He lived in a small village called Bova Marina, which was in the province of Reggio Calabria.  “I grew up in Calabria. I grew up not speaking Italian. I spoke Calabrese which I guess is a dialect, but when I went to school I had to learn to speak Italian.”

He studied up to high school(upper secondary education) in Italy. He planned on going to college in Italy,  but his father needed him to work with him as a fisherman instead of pursuing higher education. This ended up being a good thing though, because if he went to college it would have stopped him from coming to America. 

His parents lived in Italy their whole lives. They loved it there, and had no reason to leave. He even said that, “My parents only visited America 3 times in their whole life, the first time they came to visit me it was their first time ever stepping foot on a plane.”

As seen in the picture, his father was a fisherman. "He loved being a fisherman. Until he was 89 he wanted to be out on the boat, and he did. One month before he died of cancer he was out on the boat, no matter what he wanted to be there.” 

Mimmo had 4 siblings, 2 sisters and 2 brothers. His 2 sisters and one of his brothers, (top left in the picture), have lived in Italy their whole lives. His one brother that did come to America ended up selling his restaurant, and moving back to Italy, so Mimmo is now the only member of his family in America. 

He had to serve a year in the military, per country requirements, after high school. After serving in the military, he was a semi-pro soccer player and wanted to see if he could play for a bigger city team instead of coming to America. When that did not work out he made the final decision to come to America.