-“I came to give you a photograph my father took in 1957. It shows migrants leaving Galicia for Buenos Aires. It has become an icon of immigration.”
Patricia traveled to Rome carrying a moving photograph. It was taken by her father, Manuel Ferrol, in 1957, in the Port of A Coruña, Spain. It became the symbol for a generation of migrants who left the country for Latin America.
PATRICIA FERROL
“When the Pope got to me, he immediately took the photograph. I set it down, and he immediately picked it up and said it was striking. He shook my hand, then he took both of my hands, touched my head, picked up the photo, said, 'Thank you very much,' and that was it.”
The picture is called “The Father and the Son.” But the father and son, who are crying in the photo, weren't the ones who got on a boat for Argentina. They were the ones who stayed behind, though they too would eventually be forced to leave Galicia, not for Latin America, but for Europe.
PATRICIA FERROL
“It's a tribute to my father. I've been thinking about him a lot lately. Today is probably the day I've most thought about him. He deserves to be remembered.”
Manuel Ferrol made this album of images about Spanish emigration in those years. For Patricia, seeing the Pope, himself a grandson of immigrants, appreciate the photograph, is the highest form of recognition her father could ever receive.
JRB
TR: CT
