REVIEW: The Trojan Women – an Adaptation of Euripides’ Trōiades

by Johanna Back

This is the title of the play under which the AnglistenTheater performs their newest production on Thursday 29th June, Friday 30th June, Tuesday 4th July, Thirsday 6th July. You can attend this capturing drama in Hörsaal II, starting at 7:30 pm each day. The performance lasts for about 60 minutes and stars capturing emotions, intense and musically accompanied dialogs, as well as a perspective on the loss of women after wars.

The Trojan Women

The Trojan War is over, many Trojan men have died, leaving wives without husbands, sisters without brothers, and mothers without sons. Amongst these women is their queen Hecuba, wife to the king Priamos, leading a group of women and children taken to the shores of the Aegean Sea, awaiting their fate to be traded off as the trophies of the victorious Greeks.  

Gradually, Helena, the seeress Cassandra, and finally Andromache, Hector’s wife, arrive on the beach with his young son Astyanax in the circle of women, while in the background the conquered city completely burns down and gets destroyed by the soaring flames.

A Little Bit of Background on the Drama

The Trojan War was a ten-year long war of the Greeks against the citizens of the city Troy. The was triggered because the Prince of Troy, Paris, kidnapped the Queen of Sparta, called Helen. Her husband’s brother, King Agamemnon, took this kidnapping as an opportunity to attack the city with his army to invade the city and expand the territory of the Mycenean Greeks. At one point the Greeks were on the verge of losing the war because they were low on resources, caused by the longevity of the war and the Greeks not being able to conquer the city. But they then recalled on the plan of building a wooden horse, to get soldiers inside of the city walls. They offered this horse as a gift to the Trojan citizens. This deceit helped the Greeks to the opportunity of intruding the city unnoticed. They then invaded the city at night, murdered a lot of people and set the city on fire to finally destroy it.

This is the situation of when the drama starts. If you want to know how the story continues, you should go and watch the play.

I Watched It and This Is My Own Opinion

To start this off, I have to say that I was impressed by the performance of the actors and actresses. They poured all their heart into the performances and really brought the characters to life. The atmosphere of the drama is capturing from the start, and you can just immerse yourself in the story that’s told because the setting is really intimate since the stage is close to the audience. This intimacy also aids the audience to experience and feel the deep emotions of the characters portrait by the actresses and actors.

As far as language is concerned, I have to say that I did not have a hard time understanding the plot and the conversations on stage. However, the vocabulary used throughout the monologues and dialogues is rather sophisticated, so keep that in mind. But also, don’t be scared of it, because it suits the atmosphere of the drama well.

My favorite scene is towards the end. The scene was so intense, and the actors were so immersed in their characters, that the intense emotions even brought tears to my eyes and almost made me cry. If you want to know which scene in particular I am talking about you should go and see the drama of the Trojan women. I highly recommend it!

Who’s the cats that won’t cop out?

And who’s calling out cops over catcalls?

Augsburg’s kind of a small, quiet city – if you’re going to call it a city at all. Not the place you’d think globally received activism is happening. So when a local Instagram blog somewhere in the 500-like margin suddenly receives over 10,000 upvotes for a single post, is endorsed by a New York-based blog with almost 200,000 followers and reported on by the Süddeutsche, you know things are either going exceptionally well – or shit’s hit the fan.

Sorry, I live behind the moon. Come again?

We’re pretty sure you already have some basic idea of the issues we’re going to address in this article – and if you don’t, you might want to take a closer look at your social media habits. But let’s recap, shall we? Last Wednesday, December 09th 2020, a new post was uploaded to the Augsburg-based Instagram blog @catcallsofsaugsburg. As per usual, the photo showed a catcall, an unwanted sexual statement experienced by a woman. The perpetrator’s exact words had been written on the ground in chalk in the exact place where the catcall had happened – at a very central location, the Rathausplatz – by the activists behind @catcallsofaugsburg to raise awareness. They’ve been doing this for a while now, so what’s new? Well, as followers were informed in the caption, several police officers and fire fighters came up to the scene with a fire truck shortly after the writing had been created and flushed the whole thing away with a fire hose.

So what’s catcalling?

