Читать книгу The satisfaction of having achieved my aims - Miguel Bornaschella - Страница 6

Almost seventy years later I go on repeating the same phrase to locate my birth place, my origin: “Between Nápoles and Rome, between the Adriático and the Mediterranean”. With these words I locate Montaquilla in the world and in Italy.

Montaquilla is a city in the Province of Isernia, in a region called Molisse, twenty-one kilometers far away from the capital city of the province and 464 meters high over the sea level, in the west side of the mountain range called Mainardi and in the south of the Meta mount. Montaquilla must have existed since the wind started to blow, but the first register that men have intervened can be found in some documents by the year 778. The first proximities to its name can be read by that year: Montem Aquilam, Montis Aquili in 1150, or Mons Aquilus in 1168. Some have translated it as Mount of Aquilone, referring to the northern wind. On the other hand the evidence which was given as valid indicates that these lands belonged to the vast Monastery of San Vincenzo of Volturno. Later, after different sales and some other donations these lands have been having different owners and heirs. Among them, Andrea d’Isernia, Giovanni Caracciolo and his brothers and Ugo di Rocca and his brothers. It is supposed that by the year 1305 Andrea d’Isernia was able to buy all the territories of Montaquilla joining the property that later was inherited by Landolfo, the youngest of his sons and who became the last owner between the years 1316 and 1325, when he died. The descent of Landolfo is uncertain, but it is supposed that in the second half of the XIV century Montaquilla became a fief of a family who finally adopted this surname. It is thought that it could have been the same family d’Isernia who used this name to adopt the noble title in order not to be involved with other genealogical branches of the family d’Isernia.

The first data of census of population was in 1561, when “fuochi” (chimneys) were counted, not people and there were 53 in that year, 50 in 1608 and 55 in 1669. In 1795, 590 inhabitants were counted, 790 in 1848, 1271 in 1861, 1706 in 1907, 1857 in 1911, being at present 2600 inhabitants, more or less the same quantity as when I was born on February the fifth in 1948.

As it was usual by those days, I was born inside my parents’ house which was the one that my mother had inherited from her own family. I was the last of four children that Giovanni Bornaschella and Filomena Ricci had decided to bring to this world. Though according to my mother –she told me once after I had grown up and in her natural way, without adding any other unnecessary phrases– my arrival had not been, let’s say, actually planned. But well… when I was born my other three siblings had already arrived, Angel of eleven years old, Livia aged six and Josefa of three.

Our house was built in 1853 and is still there, very well kept, in Via Piano 4 in Montaquila. The town had been built around the mountain. It is thought that it was strategically very well planned. It had aimed to defend the inhabitants since from the height people had a better view of those who would have wanted to invade them in remote times. Even more, the town had an enormous gate which was closed at night and people could no longer leave or enter the town after that. In the morning this gate was opened and the usual tasks started, basically farm work such as cultivation of the ground and breeding the animals.

There was no unemployment in Montaquila. Everybody had something to do at all times, every time. And there was always something else to do. In Montaquila there were not and there are not any industries. Most of the things and almost everything was produced and came from the ground and from the animals. The valley crossed by the Volturno River was the most productive land, the most fertile. Everybody had, including my family, their own small pieces of land along the river, and with a bit of quick-thinking and another bit of intelligence people made it quite productive. Whatever was got from the ground was simply and kindly sold or bought among the neighbours. Things were exchanged among them and if there were any which were not, they were carried to nearby towns to be commercialized with different fortune. The value of each thing had been fixed since remote generations, by some unknown and invisible decision, but nobody dared to discuss or argue about it, and nobody thought that it would be necessary to change these regulations: one thing of something was worth two of another thing and thus, all the things had a price, and were quietly commercialized. Money was limited so it was kept in small quantities just for certain important occasions, and even the doctor was paid for with a basket of vegetables or with other things or services, consequently money was not used. Wheat was grown and the harvest was taken to the mill. Part of it was left there as payment for the flour that was taken home. Whatever somebody lacked, somebody else had. In this way everybody had the necessary goods. Eventually the labours were exchanged whenever someone happened to go and work in somebody else’s field. And everything was done under an ordinary state of order and brotherhood and if any argument arose, it did not last long because the judge acted immediately and the dispute came to an end.

