The ANNOTICO Report

I never get tired of reading about Italian American Success Stories.

It helps offset the flood of Mobster stories that while about a thin sliver of our community seems to  get ALL the attention.
 

News Times
Danbury CT
By Donna Christopher
August 12, 2005
 

At the turn of the last century, green grocers lined city sidewalks, and it was often immigrants who ran the small grocery businesses, supplying neighborhoods with fruits and vegetables on stands and carts.
By 1900, Giovanni Esposito, who had arrived in the U.S. in 1885 from Naples, had already expanded his business to include about 15 produce carts in the Bronx, including two stalls in the terminal market at Hunt's Point.
Later, Esposito, a builder and a banker in Italy, built houses in the Bronx and started his own mortgage business.
His son, Thomas Esposito, who became an attorney, later ran the family mortgage business for decades. Today it is Thomas' grandson, John Esposito, also an attorney, and John's sons, Thomas, Alfred and John Jr., keeping the family mortgage legacy alive. They formerly ran Wilkinson Realty & Mortgage in New York and established Bentley Mortgage in Danbury in 1998.
The company recently added a Bethel arm to Bentley, with Anthony Cecera as mortgage consultant.
"My great-grandfather gave his first mortgage in 1900 to an Italian-American immigrant," said Thomas, tracing the family business from his Danbury office recently.
Back then, he said, "People had few places to get a loan. They would go to the family attorney. Like many immigrants (my great-grandfather) worked hard and started his first fruit and vegetable cart. When he was building homes in the Bronx and the clientele were Irish- and Italian-Americans, mortgage money was not accessible. Without money available to the public, he helped finance loans and became an early day mortgage broker. He would give, for example, $3,000 loans, with maybe $600 down, at low interest."
People needing mortgages have many different options today, said John Sr.
Rather than go directly to an attorney, they shop for their own mortgages and are savvy when it comes to selecting a Realtor to shop for houses.

Part of what his company does is help educate customers. It has an educational Web site that gives information on the home-buying process, and it takes pride in meeting with and establishing a good rapport with customers.
The company, John said, helps facilitate these connections by having mortgage consultants like Cecera, a Bethel resident, who actually live in the towns where they do business.
Financing is one of the most important decisions when it comes to buying a home, John said.
"The greatest wealth the average person has is accumulated equity in their house over a lifetime. We've always been about people becoming homeowners and attaining the American dream."
It was very different a century ago when Giovanni provided the financing. Today, there are many loan sources, and Bentley works with about 150 originators throughout the country.
It is the idea of generating business within communities that carries on the ideal of Giovanni's business today.
Cecera has worked on both sides of the mortgage business — he was an originator all over Connecticut and in parts of New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, before joining the Danbury company.
In Bethel, where he lives with his family, Cecera belongs to the Knights of Columbus through St. Mary's Church and is a well-known fixture at Knights events, including a holiday party, popular with the residents, at Bishop Curtis Homes.
Not unlike Giovanni's, whose early clients lived in the same Bronx neighborhood, Cecera runs into the people he sells mortgages to on a regular basis.
It's what builds trust, he said.

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