you have an education, you have to know someone who knows someone to get a job."
As the only Italian in most of the communities where she lived, Rosaria "never saw myself as a minority. I never grew up with discrimination, so I said 'if they like me, fine. If they don't, fine.'" She worked two jobs to support her children and she discovered along the way that her passion is people with mental disabilities. She advanced to being supervisor of three group homes. Her children have now gone to college; the oldest two work in computer networking and as a paralegal and the youngest attends Ivy Tech.
Rosaria, who once knew seven languages, but is now down to only four, laughs about her accent. "I don't hear it." But her daughter remembered the time in McDonald's when Rosaria ordered "Tree Happy Meals." ("Th" is a not a sound in Italian.) When the teenagers behind the counter started making fun of her, Rosaria simply asked for the manager and demanded more respect from his employees. "I got tree free Happy Meals!" she laughingly boasted! Rosaria added that her own children are discriminated against in Sicily because they don't speak Italian and "when I go home, they say I have an accent!" She keeps up with life in Sicily by watching Italian TV here, though she is very happy with her life in Harrison County, Indiana. The mother of three children who are dual American and Italian citizens admits, "I don't know where my home is." Still hoping some day to go back, Rosaria is content now while she and Jim Heitkemper (married two years ago) can return for visits and she can show him her native culture and life in Sicily.
Answer: b. Sicily is the largest and most populated island in the Mediterranean Sea, just southwest off the "boot toe" of Italy. It is an autonomous region of Italy.
Question: Is Sicily -
a. a country
b. an island
c. a city in Italy?
This was the second time someone from Rosaria Messina's family came to the US. This time it worked out better. Her great-grandfather emigrated from Sicily in 1912. Her great-grandmother came later with their six-year-old daughter. At Ellis Island, mother and daughter were refused entry because the little girl had measles. They turned around, went back to Sicily and never saw or heard from Rosaria's great-grandfather again.
Rosaria (Sara) Heitkemper's journey also began in Sicily, in Caltagirone near Catania. Like many of her relatives, who left to find employment in more prosperous northern European countries, Rosaria's father went to Germany to work when she was only a year-old. She and her mother and siblings remained in Sicily until she was 16, when the family moved to Germany to help her father open a restaurant. They stayed four years, but by then Rosaria had married an American soldier. So instead of going back to her home in 1981, she came to Louisville, Kentucky. Rosaria had learned to speak German; her early Catholic school education had taught her Latin & Greek, but she knew no English. As she describes it "I thought I was coming for a vacation and then going home!…I had to integrate and unlearn my culture of 20 years." She didn't drive and she didn't have enough English language skills even to talk with her obstetrician. "I learned English with my oldest kid and by watching lots of closed caption soap operas on TV!"
By 1995 she was divorced and had three children. Her parents begged her to come home. To them "the moon was closer than the United States." Even when she had thyroid cancer, "no one came. I was on my own with no one to guide me." Rosaria decided to stay, to "give my kids a better chance. Nobody in Sicily had a job and I knew this is a better place for girls. Even if you have an education, you have to know someone who knows someone to get a job."
As the only Italian in most of the communities where she lived, Rosaria "never saw myself as a minority. I never grew up with discrimination, so I said 'if they like me, fine. If they don't, fine.'" She worked two jobs to support her children and she discovered along the way that her passion is people with mental disabilities. She advanced to being supervisor of three group homes. Her children have now gone to college; the oldest two work in computer networking and as a paralegal and the youngest attends Ivy Tech.
Rosaria, who once knew seven languages, but is now down to only four, laughs about her accent. "I don't hear it." But her daughter remembered the time in McDonald's when Rosaria ordered "Tree Happy Meals." ("Th" is a not a sound in Italian.) When the teenagers behind the counter started making fun of her, Rosaria simply asked for the manager and demanded more respect from his employees. "I got tree free Happy Meals!" she laughingly boasted! Rosaria added that her own children are discriminated against in Sicily because they don't speak Italian and "when I go home, they say I have an accent!" She keeps up with life in Sicily by watching Italian TV here, though she is very happy with her life in Harrison County, Indiana. The mother of three children who are dual American and Italian citizens admits, "I don't know where my home is." Still hoping some day to go back, Rosaria is content now while she and Jim Heitkemper (married two years ago) can return for visits and she can show him her native culture and life in Sicily.
Answer: b. Sicily is the largest and most populated island in the Mediterranean Sea, just southwest off the "boot toe" of Italy. It is an autonomous region of Italy.