Photo 1: "Traditional Italian Dinner"

This picture has so much history of the Scannavino family. At the head of table is Giovanni Scannavino and it is his birthday that is being celebrated. My grandmother is the little girl. She is sitting on her godfather's lap. The house address is 516 59th Street, West New York, NJ. This is how true Sicilian families spent every sunday and how they had dinner together. The little things back then pleased them so much, and we don't see the dedication towards family anymore. 

Still alive!

Hey guys, I've taken almost a year without reposting anything! I'm not going to let that happen again. I have a huge passion for the Sicilian culture and family values. But I also like Italian fashion too! I practically love anything Italian! Some some updates for summer of 2011 are as follows:

Stories of Scannavino family memories from the 1930's - 1960's
Fashion trends including, "Fashion tip of the day", and "Fashion accessory of the day"
Old photo of the day

Scotcha?

Scotcha? Most people I know will have no idea what i'm talking about. Some will relate this term to the liquor, but it's not. It's our "Scannavino" dialect of a Sicilian recipe called Scaciatta. Scaciatta is a Sicilian cheese pie. You can add any vegetables or sauce into it. In our family we call it "Scotcha." It seems like a lot of Italian Americans abbreviate things. A good example is Mozzarella. A lot of people say Mozzarell. (Leaving out the "A" at the end of the word.

Our Scotcha is made every Easter. My grandmother ate this on Easter every year when her grandmother, Giuseppa would make it. Now, she makes it for all her kids, and 14 grandchildren. It starts out with the dough. You can buy the frozen dough or you can buy dough from the local Pizzeria. Our Scaciatta recipe is a secret :) So I can't share the specific details. But basically it is Pecorino - Romano cheese. We buy the half circle and use big chunks. Then it is the special sauce. I can't share the ingrediants, sorry! I think it is very cool that Scotcha is something my grandmother ate as a child and now she makes it for her family. It shows how important Sicilian traditions are.

A Scandalous Story!

I don't want to confuse anybody, so let me explain the family members and relations so were all on the same page. Santa, Angela, & Giovanna were sisters in Ragusa who came to America atleast once. There were two more sisters to add to that, Concetta and Emanuela. So now we have Santa, Angela, Giovanna, Concetta, & Emanuela. Within all these sisters, there was also one brother. His name was Giovanni. So now we have a big family of 6! WOW. Giovanni is my great great grandfather and I am going to tell his story next.         (Concetta & Emanuela never came to USA)

Okay, you might not believe this story, and truly I don't care if you don't. This is the story my grandmother and her cousins/siblings know of. According to my grandmother, Giovanni Scannavino born 1885, was involved within the Sicilian Mafioso (mafia). He was deported from Sicily to Argentina for some reason. My grandmother and my grandmother's sister both say because he killed someone, so this is the story we have. He took his wife-to-be to Argentina with him also. Her name was Giuseppa Brugaletta. Giuseppa translates to Josephina or Josephine. They arrived in Buenos Aires sometime in 1912 I estimated. They got married in 1912, and in 1914 had their first child, Giovanina. So to re-cap---Giovanni and Giuseppa are my GREAT GREAT grandparents and are my grandmother's, grandparents! Buona notte i miei amici. More to come tomorrow!

Giovanni & Giuseppa

Scannavino's in America

In the early 1910's through 1920, some of the brave Scannavino's ventured out of Ragusa and went to new places. They couldn't speak the language, they didn't know "how to be American," and they didn't know anybody. I feel that these are the bravest people who have the most courage. They would leave everything they have to make a better life for themselves the people they love.

I traced my Scannavino family back to the 1600's. It wasn't until 1911 when the first Scannavino came to America. Her name was Santa Scannavino and from my research(which is not fully completed yet), she was born in 1884. She came into New York Harbor with her two children on March 27, 1911. Her oldest daughter was Carmelina, age 6, and the other daughter, Giovanna, age 1. She was married to Andrea La Terra, also of Ragusa. Andrea came to America first so he could find work, and establish living conditions for his children and wife. Santa's exact relation to me would be my great great great aunt. She is my great great grandfather's sister. We'll talk about his voyage to America in my next blog post. It is very interesting and scandalous!

Next up, is Angela Scannavino. Angela is another sister to my great great grandfather and Santa. She was born in 1883 and came in 1912. Ironically, she also came with two children. One named Giovanna and the other Gina. When she came to America she had 5 more children. Angela's husband was Vincenzo Antonio Tabacchino who also came from Ragusa. In total there was 7 children: Giovanna, Gina, Alfred, Vincent, Anna, Violet, & Jeannette. Amazingly, her daughter Anna, born 1914, and other daughter Violet, born 1917, are still alive and well! I spoke to Violet on the phone and she told me so much about our family history....

Last for this blog, is Giovanna Scannavino, birth date is unknown. Giovanna is another sister to the people above. From what Violet told me, Giovanna came to America for a short while. She didn't like it, and went back to Ragusa.

Be sure to read the next blog :)

An Italian Family

I created this blog, to preserve family history, to share pictures of the Sicilian culture, and to share memories that are long gone, but not forgotten. 

The Scannavino family was started years and years ago, but all originated from Ragusa, Sicily. To this day we have living relatives with the Scannavino name who still walk the cobblestone streets. To those unfamiliar to Sicily, it is the little island on the bottom left of Italy. Around the early 1910's the Scannavino's from Ragusa slowly started leaving their homeland and immigrated to various places. Some went to directly to the United States and others detoured to Argentina. In Italian culture, extended family is no different than immediate family. As with most Italians, family is family and it's as simple as that.