The Emigration Research Center — Emigrant Museum of the University of the Republic of San Marino served on the scientific committee for the "Diari Multimediali Migranti" (DiMMi) competition, which concluded on Friday, September 15, with the award ceremony for the winners selected from 99 participating projects. The initiative saw the city of Pieve Santo Stefano, in the province of Arezzo, as the setting for a prize for the competition, which involved unpublished and autobiographical stories in which migrants shared their experiences through texts, photographs, drawings, music, videos, and more. Among them were 57 men, 26 women, and 16 young people of both sexes from countries such as Liberia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Egypt, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Albania, Poland, and Brazil, representing a total of four continents. The competition, funded by the Tuscany Region, involved a network of partners that, in addition to the Emigration Research Center of the University of San Marino, included, among others, the National Diary Archive of Pieve Santo Stefano, Arci, the Archive of Migrant Memories, the Circolo Gianni Bosio, the 3 October Committee, and the Italian Network of Popular Culture.
"DiMMi was created to collect life stories from contemporary migrants," explains Patrizia di Luca, director of the Emigration Research Center at the University of San Marino. "These diaries have allowed us to understand the fears, dreams, struggles, and disappointments of those who have left. Some have described the beauty of their home country, recounted episodes from their childhood, and reconstructed a peaceful period in their lives. Many have recounted the terrible experiences of imprisonment in Libyan camps, the arduous desert crossing, and the pain of leaving loved ones behind. Listening to their voices is a necessity and a duty if we want to understand the motivations and experiences of today's migrants while avoiding the simplifications of clichés." The competition was held as part of the 33rd Pieve Saverio Tutino Award, during which the director of the Emigration Research Center's activities also included the presentation of the book "I quaderni di Luisa — diario di una resistenza domestico," described as the story of "a peasant woman married to a violent man," and the publication in the cultural magazine Primapersona of an essay on a manuscript by Quinto Menicucci preserved in the archives of the Emigration Research Center of San Marino.
