I come from a family of immigrants. My father’s parents came to America (settling in The Bronx, New York) from Sicily and Calabria. My mother’s parents came to America (also settling in The Bronx) from Cuba and Puerto Rico.
My parents divorced when I was young and I never saw my Italian relatives again. My father passed away at the age of 59 and I was intermittently raised with my Cuban grandmother. At the time, I didn’t realize how the loss of my Italian family members impacted me. It left a void – an empty feeling that something was missing within me. That feeling I could not name was with me for my adult life.
I started doing research online for all branches of my family and when my mother died in 2018, I decided it was time to somehow reclaim my Italian family even though everyone was gone. That led to the decision to file for dual-citizenship and then to take my first trip to Sicily and Calabria. I had no idea how these two decisions would radically change the trajectory of my life.
A good friend who’d just received his Italian passport recommended Marco Permunian at ICA. I was assigned to work with Anna and the journey began, starting with collecting all of the documents that would be required to file my application in New York City.
The process had some complexities due to my parents divorce and other spouses, inconsistencies between documents, and a spelling error in my fathers birth certificate. The thing that stands out most throughout this process is the calm and patience that everyone at ICA demonstrates no matter what comes up.
Then, in March of 2020, the global health emergency changed everything. Critical documents for my appointment with the Italian Consulate were trapped in the NYC Department of Health and everything came to a screeching halt… I thought.
Over the coming months, it became clear that my twenty-year career in human resources needed to come to a close. In July of 2020, desperate to retrieve my documents, I took a chance and visited the “closed” offices of the NYC Dept. of Health. A miracle happened when a man from their office came out of the building to speak to me on the sidewalk. He walked back into the office and 30 minutes later returned to the sidewalk with my documents. It was truly a miracle.
It occurred to me that perhaps it would be easier to file my case in Italy and in the midst of the travel ban, I found an Italian language school in Sicily to sponsor me for a student visa. It took months and huge effort to obtain, but it happened. All along the way ICA were with me, ready to shift gears and file my case in Italy instead of in New York.
I arrived in Sicily during the lockdown and unfortunately, the error in my father’s birth certificate made it impossible for the local comune to accept it as is. ICA helped me get a court order to demand that the NYC Department of Health correct my fathers birth certificate. During the months of waiting for that process to finish, ICA was always at my side to answer questions, help me fill out every single document required for the permesso di soggiorno, residence, application for citizenship, tessera sanitaria, and everything else that goes along with becoming a citizen while living in Italy.
While waiting for my father’s birth certificate I was given an opportunity to teach English at a local school. They asked me if I wouldn’t mind traveling out of town to teach at another public school and would provide me with a car. I said I would be happy to and then they told me the name of the town. Sortino. My ancestral town. The town of my grandfather’s birth. The town where his family is listed in the town records going back to 1580.
It was yet another miracle letting me know that this was the right path. I learned through years of research that my grandfather was not able to find work when he arrived in America and had a very hard time learning to speak English. Here it was over 100 years later and his granddaughter is in his town teaching English. Each morning that I drove up the mountain to his town to teach and it was like driving through time, imagining 10 generations of my ancestors in their town. Sortino is a remarkable place that is part of Pantalica, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the town is known as the documented inventor of Pizzolo.
Once all of the documents were submitted and the citizenship application approved, I was given the date of July 7th to pick up my passport. My grandfather’s birthday was July 7, 1885. To receive the passport on my grandfather’s birthday was an honor that moved me to tears. It was a couple of days when I realized something had changed within me. That emptiness that I’d felt all my life was gone, replaced by a feeling of wholeness that I have never known.
Because of the health emergency, life in Sicily got off to a slow start. It was challenging to meet people and that is changing now. I have the opportunity to host friends from the US and share my passion for this beautiful place with as many people as possible. The next part of the journey will be one part community volunteering and also finding some meaningful work in order to give back as much as possible and make a contribution.
I never imagined that I’d live anywhere else but New York. This all was an unexpected adventure and would not have been possible without the partnership, support, patience, and kindness from Anna, Susanna, and Marco from ICA. My gratitude is immeasurable.
Written by Lisa Failla
