Cocozza Zuccarina o Zucca Lunga

Back 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 run in our veins. 

Despite every now and then embarrassing acknowledgments of my new Italian friends whenever they mock me me about the Cocozza zuccarina, there is always a bright side. My last name has resulted in a delicious ingredient for the preparation of many dishes, soups, pasta, stews, etc. Btw, Cocozza has also turned into a sweet yummy jam!