Growing up as a child of divorced parents, I did not really get to know my dad's side of the "family" as much as I really wanted to because he was rarely around and my sister and I never were able to go to any of the "family" functions or get together with all my cousin's, second cousin's etc.. When I was old enough to comprehend things, my grandma, dad's mom, showed me a shoe box that she kept hidden in her closet all the time. This shoe box had letters, newspaper clippings and photo's of one of the most notorious mob bosses of our Nation's history. I was completely shocked and LOVED it! I had always been into the lifestyle that these people led and as a child, had always wanted to be a part of it, to be a "runner" and move my way up through the ranks, every boy has his fantasies as they were young to be a police man or a firefighter, well, I wanted to be in the MOB!
Don Vito Genovese was my Great, Great Uncle. Grandma used to tell me stories of who our family was and the history behind it. I was always fascinated by all of the intrigue that the mafia brought and all the excitement and power and prestige that came to being a crime boss. I always listened intently to grandma tell me about the letters she wrote to Uncle Vito and that the reason for the "family", our immediate family, moving to the West Coast of the United States and starting lives out here were because it was getting very dangerous in New York at the height of Uncle Vito's rule and how powerful and feared the Genovese family was becoming. So some of the family members moved out to California and shortened our name to Genova to try and separate us from the drama unfolding in New York at the time. The Genova's started a business, a few of them out in California and prospered out here and made a great livings for the family.
Grandma and some of the other family members moved up to Eastern Washington and started a life there. That is where my grandma met her husband and they got married and started a family and had two children, my dad and my aunt. Grandma seemed to be keeping in touch with Uncle Vito through letter's etc. Finally the family found out and warned my grandma that it was way to dangerous and that they were afraid that if she continued to communicate with Uncle Vito that they were afraid that they someday the police will pull her body out of the river and so she stopped the communication between them. Grandma used to show me the "shoe box" that was hidden in her closet and every time I went to see her, I wanted to see the "box". Grandma used to tell me as a little boy that if I every "needed" anything, to let her know and "it" would be taken care of. To this day, there some family members that deny any connection to the relationship between Uncle Vito and the rest of us. I wonder why that is.
Today, the Genovese family still remains to be one of the largest and most powerful New York "families". I am very proud to be and Italian/American! We built this country brick by brick! Companies like Bank of America were started by an Italian/American and was previously called the Bank of Italy back in the day and the reason for this is because my people were prejudiced against the fact we were Italian so no other banks would give us loans to start our own business' so a wealthy Italian started the Bank of Italy and started to loan money to the Italian immigrants exclusively that were in New York, a little burrow called Little Italy, and it prospered and now is called Bank of America, one of the biggest financial institutions in the world.
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