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Caulonia in the Heart/Caulonia nel cuore
Daniela Cosmini-Rose and Desmond O'Connor
A history of the settlement in Australia of migrants from Caulonia in southern Italy.
This pioneering study by Adelaide academics Daniela Cosmini-Rose and Des O'Connor charts the migration of people from the economically stuggling town of Caulonia to a new life in Australia. After the Second War, an extended network of families migrated principally to Adelaide in South Australia, but also to Mildura and Shepparton in Victoria, and Perth in Western Australia. The authors chart this story in great detail – there is an extensive database of migration records - while at the same time fleshing out the human story of families resettling, in at times trying conditions, in a strange land. It is a book full of 'heart'.
From the Mayor of Caulonia:
By the 1950s life in Caulonia had become increasingly difficult. Once again emigration was the only solution. These were the years when the Cauloniese left in their thousands with on their lips the early 20th century song ‘Partono i bastimenti’ (Santa Lucia luntana) and in their bag a loaf of bread and the counsel of age-old proverbs such as pani e mantu o mpisanu mai tantu (‘bread and a cloak never weigh you down’). As a result, communities have been established abroad more numerous than in Caulonia itself. Today the largest community is in Adelaide, Australia, where the feast of St Hilarion, patron saint of our town, is celebrated even more successfully than in Caulonia.
Cauloniese-Australians have become the custodians of our culture and traditions, of our identity, more so than here at home. But of one thing the cauloniesi in Australia can be sure: though the world belongs to everyone, there is a little place that the cauloniesi, wherever they happen to be, know they can enter at any time, without asking for permission, a tiny little place lost in a huge world, but which belongs to them as much as to us: Caulonia! It is their far-off home, but like an aged mother it always holds them dear in its heart.
Fino agli anni cinquanta la vita era sempre più difficile a Caulonia e così si capì che ancora una volta bisognava partire. Era il tempo in cui si cantava un’antica canzone ‘Partono i bastimenti’ ed i cauloniesi partirono a migliaia. Qualche pane in un sacco, qualche consiglio dato sotto forma di proverbio per orientarsi in un mondo sconosciuto: pani e mantu o mpisanu mai tantu (‘pane e mantello non pesano mai’). Si formarono così degli insediamenti all’estero più numerosi che a Caulonia stessa. Oggi si può dire che quello più numeroso sia in Australia ad Adelaide, e Sant’Ilario, patrono del Paese, viene festeggiato in questa città con maggiore fervore che a Caulonia.
I cauloniesi australiani sono diventati custodi della nostra civiltà, della nostra identità, più di noi stessi. Tuttavia, i cauloniesi d’Australia debbono avere una certezza: il mondo appartiene a tutti gli uomini, ma c’è un punto dove i cauloniesi, ovunque si trovino, sanno che possono entrare in qualsiasi momento senza “chiedere permesso”, un punto piccolissimo e smarrito in un mondo grande, ma che appartiene a loro come a noi: Caulonia! È la loro casa lontana ma come una vecchia madre li ha sempre nel cuore.
Ilario Ammendolia (sindaco di Caulonia)
ISBN: 978 1 921013 20 1
Format: Hardback - case bound + jacket, 280 x 210 mm, 400 pp., colour + b&w illustrations, dual language text
Price: $70.00
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