For three generations, Sammy Marques’ family was stuck in a sort of revolving door of emigration from Europe to the United States and back again. It started with his grandfather who came to America, then returned to the Azores of his birth because his wife suspected he was having an affair. Sammy’s grandfather eventually left his wife and the Azores and sailed off to Argentina. Sammy’s father Manuel, who’d gotten a taste of America when he was just a boy, longed to return. He jumped ship in New York, was later deported, but then came back to America where his son Sammy was born. They lived in Fall River, and Manuel who had become a Baptist minister, made an announcement at dinner one night that petrified Sammy, who was an American from birth.

For three generations, Sammy Marques’ family was stuck in a sort of revolving door of emigration from Europe to the United States and back again. It started with his grandfather who came to America, then returned to the Azores of his birth because his wife suspected he was having an affair. Sammy’s grandfather eventually left his wife and the Azores and sailed off to Argentina. Sammy’s father Manuel, who’d gotten a taste of America when he was just a boy, longed to return. He jumped ship in New York, was later deported, but then came back to America where his son Sammy was born. They lived in Fall River, and Manuel who had become a Baptist minister, made an announcement at dinner one night that petrified Sammy, who was an American from birth.