Page 102 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

cause they were really nice people. At that disembarked and moved his family, me and
time there was such a climate, propaganda, my brother who was one year older than me,
they mainly went because many people went also born in Trieste, to Slivje, in the Brkini,
over [left for Italy, note PK], so they went to my mother’s home. Because it was easier
over there too. I remember my late father-in- to survive; they had already started to bomb
law, he was from Marezige… when we were the city. [Interlocutor 9]
chatting, I asked him, okay, why did some of No, we didn’t buy much... but we brought
them go over? Whole villages emptied out to Trieste meat, cigarettes, for example, and
too. He said, it was because… now let’s leave we also had family in Trieste on my mother’s
propaganda... each village had someone who side. You also brought them cigarettes, there
was the informal, he was not the mayor, who was an aunt... just Drava without filters, the
was respected by everybody. If he and his most awful ones, but a strong cigarette. [In-
102 family moved away, the whole village went. terlocutor 9]
Or almost the whole village. If he didn’t go,
then no one else went. That was one exam- What to Sell and What to Buy ti
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2
ple. [Interlocutor 9]
Our people thought of them [emigrants, When the political situation changed and the
Iron Curtain border ‘opened’ in the early 1960s,
note PK] as poor, they left, and most of Trieste became a popular destination for cheap
the migration was political… there was the ta
West… Yes, Škofije [a village on the former purchases for the people of Yugoslavia. However,
for the population living in the border area, Tri-
Morgan line, note PK] was empty. There este was a centre where they mainly purchased
were very few of us in Škofije. Most of those goods in shops. In order to buy these goods, they
who went stayed [in Italy, note PK]. The first di
place they went was here, just over the bor- came to the city with their own products to sell,
mainly agricultural products such as prosciutto,
der, there were barracks. There’s like this wine, schnapps, poultry, etc. (Nećak 2000, 302).
centre now [shopping, note PK], the service
centre… and everybody could settle there The goods that were mostly purchased in
and then you got a job there. There were el- Trieste included pasta, coffee, soap and
derly people living in Italy, in Italy, they took washing powder, tights, slippers and cloth-
somebody, some family, they signed them ing, later also construction material and here
over [their property, note PK] ... even instead technical equipment. ‘There was this one
of going to the army, they ran away to Italy world in Trieste… I would drool over some
and then they got their parents and sisters, … I did not see them [goods, note PK] any-
and they got an old farm and they settled where else. [Interlocutor 16]
there. [Interlocutor 6] People did not purchase luxurious goods
After settling down in Italy (Trieste), but mostly essential needs: ‘washing powder...
some people (re)established ties with family we didn’t even have enough of it to wash one
and friends ‘on the other side’. However, there handkerchief... well, we didn’t even have a hand-
were families and friends that lived in the city kerchief... and soap, you hadn’t seen it unless
even before the war. They moved there for work. you’d brought it from Trieste... so this is what we
There were also cases when people moved from bought, for the poor’ (Interlocutor 14).
Trieste during the war or after it:
And there was something else here, mostly studiauniversitatis
My mother is originally from the Brkini elderly people, they had Italian pensions too
hills, and my father was a sailor who worked because then they all worked under Italy and
as a waiter on cruise ships. Then, in 1941, he every two months they had an Italian pen-