A Story by Bay Motivation is perhaps the most valuable aspect of a person's personality and is something I believe you are born with. I support the idea that what is in your blood truly determines who you are. That's why I'm always proud to represent my family and our heritage. Having grown up with dad, a classic Italian, I guess you could say I'm a proud person and have decent morals. The Firenzi family has gone through its fair share of trials and tribulations to get to where we are today. My last name was originally spelled Florence with an "e" at the end instead of an "i". My father said that when our ancestors immigrated here from Italy, the people who worked at Ellis Island had so many people to deal with that they ignored the way our last name was spelled and simply added an "i" to the end. Translated into Italian Firenze translates directly to Florence, which is a well-known city in Italy. When I interviewed my father he didn't know much about our family tree but he seemed to be sure that our family originated in Florence. Since my father didn't know why the Florentines initially emigrated to America, I did a little research and found some of the main reasons for Italian immigration in the early 1900s. I found that much of Italy at that time was extremely crowded and there wasn't much to hope for in terms of opportunities. If you had a low-wage job, it would probably be your job for life. Wages in Italy were noticeably much lower than those in America. A carpenter in Italy earned on average about eight dollars a week while an Italian immigrant with the same job in America could earn eighteen dollars a week. Making double the salary was definitely a huge factor… middle of paper… ted and the most challenging part for me was that they didn't even know if it would pay off or not. They could have completely put themselves in danger and spent all their time and money not to find gold. Another thing that makes my grandfather very similar to the characters in Crown of Dust is that he went to a place where making money was important. Like during the gold rush, everyone wanted to get rich. Later in life, when I have my own job, I hope to become like my grandfather, get a job and make it my life. I also hope that once I find my goal, nothing will stop like the miners in Crown of Dust.Works CitedFirenzi, Mike. Personal interview. Saturday 10 February 2014 "Digital history". Digital history. Np, nd Web. February 14, 2014."Italian American." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2 October 2014. Web. 14 February. 2014.