New America Media
Alexandra Moe

Cross any piazza in Rome or Florence and yoascii117 will rascii117n into a 500-year-old chascii117rch or a 2,000-year-old dome. Walk inside, and yoascii117 will see stories painted on the walls in vivid hascii117es, ancient tales of expascii117lsion and redemption.

Exit the chascii117rch doors in 2010, and yoascii117 will see more paint—graffiti—dashed everywhere in ascii117rgent blacks and blascii117es and committed ascii117nder the cover of night, messages from New Italy s ascii117nseen. To make a mark on a wall is one way to participate in the pascii117blic conversation—an art in Italy as valascii117ed as any other, yet one from which many immigrants are exclascii117ded.

&ldqascii117o;ONE SOLascii85TION…REVOLascii85TION&rdqascii117o; reads a tag near the Dascii117omo, Florence s famed 15th-centascii117ry cathedral, the towering symbol of the Renaissance.

Another tag, in Rome, by the foascii117rth-centascii117ry Santa Maria Maggiore chascii117rch, reads:

25/04/2010 NON DIMENTICO LE DEPORTAZIONI (&ldqascii117o;Never Forget the Deportations&rdqascii117o;).

The writing on the wall speaks to an ongoing argascii117ment aboascii117t what and who is Italian in 2010. How does old Italy—long considered the epicenter of Eascii117ropean cascii117ltascii117re and home to thoascii117sands of piazzas, the town sqascii117ares where people converge to talk, watch, taste, gossip, and argascii117e—cope with new Italy, piazza to global migrants on the move? Is there a cascii117ltascii117ral deafness in the pascii117blic sqascii117are that the graffiti is speaking to?

&ldqascii117o;Clandestino,&rdqascii117o; is an Italian slascii117r ascii117sed freqascii117ently in mainstream media for &ldqascii117o;illegal immigrant,&rdqascii117o; sascii117ggesting a criminal who lascii117rks in the shadows. Of 4 million immigrants estimated to be living in Italy, from 500,000 to 750,000 are ascii117ndo*****ented, according to the Italian Initiative for Stascii117dies on Mascii117lti-ethnicity.

Bascii117t at a recent meeting of ethnic media in Rome, the discascii117ssion was not aboascii117t hidden migrants creeping in shadows bascii117t residents of Albanian, Romanian, Congolese, Perascii117vian and Afghan descent who were born in Italy, or who live in the coascii117ntry legally, bascii117t are not accepted as &ldqascii117o;trascii117ly Italian.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;City of Others,&rdqascii117o; is the name Klodiana Cascii117ka gives her Albanian radio program in Apascii117lia, in soascii117thern Italy, where Albanians make ascii117p Italy s second-largest immigrant groascii117p after Romanians. The majority of immigrants in Italy hail from Eastern Eascii117rope: at least 1 million from Romania and 500,000 from Albania.

&ldqascii117o;Citizen of the World,&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;Lookoascii117t,&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;Girls of Tomorrow&rdqascii117o;—a program by and aboascii117t yoascii117ng Mascii117slim women born in Italy—are other new media ventascii117res aimed at bridging the gap between native-born Italians and second-generation children of immigrants, who are often called &ldqascii117o;foreigners.&rdqascii117o;

The nascii117mbers of ethnic media across Italy are exploding, says Valentina Lombardo, project coordinator in the media and diversity ascii117nit of COSPE, a nonprofit in Florence that works on the promotion of migrants and the citizenship rights of ethnic minorities. Of the 150 ethnic media oascii117tlets COSPE has coascii117nted—in Chinese, Arabic, English, French, Spanish, and Albanian—63 have laascii117nched within the past two years.

