Around the turn of the 21st century, my cousins, natural musicians all, formed “The Flying Latini Brothers” band. They fly, literally, between Michigan, New York and other venues; and figuratively in many ways, as do we all.

                                              Flying Latini Brothers, L-R: John, Jim, Joe, Mike 

Around the turn of the 20th century, our mutual Latini grandfather and his siblings, though not musically inclined, also figuratively flew, but most literally floated – on a steam ship between Italy and the port of New York.

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Early Photo Shop? Circa 1911, L-R Giuseppe (22) serving in the Royal Italian Army, and his brother Antonio (19)

It seemed a rite of passage at the age of 17 for Giuseppe (1906), Antonio (1909) and Vincenzo (1913) Latini to float to America to improve their lot. Early independence was instilled in them by their father AngeloMaria who, at 14, lost his own father, Giuseppe.

These floating Latini brothers were not typical “economic refugees” of Italy’s deep south with no reason to return. Their hometown, Anagni, was in the province of Rome, the nation’s capital just 40 miles away. Under Papal rule for centuries before unification with the Kingdom of Italy in 1870, the region had relatively liberal agriculture laws. Peasant farmers who could earn cash elsewhere could return home to improve their life by buying their own land and goods.

And that’s what the Floating Latini Brothers set out to do.

Laboring stateside, they stayed with older sister Caterina and brother-in-law

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The Floating Latini Sister, Caterina (“Zi’Nina”), with her husband Bartolomeo Liberatori and five of their six children, around 1916, L-R Carmella (3), Philip (8), Annunziata (1), Maria (6) and Angelina (5), pending the arrival of Angelo in 1918

Bartolomeo Liberatori, who left earlier and ran a sort of boarding home, first in Port Jervis NY (where so many Latinis and other Anagnini worked the Erie railroad) and then in the Bronx. It was a billet of sorts, frugal temporary lodging while they labored for at most a year or two earning cash for a better future.

 

Back in Anagni, the floating Latini brothers had lived comfortably but crowded in a humble, historic, multi-generational Latini home on Vicolo della Salita, in Anagni’s San Giovanni Parish, part of the Torre Contrada. Uncles, great uncles and multiple cousins shared home and hearth.

In 1913, celebrating their fruitful labor and that AngeloMaria had surpassed the age of his own father and grandfather, the Floating Latinis chipped in to buy their own homestead and raise their nascent families together. They paid 3,500 Lire for one of the new, spacious houses built just outside Anagni’s medieval defensive wall on a steep, curved street leading up to the San Nicola gate on their side of town.

L: Antonio on the stepped slope of Via Borgo San Nicola in 1963. It is now paved smooth for cars.    R: Antonio’s widow Maria on the balcony of the Latini family home when I first visited in 1984. 

Prevailing exchange rates make that about $670.00 in 1913 currency, equivalent to $37,400.00 today. Laboring the Erie they earned roughly $2.50 per day, likely the same amount in subsequent Bronx years. The house hypothetically cost them each roughly three month’s full American wages.

As often happens, fate and – especially – war intervened. Giuseppe and Vincenzo decided to settle their families in America. Antonio remained in Anagni with his parents, who passed in the mid 1930s – Angelomaria made it to 76. Antonio outlived them all, passing in 1972 at 80. Vincenzo and Giuseppe didn’t fare as well, passing at 58 and 69, respectively, and Caterina only made it to 50.  But they all made their mark with multiple children whose children are now grandfathers.

And they all still fly. In so many ways.

 Floating Latini Brothers, (L-R) Antonio (at his daughter Claudia’s wedding 1951 in Anagni, Italy); Vincenzo and Giuseppe (visiting relatives and paesani in Matamoras PA around 1950).