Miners, Milkers & Merchants
is an moving story of immigrants and history brought alive through the letters of three Swiss-Italian brothers who migrated from Ticino to Australia and California during the nineteenth century. Forced by poverty from the Swiss Canton of Ticino, they joined the over twenty-nine thousand emigrants, one out of five inhabitants, who left Ticino between the 1850s and the 1930s.
In letters written to their father Luigi, the brothers tell of their hopes, fears, and struggles. They share excitement at new sights, announce successes, lament their sorrows and express yearnings for home.Their letters reveal details of mid-nineteenth century life in Northern California's dairy lands, silver-booming San Francisco, and Australia's gold country. They reflect the universal story of all immigrants: the dreams, fears, failures, courage, hard work, and leaps of faith required to start a new life in a foreign land.