AEMI

tuguese community, e.g. the call for dual nationality, the insistence on the need for
participation in both municipal and general elections, and the raising of awareness
on the rights of workers.
From Elisa Gosso´s article Crossing Boundaries: Negotiating Transnational Heritage
and Belonging in the German Waldensian Diaspora, we learn that the term Waldensian
defines an Italian religious Protestant group that originated in Lyon, France, as
an heretical movement in the early Middle Ages. In 1532 their members decided to
adhere to the Protestant Reformation and, consequently, to organize themselves as
a Church. Because of persecutions from both the political power and the Catholic
Church they were soon banished from Lyon and scattered across other regions, particularly
in the Waldesian Valley in Western Piedmont, close to Turin. From here
they moved to Germany, and established the Waldensergemeinde in Hessen south
of Frankfurt. The peculiarity of this group is that in 1974 it established a twinning
agreement with the native land of their Waldensian ancestors, Pragelato, in the high
Chisone Valley, and in 2014 the two groups celebrated the 40th anniversary of the
twinning, focusing on social and cultural beliefs rooted in a common heritage.
Hans Storhaug,
Editor