We are collecting testimonies from descendants of Italians who tell us the story of their family, from the painful departure for distant lands until today. Stories that are sometimes beautiful and other times very painful, but all of them are incredibly moving.
The story sent by Angela Plateroti
I decided to tell the story of my grandmother Angela, an extraordinary woman born in Acquappesa, in the province of Cosenza, back in 1900. Since she was a girl she worked in the fields with her mother, a woman of great strength and altruism who helped the women of the village give birth.
Grandma Angela was proud of that mission, and often told me, in her sweet Calabrese dialect:
“I helped to venerate many cuatrarielli au munnu” —I have helped many children come into the world.
Those words filled me with pride and admiration.
A Love Welded in the Storm
After the end of the First World War, she fell in love with Giuseppe. They married in 1918, and two years later their first daughter was born. In 1923 their second daughter, my mother, arrived. Those were very difficult years, full of poverty and uncertainty. So, in 1925, my grandfather made a very hard decision: to leave for Argentina, in search of a better future, leaving his young family in Italy.
A Mother's Strength
My grandmother, pregnant with her third child, continued to work hard. During the olive harvest, she carried on with her pregnancy with courage. After the birth of her last child, she got up every day at four in the morning, walked sixteen kilometers to the port of Paola to buy fish, which she then resold in the nearby villages.
Thus they passed 24 long years of sacrifices, raising children alone, and the pain of her husband's absence — all this while also experiencing the drama of the Second World War.
The Reunion
My grandfather, a bricklayer in Argentina, sent what little he could. My grandmother, with the determination of a lioness, saved every penny, dreaming of the day she could reunite her family.
When their first daughter got married and had two little girls, and when my mother and my uncle - now adults - expressed the desire to finally meet their father, grandmother Angela made the most painful decision of her life: to temporarily leave a daughter and two granddaughters in Italy to join the man who had waited for 25 years.
The First Hug
My mother was 27, my uncle 25. It was the first time who saw their father's face. A story like many others, broken by distance, by war, by necessity. But also a story of unshakable love, of silent strength, and of a woman who was able to hold together the pieces of her family with dignity and hope.
We sincerely thank Angela Plateroti for telling us this wonderful story, and we invite you to send more, because these testimonies deserve to have the right attention.
If you also want to tell your stories and participate in keeping wonderful memories alive, click here: Tell your story
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