Molisans Between Transoceanic Vocations and the Lure of the Continent
/ 4 / 2011 / Migrations Molisans between transoceanic vocations and the lure of the Continent by Norberto Lombardi 1. The opening up of hyper-rural Molise After the armies had passed through Molise, on the morrow of the end of World War II, Molisans’ main preoccupation was not leaving their land and looking for better job and life prospects abroad. There were more immediate concerns, such as the return of prisoners, the high cost of living, rebuilding bombed towns, restoring roads and railways, restoring the water and electricity supply, and finding raw materials for artisanal activities. The recovery of the area was thus seen in a rather narrow perspective, as the healing of the wounds inflicted by the war to local society and the productive infrastructure, or, at most, as a reinforcement and development of traditional activities. The only sector where this perspective broadened was that of interregional transportation. The hope was to overcome the isolation of the region, although as a long-term project. When one peruses the local pages of the more or less politically engaged newspapers and journals that appeared with the return of democracy, and when one looks at institutional activities, especially those of the Consiglio provinciale di Campobasso, one is even surprised by the paucity and belatedness of references to the theme of emigration, deeply rooted as it is in the social conditions and culture of the Molisans.1 For example, one has to wait until 1949 for a report from Agnone, one of the historical epicenters of Molisan migration, to appear in the newspaper Il Messaggero.2 The report 1 For an overview of the phenomenon of migration in the history of the region, see Ricciarda Simoncelli, Il Molise.
[Show full text]