L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano ANTHONY DI RENZO Rom a Roma Pasquino defends the world's people NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS L ong before dawn at a Roma camp on V ia Tiburtina, Marco and Dacia Spinelli load their rusted VW van; rattle passed an abandoned peni- cillin factory, where dozens of Senegalese squatters are exposed to chemical waste and asbestos; and head again for the centro storico to try their luck at Campo de' Fiori. If all goes well, the couple will work here for the next eighteen hours. Their great-grandparents , who migrated from Pescara to Rome after World War I, read palms, sharpened knives, and trained horses. Their grandpar- ents toured w ith the Circo Nazionale Togni. Since these trades are defunct, Marco and D acia s truggle to find other ways to make a living without antagonizing residents. From 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., they sell copperware in Campo's open-air market beneath the stat- ue of Giordano Bruno. A librari- an from Devonshire buys a full set of pots and pans for her cot- tage. This transaction upsets a burly, bearded man, who spits into a sauce pan and leaves a tract. "Gypsies," it reads, "are the children of Cain, cursed to wander the earth and sweat at the forge (Genesis 4:1-16)." After the market closes and the square is hosed and swept, Marco and Dacia convert their stand into a puppet theater and stage paramišá, fairytales, for kids coming home from school. When Dacia gives a straw doll to a six-year-old girl, a nanny drags the child, kicking and squalling, to the far end of the piazza and scrubs her hand in the fountain. Come evening, the couple entertains patrons from local r e s t a u r a n t s , b a r s , a n d p u b s . M a r c o p l a y s t h e a c c o r d i o n , w h i l e D a c i a d a n c e s a r o u n d Bruno's statue. A tipsy mezzo from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia asks Marco to accompa- ny as she sings Stride la vampa. Maybe she has forgotten that this haunting waltz describes the exe- c u t i o n o f a R o m a w o m a n , burned at the stake like Giordano Bruno but for witchcraft rather than heresy. The Spinellis are familiar with judicial murder. During World War II, their relatives— along with a half-million other Roma—died in Nazi concentra- tion camps because of Benito Mussolini's racial laws. This dis- graceful history has not prevent- ed Matteo Salvini, Minister of the Interior, from calling Roma vermin or raiding their settle- ments. "Ruspa pronta per gli zin- gari!" he posted on Twitter, after a police officer was stoned last Easter at a camp on Via dei Gor- diani in Rome's Prenestino dis- trict. A bulldozer is ready for the gypsies but, Salvini emphasized, "a peaceful and democratic" bulldozer. Two months later, he vowed to conduct a census of R o m a i n I t a l y , a p r e l u d e t o expelling those without valid residence permits. " U n f o r t u n a t e l y , " S a l v i n i a d d e d , s i t t i n g a t h i s d e s k i n Palazzo del Viminale, beneath a p a i n t i n g o f t h e C h r i s t C h i l d between the Madonna and Saint Anne, "we must keep the Italian Roma. But everyone else will have to go." All talk. As Luigi Di Maio, leader of the Five Star Move- ment, coalition partner of Salvi- ni's far-right Northern League, said, a census based on ethnicity is unconstitutional, "so we can't do it." But when politicians blow their whistles, the dogs come barking. TV pundits and talk- show hosts denounce the "gypsy invasion." Tabloids sensational- ize the overcrowding, poor sani- tation, petty crime, and drug abuse in Roma camps. Govern- ment and media license hatred. October is always tense. Hal- loween punks decked in head- s c a r v e s , e a r r i n g s , a n d v e s t s harass the Roma beggars at Ter- mini Station. To commemorate the March on Rome, CasaPound holds anti- gypsy demonstrations in Piazza Venezia. This year marks the centennial of Fas- cism's birth. Fresh from a pil- grimage to Predappio, Mussoli- ni's birthplace, party members wear black shirts and religious trinkets made from bullet shells. Nothing proclaims one's love of God and country more than a .38-calibre rosary. Giordano Bruno, condemned for claiming that the earth is not the center of the universe, would have objected. The cosmos, he taught, contains thousands of inhabited worlds, full of alien s o u l s a s h u m a n a s o u r s . O f c o u r s e , t h e R o m a b e l o n g i n R o m e ! W h y s h o u l d n ' t t h e w o r l d ' s p e o p l e l i v e i n t h e w o r l d ' s c i t y , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n Campo de' Fiori, crossroads of the nations, where fried garlic mingles with toasted turmeric, a pushcart prepares pork bánh mìs near Antica Norceria Viola, and Buddhist and Capuchin monks minister to the homeless? Bruno's statue says nothing, however, when a passing A.S. Roma fan hurls a beer bottle and yells: "Gitani!" Spectators laugh. Still, as the Spinellis pack to leave the square at midnight, it is easy to mistake the dew forming on Bruno's face for tears. Once again it is heresy in Rome to defend other worlds, other peo- ples. P a s q u i n o ' s s e c r e t a r y i s Anthony Di Renzo, professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at direnzo@itha- ca.edu. The Giordano Bruno's statue in Campo de'Fiori, Rome (Ⓒ: Dreamstime)

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