Barbara Serra: «I, an anti-fascist, settle accounts with my grandfather, the mayor of Carbonia and Iglesias»

"A letter addressed to my grandfather sent by the Nazis complete with a swastika, finding it in the house in Decimomannu was a shock. I immediately tried to translate it but I couldn't understand its meaning, then I read that last and terrible sentence that made my blood run cold "Heil Hitler"". Barbara Serra still gets emotional when she remembers the day her sister Ilaria sent her a message with a photograph of a letter from 1938 addressed to her grandfather Vitale Piga, a fascist official, found by chance among the family papers. A story already partly told in the 2020 Al Jazeera docufilm "Fascism in the family" in which the journalist is the protagonist but which today returns strongly to the limelight and with new details thanks to her latest book "Fascismo in famiglia" (published by Garzanti, 192 pages, 18 euros, in bookstores since last April) which will be presented tomorrow in Cagliari and on Wednesday in Carbonia.

Internationally renowned journalist Barbara Serra was born in Milan 50 years ago to a Sardinian father and Sicilian mother and has never forgotten her origins: "I left Italy at 8 years old and grew up abroad, first in Denmark and then in England, but at home we spoke Italian. My parents cared about our origins and we often returned to Sardinia where part of our family still lives. I always knew that my grandfather was a fascist but until that Nazi letter pushed me to delve into historical research I only partially understood what it meant", she says.