I TELL YOU A STORY...
Pasquale Doreali was a simple man, born and raised among the vineyards and olive trees in the hills of southern Italy. In the early 1900s, his family, like so many others, lived from farming. Pasquale was a hopeful young man, but times were difficult. The land did not give as much as it once did, and poverty was a constant presence. The stories that were coming from America, the land of opportunity, began to break through to his heart. So, in 1910, he decided it was time to leave.
He left his village with a lump in his throat, knowing that he might never see those places again. He boarded a ship bound for the United States, his third-class ticket clutched in his hands . He was traveling with his wife and their two young children, crammed with hundreds of others in the cargo hold, amid the smell of salt spray, the incessant sound of waves and the shaking of steam engines.
Arriving at Ellis Island, Pasquale and his family spent endless hours going through checks and formalities. Finally, with a sigh of relief, they were admitted to that promised land. They settled in a small Italian immigrant community in a Midwestern town where there was no shortage of work in the fields.
Pasquale returned to what he knew best: tilling the soil. But he soon realized that his talent was not only in tending plants. One day, while transporting fruit picked in the fields, he realized that the crates he was using were flimsy and unsuitable. So he decided to build sturdier ones out of salvaged wood he could find.
The boxes Pasquale made were as solid as they were beautiful. Before long, merchants began to notice that these boxes attracted more attention than their contents. Word spread, and soon he was receiving requests not only from local merchants but also from merchants in other towns. Pasquale began to devote himself more and more to woodworking, making not only boxes but furniture and furnishings that reflected his care and craftsmanship.
Success did not take long to arrive, his wooden creations became sought after, thanks to their design and unmistakable style, and his small workshop turned into a true artisanal enterprise , the "Doreali Studio" Don Pasquale not only guaranteed his family a dignified life, but also helped create jobs for many other people . Yet despite his success and new life, the call of his homeland never left him.
After years of hard work and prosperity, Don Pasquale felt it was time to return. He wished to make his children well acquainted with the land he had left so many years before, and in his heart he knew that it was where he wanted to spend the rest of his days.
He sold the business , returned to Italy, and settled in Rome ,here he resumed woodworking by founding "Doreali Studio Roma" but with a different, more serene spirit. He had managed to build a new life in America, but he had returned to where it all began, taking with him a piece of that dream he had realized overseas.Don Pasquale Doreali became a local legend, the man who had found his fortune in America and, with a heart full of gratitude, had returned to his roots.