Darfo, “Camunian Emigrant Day”: memory, memories and emotions from the past

Darfo. In the year dedicated to Root Tourism, the Valcamonica Unesco Youth Tourist Center, the Municipality of Darfo Boario Terme, the Gente Camuna Association, the Camuni Emigrants Association of Darfo Boario Terme, in collaboration with IT.ACA’, Responsible Tourism Festival, organize the first edition of the “Camuno Emigrant Day” which will take place on 29 September in the Boario Spa Park.
After a moment of commemoration at the monument to migrants in Boario, the event will be divided into reports by Vincenzo Conese, Giannino Botticchio, Giancarlo Maculotti, Pierluigi Milani, Diego Scarbolo interspersed with songs by Camuni emigrants performed by the Orege de hòi choir of Bienno and by the Valgrigna Choir of Esine.
In the early afternoon there will be reading of letters, texts and testimonies on the family, work and social life of emigrants with slide projection, interspersed with pieces of pop music from the ’60-’80s which immortalized the harsh life of the migrant.

The history of emigration to Valcamonica does not only concern the Camuni who left their home to seek a less sacrificed existence in a foreign land; it also concerns their families: mothers and fathers, wives and children, uncles and cousins, who suffered every day, for long years, the positive and negative consequences of their departure. This day aims, through readings, images, sounds, to bring to life with serenity some memories linked to the lives of our emigrants, in the awareness that –, as Antonio Tabucchi says, – telling the memories of others implies a limit: “those who will hear the your story, perhaps they will understand everything, even in the slightest nuances. But that memory… cannot become another’s memory just because you told it. Memories are told, but cannot be transmitted”.
The event was sponsored by the Mountain Community of Valle Camonica, the Municipality of Esine and Valle Camonica the valley of signs.