To me, culture means two things, basically. One: A culture means who we are and what we do; it’s what makes us ourselves. It’s what makes people different from each other. And that’s a good thing. Two: A culture tells us what we are. My culture is Italian…

What I know about my family history is that we’re from Italy. My great grandpa was born in Italy and had come to America in the 1940s where my grandpa was born. They went through Ellis Island to become citizens of the United States. Before my family went through Ellis Island, our last name was ‘Loskurini’ and after we went through Ellis Island, our name was shortened to ‘Loskur’. But years later, some marriages into the family and had changed our last name to what it is now. My family wasn’t exactly made of “good” people. They were involved in the Italian Mafia (or mob). They traveled the country robbing banks and taking money and whatnot. My grandpa was a bag man. He would collected the money from local mobs and bring it to his own. He would also deliver guns, cars and verity if mob related equipment. My great uncle was a “hit man”, I have never met him, and have never seen a picture, but I don’t really care. A hit man is an assassin; they kill people for money. I’ve heard that he had killed some people in the 80s. My family say that no has seen him for fifteen years. I don’t know if he’s even alive. But, I don’t really care.

When my dad was a boy he had five brothers, two of them are half-brothers and the other two were fully related. When they came of age they had been invited to join the Italian Mafia by my grandpa. My grandmother refused to let my uncles join the mafia. She didn’t want any criminals in the family. She told my dad’s dad to leave them alone.

My dad never really got to see his dad growing up. But it was alright for my dad, because he and my grandpa didn’t really get along anyways. From the business my grandpa did for the Mafia, it made him very wealthy. My dad was never bothered by his dad to do any Mafia stuff. From what I’ve heard, my grandpa never really liked his sons. Except for the two oldest ones. But, since he was always occupied with Mafia business, he never really put much care into his family. Since my grandpa was full Italian, I guess that makes me third generation Italian. My dad doesn’t look too much Italian, he is light skinned and blonde. He has the looks from his mother’s side of the family, which is German.

Being part Italian doesn’t really have an impact on my life. Except for the fact that I like to cook Italian food, and that’s about it. I have been interested in learning about Italy since I learned that I’m part Italian. I am thinking about learning how to speak Italian and traveling there one day to see what’s its really like. It might sound a bit crazy, but, I’ve actually thought about changing my last name back to Loskurini once I’m old enough, so we can go back to our real last name from the country my family is from. It probably won’t happen, but, it sounds nice. It would also be nice to know what city in Italy my family came from. Just so if I ever visit Italy, I can get to see where my ancestors grew up.