Lorenzo Peerani created an original Children’s Coloring Book based on his essay on critically rethinking Italian regionalism and borders between regions. Read his introduction below:
Lorenzo Peerani is an MA Geography postgraduate scholar at the University of Zurich.
Created and written by: Lorenzo Peerani
Edited by: Jasnea Sarma
The tale of Mozzarella, Flour, Tomato, and Oil blending harmoniously to craft a pizza – is a colouring book both for adults and children that rethinks Italian regionalism and borders between regions. The book serves as a poignant symbol of Italian solidarity despite regional differences. Just as these ingredients meld to create a savoury delight, Italy draws strength from its diverse regions, traditions, and cultures. Each region, represented by the ingredients, with their own qualities and weaknesses, brings its own unique flavours and characteristics to the vibrant mosaic of Italian identity. By embracing these distinctions, recognizing their significance, and collaborating, Italy showcases its true richness, transcending regional biases and epitomizing unity in diversity. Embracing acceptance and unity not only enriches the nation but also fosters bonds beyond borders, both nationally and internationally. This children’s and adult colouring book not only mirrors and critiques the current Italian situation but can also be viewed as a message of acceptance towards other cultures and ethnicities, imparting a significant lesson about embracing immigrants not just at a bureaucratic level but also on a social and emotional plane.
Food culture is also one of the main themes that I wanted to illustrate in my book. This project began with a question: “If national identity is lost, how does the conception of national food staples like pizza (of which many Italians are very proud) change? In a fragmented Italy, can pizza still be affiliated to Northern regions even though it originated in the South?” With this somewhat critical question regarding recent political movements in the peninsula, I’ve demonstrated how pizza, as a fusion of identities and ingredients, stems from a blend of diverse traditions that come together harmoniously.
From the outside, it looks like the borders and barriers between identities in Italy are drawn along the line of migrants/refugees, citizens, and Italian citizens. Yet looking deeper, these boundaries between identities seem to betray regional bordering processes, long rooted in Italian history. Even if independence and regionalistic approaches can be seen as efforts towards decentralization, the regional valorisation of culture, and economic advantage for some regions, the reasons why certain Italian regions have sought independence include flawed ethical or moral justifications. Geographic prejudices and intra-national racism caused by socio-economic differences among Italy’s regions reshape regionalist thinking, transforming it from an interconnected framework with poorly-defined borders into a demarcated line that reinforces regional discrimination ideologies. The rise of regionalistic boundaries, potentially accompanied by a decline in nationalistic ideologies, could demarcate social divisions, particularly in intra-national migration, which may subsequently impact international migrants.
“We don’t rent to Southerners” (Non si affitta ai Meridionali) was a common slogan hung on the streets of Turin in the 1970s, during the economic boom. With the expansion of the well-known Fiat automotive industry, a significant labour force was needed in the outskirts of Turin, and the majority of workers came from Southern Italy to work in the North1.
Signs of this kind allude to the economic condition of the Southern regions of Italy, often referred to as the ‘Mezzogiorno‘. This region has long been a subject of study due to its socio-economic challenges compared to the wealthier North. This disparity has been (and unfortunately it still is) attributed to issues such as crime, corruption, and policy misuse, which have further tarnished the economic image of the southern Italian regions. Consequently, there is a high unemployment rate in these regions, leading to stereotypes portraying workers from the South as lazy, lacking work ethic, and inferior in intellect. This has led to the creation of terms like ‘Terrone‘, derived from ‘terra‘ meaning soil or land, alluding to the peasant or farmer origins that many from the South were historically associated with, perhaps also hinting at the feudalistic past under the reign of the two Sicilies, before the Unification of Italy in 1861.
These acts of discrimination against Southerners are still observed today. It’s the story of Annamaria, a fifty-year-old divorced elementary school teacher from Trapani (Sicily), who saw her rent raised because “you can’t trust those from the South”, even if she always paid her rent on time. It’s the even more tragic story of Deborah, a 29-year-old student whose rental request was rejected after the landlord discovered her city of origin. “I don’t care if you’ve been here since you were little, it matters where you were born. Southerners are no different from blacks and gypsies,” said the landlady2. These words may seem unheard of in 2024, yet they represent the (silent sometimes) realities that still occur today. Such ideologies, followed by individuals like the landlady, are propagated to the public through populist parties in Italy, such as the neoliberalist one called ‘The League‘, formerly known as ‘The North League’, using the disparity between North and South as its rallying cry (later adapted to garner votes from the South of Italy as well).
Parties of this nature leverage the promotion of regional independence, especially economic, to benefit the wealthy regions of Italy. Initiatives have been particularly appreciated, especially in the North (but not exclusively), in regions like Lombardy (where Milan holds significant economic power). However, this does not imply that it is solely a sentiment of the ‘northerners’, but also of regions in the South. Even someone like Annamaria, who has faced discrimination for her place of origin and is stereotyped by colleagues as lazy, has been led to consider that individualistic management at the regional level could be advantageous for her region. The strengthening of regionalistic mentalities can lead to the fragmentation of the Italian nationalistic identity, an identity rich in cultural heritage, tradition, and food culture.
This book aims to raise awareness among both young and old about the broader issue of racial tolerance and the harmful practice of stereotyping or treating individuals differently based on their place of origin (both within and outside the nation itself). The project encourages learning about political geography indirectly through a simple activity like reading and colouring a story. Possible future projects could involve translating this book into Italian, as it covers topics and situations that have occurred in Italy, and perhaps introducing new themes on contemporary political issues in the form of other colouring books.
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