Along with developing business projects that link the Friuli Venezia Giulia region and world, a central aim of the Origini programme is to reacquaint the far-flung descendants of Italian immigrants with their Friulan and Istrian roots.

Marisa Ortiz, an Origini 7 participant from Argentina, walked the sunny streets of Friuli nearly ten years ago on a cultural exchange with a group of young people from her home province. But this time Ortiz, 27, returns as an adult, with a deeper appreciation of the region and its people.

Ortiz lives in Mendoza, a region in central Argentina, and connects with her Italian heritage by practising the language, songs, and customs of Friuli. But the social bond is deeper, she relates.

The culture inherited by immigrants is really present in things you can’t touch—hard work, the importance of family. It's a great difference in lifestyle,” she said.

Ortiz cites the culture of transformation in Friulan life—where a dress becomes a dishcloth, which then becomes string to tie plants—as something she wishes to emulate back home. “They make profit of everything,” she said, a legacy of the post-war immigrants who had to make do with little.

Two weeks ago, Ortiz journeyed to Chiasiellis, her family’s hometown, to stay with relatives she last said goodbye to nine years ago. This time she was more prepared for the experience—and her Italian was better—but some things still surprised her. “I saw pictures of my family that I had never seen—in their house! That was really moving.”

Returning older, said Ortiz, You appreciate things in a different way. You realize that many people will not get the chance to see their ancestors, see the house where they were born. Now I really value the experience much more.

Her relatives took her on a tour of the town and the surrounding area, including a stop in the tiny village of Cucane, which in her childhood Ortiz had thought of as a "mythical place” where her great-great-grandmother was born. Her mother wasn’t even sure if the place existed, since no record or photograph had made it to Argentina.

The village of just twenty houses turned out to be quite real, and being there strengthened Ortiz’s resolve to maintain her links with Italy after the program. "Now, I really want to continue the relationship (with my relatives here) on my own," she said. "I want to go into things deeper with them, because I want to pass on this heritage to my children." But it wasn’t all nostalgia on this trip—Ortiz also got an unexpected present from an aunt who works at the headquarters of famed grappa producer, Nonino. Ortiz, whose family owns a winery in Mendoza, has felt right at home in the enotecas and wineries of the region, but the chance to see the home of Italy’s finest grappa was almost too good to be true. She ended up meeting with the owner and getting the grand tour—and this company rarely admits visitors. Ortiz found the experience very interesting, especially since the owner was “very passionate” about his grappa, displaying a love of the product and an insistence on high quality that mirrored her own father’s.

Origini, a programme Ortiz describes as “an unexpected gift from life,” has succeeded in reconnecting this child of emigrants to her Italian roots. Though Argentina will always be home to her, Ortiz was struck by how comfortable she felt in the birthplace of her ancestors. “It was really moving to see that things are still there,” she said. It makes you think about life, how traditions create a sense of security—that if we come back in another ten years, things will be the same. It’s amazing that the house where my great-grandmother was born in still there. In Argentina, it would probably not still be standing. It’s a sense of security we will never have in Argentina." 

J.P. Antonacci, Origini 7