Los Angeles / California
Have your dreams faltered? Here’s the experience of an Italian immigrant who made his project underground.
Forestieri had the idea to turn his own place into a Mediterranean-style resort where he would welcome visitors.
Many face the trauma of failing to realize their dreams, and despite taking measures and studying plans, they face the obstacles of habits, lack of money, and perhaps living in a country that does not offer the right opportunities, but only a few who manage to overcome the pitfalls and do not suffer from crying over the ruins of failure.
Italian forrestieri (1879-1946) was born in Sicily, Italy to a farmer father who owned citrus gardens, and the son grew up loving his father’s profession, and he wanted to own land one day to grow whatever he wanted, but his father refused, it was their custom that the eldest son would inherit the land and work for his younger brothers.
Forestieri Jr. (then 22 years old) did not accept this, but he did not have enough money to buy his own land, and because his primary dream was not possible under his father, the young man thought of a plan to bring him closer to that dream.
Working in the tunnels of New York in the United States was rewarding compared to the work of Agriculture and horticulture, so forrestieri with an adventurous spirit boarded a ship, and worked in the tunnels for years until he was able to provide what he thought was enough to buy land where oranges were grown as he liked; he looked for the best climate in America to
He kept asking until he learned of the city of Fresno (Northern California) where he could buy a large area of land, so he traveled to it and brought his hand tools to start processing the land and his dream almost ended here.
The surface layer of the Earth was pottery not suitable for agriculture, so after spending all his money to do what his family left and gone years to avoid; work wage in land owned by others, and then return to live in the small house that he built for himself in his land.
When summer came and the Fresno heat that could reach the high 40s, forrestieri thought of an idea outside the box, digging a small room underground to take cover from the intense heat; he spent the day and stayed at home, until he wondered: “why not dig more space?”He did not realize then that this question would change his life.
Forrestieri recalled his experience in tunneling with his fondness for the engineering of Roman underground cemeteries. In early 1906, the Italian immigrant began his dream of turning 10 acres of hopelessly dry land into a network of underground corridors, rooms and gardens only on his own, using only a shovel and hand tools
Forestiere designed What are today known as Forestiere Underground Gardens with the ingenuity and engineering skill that earned him the title of “visionary”, and his project-which can be considered an open – air museum-was included in the list of California’s historic areas that visitors from all over the world receive.
Forrestieri then came up with the idea to turn his own place into a Mediterranean-style resort, where he would welcome visitors, and he continued to work, create, beautify, excavate and build 40 years, from 1906 until his death in 1946, with a depth of 25 feet, and built 65 rooms, the result of which was a masterpiece that takes the
Distinctive prints
Forrestieri built a bedroom for the winter and another for the summer, and made in one of them a window from which he sees the next and no one reveals him, he also allocated a pond for fish and every period he brings live fish to live and multiply and eat them so he does not need to leave his land to look for food.
Faced with the problem of the need of planting water and sunlight, he dug a well to water them, and made on top of the trees he planted craters to reach the sun’s Rays. To maintain moderate heat, he placed pieces of glass over the nozzles, removing them if he wanted to enter the outside air and placing them if he wanted to prevent it. Finally he planted the Orange and lemon trees that he dreamed of, and with his experience he made a tree from them bear fruit 7 different types of lemons and oranges. The trees he planted reached 20 species, many of which are still fruitful more than 100 years later.
As we learn from Baldassare Forestieri positive lessons in continuity, we must learn from his mistakes when we stop; he kept working until his life was over and did not open the resort he wanted. True, it was not his original goal but it was possible. And here we wonder: if his father had given him part of his land, would we have heard of it? Were we learn for a man whenever she appeared in front of him difficulty found no solution, the plan failed to find him a replacement fits any circumstances, even ended up achieving what is better than a dream regular who started it?
Today, members of the Forestieri family manage the gardens open to visitors, which have immortalized their name and left an inspiring trail for everyone encountered by road stumbles. It is possible that the dream will not come true as we want it to, but we should not be afraid to twist it and develop it, we may end up with what is left.