L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2017 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 9 KERRY-LYNNE DEMARINIS Castellano Fur niture: Family, Craftsmanship, and Community C as tellano Cus tom Furniture is located on one of Portland's busiest thoroughfares in the Gateway District neighborhood. With a foot of snow on the ground, the factory showroom is quiet today. I am standing in the midst of sofas and chairs in a myriad of colors and styles, all tempting me to sit down. From the back office, Joe Castellano enters the room followed by his father, Stefano and son, Robert - three generations of one family, hands outstretched in greeting. For decades, Castellano's has been creating custom seating for wholesale and retail markets, as well as for designers from the San Francisco Bay area all the way to Alaska. They construct sofas, chairs, couches and acces- sories from quality materials, us ing old-w orld techniques . They are proud of their sustain- able practices, using Northwest hardwoods, along with recycled metal s prings an d locally sourced foam products - includ- ing batting material made from recycled drink bottles. All their manufacturing waste is either reused or recycled. The Castellano family values community. It drives their busi- ness, their family, and the way they share their Italian heritage. However, this trio of buildings on NE Halsey is not where the Castellano story started. If it hadn't been for the determina- tion of young M ichele Castellano, this family story would never have been written. Born December 25, 1895 and chris tened N atale M ichele Castellano, Michele grew up in Casamassima, in Puglia. Life in Southern Italy was a struggle in the bes t of times . M ichele's father and uncle had both worked in the U.S. on and off, and the boy grew into a teenager w ith dreams of s ailing to America. In 1912, dream became reali- ty and 16-year-old Michele left Naples aboard the Ancona and landed in Philadelphia several weeks later. Taking the name Michael, he served in the U.S. military and fought in WWI and WWII, finally retiring with the rank of Master Sergeant in 1949. H e met his w ife, Laura Donofrio, while stationed at Fort Worden, in P ort Tow ns end, Washington. Every s o often , M ichele would send a postcard to the family in Italy but he did not visit. In the meantime, his par- ents welcomed another son, who grew up and had his own son, christening him Stefano. It was- n't until Stefano was 16 years old that his U ncle M ichele returned to Casamassima, and changed his life forever. "H e w ent back to s ee his family," Joe explains. "That's when he met my grandfather - his brother - and my dad for the first time. He told me many years later that when he saw my dad w orking like a dog (in Casamassima), he realized he had to bring him to the United States and so he started the ball rolling to bring the whole family over here." Stefano's mother and father came to the States in 1955. "My dad said I better go see before you guys come over w hat's going on over there," Stefano laughs. He and his sisters sailed a year later; a younger brother joined them after a few months. "I didn't know w hat to expect," Stefano says in his slight Italian accent. "We landed in New York and a guy came and took us to the train station after buying us lunch. He didn't tell us it would take three days to get to Oregon. We didn't take any food on the train. When we arrived, my mother asked us if we were hungry and we said, yeah we were starving!" At 19 years old, Stefano went to w ork for the B.P . J ohn F urniture Company in S W Portland, where he started by painting faux wood finishes on a conveyer line. "I didn't know one word of English," he smiles. Two years later, he went to work for Leonetti's F urniture and stayed there six years. "The manager, an Italian guy, Carl Pagnano, would talk Italian to me and he said, 'I want you to learn everything here'. I didn't know what he had in mind. Then in 1962, he said he wanted me to work for him, he was opening his own furniture factory." Located in north Portland, Tempo Furniture was a huge success. Furniture sales boomed in the thriving economy and within six months, the factory had hired 80 employees. Stefano worked there for 24 years, even- tually as Upholstery Manager, and Joe worked at the factory during summers and holidays. When Tempo Furniture closed, Stefano bought the equipment and trucks and opened Castellano Furniture in 1983. It was finally time to put his own name on the quality furnishings he was making. Joe remembers working with his dad. "He had this beautiful s hop in our bas ement," he laughs. "He would do reuphol- stery work on the side. So all my life I grew up tearing chairs apart, tearing s ofas apart. I worked at the factory all the way through college." The furniture business didn't start out to be a family legacy. "I graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 1980 in the middle of the recession and couldn't find a job anywhere," Joe explains. "I graduated with a double major in business and foreign languages. I was going to do international bus ines s , you know , big grandiose ideas," he laughs and shrugs. "It didn't work out." Castellano Furniture has been through a couple of transforma- tions through the years, even clos ing at one point w hen Stefano thought he wanted to retire. The current location opened in 1993 and employs 29 people. The company may main- tain a smaller footprint now but that doesn't mean it has a smaller presence in the industry. The Castellano name still stands for high quality among designers, dealers and vendors. Family is the center of every- thing for the Castellano's. "I never thought w e w ould be working with our kids and our grandkids," says Stefano. He is president of the company; Joe is vice-president and chief of oper- ations; sister, Cathy manages the accounting. Robert is vice presi- dent of operations and is busy updating the company's machin- ery, adding a large format plotter for printing patterns and a new computer-guided cutting system that transforms lumber into pre- cis ely cut puzzle pieces . Everything comes dow n to detail. Family is also the center of celebrations, many of which revolve around their Italian her- itage and traditions. "Growing up, we never even thought about it," Joe shares. "Everything we did was with family. We did Sunday dinners too. When we went to my grandparents, we would have Sunday dinner and then w atch the Ed S ullivan show." Robert w ould bring his friends along. The biggest dif- ference between his family and theirs was the amount of rela- tives that would show up. "My friends loved the food. I never had to ask them more than once if they wanted to come." Since 1991, the Castellano family has been involved in the annual Festa Italiana, held every August in downtown Portland. Joe was one of the founding members of the Festa Italiana Association; he still serves as its president. The Festa is the ulti- mate Italian family celebration. "That firs t year, w e all worked so hard," Joe remembers. "It's near and dear to my heart. After I'm gone, I would hope that the Festa is still going, that guys like Robert would continue the F es ta, and continue the Italian traditions, in our family, his family, my mom's family. That's what I hope." Robert thinks about his dad's words for a moment, then ges- tures toward his dad and grand- father. "In my head, I have a list of things I want to do and places I want to go but more than those, I want to keep what they've built going, whether it's the work or the Festa." Left to right: Robert Castellano, Joseph Castellano, and Stefano Castellano PORTLAND ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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