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Born in Toscana, Italy
My parents named me Isabella Tosano. -
Period: to
Immigration
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Started Working in Father's Bakery
We made pastry's and many toher breads. It was a family tradition that a little after any of your children turned 10, they would start to work in the bakery and after they were 25 they would own the resteraunt. -
Got married to Luigi Viotto
I met Luigi when he came into the bakery once and it was love at first sight. Whenever he came into the bakery we joked around for a while and after my shift was over we would usually go out for dinner. After 2 1/2 years of dating we got ingaged and we got married 6 months later. My father liked Luigi and he was happy that I had finally found someone. My mother on the other hand thought he was nice but was hoping I would find someone better and she didn't beleive that we would last forever. -
Had a baby
Our babies name is Pia Viotto, and she was the best thing that had ever happened to me. -
Ran away from husband
Luigi started to abuse me and Pia, I didn't want Pia to live like that so I made up my mind that I would immigrate to America. Some of my family and friends lived in West America. I thought it would be better to be somewhere that no-one is and not be abused than to be with the people I love but get abused. -
Our boat ride
Pia and I were in Steerage and it was very crowded. It smelled like beer and some people were smoking, which was not very good for Pia and I. We would sometimes go up to the top deck and steal some of the food that they were done eating out of thee trash can. It was very disgusting but it was the only thing that we could do, because the trash was better than the food that we were served. I knew that if we got caught we would be thrown off of the ship so we did it very carefully not to get caught -
Government
The government came to my almost built house and asked for my paper work. I had no idea what they were talking about. They explained to me to own this land we had to follow the laws of the Homestead Act and we had o pay $1.42. I payed him up-front but he said that I had to come down to their office and sign things. I refused, so they took our land away. -
Ellis Island
When we reached Ellis Island, there were so many people everywhere trying to get to go through to America. It was scary and all of the inspectors were scary. I stepped up to the first station, there was a man who asked me a lot of questions. I didn't understand everything he said, but I tried to answer as good as I could. When me and Pia stepped up to the next station there was a man with a button hook. He told me to open my eyes wide and he took the button hook and hooked my eyelid backwards. -
Pia get's the button hook disease
Pia started to get red eyes and she always said how itchy her eyes were. We went to a doctor, it was the only doctor that had the treatment to the button hook disease. He said it would cost a lot, so I told him I would pay him when I got my first pay check from my job. He agreed to it and told me the cost. I didn't think it was that much and I thought I could get that much money. -
Got Fired
I was working very hard plucking chickens and the boss comes over and tells me to work harder. I wasn't thinking and said "You don't think I'm working hard enough, well why don't you try it bet I can work better than you! Your just so lazyyou can't even do this stuff!" he looked at my funny and threw me out the door onto the cold street I landed on my hip and got a huge bruise. -
Running away to the West
We didn't have enough money to pay the doctor for Pia's medical treatment. We were afraid of the outcomes so we decided to move to the west. We were going to run away to the west where the rest of our family and friends were. I thought it would be a very easy trip. -
Start working
I started working at a chicken plucking factory. It has good pay, but it isn't a very good enviroment and there aren't very amny nice people in the factory. -
Our hard journey
The journey to the west was very tough and it was a long journey, we didn't want to go back to the debt so we had to keep going on and it was very hard to walk all of the way carrying a suitcase. It was longer than I thought it would be. Everyone had a wagon that they could ride in. Some nights everyone would stop and put their wagons in a circle and have a campfire, some people would invite us to their circle. -
Made it to Oregon
Today we arrived in Oregon. I is a very nice place, there aren't many greens but there are many people that I can relate to, and everyone is in a happy mood because our long journey has just ended. I thought that my friends were going to be there right when I reached Oregon, but they were no-where to be found. My hopes dropped and we had to look for a place to build our house. -
Started building house
It was just Pia and I, we had to cut down a lot of wood to clear space to put our house and to make our house out of. We had to steal some suppllies from people when they were out and it took about 30-45 minutes to cut down each tree, then we would have to cut the wood even more so it would actually fit into the rest of the trees that me cut down. We had to sleep out side for a few nights too while we were constructing -
The big scare
We were sleeping outside because our house wasn't done yet, and one day a wild animal like a cougar cam after me and Pia, It was fixing to pounce on Pia so i jumped infront of Pia and it scraped deep into my back with it's claws. I felt the sharp agonizing pain but still had to defend my little girl. I took the axe that was laying on the ground and smashed it into the head of the wild cat. -
Pia's eye
Pia's eye was slowly getting better with the medication from the doctor. Today all of the disease was gone. Her eye was normal and there was no more pain in her eye. I was excited but everytime I laughed or cried of joy my back stung in pain. It was hard to go without any emotion for a while. I kept wondering when it would get better. -
The infection
My back started to get infected, I thought the pain would go away very fast, but it wasn't going away at all. Pia said it was turning red and was swelling up. It hurt to put any pressure on and I wasn't doing much. -
Death
The infection grew worse and worse. I had a lot of pain and it spread every day. I was out gardening and picking some fruits and vegtables with Pia when I felt a sharp excrusiating pain in my head. I felt my self go limp and I was gone. When I was going up to heaven I saw from above Pia crying near my dead body. That made me cry, and it started to rain. Ever since I have always watched over Pia.