by Frank Bevc (Author)
In a region of southern Italy that is known as Calabria, far south of Naples, there is a remote town by the name of Ardore. Its history dates back to ancient Greece; and, in over 2,800 years, a succession of conquerors did little to improve the lives of its people. In the mid-1600's, Antonio Bova saw the sale of the town as a feudal estate with an absentee landlord. By the mid-1700's his family had grown and acquired productive agricultural lands. Ardore supported the unification of Italy in 1860, but rebelled when a cholera epidemic ravaged the town. Archpriest Giuseppe Bova rose to a leading role in the town as pastor of the "mother church" and eventually became a bishop. And, Joseph Pasquale Bova was one of the earliest of the massive wave of Italian immigrants that came to America. In exploring the experiences of seven generations of the Bova Family, we learn how their lives were impacted by the history of Ardore and that of Italy.