Milli mála - 01.01.2013, Side 165
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live there, his political conscience prevails over his purpose of seek-
ing a romantic relationship. Buondelmonti meets old entrepreneurs
like Lorenzo Berènga, leader of the Italian community in Rio de
Janeiro and a model of the successful Italian self-made man:
I am not unhappy, believe me – Berènga confesses to Buondelmonti –
but, as an Italian, with all my strength, even after fifty years of work in
this country, what will I add to that great thing Italy should be? Italy is
not here at all! This is another noble country, which probably will become
one of the leading nations of the world, but it is not Italy. I would even
live among the Eskimos, if I could say: Here my homeland rules! Oh, how
completely different it would be!42
The protagonist of the novel also meets other symbolic characters,
who are gradually losing their sense of being Italian:
[the teacher] was a handsome and strong twenty-year old man of Italian
origin but he was born in Brazil. When Buondelmonti observed him, it
was like he was observing a metamorphosis. The young man’s features, his
build and nice complexion were still Italian, but a slowness, a sort of in-
dolence already had taken him […] Buondelmonti seemed to be watching
the transformation of the Italian into a man of different latitudes, just like
a colour which turns into another. The Italianness was still there but, at
the same time, it already was fading away. 43
On the one hand, Lorenzo Berènga testifies to the total neglect of
the Italian state (“Italy is not here at all!”), which forces its sons and
daughters to leave against their will and then, just like a bad
parent, abandons them to their own destiny, as strangers in the
42 Ibid.: 55–56. “Io come io, Lei può crederlo, non sono scontento di me stesso. Ma come italiano,
che avrò aggiunto con la mia forza, col mio mezzo secolo di lavoro, a quella grande cosa che dovreb-
be essere l’Italia? Qui l’Italia non c’è in nessuna maniera! Qui c’è un altro paese, nobilissimo anche
questo, che prenderà uno de’ primi posti nel mondo, ma non è l’Italia. Io vorrei stare fra gli eschi-
mesi, ma poter dire: - Qui la mia patria domina! – Oh, sarebbe altra cosa!”.
43 Ibid.: 43. “Era un giovanotto sui vent’anni, bello e forte, oriundo d’Italia e nato nel Brasile. Il
Buondelmonti rimase con gli occhi stupefatti a guardarlo, perché gli parve d’assistere ad una
metamorfosi. Il giovanotto aveva tutte le fattezze e la struttura e i bei colori ancora dell’italiano,
ma già una lentezza simile a quando prende il sonno, l’aveva occupato […] Al Buondelmonti parve
di assistere al trasformarsi dell’italiano in uomo d’altro clima. Proprio come quando un colore si
muta in un altro, l’italianità era ancora e già mancava.”
STEFANO ROSATTI