My Stor

y

My name is Leonard Covello and I am from Italy. My family is very poor. One day Papa sat me down at the table and told us that we were going to move to America to find a better life. While we were on the trip to America, Papa died of food poisoning. I was so devastated that I had to face the world of America alone.

As I was traveling through America alone, I found a crowded, dirty, little tenement that I could live in. I found a couple of Italian friends I could bunk with

that work with me. It is usually hot in the tenement; I feel like I am going to die. This old lady that lives with me has tuberculosis and she gets worse and worse by

the day. We don’t have plumbing so we use a little outhouse in the backyard. The neighborhood I love in is very run-down and dirty. Our neighborhood has a lot

of gangs also. I’m very scared to go out there to use the bathroom at night. Sometimes I dream about

living in a huge mansion and have millions of dollars.

I don’t go to school, but I do work with some buddies I met at my apartment at a sardine cannery. Me and my buddies sometimes cut our fingers. Falu, one of my friends, got his pinky cut off the other day. I get scared that one of my fingers are going to get cut off one day. My job doesn’t pay much so I usually don’t have enough money for food.

Some people that I live and work with are very rude to me. They make fun of me because of my accent and the way I look. I was hoping for a better life here in

America, but now I’m not so sure. Between work, home, and prejudice people, I'm not sure if I can

survive life in America. But I always tell myself that it will get better.

IMAGES CITEDMany photographs found in this ppt were taken

by Jacob Riis, the photographer who documented

child labor in the early 1900s

The photographs were obtained from the following sites Geh.org

Historians.orghistory.umd.edu

Library of CongressNational Archives

NEH.govNew York Public Library

Phil Vaughn.orgThe History Box

University of Washington