Ciao! Utahns will honor their Italian heritage during festive celebration
At an early age, Margaret figured out how to learn what was going on in town. She'd listen on the party line while her grandmother talked to the other Italian-speaking women.
Margaret Besso's grandfather owned the cobbler shop, and her father worked in the family business, taking it over in 1939 when the older man had a stroke. For 73 years, the Besso shoemakers were a fixture on the main street of Price. Farmers had their boots made by the Bessos. Parents had their children's school shoes made there — a little large for room to grow.
Their shop was often a gathering place for people who had been born somewhere else. Not just those who had been born in Italy but those born in Greece, Serbia or Croatia.
Besso's grandfather, James, had trained to be a priest and was well-educated. In his day, in Carbon County, many of the Italian-born miners couldn't read, so James Besso would read them their letters from home. He'd help immigrants fill out their applications for citizenship, too — and even go to Salt Lake City with them for the swearing-in. Besso's father carried on the tradition of helpfulness.
Up until his death a few years ago, Dominick Besso made shoes. Margaret Besso says he still sold his boots to local farmers — $25 a pair.
On Saturday, at the "Ferragosto," or Italian Festival, in Salt Lake City, Besso will show photos and documents and memorabilia from the cobbler shop. She has held onto these tiny pieces of what it meant to be a Besso in Price. She has seen that other people are interested in her family's story because it is part of a larger story about what it was like to be first- and second-generation Italian in Utah.
Besso's presentation will take place at the Utah State Historical Society in the Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande, where guest speakers will talk about the history of Italians in Utah. (See accompanying schedule.)
In fact, mementos like these tell the story of what it is to be American, says Joanne Milner, who is helping to produce a documentary film about Italians in Utah. A trailer for the documentary will precede each of the speakers at the Historical Society.
Whenever you learn about your ancestors, she says, it gives you a better appreciation, a better sense of self.
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