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July 5, 2007
New series airs Wednesdays on KDNK
BY GINA GUARASCIO
The Valley Journal
There was a time when the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty stood true. It reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …” Now those huddled masses, those poor, tired people might encounter a wall, a barbed wire fence and most likely an armed guard if trying to come into America.
How things have changed over the last 100 years when more than 12 million peo¬ple left their homeland with nothing and landed at the Ellis Island Immigration Sta¬tion in New York searching for opportunity and a new life.
Young Italian Mike Bosco landed there in 1904. He was 12-years-old and had trav¬elled across the vast ocean alone. He had $10 in his pocket and was headed for New Castle, where his uncle was a coal miner.
Mike Bosco eventually bought and ran the Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs, re¬lates his son Hank in one of several Immi¬grant Stories running every Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. on KDNK community radio.
The recorded stories, edited down to about three minutes, are a project of the Community Integration Initiative Aspen to Parachute, and KDNK.
The purpose of the Initiative, according to director Hanya Gottardo, is to help both immigrants and established residents be¬come more connected to their communities by fostering increased understanding of cul¬tural differences and similarities.
The initiative is funded through The Col¬orado Trust and also offers mini grants to organizations making connections between established and immigrant communities.
“The end goal is to create a community where everyone feels welcome and com¬fortable living and working together,” said Gottardo, an immigrant from Bulgaria.
Life-long Glenwood Springs resident Wal¬ter Gallacher, whose father emigrated to the U.S. from Scotland, has been recording the stories of some of the area’s most interesting people. Living in a time where immigration is such a hot debate, Gallacher hopes the stories help people realize it’s not a new phenomenon.
“Immigration has always been a difficult thing. Each wave of immigrants has experi¬enced the fact that they’re different. It’s not easy for the immigrants or the receiving community,” he said.
“As much as we’d like to see, ‘bring us your tired, your poor’ … the Irish, the Ital¬ians, the Germans, they weren’t welcome. A lot of the themes that are playing out today are themes that have played out since the early 1900s,” Gallacher said.
Gallacher related that the Roaring Fork Valley was settled by many Italian families who were not necessarily welcomed. There were places where “Irish need not apply,” he said. Names like “ wics,” “ dagos” and “wops” were common. Now, he said, Lati¬nos are simply called “illegals.” But, in the whole scheme of things, immigrants have, and will continue to shape America, he said. “The whole point of the exercise is to show that the immigrant experience hasn’t varied dramatically. People have to come and adjust and take the lowest paying jobs available,” Gallacher said. “You see these things being repeated, the challenges and the courage that it takes. People don’t want to leave their homeland.”
Gallacher is the former dean of students at the Colorado Mountain College and has since retired. His interest in Immigrant Sto¬ries comes from his own story and others like his. Everyone has a story, he said.
“It’s fascinating; the whole idea is to use storytelling, an ancient tradition, to think about immigration in a broader sense,” said Gallacher, who was disappointed that the U.S. Congress failed to pass any kind of im¬migration legislation recently. “I think a majority of Americans want this issue solved. I don’t know what the answer is, but in the meantime we should tell some sto¬ries.”
In his story, Hank Bosco said his father’s tale is nothing all that unique.
“He did quite well for himself hav¬ing come here with nothing. … So that’s America,” said Bosco, whose fa¬ther Mike immediately enrolled in the first grade after he arrived in New Castle so he could learn English, be¬cause “he was going to be an Ameri¬can.”
And he did.
From a poor, tired kid alone on El¬lis Island, Mike Bosco ended up sit¬ting on the Glenwood Springs City Council for 12 years and on the volun¬teer fire department for 20 years, while also raising a family and be¬coming a well respected and success¬ful businessman.
In the next six weeks listeners will hear the stories of Hank Bosco, Alexandra Yajko, Stephen Bershenyi, Hanya Gottardo, Ashton Durrett and Abraham Baeza. KDNK can be heard at 88.1, 88.3 and 88.5 throughout the Roaring Fork Valley and western Garfield County.
For more information about the Community Integration Initiative, the minigrant program or Immigrant Sto¬ries, contact Hanya Gottardo at 319¬1677 or e-mail CII@rof.net.
