Guglielmo Ivaldi

Guglielmo Ivaldi, the only son of a factory worker and a housewife, was a partisan in the Resistance at the age of 17, and then worked as a factory worker himself. After the war, he was hired as a “copper worker” by the American company Taylor Instruments through the "G. Castellazzo” agency in Genoa. He moved to India and Peru for work.

Guglielmo arrived in Sindri, capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand, on the 13^th of July 1958. The city, in north-western India, was going through a process of industrialisation at the time and many foreign companies were working there.

The young man corresponded regularly with his parents in Italy. Sometimes the letters are written by different hands and addressed to different families in Italy, perhaps to help a colleague struggling with writing.

He writes about food, which he particularly appreciated, his work, which occupied him for nine hours a day, the English course he was successfully attending, problems with his eyes caused by the weather and which affected the workers, who were also often unhappy about being far from home and worried about the delays in getting paid.

Testimony compiled in collaboration with the Ivaldi Family.