As an Italian American girl growing up in New Jersey during the sixties I always believed that I was just as much Italian as both sets of my grandparents who were born in Italy. In fact, my maternal grandparents raised me because both my parents worked. Like most of my neighbors in a small Italian neighborhood, I lived in a two-family house. My parents downstairs and my grandparents upstairs. My grandparents took me to Italy for the first time when I was just five. We sailed in the US Constitution and I remember how proud they were to return for the first time since World War 2 and to be able to take me with them. They rented a small apartment in Rome for four months. They insisted that I knew my address. Via Pavia. I will be 66 this year but I still remember that address. I truly believed that I lived there. When I returned to the States I told my mother that I wanted to live in Italy someday and she thought it was some phase. That phase never ended. I was on a mission. When I got to high school I studied Italian. Later a masters in art history so I could study in Florence. When that ended, I started an Italian ceramic import company so that I could go on buying trips. After that, I even bought a home in Florence thinking that would really make me Italian in the eyes of everyone.
The honest truth was that no matter what I did I still could not get on the line with everybody else that held that red passport and it bothered me to no end. Every time I checked into a hotel, I presented my American passport and the others showed their carta d’identità. I love America very much but I love Italy just the same. That’s when I decided that I needed dual citizenship. Along with my husband who was a first-generation descendant we started gathering all our documents but he soon discovered that his parents renounced Italian citizenship after the war, which disqualified him. I needed to file without him. By now my daughter was in her late thirties and planning to get married in Italy. I knew that I needed to do this for my sake and hers as well as for any grandchildren I might have.
I started the process thinking that I would get everything I needed in a short time and be on my way to filing for my appointment with the consulate. Instead, I starting hitting brick walls everywhere I turned. To begin with, my grandfather’s birth certificate was nowhere to be found in the town where he was born even though they found his brothers’ certificates. The church where my grandparents were married had burned down so there was no marriage certificate. It was just the beginning and I already felt doomed. I remember sitting at home in Florence wondering what to do next. Give up or try to find help and that’s when I found ICA. I knew nothing about them except for the online testimonials. I called and spoke with Marco in Rovigo who did a quick search and gave me some encouraging news. They managed to find the birth certificate of my paternal grandfather whom I never knew. Instead of the grandparents who raised me, he would be my link to citizenship. Marco felt confident enough to proceed with my case. Anna Arpaia became my case manager and we were off and running. The best part was that my daughter was also eligible through me and my grandchildren through her. Her husband could follow soon after. The process was long and not without hurdles but Anna was there every step of the way. They never missed a beat. Long forms, short forms, name corrections, translations. They even went so far as to find my father’s name on a tombstone to prove his legal name!
When the time came for my appointment they had organized everything in a file for me down to every last detail. By the time everything was submitted we were on the eve of the health emergency. The process took longer than expected but we finally got the news. My daughter and I were granted citizenship! My grandchildren, Madelena and Matteo are now finishing their process. I am grateful beyond words. Thanks to ICA we can live our lives as proud Italian citizens no matter where this world takes us. Italy is in our hearts forever and so is our gratitude to Anna and Marco. I have already referred them to a number of my friends and I’m certain that their testimonials will be following shortly.
Written by Gale Marinelli
