Palmeiras wrote a moving letter to Italy

In this period there are many messages addressed to our country, called to face the worst crisis since the second post-war period. From the colors of the Italian flag on all monuments and historic buildings to the messages of affection of those who try to be close to a nation in difficulty. Not only the world of politics is ideally tightened around us Italians, but also those who have our tricolor in its past. In this case we are talking about Palmeiras, a Brazilian team to the core but which has never denied its Italian origins - so much so that it always includes a reference to our colors in its kits. The feeling that in 1914 prompted Luigi Cervo, Luigi Marzo, Vincenzo Ragognetti and Ezequiel Simone to found the "Sociedade Esportiva Palestra Itália" in São Paulo, today pushes the club to write these words to us:

Dear Italy,

More than 100 years have passed since our greeting, when war, misery, hunger and poverty changed our destinies at the beginning of the twentieth century. With much pain and nostalgia, we crossed the Atlantic to "Make America".

Here we have planted your seed in all fields of implementation, replacing the slave labor. With sweat, work, faith and resilience, it was your immigrant children here in São Paulo who led the fight against the Great Influence in 1918, which devastated the world, similar to the times so dark that we are living. We have overcome these and other social challenges together, and we have become even stronger in our path.

Several years have passed, we have established social and sporting glories as you did, when a Second World War immersed us again in chaos, fear and destruction.

Once again we had the strength to overcome dark moments, to reinvent ourselves and move forward. Indeed, this seems to be our destiny: to always emerge stronger and stronger.

When playing the gym, play the beautiful and legendary Italy. We proudly flaunted its colors with our symbols. It was our premise in the early days of our existence. Today we ask our ancestors for permission to rewrite this idea: when they hurt Italy in some way, they also hurt the Gym and its people!

Today, your distant son here in South America suffers and cries at seeing his motherland collapsed, like the rest of the world.

Among the many precautions in this delicate moment of humanity, it is the duty of the youngest to welcome older and vulnerable relatives and friends with altruism and brotherhood, such as our parents and grandparents.

The Palmeiras, eternal Gym, tries to follow this recommendation to the letter, and screams from the bottom of its soul: we are with you Italian brothers! We are Italian brothers together.

Palmeiras Sports Club (Palestra Italia).