29 Comments
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Steve Gorman's avatar

I love the “then and now” photos of your childhood home. Trees grow surprisingly fast!

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

They do! Of course it was 47 years between those photos.

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Tina Hedin's avatar

Fascinating post, Rosana. I have always been interested in the topic of "home" and what it means to people. I am from New York, Florida, and New Hampshire, but currently, as a full-time traveler, I am from nowhere. Or everywhere.

My heart's home is an island off the coast of South Carolina. It's a state park, so no one can actually live there, but what feels like home is the weather, the plants and animals, the ocean, the sunrises and sunsets, the humidity and even the bugs.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Love that! The heart's home, and of course our physical home too, can be quite different from the place where we're from.

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Jeff Feldman, MSW, LSW's avatar

I tell people I am from New Hampshire, but I was born in Virginia, moved to New Hampshire at age 7, and have lived in NJ since 1996. So basically I'm an east coaster, northeast more specifically. My family's roots are in pre-soviet Ukraine, Russia, and Latvia. There's also a branch of my family in Argentina.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Wow, we have some similar roots! It's interesting how we identify where we're from.

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Cat Rod's avatar

Great question for me as an immigrant. My place I call mine is far away in Colombia South America, Santiago de Cali. A place that smells to sugar cane, and where the wind of the pacific ocean kisses the city in the evenings. I have been living in Canadafor 11 years. The country of politeness, maple syrup, and Montreal, the city of poutine and the Quebecois French culture, but I feel a stranger always. Spanish and Latinos is my home.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Colombia sounds lovely! Do you ever go back to visit?

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Leo in L.A.'s avatar

It took me 40 years to get to where I’m from. I’ve grown deep roots in these rolling hills and mountains and palm-tree-line streets, in the sunny, breezy beaches and deserts full of succulents. No place has ever felt more like where I’m from. 🥰. From Tinseltown to The Bu.

It’s Home with a capital H.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

It's good to live where you feel at home!

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Sarah Axel's avatar

Urbana is home. Great description of our home! Thanks

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Thank you, Sarah!

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Evelyne Accad's avatar

I love that piece of yours dear Rosana.

Your reminiscence of your house & life in Urbana & then moving on to the other places that shaped your life. I love this multiplicity of identities specially in today’s world where a strong dominant white occidental culture is pushed on us victims of this ignorance.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Thank you, Evelyne! Urbana was a special place. As are many other places! Of course, what we call home, or prefer to call home, may not be the same as the place we're from.

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Evelyne Accad's avatar

So true dearest Rosana & your house there in the prairie yet close to the University, was very special 🌹🌹🌹

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Kristi Hein's avatar

You inspire me to ponder exploring a similar essay for myself . . . though your Froms are much more wide-ranging and diverse than my West Coast concentration. Fascinating development from a straightforward premise. Love this!

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Thanks, Kristi!! Give it a try!

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Agnes Debrunner's avatar

C-U was a great place to grow up and you described it really well. Thank you! I found my 1978 Prairie Spring Century patch and I wanted to share that - it made me laugh, but I can't attach a picture.

I live in Colorado now. I love it and I appreciate all it has to offer. Growing up in Illinois makes you appreciate a dry climate and mountains, but I still have a soft spot for Champaign-Urbana. There is great beauty in the prairie.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Thank YOU! Too bad Substack doesn't allow image attachments on comments, but thanks for sending the photo of your patch!

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Alyson Mosquera Dutemple's avatar

Loved this post, Rosana. What a wonderful way to catalog the various places that have been homes over the years. I've gotten similar benefits from living close to university towns my whole life. What a treasure trove of art and culture.

I'm from New Jersey and New Jersey and New Jersey. I wrote a little love letter to my home too if you want to check it out.

https://alysonmosqueradutemple.substack.com/p/new-jersey-and-you-and-me

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Love it, who knew about the eggplants! That is crazy! Great to read more about New Jersey, which for years was a place I passed through on the train when going from DC to NY for visits.

Yes, university towns are great. I've lived in a few other places, too — DC (my parents lived in a suburb for a long time, after leaving Illinois); Richmond, Indiana; Amherst, Mass — but none of them are where I'm from.

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Alyson Mosquera Dutemple's avatar

The eggplants are always a surprise, lol. Glad you enjoyed it, Rosana. Your post made me want to visit Urbana!

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Urbana is not exactly a tourist destination! 🤣 Great place to grow up, though!

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Alyson Mosquera Dutemple's avatar

I should have mentioned that I have a high schooler on the lookout for colleges, so Urbana as a destination makes a lot of sense :)

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Valerie's avatar

Interesting, I always say I'm from Argentina but grew up in Illinois. I also find it interesting that I feel more comfortable with Spanish, even though I learned it at the same time as I learned English. Maybe because I went back to Buenos Aires more often than you did? And I had a lot of Spanish speaking friends in the tango scene. There's definitely something about Italy that makes me feel very at home too. Of all of the places I could say I'm "from", Illinois feels like the least important one even though it was a great place to be a kid. But I never think of myself as from there.

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

I feel at home in Italy too! Home isn't always the same as where you're from. Of course, I was in Illinois all the way through high school, and those years are more vivid in my memory than previous ones, so maybe that's one reason I feel so connected to Urbana. As for Spanish, right before I got that job at Macromedia, when I was a freelancer, I thought about going to live in Buenos Aires for a few months, partly to improve my Spanish. Then I got the job and couldn't do it, darn. On the other hand, without that job I might not have lasted this long in the expensive Bay Area ...

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Nancy Barricklo's avatar

This resonates so well and what lovely descriptions; thank you— especially for the description of Urbana. I lived in Champaign, but there is much in there that’s the same (especially once I got to Uni).

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Rosana Francescato's avatar

Thank you, Nancy!! Well, Champaign-Urbana is basically one town.

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Sandy Videgar's avatar

Such an intimate share, R - and I also appreciate the photos that come along with your wonderful writings

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