Bronte's City, together, in the Web

Welcome to "Bronte Insieme"

a web site open to everybody, a door open to the world, that  likes to let Bronte be known to others and let our town's people meet and  converse with their countrymen living abroad.

Here we talk about Bronte, of its personages and of its history, of the many monuments  that enrich our city, of environment, traditions, economy but and also, above all, we wish to talk about our countrymen  scattered all over the world.

We wait therefore, as we wait for your incitements, for your suggestions, your writings, your new an old photos,  your places, your web sites or email address and also... your criticism... that, we hope, shall be always constructive!

The site is directed to all the citizens of Bronte that still love their city, but particularly to those that live out of Bronte,  (emigrates, descendants, children of  brontesi etc.) that haven't forgotten their place of origin and that sometime have heard their parents or their forefathers talk about Bronte.

would like to be a meeting point, in which we could find ourselves together again; a binder of the ideas of the Bronte's folks that stay out of our town: of their writings, their photos, web sites, correspondences, products etc.

We wish you a happy  navigation!

The emigration from Sicily

The emigration from Sicily, ever present as  an incurable sore in the body of our popu­lation, assumed a  mass phenomenon towards the middle of 1800. During the epoch, the island population, with an extremely high birthrate, by far superior to that of all of Italy, couldn't find in its country any  work or any possibility to ameliorate its poor conditions of life. So started the emigration towards new countries.

Even the government  encouraged emigration, not being able to assure a job to an ever growing population. The principal foreign countries that, starting in 1882, accepted a part of the Sicilian population in excess were  Brazil, Argentina, and United States.

When the emigration abroad  was restricted, around 1921, many Sicilians, among which a lot from Bronte, found work and established themselves in the provinces of the north of Italy. After the war started again to go abroad: many laborers became miners in the Belgium' coalmines, others  continued to aliment the  migratory flux towards the Americas and Australia.

In total 1.140.000 Sicilians left the island between 1871 and 1950; 128.445 reached foreign countries from 1946 to 1954 and yet 35.511 in 1963, 19.520 in 1952.
 

The Network of talented sicilians

Siciliamondo.net

The lawyer Mimmo Azzia, known founder and director of the famous magazine “Sicliamondo” (Sicily World), aims to promote an initiative to highlight the Sicilians who have distinguished themselves, in Italy and worldwide, for their intelligence, entrepreneurship, financial and cultural success, extraordinary achievements in any field, artistic, literary, political, commercial, etc..

To do this a website was created “www.siciliamondo.net”, which should become the portal through which, the most deserving Sicilians around the world can meet, talk and interact in order to change the image of our glorious island, still dragging behind the infamous mark of being unproductive and land of mafia and crime.

To create such unfortunate image contributed exceptional films of great success, produced mainly in Italy and the United States.

Who has not enjoyed the many films about the Godfather and many other similar productions? However, we think it's time to change music. In Sicily now it is possible to live peacefully without Mafia and extortions.

The Sicilians, especially those living around the world, have amply demonstrated extraordinary intellectual ability, sometimes above average. It is now time, as admirably says the lawyer, to establish that cultural backflow that can give again to all Sicilians, the pride of being such. I always remember an old Sicilian song in which it was said that one day, while the Madonna was walking above the clouds, the largest diamond mounted in her precious crown, fell in the center of the Mediterranean ... and they called it Sicily...

It 's now time that a new sense of belonging shall rise in all Sicilians, an unquenchable desire for recognition, a recapture of deserved self-esteem that had long since faded.

The new portal siciliamondo.net could help to achieve this miracle if most valuable Sicilians, scattered in different continents, and those who still live in Sicily and Italy, would register to this portal and communicate with their peers in order to create a new and positive image of our ‘sicilianity’. The portal is just in his initial stage and any suggestions by all the visitors to improve its content will be greatly appreciated.

We hope that readers of “Bronteinsieme” around the world would wish to collaborate with this initiative, pointing, to their successful countrymen, the existence of this website and the intent that it proposes.

We strongly hope so.

Sam Di Bella

BRONTE'S INHABITANTS

THE STRANGE DIARY OF SAM DI BELLA Download the book in ePub format