Rick Santorum, Grandson of Italian Coal Miner, Aspires to White House

Conservative Republican says he is all about "faith, family, and freeedom"

January 15, 2012 ~ Political pundits once talked about Rudy Giuliani as the Republican nominee for President. Then they mentioned New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, another Italian American as a potential nominee. In the end, however, it was former Senator Rick Santorum, whose grandfather Pietro had immigrated from Italy to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania, who emerged as a contender for the Republican nomination.

Whether Santorum lands the nomination is still unclear. His highly conservative positions on many controversial issues may be extreme even for some conservatives.Whatever the political outcome, however, Santorum's personal background is a narrative that many immigrants find appealing.

Santorum outlined his immigrant grandfather's story in a speech in Iowa. Santorum said that he started his presidential journey "when I stood on the steps of the county courthouse in Somerset County, Pa. I decided to go there, not the typical place someone announces for president — it's not where I was born, it's not where I ever lived — but it's where my grandfather came, back in 1925."

"He came by himself," Santorum continued, "even though he was married with two children, one of them being my father. He came after having fought in World War I, because Mussolini had been in power now three years, and he had figured out that fascism was something that would crush his spirit and his freedom and give his children (Bruno, Carla and Aldo) something less than he wanted for them.

So he made a sacrifice. He left to the coal fields of southwestern Pennsylvania. He worked in the mine at a company town, got paid with coupons, he used to call them, lived in a shack.

Eventually, he figured out that that was a trip to nowhere...he started to save, and he did. And after five years, he got his citizenship and brought my father over at the age of 7. He ended up continuing to work in those mines until he was 72 years old, digging coal.

I'll never forget the first time I saw someone who had died. It was my grandfather. And I knelt next to his coffin. And all I could do — eye level — was look at his hands. They were enormous hands. And all I could think was that those hands dug freedom for me."

Rick Santorum's father, Aldo, after serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, earned a college degree on the GI bill. He later received a PhD in psychology from Catholic University. He went to work at the Veteran's Administration, where he met Catherine Dughi, also of Italian descent. They were married and had three children. At his father's funeral last year, Rick Santorum said that his father was the cook in the family, making pasta with tomato sauce every Sunday. Santorum said he never enjoyed it growing up that he does now, and loves preparing it for his own six children. 

Source: Voce Italiana, Jan-Feb 2012 at p. 3; Official Photo by Gage Skidmore