On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Writing, Film, Television and More!
Mazzini said. “But we both know the army coming against you is triple the number you command. I do not wish to send men to their deaths.”
“Nor do I,” Giuseppe said. “That’s why we are a volunteer army. Fighting for the love of Italy. Any man who chooses, may leave, and yet few ever do.”
“Even though so many came with you from across the ocean?” Mazzini mused.
“The love of freedom has no borders,” Giuseppe said. “Nor should the Italian people any longer.”
Giuseppe’s words were magnified by the arrival of Mazzini from France, ready to raise the needed support to defend the nation. “There are not five Italys, or four Italys, or three. There is only one Italy and the destiny of Rome and the destiny of Italy are the destiny of the world.”
While Anita, the abbess and Margaret managed the medical care of the soldiers, Giuseppe rode into Rome to attend the National Assembly with the dream of seeing Rome finally declared a republic. He soon learned that politics takes longer than battle and requires a different set of talents and strategies.
They stopped at the Villa Doria Pamphili in the quarter of Monteverde, just outside the Porta San Pancrazio, one of the ancient walls of Rome where the ancient road of the Via Aurelia begins. “This Rome is a modern city. It is hard to imagine,” he said haltingly, “hard to imagine the time before Innocent X became pope and aspired to a grander and more expansive villa. His changes obliterated what this might have been in ancient times.”“A simpler family farm, perhaps,” suggested Aguyar.
Forced to concede due to the lack of manpower, munitions and other governmental support, Giuseppe dug down deep to keep his morale high. All over the regions of Italy supporters sang his praises in thanks for his bravery and loyalty. Yet, while he still believed even failure taught important lessons, at 41 years-old he worried failure might be the only legacy he left his children.
Chi non va, non vede. Chi non vede, non sa.”
Aguyar had been picking up Italian but looked to Giuseppe for the proper translation.
“’If you don’t go, you don’t see. If you don’t see, you don’t know.’ It’s something my mother said to me a long time ago. Who knew how true it would prove to be?”
1848 – Return to Italy
Political changes in the various kingdoms on the Italian peninsula helped convince Giuseppe and many of the members of his Italian legion that now was the time to return, that now was the time to use the skills they had obtained in their battles for South American freedom to support unity in their homeland.
There were four thousand Italian families in Montevideo at the time. When the city was put under siege Giuseppe put together a force of Italians to help defend the city. The fame the newspapers generated brought hundreds of those Italians to join Giuseppe’s forces with a two-fold promise: they would fight for freedom for Uruguay and use this fight as a training ground so they could all return to Italy and unite their own beloved country.
Once again, those in need of military leadership came to Giuseppe to ask for aid, but this time many of those who were volunteering to help Uruguay were from its Italian immigrant population and most shared Giuseppe’s future goal, making the appeal ever more difficult to ignore.
Since Anita could not wield a gun in one hand and a child in the other, Anita followed with the other camp wives, despite Giuseppe’s pleas that she stay behind until the baby was weaned. Instead, she rode with the three-month-old Menotti on the saddle in front of her. When the troops came to a stream swollen by recent rains, Giuseppe turned his poncho so the hood was in front and wrapped Menotti inside it so he could keep the wet child warm with his body heat.