Forty-five video interviews with young San Marino citizens living abroad have been added to the Historical Archives of the Emigration Research Center of the University of the Republic of San Marino. The project, curated by Paola Melone as part of a grant and coordinated by the center's director, Patrizia Di Luca, is part of a program to protect and enhance oral history. Since 2015, approximately 250 interviews with emigrant San Marino citizens, collected over the previous 20 years, have been digitized.
"I'm keen to announce this development on the occasion of UNESCO World Audiovisual Heritage Day, which is celebrated tomorrow, October 27, with the aim of raising public awareness of the need to protect audiovisual sources and recognize their importance by promoting a free flow of ideas through words and images," explains Di Luca. "Our new project, called 'New Generations – Stories of Roots,' was born to better understand the connection between San Marino girls and boys living abroad and their ancestors' country of origin. The contributions," the academic continues from the Emigrant Museum in the historic center of San Marino, "offer the opportunity to gather information, reflections, and emotions that we would like to share with school students through educational activities. When the health emergency allows it, a photography exhibition and a public presentation of the research results will also be organized."
The interviews feature participants in the 2018 and 2019 editions of the Cultural Stays, an initiative that welcomed descendants of San Marino emigrants aged 18 to 28 who had previously traveled to countries such as Argentina, France, Italy, the United States, and Belgium to San Marino for a few weeks. "The project," Di Luca concludes, "has allowed us to outline some of the characteristics of the new generations and to renew the narrative content of San Marino's migration history."
