As a youngster visiting his grandfather, Bob Enea was unaware of the huge impact that Orazio Enea had on California’s First City.
The elder Enea, along with his wife, Domenica, and fellow Sicilian couple Pietro and Rosa Ferrante, are credited with helping establish the Sicilian fishing community in Monterey. Their work ethic, devotion to family, community and church, along with their generosity in welcoming other fishing families from Sicily, are the traits that Bob Enea said were responsible for putting the Monterey fishing industry on the map.
Now decades later, he along with Anna Marie Della Sala Stanton, a fellow Sicilian fishing family descendant, are trying to keep that legacy alive with the book Italian Fishing Families of Monterey. The book, which is published by the Italian Heritage Society, is a compilation of more than 80 family histories written by descendants of Italian fishing families.
So far, 450 copies have sold and Enea is hoping to print 100 more. Proceeds go to the Italian Heritage Society.
Through the leadership of these men, Monterey became the sardine-fishing capital of the world, said Enea, whose grandparents were from the northwestern Sicilian fishing village of Isola delle Femmine. Ultimately, upward of 300 families migrated to the Monterey Peninsula. It was in 1906 that both Ferrante and Enea moved their young families to Monterey and put the call out to other relatives to come.
Those who did come became deeply ingrained in the community and attached to their family boats.
Enea, Ferrante and Angelo Lucido would go on to found the San Carlos Cannery in 1927 while Enea started Aeneas Sardine Products Inc. in 1944. The building still stands on Cannery Row.
It’s important to preserve the history of the fishing families, said Enea, who noted that there is no place where this history is recorded. I’m the last generation that was in contact with my grandparents, who were the first immigrants to come to Monterey. And yet their legacy continues today as can be seen in at least seven generations or more of Sicilian-Americans, who continue to live and work in Monterey.
Enea’s own history in the city is deep. As a local historian and Monterey native who heads the Western Flyer Project, he has spoken and recounted the story of the famous 77-foot purse seiner that in 1940 John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts took on a scientific adventure to Baja California’s Sea of Cortez. Enea is the nephew of Tony Berry, the boat’s captain who met Ricketts and Steinbeck and made the voyage with the two and a small crew (including Enea’s uncle Horace Sparky Enea).
He said that Monterey’s fishing industry has now been condensed down to just a few families, with none of the original boats remaining in the Monterey Bay.
That’s important because there were some groups that came and were successful like the Chinese and Japanese and then there were other groups that had no real success like the Italian fishing families did in Monterey, said Enea.
Enea also said it wasn’t without sacrifice. Pietro Ferrante had to establish himself first and then return to Sicily to reclaim his bride, Rosa. Another thing the Italian fishermen sent back to the homeland for was their lampara nets, which had the ability to catch greater numbers of fish.
Stanton said that for her, telling the stories of these families was cathartic. She is the granddaughter of Giuseppe Joe and Giuseppina Cardinale Bruno and daughter of Rosie Bruno.
There was a lot of camaraderie, said Stanton. For me, it was grounding to know where I came from. I feel like we needed to do it. People were dying off. I started bringing stories to the group. I found myself crying and laughing.
Both she and Enea, along with other members of the families, contributed chapters to the project, which took a year and a half to do. Both Stanton and Enea felt an obligation to be a part of communicating how important these families and their livelihood was to the city’s growth.
And for Enea, the story of his ancestors and other Sicilians who left their homeland, is as an immigrant success story, plain and simple.
The fishing industry made Monterey what it is today, said Enea. Before that, it was a sleepy little town.
Monterey County Herald