Pietro Corsi - Halifax: The Other Door to America

When I learned, a few years ago, of the founding of the Pier 21 Society in Halifax, created in order to revive that dock as a symbol of Canadas gratitude toward its immigrants who have so faithfully contributed to the development of the big country , I was unable to resist the temptation to know more about it. For like hundreds of my townsfolk, like tens of thousands of my region folk, like hundreds of thousands of Italians and millions of Europeans, on a never forgotten day I too set foot in Canada after crossing that entranceway that I like to call, the other door to America after Ellis Island in the United States.

I turned on the laptop that in this wandering old animals age accompanies me around the world, and I sent, with much enthusiasm, a congratulatory message to the directors of the Pier 21 Society. To my surprise, they soon answered with the same enthusiasm; and to keep me updated as to their progress, they started sending me a bulletin that has now become a part of the familiar mail that the postman faithfully deposits in my mailbox even when I am not at home.

Almost without wishing it, and certainly without thinking about it, a research work began that has helped me to rediscover Canada: the history of its contrasted birth, together with the history of its no less-contested immigration policy. Little by little this research, in turn, has unveiled numerous stories of migration and integration. At this point I started harbouring the certitude that I had to continue my research in order to help, albeit in my own way, raise the foundations for the construction of this most important monument to Canadian immigration.

A doubt remained: Would it be an essay or an historical text? Or some sort of memoir/short story?

After much deliberation, I was able to convince myself that essays are written by scholars for scholars. I therefore discarded this possibility. In truth, I wanted my work to enter the homes of all immigrants (and that means every
one in Canada other than the indigenous peoples) and their offspring, and the homes of the offspring of their offspring so that the migration history of every family would be recorded for all time to come. To accomplish this, I told myself, it was proper for me to write something that everyone could easily read. An essay would only be destined to enrich the bookshelves of a chosen few. On the other hand, a text delimited within the boundaries of history would be restrictive, lacking, as it were, the indispensable element required to bring each individual closer to his or her own experience.

While I continued to accumulate research material and pen my first notes, the idea of presenting this research in its present form took root. I decided that this was going to be an historical account pieced together with events that would allow me to narrate the history of those who sometimes for well defined reasons, oftentimes without a precise motivation decided to abandon long and deep roots and undertake the epic journey across the Atlantic in search of what they hoped would be a new and better life.

The result is this narrated work, between essay and history, that I wish to dedicate, with love, to the Pier 21 of Halifax , Nova Scotia, Canada, the other door to America, and to all those who have had the courage, and the fortune, to go through it.

Pietro Corsi

Photo 1: Pier 21, 1930s

(Courtesy: National Archives of Canada)

Photo 2: Pier 21 today

(Courtesy: Pier 21 Society)

Photo 3: The Olympia

Photo 4: Red Cross Workers

(Courtesy: Halifax Port Authority).

Photo 5: Immigrant Interview

(Photo by Ken Elliot, courtesy of Pier 21 Society)

Photo 6: Customs Inspection

(Photo by Ken Elliot, courtesy of Pier 21 Society)