Traveling with Twain

In Search of America's Identity

Immigration Stories

America has long been described as a nation of immigrants. President Obama chooses to call himself the son of a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya. One thread of this “Traveling with Twain in Search of America’s Identity” project tells the story of a representative immigrant family in America, the Ghigliones, beginning with the arrival in 1869 of seamstress Maria Strada Ghiglione and in 1872 of indentured macaroni maker Angelo Francesco Ghiglione. The project participants also are interviewing Americans about their attitudes toward current immigrants to the United States.

Posts in Immigration Stories

Memories of a mill town: Simple acts of kindness in Southbridge

Videos on YouTube portray Southbridge, Mass., as a dying mill town of loonies and losers. A snippet from producer Rod Murphy’s “Greater Southbridge” documentary makes Jerry Sciesnewski, a stuttering collector of empty soda and beer cans, … Read more >>

The role of immigration in Hartford, Conn.

Andrew Walsh, associate director of Trinity College’s Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and a former Hartford Courant reporter, is an expert on Hartford immigration. He kindly took us around … Read more >>

Craig Hotchkiss describes Twain’s experiences with race, sexuality and imperialism

Craig Hotchkiss is the Education Program Manager at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Conn. In this video, Hotchkiss addresses some of the topics we’ve been dealing with, including race and sexual orientation, as … Read more >>

Women of Yale Drama talk race, loss, money and being caught in the middle

You’ve probably noticed that this video is six minutes long. So far, I’ve been making an effort to keep the videos I upload brief, sometimes (read: most times) under a minute. That’s, of course, a response … Read more >>

Ann Ghiglione O’Keefe finds a surprise in Pontedecimo, Italy

I, like other Ghigliones born in the United States, returned to Pontedecimo, Italy, birthplace of my great-grandfather, Angelo Francesco Ghiglione, in search of the holy grail. Our holy grail took the form of descendants—any descendants—of Angelo … Read more >>