Egea Haffner is officially a citizen of Alghero. Yesterday, September 21, the honorary citizenship of the city of Alghero was conferred to the protagonist of the photo “The little girl with the suitcase”, an icon of the exodus of the Istrian people from Fiume and Dalmatia, by the mayor of Alghero Raimondo Cacciotto and the president of the council Mimmo Pirisi. The ceremony was also attended by the former mayor Mario Conoci, and Mrs. Marisa Brugna, an Istrian exile. It was one of the most anticipated moments of the event dedicated to Fertilia. In the evening, there was also the world premiere screening of the film “Rotta 230, Ritorno alla terra dei padri”, by Igor Biddau.
It is the story of an extraordinary journey that retraces in reverse the route taken in the spring of 1948 by 13 fishing boats carrying 53 families of exiles from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia. In the morning, however, we talked about history, emotions, and “fertilience,” a new word coined for the occasion. 28 years after the Zagreb Protocol, memory is changing, keeping the memory of history firmly in place to avoid repeating mistakes. With the Zagreb Protocol, Italy and Croatia have defined their commitment to protecting minorities in their respective countries, and four years after the historic “hand in hand” of Presidents Pahor and Mattarella in front of the Basovizza sinkholes, representatives of the Italian Union and the representative Associations of exiles from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia discuss how to strengthen their shared commitment to keeping a light on memory.
The highest representatives of the associations united in Federesuli and political representatives who come from the regions that have experienced the drama of history on their own skin or on the skin of their fathers and mothers have intervened on this thread of memory and on the importance of the seed of unity and sharing.