Il Percorso alla Cittadinanza

Ciao tutti!

    It has been a while, I know.  Ever since my teaching course started last September 2015, I have been preparing lessons every moment I have free!  I had a WONDERFUL October, seeing family in America to celebrate my sister's wedding in Missouri and then getting to know my adorable niece (who just turned two!).  Once I returned, I immediately started teaching English conversation at a small private school one block away my host family's house and, as I said, have been making lesson plans every evening.  I am currently giving ten private lessons per week and am still editing English books for the father of one of my private students.  

 I am also really excited to share that I am organizing four aupair exchanges right now!  There are so many Italian families here in Milan searching for an American teenager to speak English in their house (what a job!).  I strongly encourage American youth to travel before college to open their mind and be exposed to different cultures, therefore after realizing how many families are willing to host, I got started.  American boys and girls are welcome, so please help me pass the word along!!  You only get benefits from this experience, you cannot lose anything.

In other news, if you have not heard already, (it feels more official once it is on here)...I am an Italian citizen!!!  I wrote a few pages in one of my many journals about the entire process, and after reading it to my sister, I wanted to share it with you all.  So here goes...



My Journey to Citizenship

   It all started in May, 2014 when I received the first documents from Grottolella, Avellino. I have had this idea since high school, but was never given the opportunity to get started.

Ever since my first visit to Italy, back in August 2005, I have wanted to become Italian. I knew my family had it in us and knowing that we had lost such a beautiful culture was unacceptable to me. I wanted to make the Spinelli family real Italians. I wanted to learn the language and more about the fascinating country.

My opportunity showed up after I had finished studying Italian for eight months, while aupairing here in Milan. My (current) host family invited me to stay with them longer and I gratefully accepted. Now I had the time to focus on obtaining citizenship through my relatives. I went for cittadinanza 'jure sanguinis', which means citizenship 'through blood' in Latin. 



The first thing to do was to find out about my Italian family members. Thanks to my grandmother, my grandfather's cousin (the only Italian-speaking relative I know), and Ancestry.com, I put together bits and pieces. We are so disconnected from our Italian heritage that my grandfather's sister does not remember her grandfather's name...just to give an idea of how serious the cultural gap is. We are not even able to call ourselves Italian-Americans.

I must say, that had to be the most exciting research I will ever do. Looking through the historic birth records and marriage licenses gave me chills. I loved sharing my discoveries with the rest of my family back in America, afterwards. The most interesting thing for me to find out was the change of our last name at Ellis Island. 

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The following is the complete Spinelli family history; my father's side.


       My great-great-grandfather, Domenico Spiniello, was born in the tiny town of Grottolella in the region of Avellino on January 14, 1877. He arrived to America for the very first time on April 27, 1896 when he was just 14 years old, to find work.

He fell in love and married Concetta Biscardi in Pittsburgh, PA on April 27, 1902. She had come from Grottolella also, and although I like to think they romantically met on the boat to the US, they probably had known each other before. It would have been impossible not to know everyone in their tiny town. Plus, the fact that they got married on the exact same day of Domenico's arrival, six years later, pretty much removes any doubt.

Back to the story...

Missing their beautiful country, Domenico and Concetta returned to Grottolella. Once they arrived, they declared their marriage at Il Comune di Grottolella (the town hall), which is where I found all of my great-great-grandpa's life records. It was there where they started a family. On June 28, 1906 Luigi Spiniello was born.

They must have realized that their son would have so many more opportunities in the Land of the Free, because they sailed back to New York in 1896.

This time the officers at Ellis Island made an error when recording the family name. It was extremely common for this to happen due to how many immigrants passed through and the fact they hand wrote everything back then. From that moment on we were known as the Spinelli's instead of the Spiniello's.

As little Luigi grew up, he visited his parents' hometown often. For some reason he decided to change his name, maybe to make it more American. He married Jeannette Bacco as Louis Spinelli, in Pittsburgh PA, and started a name-changing trend.

My grandfather, born as Dominic Donald Spinelli and later becoming Donald Henry Spinelli, was the last family member with Italian parents. That was where the cultural barrier cut my family off from Italy. The language, traditions, recipes and stories were not passed down and therefore, were forgotten.

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       My next step was to gather the birth, marriage, and death certificates of every male relative between me and Domenico (the last to be born in Italy). That was the most fun. I called Il Comune di Grottolella nearly twice a week either asking for one of the documents in the infinite list, making sure they were searching for it, or trying to get an estimate of when it would arrive. Somehow they miraculously understood me! Southern Italians have a very different accent than the Milanesi. Lesson learned; you cannot rush the Italian work flow. The documents arrived when they arrived.

Now keep in mind, it is not every day that an American girl, living in Milan, applies for Italian citizenship through her trisnonno (great-great-grandfather). 

Most people do it in their own country. In fact I got introduced to an American woman*. She had done exactly that, except it took her two years to gather the documents leading back to just her great grandfather. I had one generation more to prove and I got it done in six months. I spent hours on my Macbook, trying to complete the puzzle of my family tree. 

There were two times when I was tempted to pay for professional help because I was that lost, but I am happy I can say I did it on my own. I definitely could not have done it without the help of my family in America, though. They ran around for me, getting the official stamps (called Apostilles), copying certificates, and sending them across the Ocean.

  *  Fun fact:  This woman's family also came from the Avellino region and lives in Pittsburgh still, just like mine. What a piccolo mondo!  I am blessed to have met her because she was so informative and encouraging throughout this process.


The next step was translation. I had to translate every certificate into Italian, from me to Domenico - but excluding the wives since they did not carry the last name. I ended up using a company close to my house in Springfield, VA. Then after many, many visits to the Comune di Milano I had to get residency that showed I was living in Milan and THEN I could apply for citizenship. By the way, I had to renew my permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay) in the middle of all of this but the Carabinieri (Italian police) were so nice and cooperative that it was no issue! I got a special one "in attesa di cittadinanza", which means waiting for citizenship.


I officially became an Italian citizen on November 4, 2015.


It was a great adventure and I gladly would do it all over again. Every frustrating moment has been paid off. One day I will visit my family's hometown to search for any Spiniello's left. Who knows, maybe they have been waiting for their American relatives to find them. I am proud to reclaim my Italian heritage. È una cosa così bella, non si può perderla! Sono orgogliosa proclamare sono finalmente una cittadina italiana. (It is such a beautiful culture, you can't lose it! I am proud to say I am an Italian citizen).