Maria Grazia

Maria Grazia never stopped living for Vodnjan. Although she did leave it, she devoted her professional work to her homeland: she graduated with a thesis about the socio-linguistics of Vodnjan. She also dedicated it to other exiles, collecting their stories about departures in the book Esodi dimenticati. Her own traumatic experience of walking with her mother on a rainy night from Istria to Trieste to meet her father, who had already left for Italy, could have also inspired her.

I have two lives, one here, the other there.

She regularly comes to Vodnjan, lamenting how the connection of the emigrants who are slowly disappearing is fading, whilst their children and grandchildren do not participate to a greater extent in the work of emigrant associations in Italy, nor do they visit Vodnjan often. She is active in the association of people from Vodnjan called Famiglia Dignanese in Turin (where, due to the developed post-war industry, a large number of them settled). She also participates in the joint project of that association and the Italian Community in Vodnjan called Favela, a kind of literary competition, one of the goals of which is to also preserve the Vodnjan dialect.

The third generation has almost completely dispersed. There are some who are returning, but only a few. In reality, unfortunately, Istria is now Croatia for Italians. They no longer say “vado a Parenzo” but “vado a Poreč” (“I’m going to Poreč”). My son always comes back, and with his family too.