During a whole year the families bred their pig to get the meat. Then it was chopped into small portions, kept in big vessels made of stone called “pila” covered with fat, in the rooms that every house had and was assigned to keep the goods and preserves, till the following year. Among other things dry tomatoes were stored or tomato sauce already processed was kept in bottles after the ritual of the harvest. This ceremony was a kind of party in the town in which all the neighbours gathered and helped each other to process their own production, and thus obtaining the corresponding exchange of labours. All the members of the family would participate and it was one of the entertainments of those days. Not only were the tomatoes processed, but also the wheat and the maize were peeled and the vegetables picked up and gathered. When the job was finished some neighbours played some music and others danced. My father used to take part of this and all the other different tasks quite lively. He was a very hard worker, tireless but also well-known in town for his ability at playing the accordion with eight keys. My mother did not use to celebrate this ability of his. Once when she was pregnant, the scenery to play his musical instrument had become a bit complicated. My father and his friends thought they had been original when they decided to play a kind of comedy in which some neighbours came to fetch him, he rejected the invitation but they would finally persuade him. The comedy was developed late in the evening with some of them speaking and shouting from the street while my father was replying from the inside, they were obviously exchanging lies. My mother let them act for a while until her patience was over, then she gave him permission to go with them making him believe, as she usually did, that he had finally convinced her… But the night was long and my father did not arrive home. The time for permission had finished and my mother went for him, imagining without any mistakes what was happening: the famous phrase “the one who plays, does not dance”, was not carried out on this occasion. In fact the accordion, my mother and my father came back home very quickly. And the accordion was not played outside of our home for a long time.

With the fruit grown and collected, with the animals bred and sacrificed, with the exchange of goods and the labour of manufacturing, with the ability to ration and administer what people had, everybody ate well. The distribution that my mother used to do at lunch time and at dinner had the same fairness as the one used by people in the town when they exchanged their goods. At home the proportion of food eaten was according to quantity of work done. Nobody would dare to argue about this distribution, because the only one who did not receive the right share was my Mum, Filomena… The consequences of that diet could be seen in her very small and scraggy body, though she was always quite healthy. Only because of the logical damage that age causes had I seen her ill or in bed, not even taking a rest or had I heard her groaning. I had never seen or heard her complaining or boasting of taking the decisions at home or of doing any kind of job, neither in Italy nor in Argentina. She never fell ill in bed because she herself had decided not to do so. The idea of getting sick or ill was like stopping the cog-wheel of a clock. The colds, the influenza and the aches in her bones did not affect her. In fact she suffered from all those things like everybody else, but she did not get sick or ill. She went on doing her duties without complaints. During the last stage of her life she used to say that people saw her very well, and flattered her: “Yes, of course you have always seen me well”, she used to say, “but the fact is that I have never complained because my complaints would not have changed anything. It’s no use…”.

She worked as much as my father did. Very early in the morning she milked the cow and later prepared the curd and the cheese. She prepared breakfast for her children, passed my milk from one cup to another to cool it and then sent my brother and sisters to school. Another ordinary task done daily by her was going to the fountain, she carried a tub made of copper and walked three hundred meters to put some water in it. The water was brought from the highest part of the mountain flowing through tubes to get to the center of the town.

During the winter meanwhile the melting was very slow and gradual the water flowed and hardly came out from the faucet at the end of the tube, this made the activity of the town become more slowly. Because of this there were long queues full of patience, there were also exceptions… From a positive point of view a social approach was created, this included a convenient excuse when the young ladies gave some hope to the young men and this sometimes ended up into an engagement. But not all the relationships were so friendly. There were few families who could pay for having all this work of carrying the water done by someone else. The problems did not last long to arise from time to time when any of the vessels suddenly turned up before others without any rights of their owners, then some violent arguments and brawls started and some vessels were kicked and battered. Finally my Mum came back home with twenty litres of clear water in the vat. She carried it on her head. She put a piece of cloth on her head as if it were a crown. Mum was not out of these kinds of quarrels and her vat also had the corresponding beats. She had an unmatched skill and perfect balance not to lose a single drop of water. When water arrived home we all used it to cook or to wash ourselves.

The clothes were washed in the river with the soap which, as it could not be different, was also made by my mother by cooking the fat of the pork and some caustic soda. The routine went on with the preparation of food at lunch time which she later carried to the piece of land where my father was working. While he was having lunch, she went on with the labours in the field and when he finished his lunch she still went on working. She came back home to prepare dinner, waited for my father, and eventually got ready, just in case, to carry out the compromises of marriage, which could not be rejected – as she used to tell my daughter, Lorena, many years later. Not even of any of these tasks did she ever complain. Her nature, her spirit was to make sacrifice naturally and in so many other respects, assimilate this sacrifice without blaming or making any recriminations for her fate.

