This month we talk about:

MARIA PIA FORTE PRIZE

Maria Pia Forte was born in Lisbon on 12th August 1943. She was the youngest daughter of an itinerant family. Her father was a famous twentieth century journalist; he started out as a correspondent in Paris, then at the front during the Spanish Civil War, and later, in Spain during the first years of the Second World War. Maria Pia had two sisters born in Tuscany, their mother’s home, and a sister and a brother born in Madrid, the penultimate stop of the family’s European “pilgrimage” that ended in Lisbon, where they waited for a ship to take them back to Italy as refugees in October 1944...more

MARIA, A HEART THAT SPEAKS MANY LANGUAGES

Maria is a woman out of the ordinary. Not only for her life story which, as you’ll see, is very special, but because past 80 years of age, she has a fresh, open, curious and lucid mind. It was her lucidity and presence which impressed me, when I first met her. When after our first meeting I called her to interview her, she immediately remembered who I was (I, half her age, always forget lots of things!) and kindly gave me her time to tell me her very interesting story. Maria was born in Parma, Italy, in January 1927. Daughter...more

INTERVIEW WITH AZADEH, A PERSIAN LADY IN PERU

Azadeh is Iranian and now lives in Peru. When she left Iran as a young woman, she first settled in Belgium where she met her Peruvian husband. Strong, deep and determined, Azadeh has been able to find her place within Peruvian society and now provides courses of Persian culture and language at the Catholic University of Lima, and has become an important influence in the representation of Persian culture in Lima. Always independent and forever adaptable, Azadeh recently turned her attention to Persian gastronomic practices. She has written a book on Persian recipes and traditions, those traditions that she keeps alive within her big family, where Muslim, Catholic and Jewish beliefs are observed, in a melting pot of cultures, respect and love. Azadeh has magically managed to keep her origins alive by passing on her customs to her Peruvian family and her children...more