Cara Ada

“Cara Ada” - Dear Ada - began as a way of dealing with mourning when forced to be apart, but it turned into a deeper reflection on the sense of home and community when being an immigrant.

In 2020, I was stuck in New York, due to the Pandemic.

That November I lost my grandmother, Ada, due to Covid-19.

"Cara Ada" helped me to fill the void left by her loss, by looking for Italians of her generation who landed in the USA as I did two generations afterward.

By preserving their memories, I am preserving the one of my grandmother.

© Francesca Bergamini - Ada (1924 – 2020), my grandmother, celebrating the day I was born in my hometown.
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Ada (1924 – 2020), my grandmother, celebrating the day I was born in my hometown.

© Francesca Bergamini - Image from the Cara Ada photography project
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Marta, 69, Italian American member of the “Congrega Maria SS Addolorata”, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, during a rosary mass, 15th of May 2021.

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