THE LIFE OF A FISHERMAN FROM BAGNARA
This story began in the distant year of 1886.
On January 10th of that year, my maternal grandfather VINCENZO MELLUSO was born in Bagnara Calabra, in the province of Reggio Calabria, Italy. He was the son of Rocco and Francesca Musumeci, one of many children in a family of fishermen. Italy, which had only recently achieved unity as a country, did not offer much to its citizens. America was the promised land. At the age of seven, my grandfather was brought to Argentina. His parents stayed behind in Italy, and he embarked on a journey into the unknown with some of his siblings and cousins. He was illiterate but had a great desire to learn and work. From the Tyrrhenian Sea, he transitioned to fishing in the Atlantic Ocean in Quequén, Buenos Aires province. The elders cast nets from the shore, and since he was the smallest, he helped them retrieve the nets, always at the edge of the sea because they were so poor that they didn’t even have a boat. As he grew, his desire to learn also increased, so he became self-taught and learned to read and write on his own, in a language different from his own. He never attended school, neither in Italy nor in Argentina, and later became an avid reader of gaucho poetry, which describes the characteristics of the cowboys of the pampas.
As an adult, it was time to find him a wife. “Moglie e buoi dei paesi tuoi” (Wife and oxen from your homeland) says an Italian proverb. His grandparents made the necessary arrangements with the Dato family: the young couple exchanged photographs, and the marriage was thus arranged. Vincenzo returned to Bagnara, where on July 5, 1908, he married Orsola, daughter of Vincenzo Dato and Maria Fondacaro. The young couple, just in their twenties, then returned to Argentina. They settled in Quequén, which by that time had already become a Bagnarese colony. All were cousins, brothers-in-law, brothers, friends, relatives, etc. They had nine children: Anselmo, Daniel, Roque, Rudecindo, Francisca Aurelia (my mother), Vicente (known as Pispicha), María, Filiberto (Payonto), and Delia. My grandfather would get up at three in the morning and, now the captain of a rowboat, would go fishing with his brother Tomasso. When my uncles were old enough, they helped him sell the day’s catch, which they transported by horse cart to the nearby town of Necochea. The land in this area is not very fertile, but he had his small plot where he managed to grow some vegetables to feed his large family. When there was fish, they had dinner; otherwise, they went to bed with a cup of mate cocido (herbal tea) and a piece of bread.
My mother, the first girl after four boys, was sent at the age of six to live with my grandmother’s sister, who had no children. She brought her to Buenos Aires, raised her, and ensured she received an education. As for my grandfather, things started going well for him, and by 1927, he was the captain of his first motorboat. The port of Quequén was gaining importance for cereal exports. It had heavy traffic, and because it was a shallow port where ships would easily run aground, a pilot was needed to guide the ships in and out. In 1929, my grandfather founded a company: Melluso Hermanos, dedicated to piloting and mooring services. He owned fishing boats, and three of them were named “Aurelia,” “Delia,” and “Bernardino.” He was an excellent captain: his workers and fishermen loved him because he never forgot his days as a poor fisherman and always helped his employees build their own homes. As you can see, he “made it” in America, but they never returned to Italy, something I still don’t understand to this day. Today, the company is thriving and is run by my cousins Carlos and Daniel.
Now they have a ship, the “Don Vicente,” named in memory of my grandfather. The family’s history has been passed down to me. Out of thirty-nine direct descendants, I am the only one who speaks and writes in Italian, as I am a teacher of the language. I started studying Italian the year my grandfather died (March 23, 1964), and after his death, I promised him that I would learn to speak Italian.
I believe I have fulfilled my promise. María Delfina Vega Melluso
He was succeeded by his sons Roque, Daniel, Vicente, and Filiberto, who founded the company MELLUSO HNOS. S.R.L.