L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 24 L'Italo-Americano t h e h i s t o r y o f I t a l i a n migrants' communities, as he tells us: "As a resear- cher and documentarist, I worked a lot on migration, e s p e c i a l l y o n t h a t o f Moroccans and Albanians to Italy. Then, about ten years ago, I began resear- ching Italian immigration: I wanted to speak about the migratory experience from a different perspective, I wanted to find and preser- ve a memory in danger of disappearing. " I w a s i m m e d i a t e l y drawn to Italian migration to the US, one of the main d e s t i n a t i o n s o f I t a l y ' s migratory flux. Initially, I wanted to focus on a speci- fic Italian community, that of Trentini, in New York: it was 2009 when the project moved its first steps in the Big Apple and that expe- rience was to be fundamen- tal for the development of the idea, because I realized how strong and strongly c o n n e c t e d t h e T r e n t i n o community in the US still was. " From there to extending research and interviews to all the other Trentino com- munities in the US the step was short. Research went on for the good part of 9 years and came to an end in 2018, with more than 160 interviews and testi- monies collected. All this wouldn't have been possi- ble without the support and collaboration of the Fondazione del Museo Storico del Trentino, with which Mancuso had collaborated priorly and which was interested in his idea immediately. Continuing our chat, we asked Vincenzo what he d i s c o v e r e d a b o u t t h e Trentino community in the US while working on the p r o j e c t : " T i e s w i t h t h e region of Trentino, with one's valley and village are strong, as it happens for all I t a l i a n c o m m u n i t i e s abroad. The connection the Trentino community feels with its ancestral land and families is incredibly alive, even when many genera- t i o n s h a v e p a s s e d . " H e then explains better the n a t u r e a n d h i s t o r y o f migration from Trentino, telling us "there are two types of migration from the region: people who came to t h e U S b e f o r e t h e F i r s t World War and those who came after it, often thanks t o t h e f a c t o n e o f t h e i r p a r e n t s w a s b o r n i n t h e States. This aspect really made a difference because, u p u n t i l t h e e n d o f t h e Great War, Trentino was p a r t o f t h e A u s t r o - Hungarian Empire, which m e a n t t h a t T r e n t i n i , i n spite of being Italians, tra- veled with an Austrian pas- sport. This is a particularly important element in some of the oldest Trentino com- munities in the US, which naturally call themselves 'Tyrolese.' In Solvay (NY), for instance, the historical T r e n t i n o c l u b i s c a l l e d Tyrol Club" It's interesting how this c u l t u r a l a n d l i n g u i s t i c a s p e c t e m e r g e d a l s o i n Vincenzo's research, espe- cially in relation to dialect: " I m e t p e o p l e w h o w e r e born and bred in the US but c o u l d p e r f e c t l y s p e a k Trentino's dialect, but knew n o I t a l i a n . T h e y u s e d t o s p e a k d i a l e c t w i t h t h e i r p a r e n t s , o r e v e n t h e i r g r a n d p a r e n t s . Interestingly, theirs is a language crystalized in the past, with term no longer used in Trentino." Indeed, a similar consideration could b e m a d e e v e n f o r American-English, whose v o c a b u l a r y p r e s e n t s a t times archaic words no lon- ger in use in England: one e x a m p l e a b o v e a l l , t h e word "Fall," which is much o l d e r t h a n t h e B r i t i s h - English "Autumn," of clear French origin. T o d a y , w o r k o n t h e project goes on, with the aim of keeping alive and passing on to the next gene- ration a wealth of memo- ries, stories and traditions. This is particularly impor- tant because, if not preser- ved somehow, it could all be forgotten: "If no one in a f a m i l y i s d e d i c a t e d t o k e e p p h o t o g r a p h s a n d anecdotes, everything could easily go lost, " Vincenzo specifies, and this is why " a new project, a portal dedi- c a t e d t o a l l I t a l i a n - American communities and their heritage was born. It's called italoamericani. org, and it'll start collec- ting material in 2021. It'll focus on private photos and films — think of those old super 8 movies — with the aim of becoming an online a r c h i v e t o p r e s e r v e a n d share Italian-Americans' memories and history." V i n c e n z o M a n c u s o ' s project is in full swing and, w h i l e r e s e a r c h h a s b e e n completed, there is still plenty to do to finalize it into the shape and form of the movie its creator has e n v i s a g e d , T r e n t i n i A m e r i c a n i : r e c o l l e c - tions of a journey. "It's a j o u r n e y t h r o u g h t h e m e m o r y o f T r e n t i n i ' s migration — and Italian migration — to the US, " he says. If you want, you can con- tribute with a donation by visiting the project's websi- te, trentiniamericani. org. "Thanks to the genero- sity of the Trentini com- munity, 50% of the budget necessary for the editing a n d c o m p l e t i o n o f t h e movie has been reached," Mancuso explains, "and if we manage to achieve our goal by next month, we'll be able to wrap work up this Fall and present the docu- mentary to the public in the Spring. LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Gerald Swanson Dallavalle and Michael Yaccino Silverton pose in front of commemorative stone for the Trentino-American community (Photo: Archivio DocumentaFilm/Vincenzo Mancuso) Continued from page 22

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