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| Photo of the Genio di Palermo at Palazzo Pretorio, by Fabrice de Nola |
Yes, It's been a while - almost a year really.
My writing has gradually petered out over the past years for various reasons.
My daughter is probably the most important. She's three now and both me time
and us time just keeps getting more and more precious. The second is an unclear
idea of exactly who I am writing to. When I started out, both on the web and
for the Giornale di Sicilia, I
imagined myself writing a kind of love letter to the dejected Palermitani,
hoping to show them how magic they and there city were through the eyes of an
American.
Nobody is as critical about Palermo as its own
people. They will assure you that it is the most backward, dirty, ignorant city
known to man where it is impossible to ever DO anything - anethema exemplified.
I have always been fascinated by this love-hate relationship the people here
have with their city. In the beginning, that's what bewitched me most about Palermo.
At first I thought that this conflict was at
the root of the problem, that the Palermitani had been conquered and humiliated
by so many other people throughout history that they just needed a little
encouragement in finding a new, more positive identity for themselves other
than the downtrodden victim. I got
a lot of my ideas from Leoluca Orlando's Primavera di Palermo (Palermo's
Spring) during his 2 first runs as mayor as told by Jane and Peter Schneider,
two American Anthropologists, in their book Reversible Destiny, Mafia,
Antimafia and the struggles for Palermo. The very title bespeaks to
American optimism. I can't imagine a Sicilian ever thinking of Destiny as being
reversible, at best he might think of bartering his way out of it.
This is a city that chose the Genio di Palermo
(seen in the blogs header) as it's symbol - a crowned midget with a serpent
sucking from his breast. There are various representations of this figure
throughout the city, but I think the inscription on the the Genio di Palazzo Pretorio says it most
clearly; "Panormus conca aurea suos devorat alienos nutrit" or "
Palermo, the golden bay, devours its own and nurtures the foreigners." Is
this self depreciation something far to ingrained in the culture to be overcome
by a new branding strategy...and if it were eradicated what would be left of
the culture? Is it, perhaps, an integral part?
But time passed, I've been living in Palermo for
over 5 years now. I came almost immediately after graduating from Berkeley and
have had the bulk of my adult (work and family) experiences here. As the
honeymoon period wore off with the city (more or less in conjuction with having
a child. The city's eccentricities become much less cute when they threaten the
health and safety of your offspring) It became harder and harder to write. I
was confused about my relationship with Palermo, it was becoming more and more
ambivalent.
I was becoming Palermitana. At some point I ceased to be an observor and went
native, I had been infected with the oppressive cynisism tipical to the
Palermitani that nothing would ever go right and that there was little use trying.
Corruption, favouritism and dysfunction would always win. But that little germ
of American can-do was still persisting somewhere.
When I met Fabrizia Lanza through Manlio, I
immediatly recognized a fellow Sicilian/ Cosmopolitan hybrid. She was relaxed, hospitable,
sympathetic and knowledgable about the frustrations of trying to make things
work here, but also in love with her Island and passionate about wanting to
share it's treasures with the rest of the world through her cooking and school
(annatascalanza.com). We immediatly started hatching projects and that can-do
part of me came alive!
Fabrizia needed an intern to help her in the
garden and kitchen and I thought of an old friend of mine from my Landscape
Architecture degree at Berkeley. He had asked me for some advice about putting
together a propsal for the American Academy in Rome to study the relationship
between stories and food. I hadn't heard from him since and supposed that he
hadn't gotten it. But maybe I could do better!
When I wrote him, I found out that he had just
finished teaching a P.O.N. class in London to a group of students from a small Sicilian
Agricultural school and loved it. He was looking
for a new job while working nights in a pub to pay his London rent. He jumped at the
chance and within a couple of weeks he was here! Everything moved so quickly.
That brings us basically to the present.
Andrew has just arrived and is staying with me here in Palermo for a week. He
has never been to Sicily before, and has the opportunity to see the city from a
fresh angle. We decided to link our blogs (his is handsomeandys.blogspot.it)
together and create a kind of dialogue about Sicily - as seen from the point of
view of a new arrival and that of a well-seasoned expat who is almost as
Sicilian as she is American.
I think exciting things are in store for us (and
you readers as well). Stay tuned...
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