PREFACE

With the passing of time Gianni and I have witnessed an enormous increase in the flow of correspondence that we receive privately, especially from the people of Fallo living abroad. Very often they are flattering letters of congratulations and encouragement for the work carried out, but there are also suggestions, along with letters containing material of great interest for publication.

The most interesting aspect of exchanging letters is the new friendships which evolve between us and our correspondents. It is a very rewarding human experience which we wish to others and which we believe consolidates the common feeling of belonging to the same origins. We have once again been able to verify that, despite not having a direct knowledge of our correspondents, the language of the spirit and roots in the same culture enable a sincere understanding of ideas and a meaningful exchange of feelings.

We have the pleasure of counting Mario Catinella, who has been living in the United States since 1948, among our most constant contacts overseas. Many years ago, this fellow townsman of ours felt the inner urge to write a brief but intense story of his past. It is an enthralling retrospective tale of the trials that took him from Fallo to America and which bear witness to an age long gone, but very much present in the memory of those who, as we did, heard tales of those ages these were

 

times in which our predecessors, in the prime of their youth, came in touch with a world so very different from the one we know today. It is a pleasant tale of evocative fascination, in which the young and the not so young can trace a piece of the mosaic of that life to which we have all either contributed or taken active part. We allow ourselves the liberty of recommending younger readers to pay close and respectful attention, so as to safeguard a historical memory which is to be honored and which will most certainly enable an increased appreciation of the town of its dialect, of its culture and of its "way of being", which should not be distractedly sought in the course of a summer vacation, but which should become part of a heritage with which to identify oneself, one's roots. An awareness to be handed down with the same loving dynamics with which it was bestowed upon us.