Pravili so jim Aleksandrinke
(They Called them Alexandrians) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
“I was still young, barely three years old, and my brother was three months old. We had a little cow, a plot of land, and an old house. You already know when my birthday is and that I was born in 1932. Those were hard times. Work was hard to come by, and so we lived a difficult life. My mother told me that she was going to make her way down there, in Alexandria. Just like other women. Almost every house had one of the women, whether it was the daughter or the mother, going to the land across the sea to serve. My father was not entirely happy about it, but there was no other choice. They both cried, but I was still too young to understand why. I didn’t understand until later when my mother was suddenly nowhere to be seen.” (They called them Alexandrians, page 10)
Edited by: Mestna knjižnica Ljubljana
Comment:
In the book, schoolgirl Manca remembers her grandma, “nonna” Benedicta, who lived in the coastal region of Slovenia and whose mother was one of the many women and girls who left to work as nannies or wet nurses for wealthy families in Alexandria in the first half of the 20th century. To her granddaughter, “nonna” Benedikta recounts the story of her childhood, a time in which she found herself missing her mother and when the unrelenting economic crisis created the circumstances that led many of the Lovely Vidas* from the Slovenian coastal region to take on the roles formerly assigned to men. By working abroad, they could support their families, earn money and send it home. While they were there, they were homesick, and they longed to see their children, who were impatiently waiting for them at home. The book is beautifully designed and it documents the stories through photographs of the Alexandrians, their families, and their charges. Through a touching and heartfelt story, the author manages to make the often overlooked part of Slovenian history that belongs to strong and determined women who took their fate into their own hands more accessible to children. *Lovely Vida is a popular motif derived from an old Slovenian mythological tale about a hard-working Slovenian mother who is taken to a faraway land to serve as a wet nurse.