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grandmother and our mutual great aunt
opened a dress shop on 5th Avenue, in
Manhattan, when they came here. It was
quite well known, because it was selling
high-end dresses. Their other brother,
Pasquale, was an eye doctor in New York.
My grandfather’s other brother – there were three brothers and two sisters
– was Gaetano Briganti. I think he’s very
well known in the Southern area of Italy.
He was a professor of Agriculture. At that
time, a disease was doing damage to the
olive trees, and he came up with some
sort of formula to cure that disease and
save the olive trees, so he’s quite well
known … at least in Basilicata. My grandfather was an architect.
I wish he was there now because Apulia has a similar problem: a virus called
Xylella, and they are struggling against
that, because that goes from tree to tree
and is very hard to stop.
Well, I don’t know what he did or what years, 1892-1954. That’s the time when
the disease was, but apparently he did a most of the Italians were coming. Of
good job.
course, we tell the story not just of the
Italians, but of the Greeks, of the Poles,
You are President and Chi ef Executi- people from eastern Europe, people
ve Officer of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis from the Middle East… they were coIsland Foundation, two of the most im- ming to America at that time. The Ameportant and visited sites of the world. rican population was doubling in those
Could you please briefly describe the El- years, because so many people were
lis Island Museum to those who haven’t choosing to come here. The reason was
visited yet?
that America was going through the industrial revolution and it needed cheap
Yes. The Ellis Island Museum is a mu- labor. They provided cheap labor.
seum of about 150,000 square feet of
exhibitions, and the original part of the Many of them intended to be – and some
museum tells the story of the Ellis Island of them were – birds of passage. They
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