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were an important link v^th the homeland and increased the men's dependency upon
one another. The networks also reveal the equally strong links which existed in Ticino,
ensuring that information would be relayed along the valleys.
One member of the Morganti family mined for a time with Filippo Cerini, who
had also emigrated from GiumagUo. The pair worked for several years in partnership
and then joined one of the larger mining companies as wage eamers. When the alluvial
gold began to mn out at Jim Crow larger companies had begun to form, allowing the
purchase of more sophisticated mining equipment. Although many of these companies
were owned by English speakers, some ItaUans and Ticinesi also set up their own large
concerns ~ Stefano Pozzi's Long Tunnel Mine being one later example. Working for
a larger mining company, however, often resulted in a loss of independence, much to
the regret of the Itahan-speaking peasants who, despite the restrictions which poverty
and a severe alpine climate had imposed, had always been masters of their own destiny:
they had decided what crops to plant, where and when to go in search of work and
how to utiUse the labour of their families. It was with some sadness, Filippo Cerini's
son, Joe, remarked, that 'his father Philip Cerini and Morganti had worked seven years
as mates and seven years for wages'.^'* Employment in a large mining company mn by
English speakers also meant withdrawal from the close ethnic community and the
pressure to assimilate. Not total withdrawal, however, as the many examples of
continuing identity with a 'peasant' existence suggest an 'articulation' into a new form
of consciousness combining elements of the old and the new.^* Words such as
prospetto and clem no doubt also became part of Morganti's and Cerini's vocabulary.
Preferring an independent life, many of the Italian-speaking immigrants, including
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