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Immigrant Stories help create connections
July 5, 2007
New series airs Wednesdays on KDNK
BY GINA GUARASCIO
The Valley Journal
There was a time when the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty stood true. It reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …” Now those huddled masses, those poor, tired people might encounter a wall, a barbed wire fence and most likely an armed guard if trying to come into America.
How things have changed over the last 100 years when more than 12 million peo¬ple left their homeland with nothing and landed at the Ellis Island Immigration Sta¬tion in New York searching for opportunity and a new life.
Young Italian Mike Bosco landed there in 1904. He was 12-years-old and had trav¬elled across the vast ocean alone. He had $10 in his pocket and was headed for New Castle, where his uncle was a coal miner.
Mike Bosco eventually bought and ran the Hotel Denver in Glenwood Springs, re¬lates his son Hank in one of several Immi¬grant Stories running every Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. on KDNK community radio.
The recorded stories, edited down to about three minutes, are a project of the Community Integration Initiative Aspen to Parachute, and KDNK.
The purpose of the Initiative, according to director Hanya Gottardo, is to help both immigrants and established residents be¬come more connected to their communities by fostering increased understanding of cul¬tural differences and similarities.
The initiative is funded through The Col¬orado Trust and also offers mini grants to organizations making connections between established and immigrant communities.
“The end goal is to create a community where everyone feels welcome and com¬fortable living and working together,” said Gottardo, an immigrant from Bulgaria.
Life-long Glenwood Springs resident Wal¬ter Gallacher, whose father emigrated to the U.S. from Scotland, has been recording the stories of some of the area’s most interesting people. Living in a time where immigration is such a hot debate, Gallacher hopes the stories help people realize it’s not a new phenomenon.
“Immigration has always been a difficult thing. Each wave of immigrants has experi¬enced the fact that they’re different. It’s not easy for the immigrants or the receiving community,” he said.
“As much as we’d like to see, ‘bring us your tired, your poor’ … the Irish, the Ital¬ians, the Germans, they weren’t welcome. A lot of the themes that are playing out today are themes that have played out since the early 1900s,” Gallacher said.
Gallacher related that the Roaring Fork Valley was settled by many Italian families who were not necessarily welcomed. There were places where “Irish need not apply,” he said. Names like “ wics,” “ dagos” and “wops” were common. Now, he said, Lati¬nos are simply called “illegals.” But, in the whole scheme of things, immigrants have, and will continue to shape America, he said. “The whole point of the exercise is to show that the immigrant experience hasn’t varied dramatically. People have to come and adjust and take the lowest paying jobs available,” Gallacher said. “You see these things being repeated, the challenges and the courage that it takes. People don’t want to leave their homeland.”
Gallacher is the former dean of students at the Colorado Mountain College and has since retired. His interest in Immigrant Sto¬ries comes from his own story and others like his. Everyone has a story, he said.
“It’s fascinating; the whole idea is to use storytelling, an ancient tradition, to think about immigration in a broader sense,” said Gallacher, who was disappointed that the U.S. Congress failed to pass any kind of im¬migration legislation recently. “I think a majority of Americans want this issue solved. I don’t know what the answer is, but in the meantime we should tell some sto¬ries.”
In his story, Hank Bosco said his father’s tale is nothing all that unique.
“He did quite well for himself hav¬ing come here with nothing. … So that’s America,” said Bosco, whose fa¬ther Mike immediately enrolled in the first grade after he arrived in New Castle so he could learn English, be¬cause “he was going to be an Ameri¬can.”
And he did.
From a poor, tired kid alone on El¬lis Island, Mike Bosco ended up sit¬ting on the Glenwood Springs City Council for 12 years and on the volun¬teer fire department for 20 years, while also raising a family and be¬coming a well respected and success¬ful businessman.
In the next six weeks listeners will hear the stories of Hank Bosco, Alexandra Yajko, Stephen Bershenyi, Hanya Gottardo, Ashton Durrett and Abraham Baeza. KDNK can be heard at 88.1, 88.3 and 88.5 throughout the Roaring Fork Valley and western Garfield County.
For more information about the Community Integration Initiative, the minigrant program or Immigrant Sto¬ries, contact Hanya Gottardo at 319¬1677 or e-mail CII@rof.net.
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