On November 1, 1895, All Saints Day, a solemn mass was held at the Church in Valli del Pasubio in northern Italy, to celebrate the departure of an optimistic group of local families as they prepared to immigrate to the Sunnyside cotton plantation in Arkansas. The service and communion were supervised by the parish priest, Father Antonius Cenzon, with a blessing read from Pope Leo XIII.
“The blessing asks the Lord to protect you and to make you prosper in body and soul in all your needs.”

Soon these future Americans would board a train at Vicenza for a ship that would take them to New Orleans, and up the Mississippi River to Lake Village. This is a beautiful location, surrounded by the rocky peaks of the Dolomite Mountains, but the economy was shaky and inconsistent here in those days. And there were tales of prosperity in America where it was said, “the streets are paved with gold.” The promise to own land was seductive, and so they left for a new world across the seas. Sadly, they would not prosper, at least not immediately.

Here are some scenes from our filming at the very church and region where faithful and courageous travelers left their homes and families, hoping and praying for a land of opportunity.