STORIES OF TRENTINI IN THE WORLD
We asked several descendants of emigrants from Trentino to tell their stories in the first person, focusing on how their origins have shaped and influenced their lives. This would not have been possible without the active and friendly support of the Trentini nel Mondo Association, founded in 1957 with the aim of promoting social solidarity and serving as a network of support and connection for Trentino migrants and their descendants. The individual we feature in this issue is Giuseppe Filippi, the son of an emigrant to Belgium.
I am the son of a man from Trentino who emigrated to Belgium in January 1948, four months before my mother and I joined him in Charleroi, a city that now has just over two hundred thousand inhabitants and is the main centre of an area called the "Black Country", a name that refers to the high concentration of coal in the subsoil Back then, miners arrived from many European countries, and even beyond
My father Vittorio did not work underground but in a steel mill. I was only seven months old when my mother, Pierina Dalpiaz, packed me in a suitcase to join him. Of course, I actually travelled in her arms but I like using that image to emphasise how tiny I was, not only in age, at the time when I set off on that journey that took me away from Cis, the country of my ancestors.
My sister, Marie-Louise, was born in 1954, and until the founding of the Trentino Circle my ‘Trentino horizon’ remained limited to family members and fellow emigrant villagers; I had no idea just how many Trentino people there were in the world.
The first Trentino Circle in Belgium was founded in 1961. Although, as a young man, I was more inclined to move within ‘Belgian’ circles, it was inevitable that I would become involved, given that my uncle, Albino Dalpiaz, my mother’s brother, was one of its founders, along with other pioneers, including my father. It was therefore natural for me, partly through a kind of ‘contagion’ and partly out of healthy curiosity, to take an interest in all things Trentino, and I was surprised to discover just how large the community with Dolomite origins actually was, far beyond anything I had previously imagined.
From that time, I remember that, being naturally curious and despite my limited command of Italian, I literally devour every issue of the magazine Trentini nel mondo that arrived in our home each month. Gradually, I began to understand the Association, explore the context in which it operated, its aims, and its key figures. From that point on, my village world expanded to the wider horizon of Trentino and its emigration, and even today I cannot think of Trentino without its emigrants—indeed, that is the first image that comes to mind.
Later, the then president of the Circle, Lino Fravezzi, offered me a job in his bank. In this way, with the indirect support of the Circle, I secured my first stable job and had the opportunity to come into contact with other aspects of the Trentino world.
At that time, partly out of curiosity and thanks to Fravezzi’s attentive benevolence, I was able to experience the life of the Circle at close quarters—practically from the inside. He would keep me informed whenever the Association was going through a particularly significant period, and he introduced me to leading figures who would occasionally come to Belgium to meet, support and encourage the Trentino communities, bringing with them—quite literally in their suitcases—what was needed to strengthen and nurture the culture and traditions often neglected in the urgency of emigration. In the meantime, three more Circles had sprung up. So I gradually developed a real understanding of Trentino culture not to mention a strong desire to get to know the land of my ancestors.
I was able to satisfy this desire by gradually getting more involved in the activities of the association, regularly collaborating with it. But my hunger for Trentino was never satiated. Always wanting to learn more, and convinced that only by approaching "power" would I temper my greed for knowledge, in 1987 I agreed to take the reins of the Circle.
Unexpectedly, rather than fading away, my intense longing for Trentino turned into a true passion, which I still try to share today with all my fellow countrymen and women, not only in Belgium, but across Europe and the world.
As a true “mother,” as I like to call it, the Association has always sought to understand the material and moral needs of Trentino emigrants and their descendants, who are increasingly numerous and eager to feel like heirs to Trentino, its traditions, and its culture. In the same spirit, I served as president of the Circle until 2008.
My term as resident was an extraordinary period for me, studded with great satisfaction. I remember with emotion the success of initiatives such as “La Polentada,” an event that attracted more than two hundred participants; the “Festa dei pòpi”; and the meetings held for International Women’s Day. I also recall the Circle’s involvement in the process that, in 2009, led to the twinning of Maria Dolens and Maria Mater Orphanorum, the bell that tolls 262 times in Bois du Cazier every 8 August at 8.10am, the time of the 1956 Marcinelle mining disaster, each toll accompanied by the name of one of the victims.
More recently, there was another date that will remain engraved on my heart: April 27 of last year, when in Cis I had the honour of inaugurating “La valigia dell’emigrante" (The Emigrant’s Suitcase), a wooden bas-relief created by Giuseppe Brun, dedicated to all the emigrants from the town of Noneso. Among other things, on that same day I was presented with the certificate of “Trentino nel mondo benemerito,” an award granted by the Association to individuals who have made special contributions to the Association, to Trentino Circles, or to Trentino communities abroad.
I have been Coordinator of the Trentino Circles of Europe for Trentini in the World and, for three terms, Consultant abroad for the Autonomous Province of Trento. But beyond my commitment to emigration, my life has also been marked by moments of joy and fulfilment. When I had to leave the bank in the late 1980s due to corporate restructuring, I did not lose heart: I studied to become a religion teacher, working in primary schools until I retired. In 1972 I married Ginette: our two sons, Xavier and Damien, are respectively a school headmaster and a clerk at the Museum of Fine Arts. And obviously you will find it easy to imagine how wonderful it is to have five grandchildren, who are now between 17 and 26 years old.
