People named Fernando Barbero

My great grandfather, my bis-nonno as people say in Italy, Fernando Barbero, left a great legacy. Born in Piedmont, Italia, specifically near Montechiaro d'Asti, he came with his brother to California leaving his wife Carolina and daughter Edvigia temporarily in Italy. He worked as a brick mason and street paver in the Bay Area and saved money to buy 140 acres of virgin land bordered by the Consumnes River. He cleared the riparian forest himself because his brother died unexpectedly, and he built a house. Then, he brought his wife and child at the train station and walked many miles to the house which they found, on arrival, burnt to the ground. Who could have done this? He was one of the first Europeans in the area, so possible the Miwok who also inhabited this land though we don't really know. He built a second house near the river--it flooded. He built a third house on higher ground and it still stands: my Gramma, Caterina, was born in a room in that house, and more than 80 years later she passed away in the same room after she owned her own beauty shop with her sister Delfina, and then worked for Holiday Market for decades, still taking time to cook wonderful holiday meals, and raise my mother and my Uncle John. Fernando planted a grape vineyard in 1924, and years ago a wine was bottle called 1924 Zin that had pictures of my family, including my Uncle John, working in the vineyard. A fond memory of Grant, as we called our Bis Nonno Fernando using the Piemontais dialect (pronounced GRAHnt with a trilled R) was that he would always stuff money in our pockets when we visited the Ranch (titled so because of the presence of cattle as well as chickens, fruit trees, barn, windmill, stone bread oven, well, and more). He also would poke things around him with a stick to see what it was. My sister and I would bring blow up plastic animals with a hole in the middle to float in the river before we could swim, and Grant poked my sister's toy with his stick and popped it by accident. Kim cried of course, as most tiny kids would if their toy was destroyed. Thank you for everything, Fernando Barbero, whose name I have seen online as a signature when he arrived in Ellis Island so many moons ago. Your hard work and serious grit gave our family so much, and what you gave me genetically and by example is absolutely priceless. Love, your Great Granddaughter, Deb Caterina

Fernando J Barbero of Pompano Beach, Broward County, FL was born on March 19, 1925, and died at age 78 years old on April 3, 2003.