“Born in the 19th century. Stories of Five Women from Val Poschiavo”

Switzerland is a diverse country, geographically geographic, linguistic and also with its geo historical conditions. The Val Poschiavo, an Italian-speaking southern valley of the canton of Grison, has its own eventful history. Whoever travels by the Bernina railroad through this beautiful valley to Tirano in Italy, may interrupt the journey in Poschiavo to take a closer look at this place. He might be astonished by the houses, which are remarkably large for houses in a mountain valley and might wonder why this is so. These palazzi form a street of stately villas on the former southern outskirts of Poschiavo. They belonged to returned Poschiavers who, especially in the second half of the 19^th century, had moved to numerous European countries, but also to Russia, Australia, North and South America, where they worked successfully as confectioners and cafetiers. As far as the financial situation permitted, they had these magnificent houses, where they could spend their retirement. The book by Silva Semadeni “Born in the 19^th century. Stories of Five Women from Val Poschiavo” goes in search of traces of this time.

In the beginning there was a picture

The book was inspired by a photograph, probably of the year 1884, showing five women. They come from Val Poschiavo and belong to three generations. The picture first hung in the living room of Silva Semadeni’s great-grandmother, then in the room of her grandmother Lilia, and today it adorns the hallway of the author in Chur. Who were these people portrayed? What was the world like in which they lived and how were their lives shaped? These questions aroused the author’s interest and she searched for traces of them. It took a lot of research work for Silva Semadeni because she did not want to lose herself in assumptions or write a historical novel, but rather explore the lives of the women with the help of verified facts. Direct sources were few. But from photos, letters, information from newspapers and official documents in church archives and registers in Switzerland and abroad, a multitude of small mosaic stones were gathered, with which the gaps could be filled at least partially.
  It is about Orsola Lardelli-Lardelli (1816–1890), she is the oldest of the women. Her daughterAngelina Olgiati-Lardelli (1840–1890), in turn, is the mother of Leonita Jochim-Olgiati (1860–1936), also pictured are Eugenia Semadeni-Olgiati (1863–1929) and finally Angelina Pozzi-Olgiati (1869–1956), the author’s great-grandmother. The five women belonged to the rather privileged confectioner dynasties who emigrated from various valleys of Grison and thanks to their specialised trades, the were able to run cafés and confectioneries in cities from Poland to Portugal for more than 150 years.

A bygone world

In the first part of the book, the author describes the historical and economic environment of her protagonists. In the first half of the 19^th century, the Val Poschiavo experienced very difficult times. A famine (1816-1817) and devastating floods (1834) had a very burdening effect on the life of the people. In the second half of the 19th century, an important economic and political development began and opened up more positive life perspectives. In the years 1825 and 1830 the first schools were opened. They were confessionally segregated, which was according to the then firmly anchored confessional boundaries in the population. It was also during this time that the Bernina Road was built (1845-1862), which opened up new possibilities for the previously remote valley. In 1887 the households received drinking water, and in 1891 the village was connected to electricity. It was this social environment bearing great changes, in which the five women grew up (the three younger ones also experienced the developments of the first half of the 20^th century). Decisive for their conduct of life were, however, the experiences determined by the emigration movements in the 19^th century. In contrast to other parts of Switzerland, in Val Poschiavo it was not necessarily poverty that motivated the people to leave, but their affiliation to the reformed minority. However, throughout their lives they remained connected with the Val Poschiavo and spent shorter or longer periods of time or even the autumn of their life in their homeland.

Five women – five life paths

The author traces the lives of the five women as she was able to discover them from the sources she found. They cannot be illuminated in more detail here, but a few references to the eldest of those depicted should arouse curiosity. The year 1816, when Orsola Lardelli-Lardelli, the oldest of the five women, saw the light of day, went down in history as the “year without a summer” with an associated famine (caused by the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora). Her father had returned from Denmark shortly before, where he ran a confectionery in Copenhagen. He was then tragically killed in an accident in his home country. What a stroke of fate in the lives of the young family!
  A few years later, their path led them back to Copenhagen. There Orsola later married her cousin, who was also from the Val Poschiavo (which was quite common). He had followed in his father’s footsteps as a confectioner far from home. Financially, he did not have a skilful hand and had to close his pastry shop. The family returned home for the time being, before the husband and father moved on to Pamplona in Spain. Before him, other Poschiavens had already moved south, so there was a Café Suizo in Pamplona (and other places). Another speciality were the bollos suizo, rolls with a sugar crust, which were served for breakfast or as a snack and are still popular today.
  Orsola’s husband ran a café in this small town at the foot of the Pyrenees. Sometime later, his wife Orsola and their children followed him. Here began a new challenge for the family in an environment that was challenging simply because of the two languages, Basque and Castilian. Unfortunately, the head of the family soon died. His young wife and three adolescent children were left behind. Fortunately, she already had a wealth of life experience, having emigrated as a child, and was familiar with the different cultures of northern and southern Europe. She spoke Italian and the Val Poschiavo dialect, understood Danish, German and a little Spanish and Basque. In the register of Pamplona’s businessmen, she was listed as a “cafe-tera”, the operator of a café. To keep in touch with her homeland, she took week-long journeys on foot, in carriages or wagons, by ship and later by the first railways.
  Pamplona, however, remained an important centre of her life until she returned to her birthplace Poschiavo years later to spend her retirement there. Traces of her daughter Angelina also led to Poschiavo, as her husband had a mansion built there. It is one of the palazzi mentioned at the beginning. He had thus reached the most sought-after destination of emigrants, and from then on the family could spend their stays at home in pleasant surroundings. But the family met a difficult fate in another way, for eight of their eleven children died. Hard to imagine today! Among the surviving children were Leonita, Eugenia and Angelina (the author’s great-grandmother). Silva Semadeni also dedicates a separate chapter to each of them, tracing their lives in the settings in Spain and in the Val Poschiavo.

The secret of the photography is out

Thanks to intensive research, the author was able to get closer to the lives of the five women. At least partially, because this undertaking turned out to be much more complex than originally suspected. The women are the focus of the book, as they courageously emigrated to foreign countries and had to adapt to new linguistic, social and economic conditions in Copenhagen, Pamplona or Vigo (in Galicia on the Spanish Atlantic coast). However, the author always includes the family and social environment. These are important additions that make a richer and more comprehensive picture possible and give substance to the book.
  From the chronicle of events, the circumstances of the five women and their families can be traced. This makes it an important document of the times, especially because of the many photos enriching the book, as well as the general remarks on social developments, technical inventions or accompanying economic circumstances that shaped the times. Unlocking the inner motivations of the people described opens up a wide field for readers. This makes the reading even more interesting, even if it requires a certain perseverance to be able to assign the many similar or even identical first and family names. The meticulously compiled family trees of the various families are an important support for this.

An era comes to an end

At the end of the 19^th century, this era in the history of Switzerland, especially in Val Poschiavo, came to an end. For the reader, the book opens up a deeper insight into the socio-historical developments that took place in a similar way in other valleys of the Canton of Grison. Anyone interested in such contexts and who enjoys a beautifully designed book will enjoy reading “Geboren im 19. Jahrhundert. Geschichten von fünf Puschlaver Frauen” (Born in the 19^th century. Stories of five Puschlav women) by Silva Semadeni.  •