Majda Bratina: Collective memory is changing

Philosopher with a degree from the University of Padua. Teacher of Italian at Slovenian secondary schools. Daughter of senator, sociologist and film critic Darko Bratina. President of Kinoatelje. Board member of Kulturhaus Görz, member of the National Association of Italian Partisans, member of the Association against Violence towards Women.   A few days ago, she presented in Gorizia the project Festival delle lingue / Festival of Languages, in the framework of which the Italian pupils of the G.I. Ascoli school learned Slovenian, and the pupils of the Solkan primary school learned Italian. Not only that, but the pupils were also introduced to German, Friulian and Hebrew, which once formed the linguistic landscape of Gorizia region, along with Slovenian and Italian. Bratina is also committed to ensuring that the inhabitants of both Gorizia and Nova Gorica learn the language of their neighbour. "The goal is for everyone to speak in their own language and understand each other," she says, adding that it must start in schools. She proposes that Italians in all schools in Gorizia should also learn Slovenian and vice versa. She also sees a new opportunity for a new paradigm in relations at the present time, when the two cities are intensively linked with the European Capital of Culture. She looks forward to a future in which the two cities will join forces in cooperation and notes that the collective memory, which was full of fear and uncertainty only a few decades ago, is changing. And that psychological barriers are falling.