What did your childhood home look like?
Did you ever see the classic
Jackie Gleason sitcom The Honeymooners? They had a walk-up flat in Brooklyn.
Well, ours was on Mott Street in Manhattan, but our flat looked much like
that—it was called a ‘railroad flat’ because all the rooms were in a
row—kitchen sitting room, bedrooms in back. We shared a toilet on the landing.
But compared to other Mott Street tenements, we had it made—we had indoor
plumbing. No bathtub, but a sink with running water. We didn’t have to go to a
backyard privy. The bedroom was partitioned off by a curtain that I’d made—one
side was mine, the other side my brother’s. Papa and his wife Rosalia had
another bedroom to themselves.
What is your greatest dream?
To be a Senator or
Congresswoman, but I’m happy enough as a committeewoman for now.
What kind of person do you
wish you could be? What is stopping you?
I wish I could be calmer and
slow down. I do too much—run the household because I refuse to hire help, raise
our 3 kids, work and invest our savings. I follow the stock market and purchase
stocks that have long-term growth potential. What’s stopping me is my drive to
get ahead.
Who was your first love?
Tom, of course. My father
tried to throw me together with ‘a nice Italian boy’ Roberto Riccadonna whose
family owned a music store and was ‘well off’ – but he was arrogant and
controlling. He threatened me when I told him I wasn’t interested in him. He
and Tom got into fisticuffs when I found Roberto under my boardinghouse window
singing “O Sole Mio” with a mandolin. He had a nice voice, but Tom was hardly
impressed.
What's the most terrible
thing that ever happened to you?
When Papa and my brother
Butchie were arrested for the murder of Tom’s cousin Mike. It tore me into
pieces, because Tom didn’t want to believe Papa and Butchie were the killers,
but evidence pointed to them. We made it our quest to find the real killer, and
we did. It created a huge rift in our relationship of course, but we overcame
that as we got through all the other hardships and prejudices that tried to
keep us apart.
What was your first job?
I started out as a sweatshop
worker sewing ‘shirtwaists’ (blouses), and now I’m a committeewoman, with a
view to being New York City’s first female mayor.
What’s your level of
schooling?
I left school at 16 to go to
work in a lampshade factory.
Sassano, Italy, near Naples.
Where do you live now?
Greenwich Village, in a
brownstone on East 14th Street.
Do you have a favorite pet?
They’re all favorites, two
mongrel pups, Charlie and Shirley, two cats Romeo and Juliet, and assorted
goldfish whose names we can’t keep up with!
What’s your favorite place to
visit?
Coney Island, to sit on the
beach, frolic in the ocean, eat those delicious hot dogs and fried dough, and
stroll the boardwalk!
What’s your most important
goal?
To see my three children
become successful, respectable citizens. Doing all right so far—my daughter
Assunta (Susan) owns a clothing store, my son Virgilio (Billy) writes Broadway
musicals and my youngest Teresa (Tessie) wants to be a baby doctor.
What’s your worst fear or
nightmare?
That the stock market will
crash again or some other disaster will plunge us back into poverty.
What’s your favorite food?
My homemade lasagna with my
grandmother’s sauce recipe (it’s a secret)
Are you wealthy, poor, or
somewhere in between?
We’re finally members of the
solid middle class.
What’s your secret desire or
fantasy?
To sing in one of my son’s
musicals.
What would you do if you won
the lottery?
I’d buy my own airplane and
give the rest to charity.
From Romantic Times:
Immigrant Vita Caputo escapes New York’s Italian ghetto and secures a job in a Wall Street bank, along with a room in a Greenwich Village boarding house, thanks to Irish police officer Tom McGlory. With her new beginning, Vita even joins the Industrial reform movement.
Tom is an honest cop, with little interest in women until he meets Vita. When Tom’s cousin is murdered and Vita’s father and brother are arrested for the crime, the two team up to investigate and soon discover that they are falling in love.
Vita and Tom face economic problems, prejudice, and cultural differences. Ms. Rubino’s research is obvious.—Kathe Robin
From Rhapsody Magazine:
FROM HERE TO 14th STREET by Diana Rubino is all that and then some. Everything about this book is what writing should be--original and wonderfully executed. Bravo!—Karen L. Williams
From Book Nook Romance Reviews:
Diana Rubino has done a masterful job of researching the life of Italian and Irish immigrants in turn-of-the-century New York, its society and politics and crime. She paints a vivid picture of the degradation immigrants of Italian descent suffered, particularly at the hands of the earlier Irish immigrants they succeeded. Barred from all but the most menial jobs, forced to live crammed into the worst slums, she makes it easy for the reader to understand why many of them turned to a life of crime and violence. Not only can the reader see what Vita and Tom see, they can smell it, hear it, and taste it.
Vita is a delightful heroine, as full of vivid life as the city she lives in. Stubborn, determined to escape the ghetto in which she lives and make something of herself, she never loses her commitment to and love for her family. That very devotion, however, threatens her growing relationship with Tom, since the Irish and Italians are the Capulets and Montagues of 19th century Manhattan. Although she cannot help falling deeply in love with him, she knows that her father and brothers will never permit her to spend her life with him. And, in a departure from the usual super-masculine hero, Tom is a sensitive, secret poet as well as a cop.
If you like vivid characters and a book that carries you effortlessly back to an earlier time, FROM HERE TO 14th STREET is a good choice. –Elizabeth Burton
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MORE ABOUT THE LOWER EAST
SIDE:
One fascinating place to
visit is the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
at 97 Orchard Street, once
an actual tenement. They have tours describing life as it was back then, with
each floor of the building decorated (if you want to call it ‘decorated’) to
depict each time period when immigrants lived there.
I read a lot of books to
research this story. One book I remember reading as a kid is How
The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, a photographer and reformer of the
time. The photos in his 1901 book vividly illustrate the poverty and
deprivation of the times, for adults and children alike.
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ABOUT ME:
My passion for history and
travel has taken me to every locale of my stories, set in Medieval and
Renaissance England, Egypt, the Mediterranean, colonial Virginia, New England,
and New York. My urban fantasy romance, FAKIN’ IT, won a Top Pick award from
Romantic Times. I’m a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III
Society and the Aaron Burr Association. I live on Cape Cod with my husband
Chris. In my spare time, I bicycle, golf, play my piano and devour books of any
genre. Visit me at www.dianarubino.com,
www.DianaRubinoAuthor.blogspot.com,
https://www.facebook.com/DianaRubinoAuthor,
and on Twitter @DianaLRubino.
Purchase FROM HERE TO
FOURTEENTH STREET
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