Frank Capra was an Immigrant: A Personal Story that Resonates Today

We are in an urgent crisis. In spite of all our wealth and resources, we are not able to adequately help “people with no greater designs than the pursuit of happiness.” With this phrase, Jason Farago concludes his review: Iñárritu’s ‘Carne y Arena’ Virtual Reality Simulates a Harrowing Border Trek. 

 

Carne y Arena [Flesh and Sand] is the first official entry virtual-reality installation at the Cannes Film Festival.  This technically ground-breaking film was conceived after several years of work by multiple Academy Award winners Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. 

 

The immigration issues highlighted through Carne y Arena urges me today to comment on the life of an older Hollywood Icon: Frank Russell Capra.

Capra was born Francesco Rosario Capra. He was an immigrant and his story is important, especially now. He was born in Sicily, that large Mediterranean island that seems to fly off Italy’s boot tip. He was born three decades after Sicily had been annexed as part of Italy’s unification process. This “process” left many in the newly forged country facing poverty and hunger, so they fled to a country that offered a better life, hope, and possibilities.

 

Capra’s family embarked from Palermo, Sicily on May 10th and arrived in New York City on May 23rd, 1903. Little Francesco turned 6 on the Atlantic crossing, and I’m specifically not writing “celebrated his 6th birthday” because the crossing in SS Germania‘s steerage remained a scarring childhood memory for him. After that nightmare, Capra’s family traveled on a train across the nation to California where Capra grew up, apparently discriminated even by his school classmates because of his immigrant roots. But Capra kept going and decided to attend university against his family’s wishes. He studied science and engineering at Throop College of Technology, now the California Institute of Technology.

 

When my students first watch It’s a Wonderful Life and hear about Capra’s life story, they hear bells. It’s a little like Zuzu connecting the dots in the film’s final scene: “Teacher says, Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”  What my students “get” from Capra’s story is that their future abounds in possibilities. I teach creative writing and film at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez where we mold highly-sought-after engineers and scientists. Many are in these fields because they love it. But some are here because they’ve been taught by their families to be practical and study something that will, with a degree of certainty, earn them a good living. These feelings are reflected in comments like those of one of my students, Juan Plaza Otero, who wrote:

 

“I found it interesting, the fact that he [Capra], having a Chemical Engineering degree, a career related to science and mathematics, decided to pursue a career related to the arts… As a future engineer, this makes me think that my future is not necessarily arranged yet.”

 

Definitely, Capra’s story, from his humble beginnings to his successes in the film industry, serves as an example to my students of perseverance and self-determination. And, by the way, they very much enjoy It’s a Wonderful Life, especially the high school dance scene where even the professor, Mr. Partridge (played by Harry Holman at the age of 84), dives into the pool. That’s when my students laugh out loud and when I know Capra has worked his magic one more time.

 

I understand that after Joseph McBride’s research into Capra’s life and the publication of his book Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success (1992), we still admire Capra’s films, especially his directing and work with actors, but view the man himself in a different light. You can listen to McBride give a talk about Capra here. 

 

But I say, in the midst of the present crisis and debates surrounding immigration issues, let’s remember the innocent boy, a kind of DREAMER: Little Francesco who was brought to the United States of America by a family in search of a better life and possibilities. The boy who became one of Hollywood’s greatest story-tellers and gave hope to millions of Americans during the Great Depression.

 

Francesco Rosario Capra was born in Sicily on May 18, 1897 and became a U.S. citizen in 1920. Thus, he transformed himself into Frank Russell Capra. And this month, the director of American classics, It Happened One Night, Lady for a Day, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It’s a Wonderful Life, would have celebrated his 120th birthday.

 

As Clarence Angel Second Class, perhaps Capra is still working to earn his wings. But take a break, because today, Mr. Capra, my students and I would like to thank you for making us laugh and wish you a Happy Birthday! Tanti auguri, Signore Capra! ¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Sr. Capra!