For over a hundred years, it remained locked away among the papers of an archive, forgotten along with the woman who composed it: a long song in the Sardinian language, a lyrical-narrative lament rooted in the island's popular poetic tradition. "Today, that text is coming back to light thanks to the work of Candida Carrino, an archivist and PhD in Gender Studies, who is committed to reconstructing the experiences of women interned in mental institutions between 1850 and 1950," explains Michela Poddighe, director of the Oristano State Archives . "We collaborated with her to reconstruct the biographical events of Anna Chiara Orro, the author of the 'song' ." The figure of Anna Chiara Orro will be the focus of two public events in the coming weeks, both designed to restore space and voice to a female memory that has long remained marginalized in official historical narratives.
The first meeting will be held on Friday, August 28, at 6:30 p.m., as part of the "Cabudanne de sos Poetas" in Seneghe , the event that for years has made the Montiferru town a hub for Sardinian poetry and culture. There, Candida Carrino will present her book "Luride, agitate, criminali. Un secolo di internemento femminile (1850-1950)," a work that sheds light on a painful and little-known chapter in Italian social history: that of women locked up in mental asylums, often for reasons that had little to do with actual psychiatric illnesses and much to do with their gender. Michela Poddigue, director of the Oristano State Archives, will be in conversation with the author. The meeting will also be an opportunity to explore the value of the Sardinian language in judicial testimony, thanks to the contribution of Antonio Ignazio Garau, a linguistic expert in forensic testimony. Garau will guide the audience through the importance of the Sardinian language as a tool for protecting the rights of those summoned to court, a theme directly intertwined with the story of Anna Chiara Orro, whose authentic voice has reached us through her native tongue.
The second event is scheduled for Saturday, August 30, at 3:30 pm, at the Pardu Nou Service Center, as part of the afternoon session of the Pardu Nou 70th Anniversary Conference, entitled "Furrows of the Future." The session, titled "Threads of Wool, Minds of Paper: Education, Protection, and Work of Women in the Tirso Valley in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," will offer a journey through memory and historical research using archival sources, highlighting the role of women as protagonists in the processes of participation, emancipation, and transformation of society in those years.
The two events converge on a single goal: to restore dignity and historical relevance to the female voices that have been too long relegated to the margins of official sources. The story of Anna Chiara Orro, with her "songs" in the Sardinian language, thus becomes not only a literary document of great value, but also a living testimony to the hardships, injustices, and resilience of Sardinian women between the 19th and 20th centuries.