“Twenty like us”: in Kalamian’s book the first-person stories of the young Resisters

“Hi, my name is Carlo” and I’ll tell you my story as a partisan. It is a first-person story, told to the children in an informal way, as if the narrators were still here in front of us, in the present. And they still were those twenty-year-olds, or just over, who 80 years ago chose to fight against fascism and the Nazi invader. It’s the idea that guided it Leili Maria Kalamian in realizing “Twenty like us”the new book printed by Gutenberg Workshops on the Resistance and designed for school pupils. A volume created internally by the social cooperative’s printing house, assembled and bound by the workers with disabilities, which it collects the portraits of twenty young partisans to listen to their “incredible stories”. Cesare Baio, Alberto Araldi, Carlo Molinari, Francesco Daveri and those who are still alive such as Renato Cravedi and Rambalda Magnaschi: these are just some of the twenty profiles on the pages of the book, which makes use of the illustrations of the students of the “Cassinari” art high school – who they reinterpreted the faces of the protagonists (13 men and seven women) -, of the inclusive maps by Corinna Calatroni and of the synthetic history of the Piacenza resistance drawn up by Romano Repetti. The book will be presented on April 23rd at 5pm at the Passerini Landi library in Piacenza.

We asked author Leili Kalamian to tell us about the spirit of the book in the following interview.

In your books you approach the ‘big’ story through smaller narratives and biographies. What is the story that made you fall in love with the Resistance and the Liberation events? The story that made me fall in love with the Resistance in our territory was undoubtedly that of the partisan Francesco Daveri, which I discovered 6 years ago, coming across it among the memories of my grandfather, his dear friend, the letters and photographs that had preserved. From there I began a four-year journey of study and research regarding his figure, but also the entire Piacenza resistance context. I started from a story very close to me and it was this that triggered the interest that then dragged me into historical research and in-depth analysis until I felt the need to write a historical novel, a medium that I feel is very suitable for making history feel alive in a fresco, so to speak, “in three dimensions” of the society of the time and of the context that our grandparents lived in. In telling Daveri’s story I inevitably went through other lives, I met other names, some well-known, others almost unknown. For this reason, to do justice to their memory, I wrote the historical novel “The Lawyer of God” (adopted this year by many classes in Piacenza and the province), which wanted to be not only the celebration of that great hero who was Daveri, but also an ark of the memory of our city during the war for Liberation. For me this is what I understand as the mission of the writer and I can joyfully say that this year I have dedicated it to meeting the classes, working with them, making them fall in love with the beautiful figures of our Resistance. On April 23rd at 5pm in the monumental hall of the Passerini Landi Library we will present “Venti come noi” as well as my other new book, “The child and the soldier” and we will share the paths taken and give ideas to teachers also for the 80th of Liberation.

Tell the kids about the younger partisans without mediation, through their voices. How did the idea for “Venti come noi” come about? How were the twenty protagonists chosen? The idea of ​​“Venti come noi” was born during a chat with Mario Miti, president of Anpi of Monticelli d’Ongina. At a presentation of my book last August, he was telling me about his wonderful projects for schools in the area and the idea struck me of creating something that wasn’t there: writing a book that was also the basis for a theatre, precisely to encourage the mechanism of empathy, of identification. The choice of the twenty protagonists was difficult and in this I consulted with the ANPI president Romano Repetti: we had to leave several out, but we tried to think of those who at the time were not adults, but children exactly like those who would have been the readers of the book, and among those young people I chose those who had more significant stories for today’s children or with emblematic episodes of their lives to initiate a profound reflection on the part of our children. I also wanted to include in the 20 stories of still living partisans (Rambalda Magnaschi, Renato Cravedi and Giacomo Scaramuzza) and three unknown stories that I have collected in recent years, including that of Dino Morsia – friend of Gasparini -, Igino Sordi – example of gratitude and friendship – and Primino, a disabled boy following Londei who would have disappeared from memory if I had not discovered him by reading the manuscript of his memorial, shared by the family.

What is the secret (if there is one) to tell and teach the younger ones the events of our Liberation, which are now increasingly distant and devoid of witnesses? I believe that the secret to bringing children closer to a story that is now felt to be distant is precisely to make the voices of the protagonists heard alive, to make them explore the emotions of those stories, to make them play and step into their shoes and certainly also to have an active part in the study of that era, even starting to look around and ask themselves what real lives lie behind the names of certain streets and squares in their cities and towns. It is also important that they study the history they find in books and the local one in parallel, because it is the one that most closely touches the history of their families, their roots, the place where they live and which they can learn to look at differently, more attentive, more aware. Inter-esse means “feeling part”: this is the key to the involvement that we wanted to encourage. And it is in this direction that the choice of illustrations fell on the works of the students of the 2nd G of the “Cassinari” Art High School, who worked so hard with their teachers, Profs. Croce e Schiavi also for the preparation of the exhibition in the Passerini Landi Library which will be open to visitors during the week of April 25th.

How is history taught at school? Is it still a difficult subject that has to be learned “by heart” or has teaching been renewed? History is learned today with ancient and new teaching methods: it is possible to move from frontal lessons to interactive ones with videos, group work, research and interviews,… I believe that we have implemented a good way of doing History by mixing multiple methods and solutions: the first-person stories are something captivating, but I think it is very important that the book contains the first story of our Resistance for use in schools, told in a concise, clear and understandable way by Romano Repetti. But I think the most extraordinary innovation is the presence of inclusive materials that are very useful for children even with learning difficulties (but not only, in the name of universal teaching, i.e. for everyone): mental maps in which the complexity of the topic is displayed in a very clear and practical way, the chronologies and schemes in which the children find useful materials for their questions and at the same time observe what was happening at a local level, the map of our territory with the places linked to important events of our Resistance . These materials were edited by a professional who knows well the reality of the classes, the difficulties of the children but also of the teachers, namely Dr. Corinna Calatroni, owner of Campus dei Talenti, a center for study methodologies active in schools and in support of families. We wanted the book to be in inclusive fonts and specifically designed for dyslexia. The book, then, also makes use of the playful mode of puzzles, role-playing and group games… because as this text was written together, everything else must also be shared, because it is the topic of the Resistance itself that requires it.
We dedicated the book to Pino Fumi, who passed away during the writing of the book, and to Anna, Pietro’s little girl, the graphic designer of the publishing house, born just as “Venti come noi” was being printed, and she seemed to us to be the symbol of a passing of the baton, a hope that these pages can inspire young people and make them truly “twenty”, in the literal sense that Giovanni Battista Menzani understood and wanted when I proposed the title written, instead, in numbers. Here: we hope that these winds will blow strongly and fill the sails towards a future that we hope will not bring us back to those terrible scenarios experienced by our grandparents. Let’s say that we hope that this book will be a remedy for this small but significant danger.