Labor, Gender, and Generational Change in a Western City

Janet E. Worrall

In the early twentieth century, Denver, Colorado, offered unique opportunities to Italian women. Those who worked before marriage had a range of job possibilities; few were compelled to hold wage jobs. A flourishing Italian community developed in North Denver, where most women thrived in the workplace and at home--in contrast to the experience of sister immigrants in the East.

In 1898, Gerardo Pergola left the rugged hillsides of Potenza, Italy, to join his cousin in Colorado. Within a year, he returned home to marry his childhood sweetheart, Angelina Brancucci, but unpromising conditions in Potenza caused Gerardo to leave his pregnant wife and young daughter, Susie, behind to earn money in America. In 1906, Gerardo brought his family to Colorado, but the move was premature. Angelina's homesickness persuaded Gerardo to return to Potenza and their subsistence life. Within six months, Gerardo realized their mistake. The rocky land in Potenza could not support his growing family. Again, he left for America, saved his money, and subsequently sent for his family. On the eve of World War I, Angelina and the now five Pergola children arrived on Ellis Island. Eleven-year-old Susie served as the family's interpreter and eased entry through immigration, but eight-year-old Mike's case of measles caused a brief delay in the family's departure for Colorado. By the summer of 1914, the reunited Pergola family settled permanently in Colorado, the first of several generations to do so.

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Gerardo, aided by his family, prospered as a truck gardener in Northwest Denver. As the Pergola children grew in age and number, Angelina fretted over the absence of a school. In 1920, they purchased a home for $1,500 in Denver's Little Italy, which put them within walking distance of a high school. But misfortune struck within the year; the beloved Angelina died at thirty-six from complications giving birth to their seventh child. An aunt, a recent mother of twins, helped Gerardo by raising the newborn for several years, leaving the oldest daughter, Susie, as surrogate mother to her siblings. A year later, Susie married a neighborhood lad, Mike Leprino, also from Potenza. During their courtship, he had endeared himself to Susie by giving her brothers and sisters rides in his Model T Ford. Mike and Susie raised five children, supported by Mike's work in a brickyard and as a truck gardener. When cancer struck Gerardo, he moved in with the Leprinos, and Susie cared for him until his death in 1943. Mike, the oldest son, came daily to help with his father's physical needs.       Gerardo Pergola family in Potenza, Italy, Spring, 1913. Gerardo seated. From left to right: Susie, Nicholas, Mike, Angelina, and Nettie (front). Courtesy Geraldine Pergola.

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