July 22nd, 1928

Home sweet home!

Dear Maria,

          We were so glad that you wrote us back! Your letters are so comforting, but also make us miss you even more! We got your letter in June and it is now already July. The weather is beautiful here; it is almost 90 degrees every day. The sun beats down through the tall buildings and makes the sidewalks and roads steam. At night, though, it is nice and cool. We have found a small apartment to live in, just the three of us. We have also found jobs in a small factory down the street that makes automobile parts. It is dirty work, but we make some money. Many women who work there have very large families. They work many hours a day and still cannot afford nice things. These women come to work in the same clothes every day, with barely any lunch in their pails. We feel so grateful that our late husbands’ were able to set aside money for us. There was also one woman who could not read as well as the rest of us. She ruined one set of parts for an automobile and was beaten right in front of all the other woman workers. We prayed for her all that night, but unfortunately, we did not see her again the next day. Speaking of women, New York City women are much more fun than back home! Indeed, we had to handle lots of dirty work at home, but these women are free! We ventured out one night to a Dance marathon . Some of our lady friends taught us the dance called the Charleston. All you do is kick your legs back and forth, but it is so much fun! I hope that women back home in Italy are having this much fun, if not you should be! Although we feel comfortable in New York, we see many Italian faces and we cannot help but feel skeptical as to if they are enemies from home. However, we see many new faces too. New York City is like a mixing pot of people, they could be from anywhere! The three of us are thinking about joining NWP, which we believe stands for National Women’s Party. They are fighting to get rid of laws punishing women for being women! We don’t know if we should get involved in such a big group or just lay low. We need to discuss it more. We hope everything is working out at home and that you are healing well. We miss you terribly, write soon.

Love,

Carmela, Gabriella, and Milania