L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2020 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano A h! Beauty! The gift of th e gods to th eir subjects, inspi- ration to lite- rature, poetry and art of all forms an d colors. Its canons may change from decade to decade, but its essence remains the same, lifeblood of human creati- vity and emotions. An d ugliness? Well, uglin ess deserv es some attention, too: if it's true that every force needs an opposite to exist, then we can thank the ugly for the beautiful, in the end. And if w e b eliev e th e great Umberto Eco, who dedica- ted an excellent book to the philosophy and mea- ning of ugliness, there is a lot w e can un derstan d ab out h uman kin d b y looking at the way it deals with the visually unappea- ling. With out a doub t, th e people of Piobbico, a quain t v illage in th e Pesaro-Urbino province of Marche, cen tral Italy, know a thing or two about i brutti, as it's been home to the World Association of Ugly People — or Club dei Brutti, to say it in Italian — for over a cen- tury. Led b y th e motto "ugliness is virtue, beauty is slavery" (la bruttezza è 'na virtù, la bellezza è schia- vitù"), th e association wants to celebrate diversity and, more than anything, people's freedom of being themselves, with the cer- tainty that beauty, the real one, is within. We of L'Italo-Americano had the pleasure of chat- tin g w ith Benedetta Aluigi, spokesperson of the Club dei Brutti, with whom we learned about its history, its mission and about the beauty and free- dom of being … ugly! The history of the World Association of Ugly People started in 1879: how did it all begin? That year, the number of spinsters in the village had started to rise so th e mayor, the parish priest an d some of th e local "uglies" decided to create a Club dei Brutti, to collect Piobbico's single men so th at un married w omen could find a husband more easily. So, we can say that, at least initially, the Club was a bit like a dating ser- vice! Around the 1970s, the office of "President of the Ugly" was created and it was the first of our presi- den ts, Telesforo (Lelé) Jacobelli to transform the Club into what's today: an institution embodiment of the idea of acceptance, but also of local folklore and cheerfulness. Back then, we had only two TV channels in Italy, but Jacobelli managed to bring the Club on one of the country's most popular shows, Portobello. After that, the Association began to receive letters of sup- ports and the number of members rose. Today we are more than 30.000 in the world: regi- stration usually takes place in Piobbico, during the fair we organize for the elec- tion of the President of the Ugly, which takes place ev ery year, on th e first Sunday of September. On th is occasion , all of our registered members can vote, while new ones can get th eir official card. How ev er, memb ersh ip cards can be issued by our CHIARA D'ALESSIO Welcome to Piobbico's World Association of Ugly People, where "la bruttezza è 'na virtù, la bellezza è schiavitù." "Ugliness is a virtue, beauty is slavery:" this is the motto of Piobbico's Club dei Brutti. (Photo courtesy of Massimiliano Martinelli/@tumassephoto on Facebook) LIFESTYLE FASHION FOOD ARTS ADVICE Continued to page 32

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