Cocozza: An 4th Generation Account on my Family's History

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!

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...