L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 20 L'Italo-Americano " I have spent my life i n t h i s c o r n e r . Sometimes when I spend a lot of time working in the back and my customers don't see me in the store, they get wor- ried. When I arrived in the 1950s it was all countryside, there was no other store but only orange and lemon trees, just like in Sicily." The corner Rosario Mazzeo is talking a b o u t i s t h e o n e b e t w e e n Lake Ave and Mountain St in Pasadena, where in 1960, in his early twenties, he helped h i s u n c l e e x p a n d R o m a Market, a deli of Italian products that over the years has become a landmark for the many lovers of the food from the Belpaese. Originally from Messina, Rosario arrived in the United States in 1950 and landed in N e w Y o r k f r o m w h e r e h e took a train to California, where his father's brother, who at the time had a small f r u i t a n d v e g e t a b l e s t o r e opened in 1946, was waiting for him. "I did not want to c o m e t o A m e r i c a , b u t m y father pushed me to go. Now I like it and this is my home, although I always feel Sicil- ian." Rosario flanked his uncle a n d i m m e d i a t e l y b e g a n i m p o r t i n g p r o d u c t s f r o m Italy. "There were no Italian products at that time. It was n o t e a s y t o i m p o r t t h e m . Olive oil, pasta, cheese - these are things that have never b e e n m i s s i n g f r o m m y shelves all these decades. With time, then, I integrated and varied my offerings by including panettone, choco- late, panforte." Rosario tells me how the clientele has also changed over the years: initially, his customers were only Italians, "but now it is the opposite, in recent times Italians are only 5%, the rest are Americans, Asians, etc. They all love Ital- ian products. They especially love salumi, which I am the only one to have. Porchetta, guanciale, I have as many as seven different qualities of s a l a m i , a n d S a n D a n i e l e ham." And it was especially the cured meats that made his grocery store so famous. In fact, in 1959 his wine repre- sentative, after a delivery, asked Rosario to make him a sandwich because he was very hungry. "I had never made sandwiches before, it a l l s t a r t e d b y a c c i d e n t , " Rosario smilingly tells me, specifying, "I made him one with what I had, mortadella, capocollo, salami, and pro- volone, with a dash of olive oil. The next day he came back with other people and they asked me for the same thing. From there I didn't stop and now I sell 1,200 a day." What has not stopped for d e c a d e s i s n o t o n l y t h e demand for his sandwiches, which are strictly wrapped in t h i n p i n k p a p e r , b u t a l s o Rosario's tenacity: he proud- l y p o i n t s o u t t h a t h e h a s never taken a day off and has been working seven days a week, without stopping, since 1950. "When I go to bed to sleep, I always think about what I have to do the next day. I go i n p e r s o n t o t h e m a r k e t downtown, where they jok- ingly call me Mr. Roma, twice a week at 2 am, because I want to see with my own eyes what I buy; every night I go home at 8 pm. I never stop. When I'm not going to the market I get to the store at 4 a m t o s o r t t h e p r o d u c t s , because deliveries come in. I c l o s e o n l y o n C h r i s t m a s Day." And where do you find the energy, I ask? "If you enjoy what you do, time goes by fast. And then my workers a r e m y f a m i l y , t h e y h a v e b e e n w i t h m e f o r m a n y , many years: Federico has been working with me for 30 years, since he was 15, and Maria, at the cash register, for almost 25." And the absolute, most s a t i s f y i n g t h i n g f o r h i m ? "Seeing new people come to buy my products because they heard about me. They even come from San Diego and Orange County." The r e a s o n b e h i n d t h i s i s u n d o u b t e d l y r e l a t e d t o another strength of Roma Market, which is the quality o f t h e p r o d u c t s . A m o n g them, Rosario feels particu- l a r l y p r o u d o f G r a g n a n o p a s t a , w h i c h i s m a d e i n Naples. "Only I have this spe- cial kind of pasta and do you k n o w w h y ? " H e a s k s . "Because you have to pay before they make it and you h a v e t o b u y a c o n t a i n e r , which costs $100,000, that's a total of 1,700 crates. I order three a year. It takes a month to make it and a month to ship it here. But when you eat it, you don't want any other kind of pasta." He assures me. Before I leave, Rosario is keen to show me a plaque hanging near the front door, a n a w a r d t h a t t h e c i t y o f Pasadena wanted to dedicate t o h i m a n d b y w h i c h t h e mayor, Victor M. Gordo, declares Roma Market, "a Pasadena Legacy Business." To whom would he like to dedicate such an achieve- ment, I ask Rosario. "I grew u p w i t h m y g r a n d f a t h e r Rosario, not my parents. And he was a real businessman. I never went to school, not one day. I used to spend the day w i t h h i m a n d h i s e l d e r l y friends; I was only five or six years old, and he always told me, 'Watch me and learn.' His job was to export all the f r u i t f r o m S i c i l y , f r o m oranges to tangerines, to Ger- many. He was my school; what I have become I owe to him." Rosario Mazzeo, Pasadena's Roma Market icon for 72 years SILVIA GIUDICI Mr. Mazzeo in his store (Photo: L'Italo-Americano) LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY A selection of the many Italian Panettoni available at Roma Market (Photo: L'Italo-Americano)

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