The D'Elia clan has deep roots in Calabria, Italy, where official documents place them in the Fuscaldo (Cosenza) area around 1763, though there is no reason to believe that our "ancient ones" did not already reside in that region when the western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D. Indeed, if the chroniclers are correct about Fuscaldo's origin , namely that this hill-town was originally a Greek settlement, and part of Magna Graecia, then it may not be mere conjecture that our unknown past lies somewhere in the Hellenic world.
Our D'Elia, and other ancestors of just a hundred years ago, as far as I can tell, were mostly humble neo-tenant farmers known as contadini. Graduation to the exalted status of contadini took place after feudalism had been legally abolished. Actually, most of these common folks, like the slaves who were freed at the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865, did not experience improvement in their material condition when feudalism ended. The benefit was, as they say, largely on paper until a few courageous souls took matters into their own hands. For many, such as my grandfather, Pasquale D'Elia, the possibility to alter his own socio-economic status came with the advent of emigration. In 1876, when he was just 24, he found himself in that group of early emigrants. Eventually, money earned on various work trips to Brazil, would give him the means to purchase property. The freedom that he experienced on those trips would be hard to imagine, since we take most of our freedoms (such as mobility) for granted. The example that his accomplishments established for his son Battista (my father) created benefits of which my descendants and I are heirs.
The end of feudalism was ushered in by the Napoleonic era, and the unification of Italy (il Risorgimento) around 1860. For the average Calabrian however, benefits did not generally make themselves available until emigration. Before that, there is little doubt that the D'Elia clan had been serfs for more than a thousand years. The term serf is a feudal term used to denote people who had no rights, and who were attached to the land much like slaves. In fact, the only significant difference between the treatment of slaves in the New World, and the feudal serf by his European lord and master was that serfs were not sold as property. However, this is a puny distinction, because when feudal lands were sold or transferred, for any reason, the resident serf was attached to that land, and thus part of the transaction.
What is known for a fact, however, is that our ancestors originated from a people who were forced to live much like slaves for centuries, and that only recently have we enjoyed the benefits of civilization which from the remote past were reserved for the landed-aristocracy. In spite of all, we, of the D'Elia clan are rightfully proud of our Calabrian heritage, and of our accomplishments in Calabria, and in other lands. We must never forget who we were so as to better understand who we are.
