Italians of the Monterey Peninsula

by Mike Ventimiglia

Overview

Since the early 1900s, Monterey was known for its fishing, mostly for salmon and the abalone that was plentiful in Monterey Bay. The migration of the Sicilian Italian community is credited for reaping what was called the "Silver Harvest." The Silver Harvest is the name that was given to the fishing of sardines in Monterey, which mostly was done by the Sicilian Italians who established the working fabric in the sardine industry for nearly five decades. Most of that generation is gone, and only a few are memorialized in books. It is this author's attempt to capture the working class that made Monterey the "Sardine Capital of the World."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467133067
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	04/13/2015
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Author Mike Ventimiglia's family and relatives fished, worked the canneries, and operated and owned fishing boats, as well as a cannery on Cannery Row. He has spent hundreds of hours researching and obtaining photographs in an effort to preserve a small part of the families who worked and fished in Monterey. He has gathered information from the Amici Club, a local organization whose members are of Sicilian Italian descent and who fished with their fathers and grandfathers at the height of the sardine industry.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 Italians Migrate to Monterey 9

2 Canneries and Wharves 23

3 Fishing Boats and Nets 41

4 Santa Rosalia Festival Blessing of the Fleet 69

5 Families and Traditions 79

Index 127