This town was, like many others in Italy and in Europe, crossed by war leaving some memories which were transmitted from generation to generation because due to the accumulation of damages it was impossible to keep them in silence. The narration which was quite plain and natural under the sight of the children and grandchildren took the dimension of the tragedy once more, and though it was obvious, it had not been easy to bear. The common place to say that the suffering had been terrible, was not enough to show the real dimension, the scenery, the length in time and the irremediable consequences.

In the First World War my father lost his father when he was six years old. Not long ago I myself was able to regain some pieces of information. I got a copy of his Certificate of Decease: Angelo Bornaschella died on the 19 th of October in 1918, just some months before the end of the war due to a bronchitis which turned into a general infection. He died in the Field Hospital Number 56, in Gubbio, a mountainous region in Zangolo. I also knew that his registration number was 20.562 and he had served in the Second Company of the Brigade of Messina.

Sometime later my father’s mother married my grandfather’s brother, called Angelo. By those days this form to reorganize the families was something natural and necessary. Among some other natural intentions, the main one was to protect the woman, take care of her children and keep the family. Under the protection of this new marriage and new love, my father had three more brothers and one more sister … But not all the new familiar organizations had the same fate.

In some houses fatal stories were heard, with epilogues difficult to be told. The man who went away for war, during the First or the Second, left his good will to the convenience and caprice of fate. Hope was missed when the family did not receive any news, and then his location seemed to be like the wind that blows and goes somewhere, without knowing where… He might have been taken as prisoner and be working in that state in another country, or be dead without a tombstone, or could have lost his mind and not remember the way to come back home. But if it happened that God’s mercy helped him come back, after having left for so many years, being suspended in his wife’s and children’s oblivion, his old house was no longer his house because his children would be sharing the table with the new children his wife might have had, or his wife was no longer his because since he did not exist any longer, she had become the wife of someone else who might have been his neighbour in the past, before the war had put them all on the same stairs step of the tragedy.

The memories of my mother also gave me the details to understand how much and the way the resignation of the people had fitted in their souls. During one of the advance posts of the German soldiers, an uncle of my father’s together with other neighbours in the town, tried to repel their enemies by throwing pieces of stones at them from the highest post in the mountain. But instead, they were repelled by the German machine guns. The splinters hurt him, but with a quick treatment and with his still bleeding leg, he was able to come back to the improvised shelters in the wood and the mountains, until some days later the Red Cross took him away to assist him in better conditions due to the serious infection he had. The fact that he was not in the refuge for more than seven months was also taken as some kind of resignation and there was no surprise or fright, there was no difference between his presence and his absence during those days… My grand uncle came back to the shelter and his own life went on as if the gap in the history had never existed, but not for the indifference or lack of affection, but for the only and clear feeling of helplessness and pain of everybody.

When the German soldiers took the decision to attack, the town was filled with fright, running from one side to the other looking for shelter in the holes and caves in the mountains. During one of those escapes my brother Angel informed my father that he had lost his left shoe. My father wanted to recover it, but it would have been easier if my brother had mentioned it as soon as it had happened, three kilometers before. The mission to recover the shoe was useless, suicide, so the unfortunate and poor Angel lived the following six months with a piece of cloth around his foot and ankle tied with some ropes, replacing the lost object.

Once the Second World War was finished, apart from the damages seen and those which could not be seen, there remained other consequences more concrete and less painful. Due to the advance of the American troops towards the north, perhaps because the Germans needed to rush away or because they might have looked for a safer place, during their retreatment, they left different things along their way. After the calm had come back and the whole town and neighbourhood was no longer occupied by the troops of one or the other side, pieces of their possessions were found spread everywhere. It was very common to find pairs of boots, dirty shirts, great quantities of missiles which astonished everybody because they were kept in cloth bags, useless tyres, pieces of jeeps and trucks for the troops and even a war tank. The pieces of iron were picked up and sold as scraps in different places in the country. By doing this, people could manage their economic situation in some way. The rubber was used to make a handmade kind of shoe called “scarponi”. They were real certificates of poverty, but since there was not another thing, they became quite useful. People’s legs were covered from feet to knees with a piece of cloth made of linen. Then the pieces of rubber, well cut according to the size of the foot, were fitted leaving an edge with small holes and finally some leather strings were passed through them. They were the usual strings of the “modern age”, with the same idea this continued up to the knees. Those who found tyres of motorbikes were luckier because since the rubber is narrower, they fitted the feet “anatomically”. Apart from this, nobody cared for having them brushed and polished or think which one was for the left or the right foot.

