The Book
The Cardboard Suitcase - La valigia di cartone
The Cardboard Suitcase - La valigia di cartone
This volume represents the result of years of genealogical and historical research dedicated to emigration from Pignataro Interamna. A passionate work that has brought to light hundreds of family stories, archival documents, and vintage photographs.
The title evokes the most common image of Italian emigration: that cardboard suitcase with which millions of Italians crossed oceans and borders, carrying few objects but infinite dreams.
The book contains family stories, vintage photographs, historical documents, and testimonies that tell the story of emigration from Pignataro Interamna to Australia, Brazil, Argentina, United States, France, Switzerland, and other countries around the world.
The emigrant's experience is a crucible of emotions difficult to narrate. On those cheerful and seemingly happy faces inevitably lies a veil of sadness. The sadness of those who have a different past, time, and place now distant, but never truly forgotten. Some make their fortune, some less so, some return. The story of those who leave, but also the story of those who remain, who stay to ensure a safe place to return to, where we will always be welcomed and found again.
In my community, I have carved out the role of someone who, through photographic images, tries to rescue People, Stories, Experiences from oblivion. The migratory experience cannot be reduced to a cardboard suitcase: it represents an extraordinary moment of courage, sacrifice, and adventure to improve one's conditions and those of family members left behind in Italy.
The book is available for free in PDF format. Download it to discover the history of emigration from Pignataro Interamna.
Format: PDF | Language: English
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