A STORY OF TRENTINI IN THE WORLD
ANDREY JOSÉ TAFFNER FRAG FROM MATTARELLO TO SANTA CATARINA
We asked some descendants of Trentino emigrants to tell their stories in their own words, emphasising how their origins have directed and influenced them in life. This would not have been possible without the active and friendly cooperation of the Trentini nel Mondo Association, founded in 1957 with the aim of social solidarity and as a tool of aggregation and assistance for Trentino migrants and their descendants. The character we introduce in this issue is Andrey José Taffner Frag, a university professor living in Brazil.
My name is Andrey José Taffner Fraga, and I am a descendant of Angelo Tafner, one of the pioneer immigrants in the founding of Rio dos Cedros (Santa Catarina - Brazil), who emigrated from Mattarello (Trento) at the end of the 19th century. I am a university professor of commercial and tax law and I am also a tax lawyer. Although I am fully qualified, I have never managed to stop being a student. I have continued studying and today I am completing a PhD in law. I am married to Daniela Destefani. She too is a descendant of immigrants from Trentino (and Mantua), and we have a daughter named Angela. My name is not coincidental: I am descended from Angelo Tafner and Angela Perini, two of the first immigrants to Rio dos Cedros. Since my wife speaks the Trentino dialect fluently, step by step, we are teaching it to our daughter, who is now five years old, so that she too can inherit our rich cultural legacy.
In 2007, following in the footsteps of my grandfather, Olivio Taffner (one of the founders of the Trentino Circle of Rio dos Cedros, one of the first Circles in Brazil), I too took an interest in the association movement. I joined the board of the Trentino Circle in my city with the intention of forming a group of young people. And indeed in the same year, 2007, the group (a dialect term meaning 'young people') was formed. The group has been active for several years, bringing the youth of the city closer to the associations of Trentino and carrying out a wide variety of activities.
The desire to have a deeper connection with my history, and my involvement in the associations of the Trentino area, also encouraged me to begin researching my family tree to trace the origins of my family, the Tafners. So I started investigating, interviewing relatives, collecting stories and facts and, above all, carrying out research in archives and registers to reconstruct my family's genealogy.
At this point, I got in touch with Maria Antonietta Bellato Tafner, who had been studying the history of the Tafner family in the province of Trento for years By putting together the available research, including that done by Olivio Tafner, my grandfather, we were able, in 2017, to publish the book Famiglia Tafner: storia e traiettoria, in Europa e in Brasile, which recounts the history and genealogy of the family, from the first records in the Val dei Mocheni (14th century) to the present day. In the same year, we organised the great Tafner Family gathering in Santo Antônio, a district of Rio dos Cedros, the historical place where the immigrant Angelo Tafner arrived.
After researching my family history, I felt compelled to conduct a somewhat broader study on the presence and traces of Trentino culture in my city, Rio dos Cedros. This was a rather complicated search, as I had to identify the elements of Trentino culture that could still be verified in the city. I completed this inventory in 2019 and the result was a new book: Rio dos Cedros, il cuore trentino del Brasile, published in 2020 (bilingual Italian/Portuguese). The official presentation to the community was postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic. Also in 2019, I participated as a delegate of the Autonomous Province of Trento in the "Seminar for the creation of a network of young Italians in the world" organised in Palermo by the General Council of Italians Abroad.
And it was precisely during those years of the pandemic that I was invited to undertake a new and unprecedented research project, in collaboration with Renzo Grosselli. The Trentino researcher and historian agreed to come to Rio dos Cedros and spend a few months in the city, interviewing residents and gathering material to write a work on cultural identity in a community of Trentino descendants, six generations after the first immigrations had occurred. After months of interviews and more than a year of work on the text, at the end of 2022, we witnessed the publication of the co-authored work, comprised of almost six hundred pages: Rio dos Cedros nella nostra mente, published by the Trentino Ethnographic Museum in San Michele.
In addition to these publications, several others of interest to the Italian community will be written, also in the legal field, one of them appearing in The Italian Yearbook of International Law.
In 2022, I was appointed by the association Trentini nel mondo as Coordinator of the Trentino Circles of the States of Paranà and Santa Catarina, with an area of responsibility involving 29 Circles. It is one of the areas with the highest concentration of Trentino descendants worldwide. We immediately set to work, visiting cities and associations, to encourage the revival of activities in the post-pandemic period. We were thrilled to undertake important initiatives, including the founding of two new Trentino Circles and reviving the activities of some associations that had stalled. In addition, we were able to strengthen the ties between the Trentino Circles and the Consulate General of Italy, which covers our region, thanks to the generous support fostered by Consul Eugenia Berti.
Finally, this year, 2025, marks 150 years of Italian immigration to Santa Catarina. I participated in the foundation of the state commission dedicated to the 150th anniversary, as well as the regional commissions and the municipal commission of Rio dos Cedros. There are many projects underway, in particular I am coordinating a book with a collection of studies featuring chapters written by different researchers on Italian immigration throughout Santa Catarina, which will be published this year.
Our work continues on multiple fronts. We divide our lives between family, academic work, the legal profession, a doctorate and the associations of Trentino, especially in this year of celebrations. We strongly believe that all this not only promotes a feeling of nostalgia, but can also create opportunities for the future. After all, the Trentino people, and also their descendants abroad, have always perfectly understood the concept (and advantages) of working in a network.
Andrey José Taffner Frag with his wife Daniela Destefani and daughter Angela Destefani Fraga at the Colonia Nova Itália party in Santa Catarina.
Andrey José Taffner Frag reads an ‘open letter’ during an event of the Santa Catarina Cultural Foun- dation (Government of the State of Santa Catarina).
Andrey José Taffner Frag with Renzo Grosselli during the presentation of the book ‘Rio dos Cedros nella nostra mente’, co-authored by the two researchers.
Andrey José Taffner Frag receives an award from the municipality of Blumenau (Santa Catari- na) for his work in the cultural field.
