Enrico Marchesani
Miner
(Vasto 1931)
By Paolo Calvano
He emigrated in Belgium in 1951, accepting a blocked contract which imposed a 5 year contract to work in the mines. He went to live in Quaregnon together with other Vastesi (his brother Michele, Cesare Salvati, Giuseppe Cinquina and Michele Stivaletta). From then till his retirement Enrico every day goes into the womb of the earth, to a 1000 metre depth, and from here walks all the way to the coal face. Difficult to recount the long decades of a monotonous working life, where only the discomforts of the hard manual activities are renewed; a stranger in a hostile and cold environment a long way from Vasto and friends.
Italian coal miners in Belgium
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