L'Italo-Americano

crops, otherwise known as stoop labor, is displayed. As the discourse over migrants and immigrants roils Italian and EU politics, both Puriur- bana and Terra Animata remind us of the central role, too often devalued, that new arrivals play in our lives. Of course, to Italy's great credit, the country is a world- wide leader in more sustain- able and humane agricultural production. The Slow Food Movement was founded in 1989 by Folco Portinari, who was born in a small town near Turin. Portinari is cred- ited with bringing to a wider audience in Italy, and now worldwide, greater awareness about the environment and encouraging local production of the food we consume, as opposed to the industrial pro- duction of our animal and agricultural products. In 2007 Oscar Farinetti, born in Alba, opened his first Eataly in Turin. There are now more than forty Eatalys around the world. Farinetti's goal, like Portinari, was to encourage and support local production and Italian culi- nary artisanship to promote the Italian brand throughout the world. More recently, a spring edition of Espresso announced that in 2019 Fed- e r i c o R o m e r i a n d N i c o l ò Lenoci founded Pascol in Northern Italy. Concerned t h a t 5 0 % o f I t a l i a n m e a t comes from abroad, Romeri and Lenoci intend to encour- age local production of meat where farmers can better control humane care for their animals and the environ- ment. Pascol also focuses on the more humane raising of farm animals and the impact this "colonization" of the land was incremental without any- one noticing and without much concern for the erasure of Rome's agricultural her- itage. In the process, urban dwellers have lost their con- nection to where and how the very food they eat is pro- duced. At the end of the pavilion is a small fishing boat, placed to symbolize the risks that immigrants take to cross the Mediterranean to arrive in Italy. For most of these immi- grants, "clandestine" is per- haps a more accurate word. Upon arrival, many begin their lives in Italy as low-paid agricultural workers, espe- cially in Calabria and other Southern states. But urban and suburban dwellers who shop at Rome's many mar- kets and grocery stores do so without a thought about the origin of their food and who picks and packages it. The show raises awareness of the solidarity between suburban and urban dwellers and agri- c u l t u r a l w o r k e r s a n d t h e land. The show in the east pavil- ion, Terra Animata, brings images of traditional agricul- tural practices and art togeth- er. It contains displays of agricultural products, seeds, dried fruits, tools, and insects that play a vital role in agri- cultural pollination. There a r e a l s o h i s t o r i c a l p h o - tographs depicting workers and agricultural production from earlier eras. Next to them are suggestive abstract sculptures that reflect our rural spaces and farmland. There is also a room where a v i d e o o f a c t o r s i n a p a n - tomime harvesting low-lying animal farming has on the environment. A s w e l e f t t h e s h o w , I thought about the content of the two shows in the context of the history of the Matta- toio and its industrial pro- duction of meat. In the last century, there was little con- cern for the welfare of farm animals and their slaughter. But the food industry in Italy is changing, and for the bet- ter. Italy is among the world leaders advocating and prac- ticing a more sustainable and humane treatment of the ani- mals slaughtered for con- sumption. Only steps away from the M a t t a t o i o i s t h e N u o v o Mercato di Testaccio, one o f R o m e ' s m o s t b e a u t i f u l markets. On display is the region's bountiful agricultural production and fish from the Mediterranean. Included on shelves are all the well-known DOC products that distin- guish Italy not only at home but throughout the world. But the show at the Matta- toio Museum, with its ship- w r e c k e d f i s h i n g b o a t , reminds us that there is a human element to the prod- ucts we consume: the good prices are owing to the low cost of immigrant labor. The show and the nearby Nuovo Mercato di Testaccio, per- haps not by accident, com- ment upon each other: if we are to maintain our current rate of production, in both quantity and quality, we must do so with concern for our environment and the people who harvest our crops. On that April afternoon, after a short and excellent repast in the market, Carole and I thought that a visit to the place where so much of Italy's local production ends u p w o u l d h a v e b e e