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Aura María de Cocozza

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It's my grandma's birthday, and I am miles away from her. Although she is not a born Cocozza, she is the only one in my family who gives value to history and to who we were and are. She is the only one who shows a certain pride about the Cocozza's. She keeps stating her ex-marriage last name, and firmly affirms that she is Aura María de Cocozza. Although she does it out of showing some sort of  prestige, as if we belonged to a privileged class, I totally appreciate that she has kept in her house a collection of family certificates, passports, pictures, and even a diploma that shows the etymological origin of our last name.  Lela (as I usually call her) is a valuable source of information. She knows better about my grandfather, who I never got a chance to know, just met him a few times in my life, and also knows about my great-grandfather. She still recalls certain stories about her mother and father-in law. Happy Birthday, Lela! I love you!
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Cocozza Zuccarina o Zucca Lunga

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B ack in Costa Rica, Cocozza is a cool name. In fact, among my Spanish speaking friends, they always mock me by pronouncing my name in a fancy manner, with an overdone Italian accent. I often play along and tell them that the pronunciation is like saying Pizza. I do it as a way to reinforce my Italianishness because I would say that there is nothing more Italian than pizza despite of the debates regarding its American origin. Anyway, iconically speaking pizza is Italy.  Nonetheless, I realized that Cocozza is not such a cool word in Italian. In fact, I feel kind of embarrassed to admit that the last name perfectly suits my family's stubbornness, my own OCTs to perfection, to getting things under control. Let me explain here. According to Mario, a bay watcher, driver, and others, Cocozza refers to a fruit, a pumpkin. In colloquial use, it refers to stubborn people like all the Cocozza's I know: my dad, brother, uncle, aunt and I. Stubbornness simply ru...
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Family History

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My name is Gloriana, a 4th-generation child of Italian immigrants. Due to the lack of information regarding my ancestry, I decided to start collecting as much data as possible from online sources. It has been an insightful experience to get familiar with the past. I have never considered myself as an immigrant, yet after digging more about my past I have come to realize I have crossed feelings about it.  Since I was little, I had feelings of displacement and strangeness every time people would ask me about my unusual last name. I would unconsciously hid behind my mom's skirt, and later I just secretly hoped people wouldn't ask me about my past. Little importance did I gave to gathering information, until years later when pursuing an undergraduate degree in English and cultural studies at the UCR, then at a master's level in Bamberg University. Now, studying in Barcelona, I strongly experienced the sight of an immigrant. The answers to where I belong, who I ...
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