Vincenzo Manno

Tribute to my Father Vincenzo Manno

by Silvio Manno

Vincenzo Manno, son of Rosa Cavallaro and Giuseppe Manno, was born on June 5th, 1924, in the hamlet of Surgenti, near Caulonia, in the province of Reggio Calabria. Vincenzo married Maria Caterina Pezzaniti on June 27, 1948. Vincenzo and Maria had three sons:  Piero Giuseppe, Silvio, and Mario. Vincenzo relocated the family to the prosperous northern Italian city of Milano in the spring of 1960 to ensure a better quality of life and a better future for his spouse and his three sons. In 1983 Vincenzo and  his wife Maria emigrated to Fresno, CA, to be reunited with their sons and their grandson Scot Vincent. Maria passed away on February 2, 2020. Vincenzo followed his wife of 72 years on February 17, 2022.

Father was a humble man, a man of few words, yet a man of deep wisdom. He learned hard work almost as soon as he learned how to walk. His life was paved with hardships and enormous sacrifices. He hardly knew the meaning of the word leisure. Father proudly represented the 3rd generation of goat herders on his father’s side. As a child his dream was to become the herder of one hundred goats, master of two shepherd dogs, and a horse rider. His lifelong passions were tending his garden and hunting. His love for working the soil led him to wield pick and shovel so deftly that local landlords vied for his services. His unwavering commitment to his family’s wellbeing was always his utmost priority. He often exerted himself beyond the limits of human endurance, working himself to the bone to guarantee his three sons a brighter life than his. He spilled much blood and sweat of his youthful years in the rocky soil of his native Calabria and later in the construction sites of his adoptive city of Milano. Father gave himself unsparingly to the world and to his family, always expecting very little in return. If heaven is truly the destiny of the righteous, father will surely have a place reserved in paradise.