L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2017 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 26 NEW YORK ITALIAN COMMUNITY " The moment of arrival was euphoric, and then silence fell upon them. They were afraid they wouldn't be let in. T h e q u e s t i o n o n e v e r y o n e ' s mind was 'Will we enter or not? Will they let us pass?'" This is the scene Maurizio Igor Meta told me he repeatedly came across in the many diaries he read, written by European i m m i g r a n t s c o m i n g t o N e w York via steamship in the late 1800's. The sentiments they felt, of excitement and hopeful- ness, were laced with uncertain- ty and dread as their ship drifted toward Ellis Island. Oh, the sto- ries they heard of the grandness that awaited them in America! But their fate was suspended in air, to be determined by the immigration inspectors. They would examine their posture, invasively use their fingers, a hairpin, or buttonhook to turn back the newcomer's eyelids for e v i d e n c e o f t r a c h o m a , a n d i n s p e c t t h e i r n a i l s , s k i n a n d scalp for fungal infections. If they weren't deemed physically f i t t o p a s s , t h e y w o u l d b e deported back to their home country. Meta's research is an impor- tant part of a profoundly person- al project in which he retraces the steps his great grandfather, Domenico Meta, took when he emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean from Naples, Italy to N e w Y o r k i n s t e e r a g e . L i k e most immigrants, then and now, he too was in search of a better life. Since traveling via steerage t o d a y i s n o t p o s s i b l e , M e t a replicated his great grandfa- ther's trek across the sea by using a modern method of trans- p o r t a t i o n : c a r g o s h i p . O n November 19th, 2015 he board- ed the cargo ship in Naples, and 21 days later on December 9th, 2015, he landed in New York. He recorded his voyage from Naples to New York through p o e t i c d i a r y e n t r i e s , p h o - tographs, and video footage, all of which are culminating in the creation of his documentary film entitled Ellis Island, as well a s a t h e a t r i c a l p e r f o r m a n c e which will debut at the Napoli T e a t r o F e s t i v a l I t a l i a i n t h e "Cortile delle Carrozze" of the P a l a z z o R e a l e d i N a p o l i o n Friday, June 30th, 2017. I t a l l s t a r t e d w h e n M e t a inherited a piece of land from his great grandfather in San Giorgio a Liri, located close to Montecassino. "I thought that I should earn the land in some way," he says. In the effort to find his ancestor and understand who this man was, he began searching for his name on sites such as LibertyEllisFoundation .org and Ancestry.com. A few strokes of his keyboard and the click of a mouse, and Meta was sent sailing on a journey into the past. After meticulously comb- ing through immigration records and passenger arrival lists, Meta tracked six journeys, and most recently a seventh, that his great grandfather made from Naples to New York (and vice versa) between the years of 1890 and 1916. "It's like a long journey that was very emotional. Every little thing was like a sign that I was on the right path, that the work I was doing was right," says Meta. It wasn't the first time Meta tried to go to New York, but as if by fate, all of his previous attempts had failed. "As far as I am concerned, at least a couple of times in the past I was close to leave for the United States. By plane, like everyone else. But in the end I never left. Time is always able to give an authen- tic explanation of the events that happens to us: the first time had to be this way... I had to sail!," he writes in the crowd funding campaign which he created to help raise funds for his project. Immigrating to America via steamship in the 1800's was by no means the same as traveling via cargo ship in today's mod- ern world. For one, immigrant ships, which on average were about 400 feet long and 42 feet wide, held up to 1,500 passen- gers at one time. Eight hundred of them were often crowded in steerage alone, which is how his great grandfather crossed the ocean. "My great grandfather knew the sea because he could see it from the mountains, but most of those immigrants didn't know it. Think what [the experience] could have been for them!" says Meta. Meta recalls diary entries he c a m e a c r o s s i n h i s r e s e a r c h which depict stories of dancing a n d f u n , o f f r i e n d s h i p s a n d brotherhoods formed on board. "When there are so many peo- ple, it isn't impossible for them t o b e c o m e ' b r o t h e r s . ' T h e y share the same problems, the same fears, the same expecta- t i o n s , " s a y s M e t a . O t h e r accounts reveal the unsanitary conditions the passengers in steerage suffered through. Even the most basic provisions, such as drinking water, exposed them to risk. "In those days the ships slammed left and right, up and down [against the waves]. The water held in the cement con- tainers became polluted because the cement would break off and the water would come in contact w i t h t h e i r o n a n d r u s t . T h e r e f o r e , [ t h e p a s s e n g e r s ] often drank water that made t h e m s i c k , " e x p l a i n s M e t a . Another account explained the process that was used to sanitize the steerage compartments on the ships. In the mornings pas- sengers were evacuated from the compartments and calcium chloride and sulfur were used to "sanitize" the living quarters, m a k i n g t h e a i r t o o t o x i c t o breathe. Forced to stay outside o n d e c k , p a s s e n g e r s c a u g h t pneumonia from the cold. Meta's experience sailing on a cargo ship that was more than double the size of the immigrant steam ships and held a maxi- mum of only three people on board, was a far cry from the cramped and unhygienic condi- tions his great grandfather had to travel in. "I asked myself many times, 'Am I really getting closer to him?' The trip is dif- ferent. It's not the same. As bad as it can be, it's better than what VINCENZA DI MAGGIO Maurizio Igor Meta: "We're all bor n travelers. We belong to Earth, not to a Nation" they went through," says Meta. He took certain measures to make sure that his experience was as close to his ancestor's as possible. He remained discon- nected from his phone and the Internet while at sea and even after he landed. When his ship docked at ports, he stayed on the dock without venturing into the city, except for one instance in which he had to take care of an important issue related to his project. In the end, although their voyages were different, Meta did meet his great grandfather, somewhere in the in between. "It's not really about knowing, but about feeling it," he says. "There were moments in which I had points of contact, in which I f e l t t h a t I w a s i n t h e r i g h t place." He felt that he met him in the uncomfortable wetness of his clothing as they clung to his body while he filmed on deck, cold rain and sea water merci- lessly splattering against his skin in the midst of a raging storm. On land, he felt that he met him in the frozenness in his fingertips as they fumbled with his camera, trying to get the shot of the abandoned railroad tracks. They were the same tracks that one hundred years earlier, his great grandfather painstakingly labored on for eleven hours a day, in the frigid cold of winter- time. Working on the railroad was one of the lowest paying jobs, and yet the measly $1.00 - $1.50 he made in America per day was still more than what he could earn at home. M e t a ' s p r o j e c t i s t i m e l y , given all the talk of immigration occurring lately. America, and more specifically, New York, has served as a beacon of hope for immigrants coming from c o u n t r i e s a l l o v e r t h e w o r l d seeking safety and the mere pos- sibility of a future. Their jour- n e y s a r e d i f f e r e n t , f o r s o m e today they're even worse, but perhaps some of the sentiments they feel are the same. "The people of that era were willing to risk dying, in order to live," says Meta. "Because they could not live with dignity in their own country. This is, perhaps, the sentiment of he who comes h e r e . " W h e t h e r t h e y a r e refugees coming from war-town countries to settle in Europe, or Mexicans crossing the border i n t o A m e r i c a , " T h e y a r e a l l seeking a better life," says Meta. And don't we all have a right to find that life? Meta thinks so. "In my idea, we are all born 'travelers'. We belong to Earth not to a Nation. It's our natural born right to move," he says. 'Last Harbor before the Ocean Crossing' - December 1, 2015. © Maurizio Igor Meta

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