From Miami, I began on May 28, a week of meetings with Italian communities in the United States and Canada to celebrate Republic Day.
National holidays are an extremely heartfelt moment abroad, which strengthens for our fellow citizens the bond with our country, a thread that never runs out, even after years away from the motherland, because they remind us all where this journey began. When I meet communities of fellow citizens abroad, I often see in the eyes of those who speak to me all the sacrifices, difficulties, and uncertainties that accompany a choice like changing your life and moving to another country.
From their stories, however, I also hear stories of redemption, goals achieved with satisfaction and success. I understand then what it has meant for many to leave home, family, roots, and how much courage it takes to do so. And I understand, more and more, how wrong it is to think of those living outside Italy as second-class citizens.
Italians abroad have not abandoned Italy: they take it with them. They represent her in the world with their work, with their values, with the way they present themselves every day. They are a living and authentic piece of our national identity. Not a suburb.
June 2nd is for them too. It’s the celebration of all Italians, wherever they are. It is the moment when the Republic recognizes itself as whole: not in geographical boundaries, but in the people who inhabit and love it.
