Domenico
Galleano was born October 17, 1888 in Maglaino Alpi, a village between
Genoa and Torino in the Cuneo Region of Piedmonte in the Alps of northern
Italy. Because of the economic depression and the political climate
in his beloved Italy he and his family, including his wife and brothers,
emigrated to the United States in 1913. He came with the knowledge
learned from generations of winegrowers and dreamed of continuing
his family’s tradition in the new world.
They settled
in Los Angeles, where a son, Bernard “Nino” was born.
Domenico and his brothers, Angelo and John, worked hard and prospered,
investing in several small parcels of real estate. In 1927, Domenico
and Lucia, having added a daughter, Madalenna purchased 160 acres
of good Mira Loma farmland from the Cantu family.
The ranch consisted
of a two-story house, built in the late 1890’s, a large barn,
smaller out buildings and a vineyard, most of which remain today.
Domenico’s brothers, Angelo and John, continued to farm the
Bonita Ranch.
The vineyards
prospered under the direction and hard work of Domenico. Using a mule
team and a Fresno earth scraper, he expanded the vineyard, burying
the vine cuttings and other scrap vegetation in the hollows carved
by the wind and then having the mules drag a covering of sand from
the dunes. Domenico Galleano contributed a lasting legacy of soil
preservation with the invention of the Noble Blade and the co-founding
of the West End Resource Conservation District.
Domenico cared
for his family, tended his fields and made wine all the rest of his
life at the winery on Wineville Road. He guided his family through
the Great Depression, Prohibition and the Great Recession. Friends
and family members remember the hospitality that waited for them all
as they met at the ranch during those times. The ranch was again a
safe haven, a place to seek refuge, a place to renew the spirit.
Esteban Cantu and Domenico Galleano had many common threads; conviction,
honesty, integrity and inner strength. Each man was dedicated to his
family, country and chosen way of life.
The Cantu-Galleano
ranch is a story of two men. One young man involved in the Mexican
Revolution seeking a safe haven for his family and continued with
another young man seeking a better standard of living, fleeing the
economic depression of Italy’s Piedmont Region. The former became
a great statesman and governor of Baja California Norte; the latter
would live 95 years to see his dream passed on to his son and grandson.
