No Monkey Business in This House!

Book excerpt: A lot can happen in six centuries. Experience the sadness, confusion, uncertainty, conflict, and desperation of the Pelliccia as they suffer through plague, three wars, the Renaissance, murder, untimely deaths, economic depression, eventually some comfort and joy. During their journey from Carrara, Tuscany (Italy), to Corsica (France), Puerto Rico, and eventually to the United States, they had seen and experienced the full range of human experience. As they build a new life for their children and their childrens children, the family creates the roots of a hard-earned family fortune in Puerto Rico coffee plantationsonly to lose it. Anxious but not broken, they set their sights on immigration to the United States. Once there, the family suffers profound hardship during the Great Depression. The culture shock, financial hardships, and generation gaps all play roles in the familys successes and failures. As some of the older generation crumbles under the stresses of life in a new world, their children find joy and comfort in the rich soil of American opportunity and possibility. But through it all, one thing remained a constant: the love of family. In this detailed, narrative family history, author John Urrutias novel style invites you into the many challenges and triumphs of family.