Cultural practices between Italian descendants in Irati (Parana state): History of present time, memory and nostalgia

Abstract

The city of Irati, located in the center-south of the State of Paraná, in the first decades of the twentieth century, received a significant number of descendants of Italian immigrants from colonies near Curitiba. Attracted by the purchase of land in the region for agriculture, these groups settled in rural areas, where many families remain today. Currently, these descendants organized themselves and built, in 2016, a museum, "Casa dei Nonni", which has a collection of objects and photos donated by the residents themselves. Our aim in this article is to discuss how our research on the descendants of Italians and the museum can dialogue and receive contributions from the History of Present Time, a historiographical field that emerged in France in the post-World War II context. We also seek to reflect on the concepts of memory and nostalgia.