The woman left her little Italian village in the province of Lucca and walked along the dusty road with a cart full of flowers to sell. Suddenly she stopped and thought, “I don’t want to live this kind of life anymore; I want to go to America.” The year was 1921, and the young women was 22 year-old Caterina Tocchini.
Caterina’s decision to go to America was perhaps made easier by the fact that her sister, Costanza, had immigrated earlier to Madera, California, and was living there with her husband, Dominic Del Cerro. When her brother-in-law heard that Caterina wanted to come to Madera, he sent her the money for passage. Accompanied by one of her cousins, the future Mrs. Alfredo Farnesi, sailed from Genoa to Boston to begin a new life in America.
Dominic met Caterina at the train depot and took her home in the La Vina District where there was a large Italian community. However, she didn’t remain with her sister and brother-in-law for long; it just so happened that one of Dominic’s good friends was Alfredo Farnesi, who met Caterina on one of his visits to the Del Cerro home.
It must have been a whirlwind courtship because the two were married before the year was out. Later Alfredo repaid Dominic for Caterina’s traveling expenses to Madera. Alfredo and Caterina moved into a rented house on G Street and started their family. Their son, Bill, was born in 1922, and Mabel was born in 1923.
Then the Farnesis opened a garage and restaurant on what is now Gateway Drive. It had a house attached, and that was where they were living when Betty, Raleigh, and Lillian Farnesi were born.
About 1933, Alfredo and Caterina built a new home at 525 North G Street, when their youngest, Lillian, was 5 years old. Those were adventurous times for the little girl, and her memories of those days were clear.
Like many Maderans, Lillian remembered the alligator in Courthouse Park. To her the reptile appeared to be very old with a “ferocious” look, and she never saw it move. Almost every day during the summer, Lillian and her friends ran to the park zoo to see if the animal moved. Sometimes they stayed at the cage all day long hoping to catch some sign of life, which never came.
Alas, one morning when they arrived at the cage, the alligator was gone. The youngsters never found out what happened to the alligator, nor did they ever have the satisfaction of watching it move.
Not far from the park stood a small “Mom and Pop” store, which was owned by Mr. Lee, a Chinese merchant. Like the alligator that never moved, Mr. Lee was the merchant who never spoke. Lillian never heard him say a word. He sold pieces of candy at two for a penny. Whenever Lillian found a penny, she would rush to buy some candy from Mr. Lee, who simply took the money without making a sound.
As Lillian recalled, in those days (the 1930s and ’40s) no one waited for an invitation to go visiting. People just went. Like everyone else, the Farnesis would drive around on Sundays to the different ranches and stop at the place that had the most cars.
On one particular Sunday, the family drove directly to the Pettrucci Ranch because they were having a huge party. The word had apparently circulated the week before, because when the Farnesis arrived, there were twice as many people as usually gathered at one house. There was music, food, homemade wine and a piñata for the kids, who had a glorious time running and playing while the adults sat talking under the large trees.
As the Farnesi children got older, the family went for picnics in the foothills of the Sierras with the De Cesari, Lara, and De Santi families. There was always plenty of food, and, at times, the boys would sneak some hard-boiled eggs, peel them, and throw them at cars that came by.
Lillian’s all time favorite memory concerns one of her trips to Yosemite National Park. The Farnesis went with the De Cesari family and stayed overnight, camping out on the valley floor among a grove of apple trees where they could watch the Fire Fall at night. In Lillian’s words, “What a glorious sight that was! Tucked under our blankets, the stars were shining brightly, including an occasional streaking meteor. From time to time you would hear an apple dropping from one of the trees. I don’t think we slept much that night. We didn’t want to miss anything. It was a very exciting night for a little kid like me.”
All told, it was wonderful — this early life in Madera. The Farnesi children grew up after attending Lincoln School and then Madera High School. They all went on to make their mark on Madera.
Alfredo died in 1983 at the age of 95, and Caterina passed away in 1988 at the age of 89 — two more examples of the life sustaining forces that have welcomed immigrants to Madera over the past 100 years.