By Luis F. Longhi  ( first written June 30, 2000, last edited )

Italy

To America

Family Reunited

The Family Grows

Luis Longhi and Ana Terminiello

The Decline of an Era

Two Cultures Come Together

Italy

The year is 1882 and a young man, Natale Longhi, at the age of 28 is living in a small agricultural town called Mortara in Italy. He is married and is looking forward to a grand life.  Soon his wife is pregnant and they prepare for the new born.  At this time, life is difficult in Italy.  Over population, poverty, and poor harvest make for a dark contrast from Natale's plans.  It is the start of the great emigration to the Americas. The idea of a better life is very enticing.  The fateful day arrives and Natale's wife goes into labor.  Tragically, she dies while giving birth to their son Luigi.  As is the culture at the time.  Natale marries his wife's sister, Josefa Moro.

To America

Natale eventually decides he must go to America with his new family.  After speaking with my family members, I learned that it was a very common decision for Italians to prefer South America to North America.  The Latins were more similar culturally and linguistically than the North Americans and getting accustomed to the new life would be a much more straight forward task.  Natale decides for Argentina.  Argentina being a wealthy nation and full of natural resources and greatly under populated.  Natale makes his way to the port of Genova and sets sail aboard the ship Rio Plata.  He arrives alone in the port of Buenos Aires on the 22nd day of December in 1882. ( I state alone, as that is what the passenger and immigration records in Argentina state).

Family Reunited

According to family information, his wife, Josefa, and son, Luigi arrive around the year 1884, two years later.  In this time Natale ( Now known as Natalio ) was able to gain employment as a day laborer in the port.  Soon, Natalio is able to get a horse and carriage and start a business shipping goods from the port to companies and individuals around Buenos Aires.  He does very well and soon has many buggies for this company.  Eventually the automobile will be invented and Natalio upgrades his fleet to trucks.  It would be this trucking business, and a few very fruitful government contracts, that would raise this family to upper middle class status.

The Family Grows

Natalio and Josefa would soon have children together.  In fact, they would have six.  They are ( in order after Luigi, now known as Luis); Teresa, Emilio José, José Gregorio, Juan Arturo, Maria Carolina, and Amelia Josefa.  In the course of my research over the last four years, I have met many of their descendants in Argentina. Wonderful people that have opened their homes to me and unselfishly offered me substantial family data and stories that are further detailed in other sections of this web page.  Further, they were a great source for piecing together seemingly conflicting information. In one case, I was stunned to find a spouse of one of the brothers still alive ... As it turns out she was the young ( big age difference ), second wife of one of the brothers and was 87 years old. She had a few fascinating stories and had a wealth of family information  Today, Natale and Josefa's descendants number 170 persons.  This web page, however, will primarily follow the story of my direct family line, which continues with Natalio's oldest, Luis.

Natalio and Josefa would have an excellent life together and would do very well for their children's financial future.  On the 6th day of September in 1936, Josefa, at age of 71, would die of complications related to Diabetes.  Natalio, not bearing the loss, dies immediately two days later from grief on 8 September.

Luis Longhi and Ana Terminiello

In 1905, Luis, a young 25 year old, would marry Ana Terminiello. He is a laborer and would work with his father in the trucking business.  Both Luis and Ana were born in Italy but emigrated to Argentina with their parents.  Ana from Sorrento.  It wouldn't be long before they began to have children of their own.  In May of 1906, their first son, Luis Natalio Longhi would be born, followed by Juan Felipe, Ana Ida, and Josefina Zulema in 1912.  

Luis would continue the trucking business and other parts of the family, his uncles, would go into other careers ( police commissioners, landowners, etc).  Luis eventually had a falling out with his uncles (some family dispute over some land ) and would not talk to them again.  This particularly made my earlier research a little more challenging.  Luis and his sons, Luis and Juan, ran the trucking business which continued to be a fruitful business.  One major accomplishment was the contract to build the famous River Stadium in Buenos Aires.  Luis and his family would have free season tickets to all soccer events for the rest of their lives.

Luis Longhi would pass away on the 26th day of May in 1966.  Ana would live until the summer of 1988 ( January is summer in Argentina).

The Decline of a Era

In 1933, Luis Longhi's oldest son, would marry Rosa Pampuri.  Rosa's family had also emigrated to Argentina from Italy around the same time as the Longhi's.  They were also from the Lombardia region of Italy.

Luis Natalio and Rosa would have two children, Luis Emilio and Hebe Ana.  Luis Natalio would become an astute businessman like his father and grandfather and would expand the business into the public garage business.  Later in life he would sell off the trucking business and consolidate the business to public garages.  It is around this time that the government in Argentina turns toward military dictatorship and the country begins a rapid decline.  By the time Luis Natalio takes over the business, it is a fraction of what it had once been worth.  The hyper-inflation and depression of Argentina was too great to bear. In the early 1970's, the government forces Luis to sell his property to them for a "fair price".

Luis Natalio would live until May of 1988.  Rosa still lives today in Buenos Aires near her daughter Hebe.

Two Cultures come together

In the early sixties, Luis Emilio Longhi would meet and begin to date a Spaniard that had emigrated to Argentina from Spain when she was only five years old.  She and her family had left near the end of WWII. Considering that her parents lived the terror of the Spanish Civil War, they could not bear the possibility that Spain would be dragged into this war as well.  They decided to emigrate from Barcelona to Argentina.  But that is another web page.  Both, Luis and Ascension were disenchanted with Argentina and began to dream of emigrating to the USA.  They would marry on 1 February 1966 and immediately emigrated to New York City, the Capitol of the World.  The USA was at war in Vietnam and luckily for Luis, the US draft did not get to married with child ( Mom was pregnant with me ).  Although the country was in turmoil in the sixties with the war and civil unrest, Luis quickly got a job in a new promising career field.  Something new called computer programming.  They moved to Queens and soon began their family.  Less than a year would go by before their first son would be born, Luis Fernando, in October of 1966.  He would be followed by his siblings; Ricardo, Gabriel, and Claudia.  They would be born two years apart.  Gabe and Claudia in New Jersey, as they would move to Bloomfield, New Jersey after Luis was recruited by a large pharmaceutical company system's division.  

The rest is what I would consider modern history and to be continued in some other page of this web site.

The Story continues ...