In the summer of 1909, eighteen-year-old Giovanni Piras left his home in Mamoiada, a small village in Barbagia, Sardinia, to seek his fortune in Argentina. Once arrived, he started working as a farm-labourer, sending part of the salary to his family. Thus he would redeem the land his father pawned to buy him the ticket for the New World. However, his letters became less frequent already from 1912, until they broke off definitively a few years later. But news from Giovanni arrived thanks to the emigrants coming back home: everyone assured that he had made his fortune and was in good health, and that he had not sent letters anymore, because if someone knew he was Italian, he would be in trouble, and even lose his job.