Thank you to the Convivio Society for such a warm welcome to San Diego's Little Italy on September 18. The evening began with an aperitivo featuring vino courtesy of Scappare Travel Club and a table of appetizers and Beneath the Sicilian Stars book cover cookies courtesy of Dottie's House of Sweets.
It was an honor to read from my novels and share behind-the-scenes stories with such an engaged group. Founded in 2003, Convivio honors the Italian immigrants who helped build the local tuna fishing industry and founded many businesses. Many of those individuals came from Porticello, Sicily, my ancestral homeland featured in The Last Letter from Sicily. It was wonderful to meet guests who had visited the town and knew Chiesa Santa Maria del Lume, where my grandparents were married.
Sharing Beneath the Sicilian Stars, which explores the hardships Italian immigrants faced during World War II, was especially meaningful. Many San Diego Italian and Portuguese fishermen had their tuna boats requisitioned by the Navy, refitted with weapons and radar, and sent across the Pacific. And the crews were absorbed into military service.
After the war, the fleet sustained San Diego's tuna industry for decades, but by the 1970s and 1980s, environmental regulations, declining tuna stocks, rising costs, and the closure of the last cannery in 1984 led to a decline in large-scale tuna fishing. Interstate 5 displaced many families, yet businesses and places of worship like Our Lady of Rosary Church endured. And fishing has evolved as well, with many anglers embracing more sustainable methods.
Today, Little Italy thrives as downtown San Diego's oldest continuous neighborhood business district. The history of the fishermen and their legacy can still be felt along the waterfront and Piazza Della Famiglia. Convivio translates to "banquet," and I am grateful to have been invited to their table.
