RUTIGLIANO – Rosa Pagliarulo is perhaps the only Apulian artisan to have taught her ceramic art to emigrants from Puglia both in America (invited by the Pugliesi Federation) and in her native Rutigliano. «It’s very nice to do these workshops with them, because I teach, but they also teach, it’s an exchange. Both this summer and last summer, for example, I did it with a group from California and there were those who had a connection with their origins and were also interested in figula art and this product that comes from the earth , with clay. Very often what they have made here in Rutigliano, in the laboratory, if they stay for a few days, I send it to be cooked and I give them the product they have made with their own hands and so they take their whistle home. They are touching moments.”
«There are Italian-Americans – continues Pagliarulo – who have achieved great results there, in North America, and when they are in Italy they always make a quick detour to Rutigliano and visit us. Some do it every year. For example, there is a first generation Italian-American who also brought his children and grandchildren here to experience the whistle. The young people may not have spoken Italian but very often, curiously, they spoke dialect. On the other hand, the little ones really didn’t know a word and had to be translated. It’s a good thing they put my son next to me.”
