"Tell your story" Aurora and Hernan, two stories of emigration and families from times gone by

Thanks to you, our readers, we're collecting personal stories about Italian emigration in the past centuries, especially to the Americas. Today we're sharing two stories sent to us by Aurora Marino e Hernan Candelero, which we thank.

Two stories that help us understand the strong bond between Italy and South America, while also introducing us to the customs of times gone by.

Aurora's family history

My father arrived in Argentina alone in 1913. He was born in 1899 in Calabria.
He said that at the beginning of the century, in Marina di Schiavonea, there was nothing to eat. To help his mother and brothers, he decided to come here, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. He took on every job possible just to survive.

The years passed quickly, and after many sacrifices, when he finally got a house, he wanted to start a family. Through some relatives, he learned that my mother (the Manganos' daughter) was still single. So the time came for them to get to know each other: as was common in the 50s, they exchanged photographs by mail.

My mother initially didn't want to leave, but the postwar situation in the South wasn't easy, and they eventually married by proxy. She arrived on December 30, 1950, after a fifty-day voyage on an old ship.

And then… we were born, my brother and I. But that's another story.

The History of Hernan's Family

My great-grandfather was born in 1877, in Frazione Campagnino 2, in the municipality of Carignano, in the province of Turin. My great-great-grandparents, Giovanni and Antonia Maria Manfredi, rented a field there. From there, along with all their children, they left for Argentina in 1878.

They first arrived in the province of Santa Fe, in the town of Felicia, near Nuevo Torino. Having settled there, after several years of working on land granted by the Argentine state, they managed to save enough money to purchase agricultural land in an area where colonization was just beginning: Porteña, in the province of Córdoba.

My family put down permanent roots there.
I am proudly Argentine Piedmontese.

Thank you for sharing these details of your lives. If anyone would like to share their family history, you can do so at this link: https://www.italiani.it/racconta-la-storia-della-tua-famiglia-italiana/