Carlo DeVito had spent his entire life in the suburbs of St. Louis. “The Hill,” to be exact, the neighborhood with a concentration of Italian-American families whose traditions and culture harkened back to the world of southern Italy.
His family was certainly Americanized, but some habits remained. His father made his own wine together with other families on The Hill, and his mother preferred to fill her ample dinner table with dishes that were based on Italian ingredients and recipes. But Carlo had been born in America, just like his brother and sister, and he clung to the culture and habits of those less-Italian classmates of his.
Still, the challenge of reconciling his native culture with America remained an intrigue for him. He was quieter and a more pensive than his siblings when he
