Cartoline dall’altra Italia – A writer who promotes our culture in Baltimore

Monica Lapenta has lived for the past five years in Baltimore, a city not very well known outside the United States but that “in reality is one of the oldest in America. It’s a great city”, says Monica, “full of history and incredible Italian connections”. A writer and publisher of children’s books, Monica loves to tell stories, so for the latest instalment of Cartoline dall’altra Italia, the web series created by 9colonne with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation’s Directorate General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies, she tells us about her experience overseas and her ties with the city. In addition to writing books, Monica is president of the Italian Cultural Center of Maryland, a foundation for the dissemination of Italian culture in America. Her love for Italy and its heritage led Monica to seek out the Italian community as soon as she arrived in the U.S. In fact, the first place she visited in Baltimore was the Little Italy Lodge, a place where “long ago Italian immigrants gathered to recreate something of village life back home”, Monica explains. Nowadays it’s a meeting place for people who have never even been to Italy and don’t speak the Italian language but who wish to maintain a connection with their roots. “Then there is the community of recent immigrants like me made up of university professors, doctors, scientists”, Monica says, “an incredible community”. Cartoline dall’altra Italia roams the world in search of the new emigration, creating links with young Italians who either for need or simple desire have decided to try their luck abroad. Through their testimony, the web series keeps that invisible thread linking them to Italy alive. Each week features a new video-interview that can be viewed on the 9colonne.it website or on the Nove Colonne YouTube channel.