Memories fade

For many years the inhabitants of Olevano Sul Tusciano, an inland village in the province of Salerno, have replaced the expression “Do not think that I am rich”, with the sentence “Don’t think I am coming from Wilmington”.
During the years of the Great Migration, a good many Olevanese left their village to emigrate to the United States, and chose Wilmington, a wealthy town in Delaware, as their favourite destination. Not far from Philadelphia, in the early years of 20th century, Wilmington cornered Italian low cost labor. Its Little Italy hosted unskilled laborers mainly from the South of Italy, poor but highly motivated by a strong desire of redemption. Many of them did succeed. This book was born from the collaboration and enthusiasm of their descendants, who still live in Wilmington, and of their relatives who live in Olevano. Its aim is to insert the migratory experience of their families into the wider context of the Diaspora of the Italians all over the world at the beginning of 20th century, and to make it the paradigm of some migratory phenomena which recur over and over again, the same as yesterday and today.