Junior Tess Censoni (center) has dual citizenship in San Marino and the United States. Courtesy | Marie Giulianelli

When Junior Tess Censoni’s great-grandmother fled from San Marino, a microstate within Italy, to the United States after World War II, she could have never imagined her great-granddaughter would one day return to advocate for her own Sammarinese citizenship.

As a dual citizen, Censoni has visited San Marino twice through a government program meant to connect Sammarinese-American citizens to their heritage.

“When you’re 18, you can apply for your citizenship, so that is what I did,” Censoni said. “Because of COVID, there was a backlog of citizens, so it took a long time for my citizenship to come through.”

Censoni said she was finally able to travel to San Marino for the first time this summer.

“The trip that I went on this summer is called the ‘Soggiorni Culturali,’ meaning ‘culture says’” Censoni said. “It’s basically the cultural journey or the cultural stay, it’s a big part of their foreign affairs program to keep citizens coming back.”

The trip this summer, funded by the Sammarinese government, included 30 dual citizens from Argentina, Belgium, France, Italy, and America.

At the end of the summer program, Censoni was selected as the American representative to travel back to San Marino in the fall. The purpose was for Censoni to advocate for the Sanmarinese government to continue funding the program, she said.

“I prepared a speech about my trip in the summer,” she said. “I explained how it had deepened my connection with the country, the relationships I built on it with both my family there, and with the other dual citizens from around the world.”

For dual citizens there are “communitas,” or communities that foster opportunities for members to build their Sammarinese heritage around the world. According to Censoni, there are two “communitas” in the U.S. in Detroit and New York City.

“My communitas in Detroit kept me connected with the culture growing up,” Censoni said.

The president of the San Marino Detroit Communitas, Marie Giulianelli, said San Marino is the smallest and oldest republic in the world and the communities around the world are meant to engage San Marinesei of their heritage.

“These communities were founded in 1979 with the mission to maintain culture, traditions, and rights of dual citizenship,” Giulianelli said. “Our mission is to always maintain ties with the motherland of the Republic of San Marino, as well as maintaining tradition, culture, harmony and unity in each country of residency.”

According to Giulianelli, 
at the end of the Soggiorni program, four outstanding participants are selected to return to San Marino in October to represent their respective communities. Censoni was selected to represent the Detroit communitas to attend the conference called the “The Consulta.”

“The Consulta is a three-day international meeting of the presidents and delegates of each Sammarinese Community abroad with the San Marino Department of Foreign Affairs,” Giulianelli said. “On the third day each of the four selected participants spoke — in Italian — in the presence of the entire assembly, regarding their experience during the Cultural Stay program, and its significance as it relates to their Sammarinese heritage as a citizen abroad.
”

Giulianelli said that Censoni represented the community well and communicated the significance of the program to those at the conference.

“It is with great importance to each of us San Marino citizens living abroad that we maintain our culture and traditions in our individual communities,” Giulianelli said. “We strive to maintain our sense of Sammarinesita’ (patriotism) passing on these cultural ties to the motherland for generations to come.
Viva San Marino.”

Censoni said her paternal great-grandmother, Agostina Censoni, and grandpa, Marino Censoni, told stories of their family’s heritage throughout her childhood.

“Growing up, I heard about the country a lot,” Censoni said. “My grandpa would pick me up on Mondays after school, we would go get ice cream, and he would just tell me stories about our family.”

The stories, told to Censoni in dialect, a kind of spoken Italian based on region, inspired many school projects to honor her great-grandmother.

“During World War II, my great-grandma would cook dinner for the English soldiers there every night,” Censoni said. “When a soldier died and no longer would come there, she would just move the soldier’s stuff away and not say anything about it.”

Upon fleeing from San Marino, Censoni said her great-grandmother never forgot how much World War II changed things.

“After the Germans left San Marino, they poisoned so much of the land there that the only reason my family survived was because those English soldiers left some of their rations behind,” Censoni said.

The program has been contested by the Sammarinese government due to the undefined rights associated with dual citizenship and according to Censoni, some members of Parliament are looking to address this issue.

“They need to prove that the program is necessary, because with our voting rights, the citizens abroad can dramatically impact the elections,” Censoni said. “There’s a lot of debate about the voting rights since there are a lot of citizens who don’t reside within the country’s borders.”

According to Censoni, nothing was officially decided in Parliament, but she was fascinated by the government procedures.

“There were many different groups with so many different opinions, so it would be hard to see how there are clear avenues of actual change,” Censoni said.

Censoni said the program also provided her with a special opportunity to have relationships with her family members living in San Marino.

“I am really blessed to have family there. I’ve gotten to spend enough time with my cousins to have personal relationships with them,” Censoni said. “So having family there, and having communities across the world that you just show up and they welcome you is really cool.”

Junior Addison Randel said Censoni’s dedication and pride in her family heritage has always been very important to her even before being allowed into the Soggiorni program.

“I can see how she lights up whenever she talks about her heritage,” Randel said. “I’ve watched Tess put in an incredible amount of work to prepare herself for her speech. She took a grueling crash course in Italian so that she could represent her family well in front of Parliament.”

While Censoni’s family heritage was transplanted into the U.S., the memory and sacrifices of Agostina Censoni have created a rich legacy.

“Growing up my great-grandmother was the most welcoming person, she would come and cook for us,” Censoni said. “She was so lovely, my mom and I reference her often, saying ‘that was a grandma Gusta thing to do.’”