The Underground Gardens (Historical Context)

Historical Context

Immigration from Italy in the Late 1800s and Early 1900s

In the story, Baldasare moves to California in 1905, after having emigrated to America from Italy several years before. He was not alone. The last two decades of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth witnessed America's biggest period of Italian immigration. The Italians had powerful reasons to leave their homeland. In 1870, following the conquest of Rome and the unification of Italy into one state, many Italians experienced a crushing poverty, brought on by political chaos, overpopulation, and an overabundance of agricultural products that caused a massive deflation in the market. Seeking a better life, many Italians emigrated to other countries. "By the end of the century more than 5.3 million Italians of all ages had emigrated, nearly half a million more than Italy's population growth up to that point," Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale note in their book La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience.

Besides poverty, some Italians left home because their opportunities in Italy were limited. In the story, Baldasare realizes that he will never be successful in Italy, because he is not the eldest son. Mangione and Morreale note this trend: "It was the eldest who took charge of the family in the event of the father's death and who became the chief beneficiary of whatever properties the family had." Unfortunately, many Italians left a bad situation to come into a worse one. Many of the immigrants were illiterate, and were too trusting, making them ripe targets for hucksters that only wanted to steal their money by offering to find the immigrants a job or a place to live, and never delivering on either promise. Or, these charlatans worked as agents for employers who sought cheap labor. In some cases, the employer rigged it so that the immigrant owed money for lodgings or work supplies, and made sure that the immigrant's salary was never enough to cover these expenses, thus making the immigrant a type of indentured servant. Since many, like Baldasare in the story, did not read or write English, they had little recourse to defend themselves in situations such as these. Mangione and Morreale note: "In 1885, in an effort to protect foreign workers from unscrupulous hiring agents, Congress enacted the contract labor laws that made it illegal to recruit immigrants before they reached the United States."

Baldasare Forestiere

Boyle's story features a character named Baldasare Forestiere, who is modeled on an actual Italian American immigrant who came to Fresno, California in the early 1900s. Forestiere's life is shrouded in mystery, and not all of the details are known, or agreed upon. For example, while Boyle's story has Forestiere coming to California in 1905, some sources say it was 1904, some put it as late as 1907, and others simply indicate that it was the early 1900s. Likewise, while the story is correct in saying that Forestiere bought the land in Fresno and gave up on the idea of farming because the ground was too hard and infertile, there is some disagreement on how many acres Forestiere actually bought. Some say seventy acres, as it is in Boyle's story, while others put the number as low as ten — the size of the modern-day Forestiere Underground Gardens, a tourist attraction run by Forestiere's heirs that is registered with the National Register of Historic Places. Most sources agree that Forestiere dug his gardens over a period of about four decades, but not everybody gives the same reason as to why he started in the first place. Some say that Forestiere, like Boyle's character, began the project to escape the weather. But Boyle's story deviates from most accounts, which say that it was extreme heat — not torrential rains — that caused Forestiere to seek underground shelter. According to one legend that has sprung up around the gardens, Forestiere began digging the gardens in an effort to win the love of a woman. This, in fact, may have helped spark Boyle's story and the character of Ariadne. Of course, the only thing that can be certain of is that Forestiere left a unique and massive structure as his legacy, which one can still visit as of 2004.

Compare & Contrast

• 1900s: Although the population shift caused by California's 1849 Gold Rush has slowed, immigrants of all ethnicities continue to come to California, attracted by the promise of land or work.
  Today: More than 30 percent of all foreign-born people in the United States live in California. Since California is a Mexican border state, one of the continuing concerns is the flood of illegal immigration from Mexico. The dangers of unregulated immigration also becomes a hot topic in all of America following terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, which ignite a war on terrorism and a widespread fear of some foreigners, especially those of Middle Eastern descent.
• 1900s: Following widespread irrigation of the land in the late nineteenth century, California's agricultural output increases. In addition to vineyards — introduced mainly by European settlers in the mid-nineteenth century — the state also boasts many citrus orchards, such as those for oranges and lemons.
  Today: California grows more than 50 percent of all fruits and vegetables marketed in the United States, and produces more than 90 percent of all domestic wines. The state also produces several specialty crops, including artichokes, avocados, dates, kiwifruit, olives, prunes, and raisins.
• 1900s: As America's population grows and urban areas expand, cities build subways and other forms of mass transportation, greatly enhancing the modern infrastructure.
  Today: Following the digital revolution of the late twentieth century, fiber optic cables and other forms of modern infrastructure — designed to transport large amounts of data at high speeds — are installed underground and in various buildings in both urban and suburban areas.