Pt. 5: Love Across the Ocean: The Story of Guiseppa and Antonio Corbo’s Journey towards la bella vita

Guiseppa Finally Makes the Journey

In parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, Guiseppa is stranded in Italy, a country embroiled in The Great War while Tony joined (or was drafted) into the Army and earned his citizenship.

The effects of the war in Italy were tragic. War debt, food shortages, bad harvests and significant inflation bankrupted the country and an estimated half a million civilians died. It wasn’t long before Mussolini and his fascist movement came into power.  

It’s easy to speculate that the original plan would have been for Guiseppa to make the journey in 1916 at age 18 or 19, but the war forced the delay. Additionally, by the time passage would have been deemed safe, the United States had begun evolving their immigration policies. In fact, in 1920 - the year Guiseppa did finally make the journey — Congress passed a series of immigration quotas, significantly restricting immigration from Southern Europe, because of the perception that Italians were “low-skilled” workers. Unbelievably, Guiseppa was lucky to have made the trip at all! But she did, at age 23, make the journey to America to join her sister Filomena and her future husband. She departed from Naples on 20 May 1920 aboard the SS Taormina; the same ocean liner that Antonio had sailed on seven years prior! She arrived in New York on 4 June 1920. It would have been highly unusual for a woman to be traveling alone. In fact, American immigration policies likely would have had her detained at Ellis Island as a potential burden on the country. If no one would have “claimed” her, she would have been forced to return to Italy. So, the question is who did she travel with to avoid this problem? 

There were no other Corbo’s traveling on the ship, but there were two Sarracco’s. Guiseppa’s mother’s maiden name was Sarracco and on the ship manifest, the two Sarracco’s are listed right next to her name! Her two companions were of similar age and most likely were her cousins: Salvatore Sarracco, age 20 and Teresa Sarracco, age 23.

Only Salvatore was going on to St. Paul. The manifest indicates that he was going to join his father at the same address as Filomena in Swede Hollow, cementing the hunch that he is related. Teresa was going to be joining her brother in New York.

Guiseppa’s entry on the ship’s manifest indicates that she will be joining her sister Filomena in St. Paul at a “Phalen Creek” address. Although she is noted as “single,” her occupation is listed as “house wife” — perhaps this is a clue that she was traveling for the purpose of getting married? She had $15 in her pocket. The manifest indicates that she did not yet have a ticket to her final destination of St. Paul. Salvatore — her traveling companion/cousin — had only a few dollars more and also did not have a ticket. It could be easy to speculate that since Teresa was staying in New York with her brother, perhaps he was holding onto the tickets for them. Or, a more conspiratorial thought is that Salvatore never had the intention of traveling to Minnesota. There is no record of him in city directory or census data. Perhaps they strategized that it would not be proper for Guiseppa to be noted as traveling alone to Minnesota. 

St. Paul’s Union Depot of 1920 was very different than the one when Tony had arrived. It is in a different location, more modern and much larger and had only been completed a few months before Guiseppa arrived. This building still exists today.

At some point soon after she arrived, Guiseppa boarded the train from New York to St. Paul, most likely arriving at St. Paul’s Union Depot later in June of 1920.

Within only one month of arriving in St. Paul, a marriage license was obtained on 29 July 1920. This indicates that there was specific intention. One hopes that while separated for those seven years - most during wartime - they had opportunity to exchange letters and get to know each other. Yet, precisely because it was wartime, it’s not likely that mail traveled internationally with any reliability. Nevertheless, the sacrament of Holy Matrimony was performed on 22 August 1920 at the very same church that Tony and other Italians living in Swede Hollow had fund-raised to purchase a few years earlier: St. Ambrose Catholic Church. 

In part 6, Tony and Guiseppa are reunited and start their life together.