Between Two Worlds: Reflections On The Autobiographies Of Two Italian Female Immigrants In Brazil

Abstract

This text looks at female Italian emigration between 1939 and 1960, through the autobiographies of two Italian Jewish women who came to Brazil as teenagers, accompanying their families who were escaping Benito Mussolini’s racial laws, imposed in 1938: Ninguém se livra de seus fantasmas, by Nydia Licia (São Paulo: Editora Perspectiva, 2002); Memórias de um lugar chamado Onde (Rio de Janeiro: Casa da Palavra, 2014) and O desenho do tempo (Rio de Janeiro: Bazar do Tempo, 2020), by Nora Rónai. Some traits are common to both: their Jewish origins, emigration at an early age and refugee status. Both suffered directly from the consequences of racial laws and built their lives in Brazil. The text is an excerpt from my post-doctoral research at USP, which focused on female Italian immigration in Brazil through autobiographies, tools that allow us to follow the trajectory narrated by the voice of the migrants themselves, rather than by someone else.