TRIESTE, return to my roots
I was actually born in Koper, now an important Slovenian port, but for centuries Roman, Venetian, and Italian. After the Second World War, it was occupied by Yugoslavia, led by socialist dictator Tito, who oppressed us, ethnically cleansed us, Slavicized our surnames, and forced us to flee. My family settled in Trieste, just 20 kilometers away, around the corner, but in between was the border that separated two different worlds. I was only five years old and lived almost two years in a refugee camp on the Trieste Karst in Padriciano, now a museum open to visitors on weekends. In that camp, five of us lived in a ten-square-meter room with a bunk bed, a small table, and two chairs, without running water or heating. 1957 was so cold that a newborn baby froze to death, so the authorities transferred all the children to the children's hospital in Trieste to protect them from the cold, including me. Many emigrated to Australia or Canada, and my parents had also decided to move to America...
