How Jill Biden could lead the recovery of a Sicilian village: ancestral home hopes for tourist revival with White House connection
- Jill Biden will be the first Italian-American first lady in US history; her great-grandfather emigrated from southern Italy in 1900
- Her ancestral home, the Sicilian village of Gesso, is gearing up to cash in on its political connection through tourism
Excitement has rippled through a small settlement in Sicily, southern Italy, with the news that Jill Jacobs Biden, a descendant of an immigrant from the village, is almost certain to become the first Italian-American US first lady.
Local amateur historian Antonio Federico says Jill Biden’s Italian great-grandfather was a native of the village of Gesso in Messina, in northeast Sicily, and emigrated to the United States in 1900, where he changed his family’s surname from Giacoppo to the more American-sounding “Jacobs”.
“Finally we have good news that makes us rejoice: Biden’s victory is a great event, it gives us something positive and exciting to chat about and a road map for the future,” says Federico, who spent 10 years researching Jill Biden’s family tree.
More than a century later, the Sicilian village of 500 or so residents finds itself on the world stage. Television reporters invade Gesso’s narrow alleys and town square, chasing after any of Jill Biden’s distant relatives, while tour operators are already working on special events and tailored trips linked to her family’s history.
When older residents lean from balcony windows to gossip, and friends meet in local cafes, they chat about the “latest breaking news”, seen as an epic event. In such a tight-knit community, where it’s quicker to knock on the neighbour’s door than use the phone, Biden’s looming victory is seen as a turning point in Gesso’s history.
