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elated to this problem. The Swiss Society offered him financial help after the
operation which (presumably combined with a govemment pension) enabled him to
retire. The immigrants' informal support networks of the goldmining years had
developed into more organised associations offering benefits such as financial aid.^'
That businessmen Uke Vincenzo, with a range of income sources, requested such help
indicates how few Italian-speaking immigrants rose above a position of financial
insecurity. On 1 August 1891, the Swiss community celebrated the sixth centenary of
the foundation of the Swiss confederation giving recognition to their ethnic roots; a
photograph of Violetta dressed in what appears to be national costume perhaps
indicates the festivities which took place.'*" Holding on to such memories as the
photograph (as was also the case with descendants of the Lafranchi family in the
previous section), later generations of Perinis sought and established a link with their
past through the romantic (if not scientific) representation of peasant life contained in
the 'peasant' costume. While it enabled them to idealise a time when life was simple,
wholesome and beautiful, theirs was not a banal misrepresentation of reality but an
impression of the ideas, mental images and myths which, taken from a popular
repertoire of cultural attributes, invested their own lives with meaning.
Vincenzo continued to seek paid work despite his retirement, becoming
caretaker of the Hepbum springs and first custodian of the spa baths.'*^ He was
saddened during this time by the deaths of several family members: the first, that of his
daughter Esther in 1893 at 25 years of age, and the second, that of his son Battista.
Battista, whose sweet singing voice had entertained the family on many festive
occasions, may have died from cancer, the cause of his death (which took place at his
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