. . . La Miseria
1790-1910
Chité, Motta, Rapisarda, Romeo
There are three villages in which our Italian ancestors lived, all located on the island of Sicily. Belpasso and Nicolosi are a few miles apart and nestled on the southern slope of Mount Etna. Aci Sant’ Antonio lies to the east of the volcano. The families of Romeo, Rapisarda, and Motta lived in Belpasso. In the neighboring village of Nicolosi lived the Chité family. Another family by the name of Motta resided in Aci Sant’ Antonio.
All of the men in each generation were farmers. They were known as agricoli, contadini, or campanuoli. None had land of their own, but rather worked the large land holdings owned by the feudal lords. The women, industriosi, stayed at home and took care of the house and children. No one went to school past age eight years of age, but headed to the fields to work alongside their parents.
The times in which these families lived were very hard. They lived in what today’s society would call very poor conditions. They had little food and not much variety. Their home and furnishings were very humble and scanty. They faced diseases and pestilences and, most frightening of all, earthquakes and eruptions from Mount Etna.
This era of the family history came to an end when, in the late 1800s, the sons convinced their parents there was no future in their villages for the young people. The only option, as they saw it, was to sail to America to become wealthy. Then they would return to their village as rich men. Little did they know they would find more in America to treasure besides a pocket full of money and life devoid of poverty.
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