Gina Mossa Molino handed her writer daughter, Suzanna Molino, 16 typed pages of her life story and said, “I would like to do something with this.” Two years later, mamma and daughter hold in hand a 237-page book, The Italian Immigrants’ Daughter, which honors their family legacy of growing up with Italian immigrants Antonica Cabras and Giovanni Mossa who emigrated in 1929 from Sardinia, Italy through New York City.

“I gave it to my mother for Mother’s Day and she dove right in,” said one reader, Kim Brown. “We sat on our porch drinking wine and eating cheese, reminiscing of her childhood. So many similarities in our family histories … stores I had never heard before were being told with such clarity. Your book brought memories of my mother’s childhood she has not thought of in years!”

The book includes a sad saga of Gina’s papà Giovanni falling off of a roof on his first day of a carpentry job at Aberdeen Proving Grounds while building soldier barracks for the U.S. Army during World War II. “The United States suffered 400,000 fatal casualties because of the war,” said Gina’s brother Martin Mossa. “My father was never recognized as one, but in our minds, he was just as much a casualty of war.”

Antonica became a widow at age 32 with three young children to raise without a papà. Not knowing what else to do, she moved back to Italy with her offspring kicking and screaming as they were yanked from the familiarity of American life. After a two-week ocean voyage, the children at ages 16, 12, and 8 were tossed into the poor village of Luras right after the war, where they lived with their grandparents and were forced to adjust to a different culture. “It was as if we were thrown into the dark ages,” Gina wrote. “Things we took for granted in America were not to be had – or done – in Sardinia.” Thankfully, the children already spoke fluent Italian.

Antonica eventually married her sister’s husband Mario Mossa, who had lost his young wife to illness; she became stepmother to their four children in addition to already being their zia (aunt); two sisters had married two brothers. Returning to America three years later, Antonica immersed herself and her family once again in American life. To this day, the Sardinian and American Mossa families are still connected across the ocean. In this sort of ‘reverse emigration' story, Gina shares anecdotes of growing up in Brooklyn and Luras during the 1930s-40s and World War II. Under the watch of a stern Italian mamma, the Mossas were strongly supported by their beloved famiglia. “My parents were strict with us,” Gina said. “My childhood consisted of being with Italian relatives and friends of my parents, and being brought up speaking the Italian language.”

Gina's daughter and coauthor, Suzanna Rosa Molino (author of Baltimore's Little Italy), passionate about the plight of Italian immigrants and her Sardinian heritage, shares memories of growing up as the granddaughter of Nonna Antonica, a significant influence in Suzanna's life, and seemingly a different woman than the one Gina describes. With vintage photographs and documents, Italian vocabulary, a bit of Sardinian history, a few of Nonna’s recipes, and emotional stories – some comical, some sad – The Italian Immigrants’ Daughter offers an authentic peek at life as first- and secondgeneration Italians described by mother and daughter.

AUTHORS’ BIO: Baltimorean Suzanna Rosa Molino is the author of Baltimore’s Little Italy: Heritage and History of The Neighborhood and founder of Promotion Center for Little Italy, Baltimore, a nonprofit organization that promotes Little Italy’s events, history and heritage. She is a member of the Order Sons of Italy/Little Italy Lodge #2286, a bocce team player; and a parishioner of the historic Saint Leo the Great Church in Little Italy. Under the pen name Suzanne Molino Singleton, she wrote Married to Baseball: Between Innings with Ken Singleton, as the spouse of the former Baltimore Oriole and current New York Yankees broadcaster. Suzanna’s mamma and coauthor Gina Mossa Molino, 83, enjoyed a professional career as a Technical Illustrator for Martin Marietta from 1962–1992. She was married to another first-generation Italian, Luigi Saverio Molino, for 61 years before his death in 2016. Gina lives in an Assisted Living facility in Towson and must use a wheelchair. -

The Italian Immigrants' Daughter is available autographed directly from the authors on www.snippetsinspiration.weebly.com, or without autographs on amazon.com.