Once, my father together with a friend found a tyre. It was inflated and even had the rim. Ready to make their own “scarpony” they went against it with the tool they had in their hands. They tried to damage it with an axe and as if the tyre had been alive it made them both bounce. They did not surrender, with the axe and taking some other tools, could hurt it until it exhaled the air and were able to give it the desired use.

My father, once, found a big military overcoat and gave it good use during the cold winter. After that he was fortunate enough to come across a semiautomatic gun, which I consider, according to his stories must have been of calibre 45. By the aspect and quality of the gun he assumed, it had belonged to an officer of high rank in the army. My father knew how to use it and proudly showed it to my mother and taught her how to use, too. They did not have to worry for the bullets because they could be found easily… My parents kept this incidental but fortunate finding as a secret, neither did they show it nor did they speak about it, but somehow this secret was spread and it was soon well known the fact that there was a sophisticated gun at home and my family had it. It was always in a safe hidden place inside a hole made in the wide walls of the house. When my father migrated to Argentina, my mother was in charge of it and of the big overcoat. By those days since there was a shortage of food and goods, it was quite common to see acts of banditry, people who stole fruits and vegetables from the fields, and though it could have been something small, it was actually serious due to the scarcity of those times. To carry out these acts of banditry, these petty thieves stayed longer in the fields or sometimes remained during the night in the nearby areas until it was the right moment to go into the farms. My mother would come back to her piece of land from time to time with the big overcoat on and the semiautomatic gun. She would shoot some bullets into the air breaking the peace of the place but, warning by doing this, anybody who could have had the wrong idea of taking something by mistake… The echo of the shots was heard and had the impact searched because everybody knew who carried the gun and who wore the big and heavy overcoat. The chief visited our house many times and asked my mother for the gun. He wanted her to give it to him, but she always denied its existence and the chief would leave our home, accepting the refusal with respect. But not only was the chief the person who respected her, when the women in the town saw her with the heavy coat, greeted her in a special way and even more, men did. Some years later, after our departure to Argentina, some remodeling was made in the house in Via Piano 4. Then one of the walls was knocked down and the famous gun appeared. This event was reported and the chief was able to finish the case after a long, long time. Those who were there said that the chief, with the gun in his hand and with a grin in his face, said: “At last ... after having sought for it for so long”.

The lives of all the members of my family and even the big house were saved from the devastation of the war. I must admit, that even living in a certain kind of poverty, our house stood up among the others in the town. My grand grandfather Giovanni Ricci came from a family that had been in better economic conditions than the others, thanks to some tricks of her mother… She had married a wealthy Ricci, father of my grand grandfather. By those days it was an ordinary thing to arrange marriages, no matter if there was love or not. People used the strangest reasoning to debate the convenience of their children’s marriage. Giovanni Ricci’s mother made use of some “appearance” in her dreams which recommended the union to that person who was, by chance, of an outstanding economic level. True or false, providential recommendation or practical reasoning, the case was that by the time being our families took advantage of that trick. Eventually those who formed that union were able to build a house that finally was outstanding in the town. The building of the house started in 1850 and was finished in 1855, as it was cut and remained forever in the stone of the arcade of the main entrance gate. That way the “palazzi isolati” –as these kinds of buildings were called– remained straight. It had a central yard called “cortillo” which was surrounded by several rooms and they were distributed, as it was usual by those days, to the different members of the family, which were at the same time occupied by their own ones. As it was logical and fair the properties passed from generation to generation, and as it was usual that none of the heirs could buy the corresponding part of others, it was then that the rooms were divided only among all those who had rights. The land was also divided this way, but if it was necessary, a surveyor was called. And if it still was necessary, justice definitely solved any disputes, thus it was the last word.

Every family had their own kitchen, which was also used to have lunch and dinner. It had a fireplace which worked with wood and was used both to cook and to heat the house, there was also an oven to cook bread and pizza. The whole family slept in one room. The tools used to work in the farm were in another room and there was a stable for the cow, the mule and the horse. There was only one of each one. The cow was used to give milk and the horse and the mule to draw the carriage and to cultivate the ground. There was also a place to keep the things produced in the farm (vegetables, fruit, meat) which were preserved in jars, bottles or vessels full of fat… People took and used only what was necessary to eat and sell - or exchange in case it were necessary. It was usual to see the fiddles where the olives were pressed with which oil was produced, or wine. There were no limits, it seemed, between one family and the others in the big house and everybody knew their secrets, their conversations, their joys and worries. Everybody could hear everybody’s conversations due to the proximity and also because they used to speak very loudly, and the roars resounded in the thick walls. But the comforts of the house were enough though. On one hand it was like this just because, and on the other hand because they did not know or have other possibilities. The electric energy was already supplied, but apart from the light at nights, there were no other gadgets to connect.

