Rosario Castronovo grew up without much in the way of cultural identity, but he clung to his mother’s story that she had Sicilian heritage. At 21, when he decided to legally change his name to distance himself from a father he describes as abusive, he chose Italian first and last names in a nod to his mother’s culture.

He’d heard “Castronovo” meant “new castle,” and that’s what he believed he was building—a new life, a new identity. Nobody in his family stopped him, though he’d later learn that many of them knew this was a fable.