Page - 43 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 1/2015

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 1 2o15 Arnd Schneider | An anthropology of sea voyage 43 usually a fortnight before arrival- allowing us to give notice to the relative in Buenos Aires. The cIM regulations required that 50% European ships and 50% Argentine ships should be used. The ships from Italy were Eugenio C, Giulio Cesare, Anna C, and Federico C; from france, Bretagne and Provence, and from Spain, Capo San Roque. The Argen- tines had Salta, Corrientes, Yapeyú, Liberty and Santa Fe. So, we had lists of the immi- grants when the ships arrived at the habour. Wonderful scenes occurred which could make you cry. Many relatives did not recognize each other at first. They looked at each other, saying ‘Dad, is that you. . . ?’; and then the kissing and embracing, hugging so strong that it squeezed the bones together. I had more than 700 records, I had bought them in order to bring them to the port and played songs like ‘The Emigrant’, ‘My Darling’ and ‘how many memories’ (L’emigrante, Caro, Quanti ricordi’) to welcome the immi- grants. And there were the brides (sposine): the arranged marriages by proxy (matrimoni per procura), where bridegroom and bride had not seen each other before, and also the ‘bogus’ marriages to get permission to enter the country. With the arranged marriages it sometimes happened that the man did not want his bride any more . . . Also, there were always about 20 girls of lose morals on board whom we had to repatriate. There were crooks on board who had ‘bought’ emigrant passports in order to carry illegal merchandise, because under cIM-regulations the immigrants were allowed to bring their removal goods. More than 900 people came with each ship. The European ships went to Montevideo [Uruguay] first, and the Argentine ships had to anchor at high sea and were then visited by a medical commission. I received more than 150,000 immigrants: Italians, Greeks, Span- iards and later Koreans and Taiwanese. ” (Schneider 2000: 101) from a few accounts I gathered in November 2014 in the small town of Saladillo (Province of Buenos Aires), a diverse range of topics emerge, ranging from the loss of the old, and projections towards the new, framed by discourses of nostalgia and expectant hope (as was characteristic also of earlier generations of immigrants; for which see Schneider 2000: 291-308). Angela Marano was born in 1945 in the province of cosenza, calabria, Southern Italy. her father went in 1947 to Argentina, worked in the textile factory La Bernalesa in Quilmes, Greater Buenos Aires, and in 1950 had saved enough money to call the rest of the family. Angela Marano was just five years old at the time, but conserves some vivid images and memories of the travel to Argentina. She was accompanied by her siblings, her mother and her paternal grandmother. Yet her maternal grandmother stayed behind, cried, and tore her hair, knowing that she will not see her daughter and grandchildren again. The emigrants then boarded a train, eventually embarking on the Conte Grande (it is not clear whether they embarked in Naples or Genoa). They had booked second class and stayed below deck near the ship’s hold ‒ Angela’s mother virtually for the whole journey because she was seasick. “And I went up, and up and up and saw the women dancing in long dresses – I had never seen anything like this. Because I’m very curious I went upstairs (five or six floors I don’t remember), but my mother got angry, and didn’t want to let me go. …At night, I went as well. It was a dream how the women danced all well dressed with long dresses and wearing jewels. Oh, what a beauty! I will never forget this. At a certain time of the evening my mother sent for me to come back, and I went downstairs again, and so it went every day…. Below, there were also the round windows and one could see the fish swimming past. “And did you ever go on the open deck, did you ever see the sea?”, I