 |
Was there
room for everyone? It would appear there was during those first
years of the ‘60’s. Many people travelled to the industrial
capitals of the North in search of work and to make their fortune. It
was a time of rebirth for the country, which was enjoying a period of
well being and an expansion of trade with the outside world. The
celebrations for the Centenary of the Unity of Italy at the Fiera
Campionaria in Milan (Milan Fair Grounds) and the Salone
dell’Automobile in Turin (Automobile Fair) were examples of the
pride felt by the national industries, able to exhibit the best of
their production and design on these occasions.
“Carosello”, the nightly programme of TV commercials,
displayed with enthusiasm the best of our national brands, consumer
goods and consumer durables as well as symbols of Italian technology
well known throughout the world such as the Vespa, Cinquecento,
Giulietta and Ferrari cars, Ignis white goods, Olivetti typewriters and
the furnishings “invented” by Gio’ Ponti and
Pirellone, his great pride. But this collective euphoria didn’t
last. With the end of the 60’s and for most of the 70’s the
larger cities became theatres for social unrest: student and labour
union demonstrations, strikes, barricades, “Brigate Rosse”
and celerini (motor cycle police). The author, who himself made
this trip as an immigrant from the South, starts his tale from the
early years and describes the hard times experienced by those who left
what they knew in their homelands to journey North. He does this by
analysing the expectations of a group of twenty year olds who go to
Milan to “study and work” at the time when society was
slowly mutating from being heavy industry based to a service industry
culture. This picture subsequently expands to take in the newest
arrivals, the immigrants from the Third World and all the problems of
the present day. Stories about the immigrants of yesterday and today
told with a hint of nostalgia for what was good and what was beautiful
about the past and the difficulties brought on by what is happening in
our cities today which appear not to have any more room for new
arrivals. The future is uncertain and will require much courage and
collective commitment in the years ahead
12 Euro - 
|