“Most of us are from the north, Genoa specifically, but more are coming in from the south. They’ll soon outnumber us.”

“Why so many?” I asked.

“The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which controls the lower half of the peninsula, is ruled by an absolute monarchy,” Anzani explained.

“We had such high hopes for the king when he ascended to the throne,” José interjected. “He cut taxes for the poor, gave amnesty to his father’s political prisoners. The Carbonari thought this was a monarch who could unite our country. A true leader. Then it all went wrong.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“King Ferdinand believes that he has divine right to rule the country. He even backed his sister’s usurper in Spain all because she wanted her people to have a constitution,” José explained.

“The king has gotten worse,” Anzani said. “He’s created a special peacekeeping force.”

José went rigid. “A peacekeeping force? What for?”

“I’ve heard there was a protest in Sicily, almost everyone came out for it. The people wanted a constitution. He sent his soldiers in to break it up. You can imagine what violent ends the demonstrators met.”

“So that’s why there is an influx of Sicilian immigrants,” José said, as much to himself as to us.

“Not just to Uruguay, all over the Americas. It’s safer for them to take a chance emigrating than to stay in the fatherland. If the peace force doesn’t kill them, the outbreak of cholera will.”

I blanched at the thought of the disease, which had yet to reach its deadly fingers into South America, though I had heard of it. A disease where you were dying of thirst no matter how much you drank. Where your body tried to expel every last ounce of fluid. It left people dead within hours. No wonder the Sicilians were seeking safety on foreign shores.

Luisa Anzani floated into the house on a jasmine breeze. She was a tall, stately woman with light brown hair that was twisted up in a simple knot. She set her basket down with a sigh. “The market didn’t have any of the fish you like, my love, so I got something else. The fishmonger said it should taste the same.” She stopped short. “And I see that we have company.” She turned to her husband crossly. “And that you have put them to work. Where are your manners?”

Anzani jumped up from the table, rattling off a string of words in Italian that I had a hard time following. Luisa nodded, looking faintly amused. “Well, if it isn’t too much trouble, husband, why don’t you take Senhor Garibaldi to settle in while I get to know my new friend Senhora Garibaldi?”