“To have what was mine”: Reclaiming Surnames in Trieste

Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, modification of surnames through voluntary action or official coercion formed part of the communal landscape for the population of Trieste. An examination of the experiences of two men-Paolo Marz and Emidio Sussi-demonstrates how the historical processes of surname changes affected members of the population in the city once a part of the Austrian Habsburg Empire and now near Italy's border with Slovenia. Depending on the political circumstances, individual perceptions of identity clashed or coincided with state expectations and ambitions. The experiences of the Marz and Sussi families from 1918 to 1993 illustrate how overlapping ethnic affiliations persisted and how patterns of surname modification and recovery served to articulate the borderland identity.