[This is another true story from my oral histories collection of immigrants who came through Ellis Island. Elzbieta came from Russia in 1923 at age 15.] The closer we came to the United States, the better we felt after being so dizzy and nauseous. The trip took us ten days and we landed in Ellis … More True Immigrant Stories_5: Her Father and His “Palace”
[This is another true story from my immigrant oral histories collection. When Wilhelm retold his story–even 65 years later–the emotional level and tears during his narration were quite moving to this listener.] “I came by myself to the United States from Germany in 1910 when I was 16 years old. I had been on small … More True Immigrant Stories_6: A Teenager at Ellis Island
[This is another true story from my oral histories collection of immigrants who came through Ellis Island .] Ida Napolitano was just three years old when her father emigrated from Italy into the United States, with the plan to earn enough money for the family to join him. During the three years it took for him … More True Immigrant Stories_3: Ida and Thomas Jefferson
[Throughout my career as a college professor, I have collected numerous firsthand accounts from immigrants about their journeys and first impressions and/or experiences in America. This is the first of dozens immigrant oral histories i will post. I’ll begin with my favorite story, without any embellishment, about that wonderful symbol of who and what we … More True Immigrant Stories_1: The Statue of Liberty
Last week’s blog—about the 1890s immigration setting of Guardians of the Gate compared to today—promised next time to give some surprising facts about the impact of immigrants on American society, both past and present. Here goes. Demographers measure the immigration impact in different eras by using an immigration rate. Similar to other rates—the crime rate, … More Immigration Then and Now
In an interview last week, the reporter asked me if the events of the 1890s described in my novel, Guardians of the Gate, can in any way relate to current issues on immigration. The simple answer was “yes,” and some of the details are the topic of this week’s blog. Americans in the 1890s saw … More The Relevance of 1890s Immigration to Today
Our lives involve a series of choices: to go to college or not, where to go to college or work, where to live, with whom to live, and later to make changes or not, and so on. Yet, even as we make these choices along life’s path, we do so … More Life’s Unplanned Journey
I was asked an interesting question about how the characters in Guardians of the Gate convey the message of the American Dream and the strength of the human spirit. The easy answer lies in the immigrants going through Ellis Island, leaving behind poverty, repression, and limited life choices to pursue freedom and a better life … More Personifying the American Dream and the American Spirit
Ellis Island today bears little resemblance to the Ellis Island of the 1890s, which is the primary setting for the historical novel, Guardians of the Gate and its sequel, Defenders of Freedom. First, the island back then was much smaller, about one third its present size. In 1899, construction began of Island No. 2 with landfill from … More Ellis Island: Then and Now
As its title implies, Guardians of the Gate is primarily about the people who worked at Ellis Island and the numerous situations they faced while working on the island. I’ve been asked, though, why I didn’t write this historical novel from the perspective of the immigrants instead. Certainly, the millions of immigrants who came through … More Ellis Island Employees Instead of Immigrants
Vince Parrillo 