![\"Fishing](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jim-bregante-net-mending.jpg\")
\u201cI\u2019m a product of people,\u201d Bregante declared emphatically, referring directly to the many influential people that contributed to his upbringing in San Diego\u2019s Italian community during the 1940s and 1950s. He was raised in \u201cseven little yellow cottages,\u201d built by his grandfather, Gerolamo Bregante, in 1922. Today, those cottages are still standing, and they have served as one of the many topics that Jim writes about in his historical essays on the community that helped to shape him.<\/p>\n
Jim recalls those cottages fondly, as they were \u201ca little community among the larger community of what\u2019s called Little Italy today,\u201d he said. An interesting component of the diminutive, but distinctive homes was the courtyard in the center of the cottages, which had the clotheslines, and \u201cthat was the meeting place for the ladies.\u201d In the courtyard, Jim noted, \u201cYou became familiar with everyone\u2019s garments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim\u2019s recollections of his family members, particularly his grandfathers, remain vivid and riveting. Jim\u2019s maternal grandfather, Agostino Ghio, came to San Diego via Ellis Island, settling first in San Francisco, as many other Italian immigrants had done. He began a fishing career, and he discovered a large Italian community in that city. Upon relocating to San Diego, he continued his career as a fisherman and also became a boat owner. Notably, while living in San Francisco, he had also sailed on San Diego\u2019s famed ship, the Star of India.<\/p>\n
Jim\u2019s paternal grandfather, Gerolamo Bregante, also first settled in San Francisco but much earlier than Jim\u2019s maternal grandfather \u2014 in 1886. He also worked as a fisherman, but he then went into the retail\/wholesale business and became a buyer for a fish market. Jim\u2019s grandfather was in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake, and he moved to San Diego in 1910.<\/p>\n Interestingly, while in San Francisco, Jim\u2019s grandfather became good friends with AP Giannini, the founder of the Bank of Italy, which was later to become Bank of America. Giannini asked him to serve on the bank\u2019s board of directors in San Diego. Jim mentions at this point, proudly, that his grandfather did not have a lot of education, but he was \u201cgood with people and had an entrepreneurial spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n Jim explains that the primary businesses were on India Street, which served as the main thoroughfare in the neighborhood: \u201c[The] bakeries, grocery stores, drug stores, barber shops, shoe shops \u2014 all within a three to four block area.\u201d Regarding restaurants, Jim recounts, \u201cWhen I grew up there was only one restaurant \u2014 Ortega\u2019s Mexican Food,\u201d which was operated by a Mexican family living in the neighborhood. Eventually, other restaurants started to be established through the 1950s. Today, Jim says, \u201cPeople laugh when I tell them there was only one restaurant in Little Italy\u2014they don\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n You can visit with Jim on Saturdays at Amici House in Little Italy and learn more about the history of the neighborhood.<\/p>\n![\"Fishing](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/jim-bregante-speaking.jpg\")