Royal Oil

The story starts in Calabria where the Filice family were peasants, sharecroppers, working in the fields and tending to farmyard animals.  At age 15, speaking only Italian and with very little money and possessions, Gennaro left his family and country and headed to the new World to build a better life.  New York to Canada to Gilroy. Through incredible hard work at whatever jobs he could secure, he helped bring his family to California and built a successful canning company, Filice & Perrelli, that survived prejudice, fires, the Depression, WW1 and WW2. The Molfiino family were small farmers in Strathmore, California (2 hours 1 minute due East from Paso Robles).  They grew grapes and other fruits, lived in a pink house, worked very hard and lived very modestly.