27 of April 2025

Today, two families are getting together to celebrate fifty years of arrival and a new start, of a country left behind and one yet to be discovered, of a culture that saw their birth to another to be adopted, of a language that feels natural to one yet to be learned.

They were welcomed with one arms, by a state that opened its doors to refugees and immigrants, that help them establish to get their lives in order and thus contribute to this society. It gave them the opportunity to improve their lives.

 It was difficult as each deep change is difficult, it meant new lives and new friendships, it was to remember all that was loved and left behind, they were nights of nostalgia, and days of imagining the future of their children.

Fifty years  later they are still here. And their children and grandchildren. Still growing and learning, evolving and adjusting to this difficult times. Still digging their roots ever deeper in this land. Still missing their loved ones far away, because we can never forget where we come from. Still speaking our maternal language because it is the one that made us, our origin.

Behind are the new generations, with us,  more from this land that from our lands far away. But they should never forget that important part of what they are. Those generations before them from other lands, from other cultures, of those other languages and dialects that enrich them.

Read in Spanish and English to a meeting of two immigrant families, the Glattauers and the Pignons and their descendants at the Hellenic Depot restaurant in Melbourne.