A Bay TaleMotivation is perhaps the most valuable aspect of personality, and I believe it is something you are born with. I support the idea that what you have in your blood truly makes you who you are. That's why I'm always proud to represent my family and our heritage. Having been raised by my father, a classic Italian, I guess you could say that I am a proud person and have good morals. The Firenzi family has gone through its share of trials and tribulations to get to where we are today. My last name was originally spelled Firenze 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 spelling of our last name and just put a " i” at the end. Translated into Italian, Firenze directly translates to Florence, a well-known city in Italy. When interviewing my father, he didn't know much about our family tree, but he seemed sure that our family began in Florence. Since my father didn't know why the Firenzis initially immigrated to America, I did some research and discovered some of the main motivating factors for Italian immigration in the early 1900s. I discovered that at At that time, much of Italy was extremely populated and there was little to look forward to in terms of opportunities. If you had a job with a low salary, it would probably be your job for life. Salaries in Italy were significantly lower than those in the United States. In Italy, a carpenter earned an average of eight dollars a week, while an Italian immigrant working 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 inspiring part for me was that they didn't even know if it would pay off or not. They could have put themselves in complete danger and spent all their time and money to find no gold at all. Another thing that makes my grandfather a lot like the characters in Crown of Dust is that he went to a place where making money was hot. Like the gold rush, everyone wanted to get rich. Later in life, when I have my own job, I hope to become like my grandfather, find a job and make it my life. I also hope that once I find my goal, nothing stops like the miners in Crown of Dust. Works Cited Firenzi, Mike. Personal interview. Saturday February 10, 2014 “Digital History”. Digital history. Np, and Web. February 14, 2014. “Italo-American.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 2, 2014. Web. February 14. 2014.