Mary Laura Santonocito lau61@yahoo.com
A Scent Of Jasmine (NOVEL)
Among
all the
foreign minorities present in Tunisia in the last two centuries, surely
the
Italian community was the first and the most important from the
numerical point
of view. Its economic and social weight became decisive in many areas
of the
social life of the country, so that the Italian language became the
official
language in the field of trade and in that of politics and diplomacy.
The first
Italians to arrive in Tunisia were mainly traders and professionals
looking for
new opportunities, usually coming from Liguria and other regions of
northern
Italy.
At the
turn of the
19th century, the Italian population rises rapidly, this
migratory
wave is made up of new elements from the social point of view in fact
in the
second half of the nineteenth century we witnessed the arrival of poor
masses
mainly from Sicily. This new migratory flow is largely determined at
the
beginning by the great works that France initiates in its protectorate,
like
the construction of the port of Tunis, at the end of which many
emigrants
decide not to return to Italy.
Arrived
in Tunis,
many are established in the area of the port, giving rise to the
neighborhood
that later will be called "Little Sicily" (La Goulette). Settled in
the city are mainly masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, general workers
hired in
the various fields.
In this
land and
in Italy is intertwined the history of my family, the
Santonocito/Bandini,
which through a lapse of time of about one hundred years give rise to a
novel
pressing and compelling on their lives made of love and pain through
the
various wars (I ° and II ° and the battle of El Alamein). A detailed
account in
the various stages of their lives from birth to adulthood where
everyone will
have its own story, leaving behind only the tormenting memory for those
who are
no longer here.
WRPN Women’s Int.Film Fest, Honorable Mention