The Swallows that Never Returned- Part 1

Immigrants: migratory birds that have never returned to their places of origin. That's why they wear such a sad look in their eyes.

Antonio’s parents had ended up in America in the late 20s as most European immigrants, weary of the crisis in which the First World War had left the countries of Eastern Europe. Animals had been lost because of bombing, starvation, or plundering by passing armies that took with them what was needed to move forward. There were not enough cattle and sheep -sources of food and clothing-, or oxen or horses for work. Whole families worked the land by driving the plow with their bare hands in the absence of draft animals. The mother would usually guide the plow by the handlebars. The iron would open a wound in the earth helped by the work of the father and children of different ages, who would pull, fulfilling the role of the missing working beasts.

Little by little, they had started to gradually emerge from the crisis, hunger was becoming a thing of the past and they had begun to save the remaining money in boxes buried under the hay in the barns. But the dreams that misery had provoked continued haunting them. Now, when they heard of "the America", no one was indifferent to that picture in their minds, like a mirage of an oasis in the desert, of a faraway place where there was no hunger, no war, where urban jobs could be performed without bending over the earth under inclement weather conditions, where the emerging cities needed labor, where work and salary were never scarce... Part of "the America" was this little country, Uruguay; they still did not suspect it existed, nor did they ever dream it would be the land their grandchildren would one day love.

“The America” was the dream of a variety of kinds of people. There were those who had already started a family and did not see a clear future for their children. A small parcel of land was dwarfed when compared to the greatness of their dreams. So, young men who had become young fathers left for America with their wives in order to make a fresh start, leaving the children behind with their grandparents. A couple of years later, some uncle would also come to America; the boat ticket would have been paid by the savings of the ones already there, in exchange for his bringing the children. These were the families who usually stayed together for the rest of their lives.

But there were also those who came alone, leaving their wife and children behind, promising to send for them once settled. Of those couples not all survived. It is known that many women, after receiving no response from their husbands, undertook the journey on their own with the children to arrive and find that the husband had started a new family. Others did not dare to make the trip, and stayed in Europe, not knowing if the father of their child was dead or alive, forever leaving an irreparable hole in the family tree.

There were also the younger brothers and sisters of those who had embarked with their family, whose emancipation achieved after their eighteen years of age had given them enough courage to follow their siblings’ steps. They felt protected, as their brothers and sisters had blazed a trail. Wladyslawa, Antonio’s mother, belonged to the latter.