People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Luis Bustos
- Contributor to "In Our Own Write," (source: In Our Own Write: A Gunnison Valley Journal)
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- Luisa M. (Durante) Landini
- She was born in Montale, Italy to Carlo and Carmelina Tonelli Duranti. Her Italian birth and baptismal record from the Pontremoli Diocese shows that she was born on May 6, 1900, while later records in the United States show a date of May 15th. The same baptismal record lists her birth name as Virginia Mistica Luigia. She attended school until part way through second grade, when she had to quit so that she could help her family when her mother got sick. She immigrated to the United States after agreeing to marry her childhood acquaintance, Peter Landini. Ship passenger lists show her arriving on the Cretic in Boston, Massachusetts from the port of Naples on April 27, 1921. She was twenty-two years old at the time of her arrival. Her ultimate destination was listed as Fruita, Colorado. She arrived in Fruita on May 3, 1921. She married Peter Aristide (Pete) Landini on May 14, 1921 in Grand Junction. They had two girls and one boy. She was extremely homesick at first and wanted to return to Italy. They lived with Pete’s brother and near her friend Carolina, then briefly in a home built by Pete and his brothers, before moving onto an 80 acre homestead. They grew beans, corn, and other crops, with the beans being sold as a cash crop. They had ten milk cows and sold butter and cheese. She also planted grape vines and ran a herd of 150 sheep. As of 1983, the family still owned all 80 acres. Her son Carlo and grandson Tom carried on as farmers there. Evelyn Kyle, her interviewer for the Mesa County Oral History Project, describes her as “a delightful person.” Landini died at the age of 94. *Photograph of Luisa and Pete Landini.