In 1898 the first of seven brothers from Sant’Elia, Sicily arrived on the shores of an almost unrecognizable San Francisco. Growing up just outside of Palermo in a small fishing village, living off of the sea was a part of life and lessons learned on that rocky outpost served the family well in this developing metropolis. Determined to be successful in this land of opportunity the brothers quickly got to work. By 1910 our patriarch, Frank Alioto, arrived and fell in line with his other family members to help build the west coast fishing industry. With names like Alioto, Balistreri, Bellanti, Caito, Cefalu, Colla, Gumina, Lazio, Mercurio, Messina, Russo and Tarantino these Sicilian immigrants through hard work and determination cut out a life for themselves as they plied the bountiful local waters. By 1921 they had organized all the individual families into the West Coast Trawling Association which controlled all the seafood production on the west coast of the Americas.