Shortly after Joseph DiGiorgio’s arrival in Baltimore, Maryland from New York after immigrating from Cefalu, Sicily in 1888, DiGiorgio used his $5,000 bank loan to establish the Baltimore Fruit Exchange in 1904 at the age of just 21 years old.

Sicily, a mountainous island south of Italy, is one of the Mediterranean Sea’s “most densely populated” islands. Approximately 10,000 years ago, Sicily was inhabited in “8th and 6th centuries BCE” by the Greeks shortly before “a melting pot for a dozen or more ethnic groups whose warriors or merchants sought its shores.”

Italy’s involvement in World War II is often overlooked; however, the devastation that Italy--especially Sicily--suffered was harsh and significant. “Italy became a war zone,” and for over a year, the country faced battles on their land resulting in chaotic, wartorn aftermath.

Although Sicily is governed by valid, permissible authority, the Mafia is a persistent and dangerous governing body that has had a hold over the region for centuries. “It gives certain parts of the island virtually a dual government, standard of conduct, and system of enforcement—one is the legitimate regime and the other a shadow, but a pervasive social, economic, and political network maintaining its powers through violence.”

During the mid-to-late 1900s, fruit farms were the new cash cows of the West. However, these fruit empires were inoperable without the labor of farmworkers who were most often severely underpaid and endured mistreatment including unacceptable work conditions in many cases.