Schwazzenbach

On June 16, 1970, Swiss men rejected the Schwarzenbach Initiative with 54 percent voting against it. The campaign for the vote was very emotional, even in the Bernese village of Lützelflüh, the setting of Francesco Micieli's story "Schwazzenbach." The Beatles had broken up, Janis Joplin and Jimmy Hendrix had died, and James Schwarzenbach wanted to reduce the number of Italians. Angelo decided not to cut his hair anymore and looked like a wild boar. In school, he had to sit in the back because his Afro hairstyle blocked the view of the blackboard. Forty years later: Micieli's alter ego Angelo is invited to his childhood village, where he grew up as the son of migrants, to give a talk about Gotthelf. The narrative unfolds over three days during which the now-established "emigrant" takes the time to remember. Feelings, scenes, and images emerge that accompany his life as "unarranged memories." The sense of being out of place and feeling foreign in his own skin and in the world around him: We were enemy territory, an encroachment, dangerous. We were an unknown something that took Switzerland away from the Swiss. The mother, who never wanted to stand out: Going to work without taking a seat on the train. Coming home and locking herself in. Switzerland shouldn't even notice she was there. The recurring feeling of not knowing where home is. And finally, Heidi, the first love, where Angelo seeks refuge not only back then but also today (in vain). Micieli tells a piece of Swiss history from Angelo's very personal perspective, which extends far beyond Lützelflüh. "Schwazzenbach" is a striking, poignant, and concentrated document about the marks that socio-political conditions leave on personal lives – and that there is no escape from it. Corina Lanfranchi describes this remarkable Swiss poet.