[TI] Early Immigration /My Adventure in Baltimore/ Vaccaro's

Sun Mar 23 21:27:37 CST 2008

Cousin Mark,

You mention some of the Catanzaro's being in
Baltimore. Were they there back in the 1880's? The
reason I ask is that my great-grandfather, Francesco
Geraci, was in Baltimore during the mid to late 1880's
working as a shoemaker. One of my grandfather's
sisters was born there in 1889.

I actually went to Baltimore's Little Italy just two
weeks ago (as Ann Riggio had mentioned to the list).
They actually still have a thriving Little Italy where
Italian-Americans actually still live with a very nice
mostly Italian American parish called St. Leo's. 

On the church building of St. Leo's they have several
memorial plaques commemorating the people who lost
their lives during the various wars and the list is
98% Italian. I did not see many Termini names with the
exception of "Guarino". I also saw "Riggio" which
prompted me to call Ann although she said she wasn't
directly related to these Baltimore Riggio's to her
knowledge. 

Not seeing too many Termini names I asked at the
Church and was told that there was a second Italian
parish in Baltimore called "Our Lady of Pompeii" so
perhaps some of our ancestors went there or else they
just weren't killed in any wars and didn't appear on
the plaques.

It was about 4:30 pm on a Saturday and I saw some
people who looked like they were of Italian ancestry
going inside the church so I also entered. The church
had a beautiful interior richly decorated in the style
of many Italian immigrant churches with plenty of
beautiful statues and paintings including some
magnificent giant paintings over the altar. 

I had seen that they were having Confession and so I
thought it wouldn't hurt to go myself. I asked two of
the ushers who were preparing things in the back where
the confessional was and to my surprise, one of the
gentleman who appeared Italian suddenly yelled out
towards the sacristy:

"Hey Father!" he shouted, "We gotta confession!" 

I was slightly embarrassed at having my pending
confession publicly announced in this particular
manner and two elderly ladies who were sitting in the
front row clutching rosaries turned around and stared
at me with open mouths. Based on the way the ushers
had called the priest, I think they were half
expecting to see a criminal holding a still-smoking
gun attempting to go to confession before the police
arrived!

The priest was very nice and appeared quickly and
motioned for me to come back into the sacristy where
he adminstered this Sacrament. Even his confessional
advice had an Italian flavor. I had told the priest I
had been reading Fr. Anthony's books describing the
ascetic lifestyle of the Cistercians and I had been
considering trying to lead a more ascetic lifestyle
myself and he replied:

"Asceticism is like a pizza... when you eat a pizza,
you don't shove the whole thing in your mouth all at
once, at least I hope you don't!... or if you do,
you'll choke on it... in other words, you'll fail. So
you gotta cut it into pieces to digest it. The same
thing with ascetism, be very careful to introduce
these practices very slowly, a little bit at a time,
slowly or otherwise you'll fail with them and end up
worse off than before"

After the Sacrament, I thanked him, told him my
Italian ancestors had once lived in Baltimore and also
asked him if they might still have Baptismal records
from 1881 (when the church was built) and he assured
me that they still had every single Baptismal and
Marriage record dating back to 1881 and going right up
to 2008.

I also attended the Saturday evening vigil Mass which
was very nice. The priest mentioned the Baltimore
catechism in the homily and how many mistakenly think
the Church changed their beliefs when they adopted a
more modern catechism but how this wasn't true. It was
interesting hearing about the Baltimore Catechism
while being in Baltimore!

After Mass the usher who had yelled out "Hey Father,
We gotta confession" said goodbye to me and I asked
him if he had lived in that neighborhood his whole
life and he told me that he had immigrated to America
and had been born in Italy. I told him my ancestors
had come from Termini Imerese and he was astonished
and said that while he had been born on the mainland
of Italy, that as a young man in the 1950's he had
briefly moved to Termini Imerese and had worked there
for a short period of time before finally coming to
America for work! I had wanted to ask him about the
details when another man came up and needed his
assistance so I didn't get too much more information.

All the people were filing out of the church and just
walking to their row houses next door and across the
street. It hit me that no one had driven to Mass but
everyone lived in the row houses all around this
parish! 

One of the other highlights of this neighborhood was a
visit to Vaccaro's Italian Pastry Shop
(www.vaccarospastry.com) located on Albemarle St (2
blocks from St. Leo's) although Vaccaro's has a total
of 6 locations including 2 in Washington, DC (which my
family often frequented). 

Founded in 1956 by Palermo-born immigrant Gioacchino
"Jimmy" Vacarro, Vaccaro's is to Baltimore and D.C.
what Missouri Baking Company is to St. Louis.  They
are absolutely fanatical about never selling a soggy
cannoli and they fill every cannoli to order - in
other words they keep the shells separate and only
fill them when you say you want to buy some.  

And their filling is amazing... no soupy ricotta mixed
with only a dash of powdered sugar at this bakery!
Instead, you get an extremely thick, even sculptable
ricotta filling (moisture strained out) that holds
it's form and which is mixed with an extremely subtle
blend of mysterious ingredients along with tiny
chocolate chips. One taste of these cannoli's will
immediately tell you that the Vaccaro's really know
what they are doing and do not just throw ricotta and
powdered sugar together like so many other bakeries.
In fact, my dad says my grandfather's sisters were so
captivated by the filling that they used to beg Mr.
Vaccaro to give them the recipe to his cannoli filling
but sadly to no avail. I would go so far to say that
Vacarro's makes the queen of all cannoli's in the
mid-Atlantic region of the US. My own opinion is that
one of his "secret" ingredients is either some form of
pistachio extract or an extremely finely ground
pistachio paste blended in with the ricotta. Perhaps
one of you can taste these sometime and give me your
opinion. I believe our own Donna Guiffre has probably
also been here before if I remember correctly.

Anyhow, Baltimore's Little Italy is a delightful place
to visit and there is so much more there that I
haven't even written about, I would recommend everyone
go there if you get the chance!

Ken Geraci

--- GSAUNC at aol.com wrote:

> Cousin Ken-
> Maria Carmela  SanPietro's parents were Antonio
> SanPietro 
> and Agostina Granata.   Agostina's parents were
> Biaggio Granata
> and Biaggia Pirrone.  As of yet  I do not know the
> parents of 
> Antonino SanPietro.
> My great  grandfather, Pasquale Bisesi, sold fruit
> his entire life. 
> He lived in  Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, Saginaw,
> Baltimore, Williamsport
> and  Norfolk  He sold fruit from small stands to
> start and later had small  
> stores.  I have a feeling the Catanzaro family
> sponsored several
> of  my family members coming to America.  Pasquale's
> brother,
> Mariano's,  family settled in Baltimore. Pasquale's
> brother, Girolamo,
> went to Detroit  and another brother, Girolamo
> Agostino, went to
> Kansas City and other midwest  locations.  His son
> John, my 
> grandfather, followed his father into the  produce
> business in Norfolk 
> Virginia.  John founded "Bisese and  Console"
> produce which later 
> was incorporated into the "Giant Markets" and  later
> "Farm Fresh" of  
> Norfolk.
> Mark
> 
> 
> 
> 
> **************Create a Home Theater Like the Pros.
> Watch the video on AOL 
> Home.      
>
(http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer?video=15?ncid=aolhom00030000000001)
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TerminiImerese mailing list
> TerminiImerese at comunesofitaly.org
>
http://comunesofitaly.org/mailman/listinfo/terminiimerese_comunesofitaly.org
> 

      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better friend, newshound, and 
know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.  http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