n a n appropriate complement to our day: we went to Eataly, which is only short distance from the Piazzale dei Parti- giani. To check the accuracy of our cellular GPS, we asked two kind gentlemen for direc- tions, which they confirmed. As we walked away, one of the gentlemen yelled back at us, "Buon Partigiani," I yelled back at him, "Sì, Buon Parti- giani," as we all laughed. Poli- tics in Italy is never far, even when asking for directions in Rome. architecture and food pro- cessing, or a grim reminder of the history of animal cruel- ty in our food production industry, including the con- temporary slaughter of ani- mals. The two shows contrast the history of agriculture in Italy with art, immigration, and ecology. The exhibits address global warming, food production, and the exploita- tion of those who harvest our crops and slaughter our ani- mals; they remind us of our need to care for our environ- ment in the face of global warming. Unfortunately, the other side of the political spectrum is still inclined to turn a blind eye to environ- m e n t a l c o n c e r n s a n d t h e e x p l o i t a t i o n o f l o w - p a i d immigrant farm labor. In the west pavilion was a show entitled Puriurbana, d e d i c a t e d t o a g r i c u l t u r a l resources and the territory outside the city's center and i t s s u r r o u n d i n g s u b u r b s , which have overtaken too much of the land once dedi- c a t e d t o a g r i c u l t u r e . T h e show extends its scope to i n c l u d e t h e a l l t o o o f t e n unacknowledged role that immigrants play in agricul- tural labor: with historical photographs of workers and fields on the walls, the center of the pavilion displays early agricultural implements and h a n d t o o l s o n c e u s e d b y workers. Most informative of all, one pavilion displays histori- cal maps that show the devel- opment of suburban areas that, over the last two cen- turies, have "colonized" and erased Rome's agricultural lands. The message is strong: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 2023 www.italoamericano.org 18 L'Italo-Americano T he Mattatoio is R o m e ' s m o s t unusual museum. I t c a n o n l y b e compared to the city's other unique museum: C e n t r a l e M o n t e m a r t i n i Museum in Ostiense, a 1930s electric power station, where first-century Roman marbles share the museum space with the power generator still in place in the center of the museum space. Dedicated to contempo- rary art, the museum space was in fact once a slaughter- house, now repurposed as one of the several Rome Civic Museums, which hosts a vari- ety of exhibits throughout the year. As the museum's website explains, it was originally known as the Mattatoio of Testaccio and was designed b y G i o a c c h i n o E r s o c h between 1888 and 1891. The design is considered to be among the most important examples of industrial archi- tecture in the city. Restora- tion began in the early 2000s and the museum opened in 2006. What is unique about the building is that archeolo- gists and architects preserved the original water storage, p e n s , a n d p i g p r o c e s s i n g apparatuses that surround the building. Parts of it also hang from the ceilings of the i n t e r i o r o f t h e t w o l a r g e gallery spaces. In the context of the historical use of the museum, there is a sharp, political edge to the exhibits in the slaughterhouse's two pavilions that Carole and I visited this last spring. The visitor must beware: there is a macabre nature to the structure. Upon entering the site through the front gate, just across the street from the Mercato di Testac- cio, the visitor first sees - still in place, high on the exterior of the building - the iron con- veyor, whose original func- tion was to carry the already s l a u g h t e r e d p i g s i n t o t h e butchering rooms where they were prepared for market. A little farther into the grounds, the visitor can also see the watering troughs and the high steel fences that formed the corrals for the pigs before they were slaughtered. It is grim, yes, but a part of the industrial history of food pro- duction that is still with us. Depending upon the viewer's perspective, the structure is either a fascinating look back into nineteenth- and early twentieth-century industrial KENNETH SCAMBRAY R o m e ' s s l a u g h t e r h o u s e : t h e Mattatoio Museum of Testaccio A detail of the museum's interior and, right, farm tools on display (Photos: Carole Scambray) LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE

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