Marginal Man

A nineteen-year-old boy made a promise to his eighty-three-year old grandfather. He would write a book about his life, finally setting the record straight. Fifty-five years later, it's done. This is that book, and I was that boy. I imagined it would be a tribute to the man I loved - something like the letter our family received eight months after my grandfather died in 1979. It was from the University of Toronto Council of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, expressing their condolences and deep regrets. Here is part of what they had to say: "Professor Goggio was very active in the Italian cultural life of Toronto. He also supported with enthusiasm the activities of the University's Italian and Spanish Clubs. He was a prime example of the professor with wide interests ... the kind of figure that is so desirable today." It is ironic to read these words after his death, knowing how undesirable he was to many during his early career. My grandfather put himself squarely on the wrong side of pre-war politics in the years before Italy's invasion of Africa. His multicultural values and beliefs may have been ahead of their time, but they landed him in jail as an enemy alien in Toronto during World War II.