“Elda Del Bino Willitts and Patricia Lynn Henley’s The Sugar’s at the Bottom of the Cup is an extraordinary tale of a remarkable life. Based on the memories of Elda Willitts—now in her ninety-fifth year—this handsomely produced volume chronicles the story of an Italian immigrant who arrived in San Francisco in the spring of 1916. Her perilous trans-Atlantic voyage from Genoa to Ellis Island was evenly spaced between the sinking of the Lusitania and the entry of the United States into the First World War. Through a series of richly detailed vignettes, her life’s journey then unfolds through decades of personal adversity and triumph.
California historians are familiar with the contributions of such Italian-American luminaries as Domingo Ghirardelli, Andrea Sbarbaro, Joseph DiGiorgio, and A. P. Giannini. Now, thanks to this labor of love by Willitts and Henley, we have a girl’s-eye view of life among the common folk of the Italian immigrant community in North Beach. But what is most notable is the engaging personal story, told with such honesty and depth that it illuminates universal themes of aspiration, compassion, dignity, and hope.”
—JAMES R. RAWLS, Reviews Editor for California History: The Magazine of the California Historical Society
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The
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