Articles by: Anthony dion Mitzel

  • Op-Eds

    Rico’s Not On A ‘Rolla

    I’m thinking that Rick Santorum is wishing right now that he had a magic Etch A Sketch to erase the poor results in this recent round of high stakes political poker.

    What has turned into a sort of Commedia all’Italo Americana for Santorum has shown that the Republican electorate can’t seem to figure out who they want to run in the general election. I still can’t figure out if he’s Pantalone, Dottor Balanzone, Tartaglia or a mix of all three (also referred to as “masks”, these three principle characters or archetypes are pivotal to the Italian Commedia dell'Arte). With time ticking down, it’s pretty much statistically impossible for “Puerto” Rico Santorum to win the GOP nomination. He has reverted to parlour gags accompanying the image he has created for himself as a modern day Savonarola.

    The Italian American community has taken a number of hits in the past few years regarding its
    image. Santorum, while the polar opposite of Guido culture, demonstrates just how bi-polar the image of Italian America has become. From one extreme to another we are constantly bombarded with televised, passive ignorance versus televised, active ignorance. It’s anyone’s guess which is which. Don’t get me wrong: like mafia, only a certain percentage of the population are actually represented by these images but the impact is disproportionate.

    And no one has more impact than a candidate for President of the United States.

    But I’m not sure that Rico actually represents Italian America. We see very little in the way of signs that make this distinction. Sure, he has what seems to be an Italian, or rather Latin, surname but that doesn’t tell us anything. While coming back to the States a couple of years ago from Italy as I was waiting on the tarmac a flight attendant struck up a conversation by asking where I was coming from. I told her Italy and she went on to say that she had an Italian surname. At which time she also said that her surname was in fact her ex husband’s and, for aesthetic purposes, kept the name. “I love being Italian” she said.

    See what I mean?

    We know he has a fondness for the Catholic church and Opus Dei, even going so far as to be in Rome for the celebration of 100th anniversary of the controversial catholic splinter group. This doesn’t really tell us too much other than Papa Santorum takes his catechism very seriously and I’m not sure that faith alone, while a distinct marker, truly defines Italian Americans much less modern Italians. Just because there is a church on every corner that doesn’t mean they’re actually filled. High church attendance is an American marker when compared to Italy.

    Sadly, the most tragic part of Santorum’s story is that he is the proverbial candidate that could have been. Son of an Italian immigrant from Trentino, the Santorums moved around while Rico was growing up and in particular spent time in western Pennsylvania where Italian Americans are woven into the cultural fabric. The Penn-Ohio, West Virginia tri-state area is synonymous with working class, ethnic culture and a political must-win region. “Empires” (read elections) go there to die. He has multiple degrees and was very successful in a Pittsburgh private law practice before politics got a hold of him. Maybe Attorney Santorum began to see that instead of the priest just using the bully pulpit once or twice a week, he could actually run for office and do it week in, week out. That way he could keep the Mrs. popping out the kids.

    Santorum will be remembered for many things: as a 1400’ish throwback to a simpler time when men were men and women did what they said, the infamous Etch A Sketch gag and, my personal favorite, the “snob” comment.

    Speaking at a Tea Party “tea party” in Michigan this past February, Santorum said, “President Obama wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob!...Oh, I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”

    Awesome.

    I’m not sure if he understands the hypocrisy of a multiple advanced degree holder telling an audience that someone else (President Obama) who has more or less the same credentials is a snob. What is snobbish is to pander to the working class people of Michigan who have been disproportionally hit by the 30+ year long dismantlement of heavy industry in the Rust Belt. As a former Ohioan I can tell you that we’ve gotten promise after promise from the travelling political theatre road show. College education is well out of reach for many of these voters and by extension, their children. And it’s education and hard work that give people a greater chance to break poverty’s cyclical nature. While it’s not impossible with all the colleges and state universities of varying cost in the Midwest to earn a bachelor’s degree, the student debt issue for middle to low income American families is beginning to rear its ugly mug. This affects decisions to take on debt associated with higher education.

    And, besides, the only image Papa Santorum wants to remake you in is his.

    To his credit, though, he did speak about the trades as a viable option to college education. Finally, something we agree on. Rico’s only problem is that most of those jobs are union organized and probably won’t be voting for Santorum, let alone republicans. What comes across to me is his uncanny ability to fall into the paternalistic “do as I say and not as I do” category.
     

    In the end, I think Bad Lip Reading’s faux political add for Santorum on YouTube said it best. “I’m crazy, and I’m right”. 

    That about sums it up.

    So it would seem that Rico’s chances of being the Republican candidate seems rather far fetched. But the good news is I think I figured out which character from the Commedia dell’arte he is: Il Dottore.  Known as Balanzone, he can be wealthy, angry and egotistical, someone who loves the sound of his own voice. He also doesn’t listen to anyone because only he knows what is right ,even if they are experts. Often depicted as elderly and constantly speaking nonsense, many of his jokes are made at the expense of women.

    Il Dottore is the alter ego of Pantalone played by Mitt Romney. The embodiment of greed and status, “Mittalone” often carries a concealed money bag causing him to walk with a hunched back that often gets stuck requiring assistance to help right it. Newton Gingrich embodies Tartaglia, who was turned into a statesmen by Carlo Gozzi (read Nelson Rockefeller), never quite losing the habit of pontificating. His work status is in continual flux from politician to professor to lobbyist and back to candidate again. No one really knows where he’ll land. And it’s because of characters like these that the GOP is in disarray.

    And so, thus ends our Commedia della Primaria or Comedy of the Primary.

    In his black cape, cap and moustache exit stage right Santorum.

