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Sept 7 - Sept 14,2003 |
The Friulian Link with Canada
Italian assessor Roberto Antonaz in search of Friulians, Julians and Slovenians
By Laura Sebastianutti
Originally Published: 2003-08-31
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Roberto Antonaz
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Roberto Antonaz is getting acquainted with one of the many tasks that the new government of Friuli Venezia Giulia entrusted him with. In his opinion, his predecessors neglected this post, to the effect that even data and numbers are unclear and knowledge of the situation is far from complete.
However, the new assessor, designated by Regional President Riccardo Illy as responsible for relations with Friulians living abroad, has very clear ideas about how to carry out his duties. While preparing detailed programmes, he's fully aware that the first step will have to be the establishment of links with the numerous communities of Friulians, Julians and Slovenians dispersed all over the world. Also because, says Antonaz, they could teach so many things to a Region that is now seeing the other side of the coin: the need to accommodate, culturally and socially, a mass of immigrants who paradoxically found their "America" in Friuli, 30 years after the end of the Friulian Diaspora.
Have you already made up your mind about how to work at this peculiar task?
"For the moment I've browsed the most urgent issues and met with the associations of Friulians and Julians abroad. We could say that I'm politically orienting myself."
What do these associations ask for?
"First of all for a space in our thought. For instance, Toronto is known to be the second largest Friulian city in the world, after Udine. In general, the Friulian-Julian community in Canada is among the largest and most solid. The very existence of a daily newspaper in Italian shows that the Old Country receives a great deal of attention. This is why I feel that our Region should keep these links alive, displaying its appreciation, recognition, and gratitude towards its children who emigrated. Moreover, a link must be established with contemporary reality. Clearly, Friuli Venezia Giulia has changed since those people left it, so it is important for them to rediscover it. Even more than that, I see this appointment as a post with great cultural value, because it favours openness and acceptance in a phase when Friuli Venezia Giulia has switched from being a land of emigrants to a land of immigrants."
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