Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
opens the gates of fortress France to its children of various African (and Asian)
origins; opens the doors, that is, to these “being perceived.” (88-89)
First generation Italo-Africans tend to express some resentment in relation to taken
for granted assumptions that they couldn't possibly be Italian, and they negotiate white
spatial imaginaries in their quotidian practices. Saba, one of my informants of Somali
origin who works as a cultural mediator at an interethnic association for immigrant
women, jokingly recounts her interchanges with Italian women who phone her office
asking for immigrant domestic workers and qualify their requests with comments like,
“But, Signora, I don't really want to have a 'Black' woman, Not that I'm racist or any-
thing.” The potential clients address Saba formally and assume she's Italian because of
her impeccable command of the language (see Merrill 2006). In one instance Saba asks
an Italian client to come to the office, and she describes with enormous satisfaction the
client's embarrassment upon seeing that Saba is herself a Black woman. Other Italo-
Africans (the majority) who speak Italian with an accent not identifiable as internal to
the peninsula also experience offensive slights on a daily basis. Many seek to take these
interactions in relative stride by developing a Teflon skin and focusing on the Italians
and other Italo-Africans or more recently arrived African who are friendly and appear
accepting of their presence.
With less self-consciousness than the subjects of Keaton's ethnography, these Italo-
Africans instantiate their belonging culturally and aesthetically through for example
their knowledge of and adoption of local cultural manners, customs, and tastes as well
as the incorporation in daily social spaces of a variety of African clothing and hair
styles, foodstuffs, musical instruments and music, art work, books, religious practices,
andformsofsocialitythatarenotasdissimilarfromItalianformsofsocialityasiscom-
monly supposed. In addition, and perhaps of most significance politically in a context
in which a conscious and participatory cultural politics influenced by workerism is be-
ing diluted by neoliberal and technocratic philosophies and policies, Italo-Africans and
otherimmigrantpopulationsarevitalsocialactorsintherearticulationofadisappearing
civic consciousness. In collaboration with a variety of local activist and social advocacy
organizations including the trade unions, Casa della Donna, Catholic associations, and
youth social centers these people not born on Italian soil are revitalizing the grassroots
political climate (Ciafaloni 2011). As a place, Turin is being made by embodied prac-
tices, and biographical formation is interwoven with the becoming of this place (Pred
2000).
Among the most strikingly visible features of Turin's transformation are the La
Movida or youth soirees that have become standard sites of nightly youth gatherings at
bar-restaurantswhosetablesblanketsidewalksandpiazzas.Businessescompeteforcus-
tomers with high quality appetizers, service, and music. In a neighborhood with a high