    Curtain.
  • Facts & Stories

    The Storm, 2012

    Cesena (FC) - In scenes reminiscent of the Valykino Estate in David Lean’s “Dr. Zhivago,” the cold Siberian air has mixed with a North Atlantic anticyclone descending upon Italy in a perfect storm scenario bringing with it freezing temperatures and snow: lots of snow. For a film reference a bit closer to home, one you hear while you’re having a “grappino al bar,” it all comes back to Fellini’s memory inspired tale “Amarcord” (Romagnolo dialect for “mi ricordo” or “I remember”).

    Set in the fictional town of Borgo, a major part of the film takes place during and after a severe snow storm (most likely the blizzard of ‘27) which turns the city into a fantasy land for the towns’ kids. What we are experiencing here in the heart of the Romagna could be considered similar. But for the thousands of people without electricity and the elderly who can’t leave their homes, I think the fantasy ended about 24 hours into the blizzard when the snow got knee high and trains started getting stuck. The fluffy white stuff is not unheard of here, especially in the higher altitudes, but the sheer quantity, duration and constant accumulation is. Ironically, a couple weeks ago “The Day After Tomorrow” was on the tube. Who knew the day after tomorrow would be today and it would last a week.  

    On a train to nowhere, literally

    I knew things were getting serious when the train my wife was on got stuck midway between Forlì and Cesena in the middle of the Pianura Padana hinterland where the snow was already waist high. She and more than 600 other “pendolari” were there on the tracks for more than 7 hours without heating and intermittent light. A locomotive was sent from Fellini’s hometown of Rimini to tow them on, but the rescue train ended up breaking down too. A third locomotive from Bologna was finally able to tow them back up to Forlì. My “wifesical” got home at 11pm. Currently she’s nursing a bad cold. Time to go a normal 10-14 minute route: 9 hours. This story was not unique. There have been reports of trains getting stranded all over the country. One in particular from Rome to Pescara was stuck for 24 hours at a small station in the Province of L’Aqulia. Toscana, being our western border, has also been hit hard with trains also being delayed and cancelled. The province of Forlì-Cesena is one of many that have opened a formal inquest into the mismanagement of the emergency situation and the functionality of the trains themselves. Many are left to wonder why places such as Switzerland and other much colder, poorer nations such as Moldova do not experience malfunctions like those of Trenitalia during severe meteorological events. 

    University of Bologna system cancels opening week of semester

    Even the schools have been left in limbo. The University of Bologna system has cancelled the first week of the new semester in response the critical situation concerns road was and commuter transit. Last week Thursday and Friday classes where cancelled at the Forlì campus when it became apparent the weather wasn’t about to let up. Still no clear date as to when classes will begin.

    Send in the troops: Italian military mobilized to help dig out cities of the Romagna

    Even the schools have been left in limbo. The University of Bologna system has cancelled the first week of the new semester in response the critical situation concerns road was and commuter transit. Last week Thursday and Friday classes where cancelled when it became apparent the weather wasn’t about to let up. Still no clear date as to when classes will begin.

    Send in the troops: Italian military mobilised to help dig out cities of the Romagna

    Due to the large masses of snow and the difficulty the communes are having with its removal, the Italian military has also been mobilized to aid many provinces. They arrived on the outskirts of Cesena a little before noon Saturday. Two days after the sky fell. Since most of Italy is either mountains or hills the logistical challenged posed to local rescue services and ambulances due to the ice and incline of the Preappenine terrain is taking its toll. Dr. Alessandro Berti of the 118 emergency medical service has stated that it is almost impossible to reach many people who live in the  hills due to the narrow roads and 2 meters of accumulated snow in some places. Waiting times have tripled. In the city nine minutes has become 30 and outside the city twenty has become at least an hour if not more. As for fatalities around the most affected zones, no real numbers are out yet but there have already been 16. Some of which are due to shovelling snow while others due to hypothermia, which is becoming an increasing worry due to temperatures dropping more this week. Human haven’t been the only fatalities. In Rimini, the roof of a poultry nursery collapsed killing 50 thousand chicks. 

    Thousands without, food stocks running low

    With the peek of the storm predicted for Tuesday, the focus may have to shift from snow removal to combating low temperatures. This week it can be expected for temperatures to hover in the low 20s to the high teens, which will almost end any hope of a thaw, thus leaving the huge snow piles, invisible sidewalks and roads that look like skating rinks. As if things still couldn’t get worse there are still an estimated 85 thousand in North Central Italy without power, many of whom in smaller communities of less then 200 people. In the cities, and many other hard hit areas, however the emerging problem is the inability of supermarkets to restock foodstuffs due to the impassibility of the roads. Coupled with the high fuel costs of heavy transport, you can count on more turmoil in the form of protests when the snow thaws. Both supermarkets close to my house were bare after the snow began and you could sense a palpable tension in the small, crammed markets as people bought all they could. Many people I spoke to kept using the war-time analogy to describe the situation. 

    Even though there is general disorder, there has been no criminal activity, which gives hope that people can come together in moments of difficulty. Everywhere you go you see people helping each other. The city put out an appeal for anyone with a shovel to come out and help remove snow, but that’s not going to stop the criticism that has been levelled all over the country about the handling of the event, which I won’t get into. One owner of a local kiosk that sells piadina, a flat bread specialty of this area, offered to make food available to the emergency workers and anyone who needed something to eat. A small piece of daily bread can make a huge difference. Out on my evening walk, which by the way is now a journey, everything is covered in frozen white. Ice is starting to form. The forecast for the next couple of weeks is cold and colder which means the snow is not going anywhere. Still, it’s fascinating to see the old structures buried putting everything and everyone in place. Reminding us that there are things we cannot change but can only deal with. “Pazienza, pazienza…”. 

    ----
    * Dott. Anthony Dion Mitzel
    Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori,
    Università di Bologna, Sede di Forlì >