ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Sandra Montanino
Writing is My Passion
By the age of eight, Sandra Montanino, lived in three different countries. Born into a large Italian, Basque, and Panamanian family, these rich exposures immersed her into a wealth of cultures, languages, provincial superstitions, and an endless fascination with her family of storytellers. The stories enriched her life and ignited her imagination.
The Original Recipe was an article featured in Ancestry Magazine about her family’s obsession with "who makes the best pasta sauce." Sandra found that her treasure chest of tales, mystical superstitions, adventures and wisdom came from her own family and she has committed to print for everyone to enjoy.
Sandra's longtime husband Gennaro comes from a family originating in Naples and was born into the immigrant world of Manhattan's Little Italy.
From his experiences and those of his family, she is now compiling these stories for another book. Together she and her husband have five children and fourteen grandchildren and while they lived in Southern California for the majority of their lives, they now reside in Provo, Utah.
FROM THE AUTHOR - Sandra Montanino
Never forget where you come from
THE WEIGHT OF SALT (Book One) was inspired by both my grandmother Angelina and my great-grandfather Domenico. Their intense life stories have been a great topic of many conversations, told and retold by the family.
While I inherited their joy of storytelling, it took me a long time to realize that these stories were in danger of becoming lost treasures. Since my children have married into other wonderful European nationalities, they and their children will never know the passion of what it was like and what was sacrificed when their ancestors came to America. I began by writing short stories about the events of those that came before us and was honored to win numerous awards from the League of Utah Writers.
After receiving such recognition, League members asked me to reveal a bit about the book I was writing. But I was not writing a book. When the question persisted, I decided I had better get busy. So, I fell into deep thought about my life's experiences. I traveled through time and considered everything I had accomplished and everything I had failed at and everyone I had known. Like all inspirations, the vision came in a flash of my Sicilian grandmother, Angelina. I rushed to the computer, grabbed the keyboard, and typed the outline for the first eighteen chapters. Though everyone had died and with no one was left to interview, the compelling drama still lit a powerful fire. I gathered all the information I had and connected the remainder with my imagination and my knowledge of their powerful personalities.
My cousin told me once, "Never forget you come from strong stock, and you are much stronger than you think." This novel is a story about such strength.
Sandra's Famiglia (Family)
Our family story all began in a corner of Tampa, Florida known as Ybor City and referred to as The Cigar Capital of the World. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s newly arrived immigrants from Italy were drawn to Ybor City to find work and create homes for their families.
In my book, The Weight of Salt, I recount the story of my great-grandfather, Domenico, who before he could speak English, carried a small wood burning stove to the Ybor City train terminal and timed cooking his sausage sandwiches in line with the arrival and departure of trains. He said "If you are going to sell something, sell food, so you will never go hungry." The smell of sausages lured hungry travelers and Domenico was able to earn enough to build a small grocery and sandwich shop at the edge of the terminal. He later built a home attached to the grocery store where he raised his six children. This is where the story really begins.
THE JOURNEY TO AMERICA
Between 1876 and 1930, more than five million Italians immigrated to the United States—the majority fleeing grinding rural poverty in Southern Italy and Sicily. These immigrants were desperate enough to leave everything behind and journey to a new country with only a few dollars in their pockets, knowing no one, and unable to speak the language. Today,
Americans of Italian ancestry are the nation's fifth-largest ethnic group.
THE ITALIANS IN TAMPA (Ybor City)
The Italians of Ybor City arrived almost exclusively from Sicily. Life was unimaginably hard in the mid-to late 1800s. Most of the immigrants came from Sicily’s southwestern region, a hilly area containing the towns of Santo Stefano Quisquina, Alessandria della Rocca, Cianciana and Bivona. These villagers struggled with poor soil, malaria, bandits, low birth rates, high land rents from absentee landlords, and even wolves. The completion of the Plant Railway to Tampa (1884) and Vicente Martinez Ybor’s development of Ybor City (1886) made the Tampa area an attractive destination for these immigrants. Thousands–including the many Sicilians who either came directly to Tampa or moved there from their initial U.S. “landing spots”–found work in the cigar trade, as well as in the myriad of other enterprises that supported Italians in the community.
SOURCE: CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE
Italians mostly brought their entire families with them, unlike many of the other immigrants. Once arriving in Ybor City (pronounced ee-bor), Italians settled mainly in the eastern and southern fringes of the city. The area was referred to as La Pachata, after a Cuban rent collector in that area. It also became known as “Little Italy."
THE CIGAR CAPITAL OF THE WORLD
At first, Italians found it difficult to find employment in the cigar industry, which was dominated by Hispanic workers. The Italians arrived in the cigar town without cigar-making skills and started at the bottom of the ladder, positions which did not involve handling tobacco. Working beside unskilled Cubans, they swept, hauled, and were porters and doorkeepers. The majority of the Italian women worked as cigar strippers, an undesirable position. Eventually, many Italian women became skilled cigar makers, earning as much as their male counterparts. In the end, approximately 20% of the cigar factory workers were Italian Americans
"The Weight of Salt (Book One)" tells my Italian family story.
In the world of 1906, Ybor City, Florida, there is an illusion about life and how it works, and then there’s the truth and fifteen-year-old Angelina Pirrello begins a treacherous course to learn the difference.
Bright, ambitious, and determined to carve out her own destiny, Angelina discovers that women have no right to vote, the Mafia has her Italian community in a stranglehold of fear, and when she finds love, her strict,
Sicilian father arranges her marriage to a man she dislikes.
As life continues to unravel, Angelina makes a daring move to take destiny into her own hands, but it comes with devastating consequences and far more shattering than she realizes.