Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
dispossessed from their erstwhile haunts even as they return on weekends from
the often unpleasant and relatively inaccessible suburban districts to which they
have been exiled in a sad, vain attempt to reconstitute as a living social reality the
now-vanished nexus of artisans, workers, and small merchants.
in the central square (locally known as the “little piazza,” or
piazzetta
) of
the monti district
(rione),
for example, such weekend returnees from exile al-
ternate between disconsolate longing and upbeat camaraderie. both emotions
often merge with intense dislike of the east european migrants who also throng
the square. ironically, the self-described exiles frequently subscribe to the right-
wing, economically harsh ideology of which they are the victims, instead blam-
ing the left-wing governments and even the clergy for multiculturalist policies
that, they claim, have displaced them from their rightful homes. Their absorption
of a hegemonic ideology that has treated them so harshly reproduces the political
alchemy of mussolini's fascism of seven or eight decades earlier.1 This rhetoric
and these practices go right to the gut—indeed, sometimes literally so, as when
rightist mayor Gianni alemanno (elected in 2008) replaced the gastronomic di-
versity of ethnic foods in Rome's school, which was the result of an intentional
educational move of a previous, left-leaning city administration—with the view
that italian (and especially distinctively Roman) pasta dishes should be especially
favored. (his move paralleled a ban on opening more “ethnic” restaurants in the
historic center of lucca promulgated around the same time by that city's rightist
mayor.)2 while food may seem a trivial arena for serious political confrontation,
its very ordinariness makes it an appropriate context in which to explore the im-
pact of ideology on everyday actions and perceptions.
such windows on the soul of a city are vitally important to understanding
the dynamics of current political change. This is all the more true inasmuch as
the official rhetoric of tolerance and political correctness has generated a decep-
tive jargon that requires constant decipherment. alemanno's occasional expres-
sions of horror at the violence committed against immigrants and gays appear to
express more irritation with the necessity of making such pronouncements than
genuine solidarity with the groups thus targeted.3 more generally, the rhetoric of
political correctness and especially of tolerance on the one hand and victimhood
on the other serves ideological and political ends that are the very opposite of
what this rhetoric was originally devised to promote. This apparent contradiction
between rhetoric and practice informs much of the way in which Rome today
confronts the challenges and possibilities of cultural diversity.
The people of Rome generally pride themselves on both their distinctive lo-
cal culture and, as part of it, their acceptance of difference. while some would
point to the city's ancient history as the source of Romans' acceptance of cultural
difference,4 such historical and cultural determinism is less useful as an analytic
tool than it is as the expression of an ideological reading of past and present that
informs current attitudes; the claim to have always been generous hosts smacks
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