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[The above photograph was taken with a web camera on May 19, 2005.]
Marisa's parents were both born in Istria, and her ancestry on both
sides is primarily
Istro-Romanian. She left Fiume and Istria - homeland of her ancestors since at least
the 16th century - with her parents and baby sister in April 1947. After
about a week's stay in Silos, a refugee holding station in Trieste,
Italy, they went to live in a bucolic suburb of Genoa where many other
Fiuman and Istrian people also emigrated.
In late September, 1951, after several months of processing in two
additional refugee camps - first Campo Bagnoli near Naples, Italy and
then Camp Lesum in Bremen, Germany - the family crossed the Atlantic Ocean on an American
troop ship and arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA on October 11,
1951, one day before Columbus Day. They then traversed by day train for
nearly three days to reach their final destination: New York City, the
"melting pot of the world".
Marisa lived with her family in Park Slope, Brooklyn (a borough of New
York City) in an Istrian enclave until 1967, then she moved to Astoria,
Queens (also part of New York City) for two years. Her home has been Manhattan, the heart of New York City, since 1969 and
always at the same address on the Upper West Side. In late 1995, her
recently widowed mother, Nina Ciceran, finally left
Park Slope and came to live with her.
Marisa's educational
background is very diversified and, as is the case with many immigrants,
was mostly undertaken as a parttime student while working fulltime. Her
first plateau was an Associate's Degree from Brooklyn College in
Accounting and Business Management - a detour made necessary to become
financially self-sufficient. Next came a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Romance Languages and Art History from Hunter College in 1974, with most
of the coursework completed at Columbia University. This was followed by
enrollment in architectural courses at Columbia University, which then
precipitated a career opportunity in Space Managements at the same
university.
Having previously worked
alongside consultants from the accounting firm of Coopers and Lybrand,
she was instrumental in the installation of a computerized space
management system from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and whose
implementation project she jointly supervised. In the process, she
earned several certificates in Computer Technology and Space Management
from M.I.T., and another from the American Business
Association. In 1982, she set aside her middle-management position at Columbia
University to complete her Masters in Architecture and to pursue a PhD.
With a Generalist
Paralegal Certificate from Adelphi University already in hand,
Marisa capped off her education in 1990-1 with a year of law school, thereby acquiring
more than routine exposure to what is commonly referred to as
"the paper trail"!
Marisa is the "hands-on" owner as
well as the primary creative and technical force behind this
website and its affiliates. |