The whole house has remained well conserved until nowadays, outstanding almost at the top of the mountain. Seduced by its simple majesty I took the decision, some years ago, to buy it to the heirs and heiresses. I have had to deal with them all and though it was not an easy task, finally the aim was achieved once more. I bought it following the impulse of my heart, though I found later more acceptable excuses which convinced me that the quick decision had not been wrong. As far as you can see, the links between the past and the present is inevitable.

In 1945, the advance of the American army, determined the beginning of the end of the war. The people of the town left their shelters in the valley and went back to their houses encouraged by an atmosphere of safety that continued for some months by living together with the soldiers. They provided the people with tinned meat, chocolates, warm clothing and blankets. The women of the town, including my mother, washed their clothes in return as an expression of gratitude. This task went beyond an ordinary one since the soldiers’ clothes were infested with lice, fleas and other mites which emerged in great quantities when the clothes were soaked in hot water.

Despite the resignation that the consequences of the war had left in those people and the silent incorporation of the suffering into their everyday lives, the truth was that the economy had weakened and turned into such difficult stages that it was impossible to bear. The food rationing made my father go out and work in different fields cutting wheat just to be paid with a plate of food; even though, on some occasions, not even this was procured. Poverty was beginning to be felt, but people coped with it with dignity. It was then more usual to see neighbours wearing patches in their clothes. Once my parents said they had seen a man wearing a white shirt with a red patch, and he was proud of it. The crisis had affected his life in such an extreme that he had not even a piece of cloth with the same colour of the torn shirt, but having found a solution to his shirt made him feel proud of himself.

Then our family and others in the town, after having done the corresponding long and bureaucratic procedures and covered by the benefits given by the Marshall Plan promoted by the United States of America, received small monetary compensation to remedy the loss of olive trees, animals and any kind of damage made in the buildings. The amount covered just part of what had been lost, but it was well received and the people appreciated this assistance truthfully. But these were not the only usual disadvantages of the war. Others were solved with the contribution of the members of the clergy. With a lot of patience they interfered between neighbours when due to military incursions or bombing their personal possessions had been mixed. Useful and basic things such as blades or saucepans happened to turn up in a neighbour’s house, being this enough to start disturbance, and the clergy negotiated for settling such matters. These kinds of disputes pictured the characteristic of the town where deep and unresolved enmities became confrontations forever, generational and permanent. The causes for disputes could have been because of politics or because an animal had gone into a field and ruined the plantations, also because of love affairs, or unfulfilled promises. The sceneries for these confrontations were several and different, but in the collective memory in general and in mine in particular there has remained one: … One Sunday after mass, a woman with an advanced pregnancy stopped out of the church to face the responsible man, who was not fulfilling his obligations or keeping his promises. She stood in front of him and although she soon realized that was a useless conversation, she had never imagined that her reaction, the one she had planned during her many sleepless nights, would have been so well justified. The man rejected and insulted her, then tried to keep her apart with his arm to go on his own way. That was the last thing he did. The woman felt that her blood and hatred turned into foam. This marked her fate definitely. She took a knife out of her clothes which was as big as the coming tragedy and stabbed him with it. He just had enough time to suffer his own death. The woman had her baby in prison. He grew up and studied there. Then he became a good man, graduating in International Commerce. He lives in Paris nowadays and comes back to his town from time to time. I had the pleasure of meeting him.

“Between Nápoles and Rome, Between the Adriatico and the Mediterranean”, this is the way I locate Montaquila in the world and in Italy.

Bornaschella’s Family Tree, from my grandparents to my siblings and me.

The town had been built around the mountain, it is assumed to defend the inhabitants from invaders in remotes times.

My mother worked as much as my father did. Very early in the morning she milked the cow and later prepared the curd and the cheese. Here I can be seen: the smallest of all, next to my Mum and my siblings.

Another ordinary task was going to the fountain carrying a copper vat and walking three hundred meters to collect water. The positive point was to integrate social links.

The vat used by my mother to collect water from the town fountain.

The mill used to press the grapes and the olives, later the wine and the oil were processed.

Mill used to press the grapes to elaborate the wine. This one was built by my “great-grandfather”, Pasquale, around the year 1900.

By 1945 the advance of the American army determined the beginning of the end of the war.

After the withdrawal of the American army it was common to find unexploded devices dropped everywhere, soldier’s clothes, blankets and even parts of their jeeps and lorries.

One of the tributes to fallen soldiers after the Second World War.