How are you, "bien amitg"? – the Letter from an Emigrant

"Greetings from a faraway place" had been pre-printed on the letter paper that Johann Paul Pally was writing on in August 1893. Flowers entwine themselves around the iron-like letter g, and the language used by Johann Paul Pally is equally flowery.

"Bien amitg" (Good Friend), he writes in Rhaeto-Romansh – proceeding to recount his days spent abroad, in Bavaria und Prussia, over several pages. Repeatedly, his thoughts return to his home soil, the Tujetsch, and repeatedly, he directly addresses his "good friend", Giachen Giusep Cavegn. In doing so, he writes of "muronzas", of this sweetheart, that lover.

Johann Paul Pally is an emigrant, seeking his fortune first in Bavaria, then in Prussia. In his home region, land for agriculture was scarce, the soil too unproductive. However, Johann Paul Pally is not alone in faraway Prussia. Lezi Antoni is earning his living only three hours away on foot. And anyway, many a native of the Tujetsch has emigrated, mainly to Bavaria but also to America. Today, letters such as the one written by Johann Paul Pally, which is preserved in the Archiv cultural Tujetsch in Sedrun, tell their stories.