We are the others

It wasn't misery, it wasn't despair . Only the desire to grow, imagine, build. Without borders, without fear, because after a terrible war one can and must return to hope. From Turin to Brazil with a precise idea: to produce and introduce panettone to Brazilians. It seemed like a gamble, today the factories of the Bauducco family churn out over 70 million a year. An incredible story.

It all began in the years around the turn of the Second World War . Carlo is an enterprising man, he lives in Turin with his wife Margherita and their only son, Luigi. First employed in a roasting company, then owner of a coffee blend shop. And a particular flair for business. One day he learns that his employer's brother is an Italian who emigrated to Brazil. Through him he tries to throw himself into the sale of machines to make bread to be offered to local bakeries. Things are not going very well, but the road suddenly opens up when Carlo arrives in Brazil to follow that affair closely.
This is how he gets to know the Italian community: hundreds of thousands of people and their visceral link with their origins. As it happens, it's Christmas and Carlo realizes that only one traditional product is missing from the tables of his fellow emigrants: panettone. It is at that precise moment that he decides to change his life. He returns to Italy, talks about it with Margherita and Luigi and… away. In 1950 the family moved to Sao Paulo.
At the beginning, a small shop and the first experimental panettone, after a few years the first small factory on a 3 thousand square meter plot in Guarulhos. The rest is the story of an unexpected success. The first customers arrive by word of mouth, then advertising is added, Carlo's vision of making his panettone a national product. The commercials on the radio, the launch of flyers from airplanes all over Sao Paulo, the images of the Italian monuments printed on the product boxes. In short, the construction of an imaginary that year after year convinces and begins to attract more and more people.

Luigi, the 18-year-old boy who arrived in the other part of the world with his parents, will soon become the heir to an empire born from nothing that today employs over 6,000 employees, with products exported 50 countries of the world. After the death of his parents, Luigi was the pivot of relentless success, from the 1970s to the present day: new factories, acquisitions, the group that is structured as a holding company, Pandurata, named after a flowering tree. In private, the marriage in 1958 with Carla, also the daughter of Turin confectioners from Dulca, a very famous brand in Sao Paulo. Three children: Massimo, Silvana and Carlo Andrea, still the soul of the group today.

Luigi passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 88 , admired and mourned by everyone. Serene, aware of having given everything, without ever having forgotten the starting point. Every now and then, he loved to return to Turin to "go and see again that corner between via Barbaroux and via Botero where, - he said - near a Genoese shop that made farinata and castagnaccio, there was our coffee shop". "Now in its place there is a restaurant, - he said - but I still seem to hear my father Carlo's voice calling Margherita in that magical Christmas atmosphere".
What a story that of the Bauduccos! The story of those who made it, without ever being stopped by difficulties. In any case, a story that was impossible if there had not been a country willing to welcome, to give an opportunity, an opportunity to relaunch life. The story of Italian migrants so different from those of today or maybe not. Of course, normal people who can help us understand now more than ever that we are the "others".

Matteo Spicuglia
NP October 2020