Brevi note sull'essere italiano

(Short notes on being Italian)

Abstract

The author of this essay compares the theories of the ideologue of the Northern League, Professor Miglio, with some documents dating back to the Risorgimento [resurgence]. Miglio writes: “The civil world lies in the temperate area. If we to go where it is very cold, we run into the idiot slavic peoples. If we move Southward, we come across peoples who are dazed because of the heat, a bit like those Mexicans who doze off under their sombreros.” In 1860, while being in Southern Italy, Carlo Nievo, Ippolito’s brother, wrote these words to his father: “Mildness of climate and natural beauty aside, these lands are horrendous under all aspects: their inhabitants are the dirtiest beings I have ever seen; they are sluggish, dumm, and moreover their dialect is so mawkish that it nauseates.” “I would burn all inhabitants alive from the [river] Tronto up to here where I currently am; such robbers they are!” We observe here the birth of the theory of the “two Italies”: the hard-working, European, Celtic people opposed to the barbarians from the South. Yet, postulating an ethnic origin for organized criminality also means providing a powerful alibi for those conniving individuals who act secretely and illicitly for illegal purposes. In today’s scenario, the author looks for resonances with issues of the past. In today’s discourses, he finds words of the past. Meanwhile, he wishes that a new Risorgimento delineates itself on the horizon.