1. How old were you when you first thought of crossing over? A: I was 15 years old and still in high school. I had heard stories about other people having success “up north”. I wanted to explore the United States and see what could be out there for me. 2. When did you actually make ... Read More »
Panayotis Kalogerakos lived in Langadia, a mountainside village in Arkadia, in Peloponnesos, Greece. While it was beautiful there, Panayotis wanted to leave Greece as a young man in order to escape the fighting that was going on in the Balkans at that time. In addition, there were attractive job opportunities in the industrialized ... Read More »
Click & listen to the story as read by Gelsimino’s granddaughter, Marilynn Holland, a resident of Palo Alto. My grandfather was born in Verbicaro, a small Southern Italian inland town in Calabria, Italy. His passport says that he was born in 1892. His family was quite poor working in the fields. His mother collected spare coins in ... Read More »