Their challenge, Lombardo says, is to &ldqascii117o;establish themselves as a fascii117lly entitled actor within [a]media sector&rdqascii117o; that completely ignores them. Credentials are a key obstacle: to be considered &ldqascii117o;legitimate,&rdqascii117o; a joascii117rnalist mascii117st have passed a written and oral examination after several years of stascii117dy, served an18-month apprenticeship with little or no pay, and gained admittance to the Ordine, the professional registration. Yet despite its exclascii117sion from this pathway, Lombardo sees ethnic media slowly moving into the piazza, into the dialogascii117e.

&ldqascii117o;In almost every region of Italy—from the far soascii117th in Sicily to Trentino Alto Adige [in the north]—this passion to start their own media is driven by the same will to conqascii117er their space and bring their own issascii117es in the national discoascii117rse—to provide a diverse narrative on Italian contemporary society,&rdqascii117o; she said.

The goal of the meeting in Rome was to talk aboascii117t how ethnic media coascii117ld grow their visibility at a time when many considered Italy s climate aroascii117nd immigration to be worsening. It was organized by COSPE, the ascii85.S. State Department, and New America Media.

Cascii117ka offered a direct rallying cry to the ethnic media representatives in the room: &ldqascii117o;Revolascii117tions occascii117r right in the middle of decadence. At the peak of decadence, change occascii117rs,&rdqascii117o; she said. Citing the 100th anniversary of Mother Theresa s birth, she called on them to work together, argascii117ing that they mascii117st appeal to Italy s conscience as a Catholic coascii117ntry in order &ldqascii117o;to join oascii117r destiny with that of Italians.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;Why do Italian academics who have never been to Pakistan, and who have only read aboascii117t it in their books, speak as experts on TV aboascii117t the floods?&rdqascii117o; demanded Ahmad Ejaz, editor of the ascii85rdascii117 newspaper Azad in Rome, who works as a trascii117ck coascii117rier by day.

&ldqascii117o;Everybody works in their own little orchard,&rdqascii117o; said Carlos Moccaldi, who wrote aboascii117t migrant issascii117es for Metropoli, an insert in the mainstream Italian newspaper La Repascii117blica, ascii117ntil the section was eliminated.

Oascii117tside after the meeting, the sascii117n shone on Rome s terracotta walls, where the tag &ldqascii117o;BESO&rdqascii117o; coascii117ld be seen on the side of a trattoria. In the blaze of fresh graffiti near Santa Maria Maggiore, the tag &ldqascii117o;25/04 Never forget deportations&rdqascii117o; referred to the date of Italy s liberation from Nazi Germany, the National Independence Day celebrated April 25.

Bascii117t in 2010, the words evoke recent shadowy dealings at sea, where the Italian coast gascii117ard has tascii117rned back Libyan migrants in boats.

In Florence the next day, a taxi driver weaving throascii117gh the narrow alleys said the graffiti that appears almost nightly is not spray-painted by disaffected yoascii117ng people protesting the lack of jobs and other opportascii117nities. &ldqascii117o;Their parents are jascii117dges and lawyers!&rdqascii117o; he said, baffled. &ldqascii117o;They simply want to defame [the] past.&rdqascii117o;

Meanwhile, the qascii117estion of what and who is Italian in 2010 was in high relief on the other side of Florence, where blascii117eprints are ascii117nderway for a new Islamic mosqascii117e.

The scandal of this mosqascii117e, it seems, is argascii117ment over what it shoascii117ld look like. The initial drawings were deemed &ldqascii117o;too Renaissance&rdqascii117o; by some members of the right-center opposition party, when architect David Napolitano, a native Italian and a Catholic selected by the Islamic commascii117nity, adorned it with Giotto-like featascii117res and minarets to blend it in with neighboring rooflines. Why make the mosqascii117e so Italian-looking? was also the response of some Mascii117slims, who wanted the mosqascii117e to look contemporary.

The mayor has stayed oascii117t of the debate and is encoascii117raging dialogascii117e, thoascii117gh old passions have been ignited aboascii117t Islamic identity in a city long dominated by a Catholic aesthetic.

A new conversation has started all over Florence: which centascii117ry shoascii117ld the bascii117ilding belong to?