Catcalls entail sexually charged comments, loud whistles, or inappropriate touching, usually performed by men on passing women, (supposedly) gay men or trans people. They may be paired with discrimination of people with disabilities or – as was the case in our example – POC (People of Color), among other groups. The question why far too many men engage in this heavy-handed behavior comes up a lot. Now, there are a range of explanations: on the one hand, toxic masculinity still has a huge impact on our society and seems to lead men to all kinds of inappropriate behavior, even against better knowledge. On the other hand, women are still being sexually objectified to the point where catcalling is received as some sort of twisted compliment by some: “Don’t make such a fuss and be happy about it,” victims are often told. Er, no. Street harassment is everything but a compliment. A compliment is an expression of respect and affection.

Catcalling, on the other hand, is harassment that can instill fear. Some victims suffer long-lasting psychological wounds from it. It is a severe humiliation which imposes male dominance and superiority over women and minorities, often intended to make the victim feel powerless and out of control. Catcalling is a global problem; that’s why @catcallsofxyz blogs were created, a social feminist movement that originated in New York City and has spread from there to many cities around the world. By chalking up all the rude and inappropriate comments and incidents on the street these blogs provide a platform to those who are affected by street harassment – and initiate public debate.

Take this as the trigger warning of the century – it’s getting ugly!

There had been another, earlier post published on @catcallsofaugsburg two days before – i.e. on Monday, December 7th. It showed the fire truck in action and was followed by a few paragraphs of explanatory text in the description. Apparently, passers-by had called the police because the writing was irritating them. Now, it did include some very nasty words, was evidently sexist and even contained a racial slur. However, judging from the actual photo that was uploaded two days later, the purpose should have been more than obvious all along. The writing included an anti-racist hashtag, the name of the blog and a huge trigger warning at a very prominent position. The word fuck and the n-word were both censored, using asterisks. Evidently not the kind of lengths you’d go to if you were just a sexist Neo-Nazi trying to make people feel bad, right?

To some, it wasn’t that evident. According to @catcallsofaugsburg’s Instagram captions, a climate activist camping nearby had to inform the police about the purpose of the writing and the movement behind it. Still, they proceeded to call several colleagues and, since said activist refused to remove the writing (not sure why that should have been his job in the first place), the firefighters. So far, so exaggerated. Since this kind of media attention can be very uncomfortable even to an anonymous victim and create further trauma, @catcallsaugsburg got back to the person that had experienced the catcall and made sure they still wanted it published. Two days later, the actual photo was uploaded. As of now, both posts have been liked several thousand times. Seems fair to say a lot of people don’t agree with the procedure, including, for instance, the slightly more popular @catcallsofnyc. So where’s the problem?

Mistakes were made…

Now, there seem to be several dimensions to this event, and it’s probably safe to say that more than a few people were implicated in one way or another. First off, there’s the passers-by. Let’s take a walk in their shoes, shall we? You’re walking past some writing on the ground, now you’re stopping to read it, oh look! Profanity, sexist language, a racial slur… Irritating for sure, we’ll give you that. But you’d probably read the whole thing, wouldn’t you? At least if you’re going to call the police over it, right? Do that, and you’ll find out: there’s a trigger warning. Words have been censored. An anti-racist hashtag has been added. An Instagram blog has been tagged. There’s zero immediate danger to you, so why not get out your phone for a bare minimum of research first, if you’re still not getting it? Same goes for the involved police officers, who had been informed about the purpose of the whole thing. It’s very clearly feminist activism; that should be easy enough to understand.

Of course, that’s the nice way of reading it, assuming there was zero bad will, only lack of information and poor judgment. But there’s another, more uncomfortable reasoning: maybe some passers-by simply couldn’t stand being confronted with the discrimination that women and POC face daily and felt they couldn’t just ignore the whole thing and move on. Maybe they didn’t like the idea of victims speaking up. Maybe cracks were starting to form in their bubble, but they wouldn’t allow it to burst. Why get informed about discrimination and, crazy suggestion, learn something from it, when you could just shoot the messenger instead? Better call the police and have them remove all traces of the traumatic event you‘ve just had to endure, right? Luckily, they’re ready to help.

… followed by more mistakes…

And then, of course, what’s up with three police cars and a fire truck? If you’re just going to remove chalk – crazy suggestion: use a bucket of water, not a fire truck. Literal kids use these things on asphalt or concrete, and they’re gone with the first drop of rain. So are we talking about a waste of taxpayers’ money? Yeah, but there’s also the attention a fire truck in front of the town hall’s going to create – meaning there’s the danger of attracting additional bystanders, apart from the overly large number of officers and firefighters already involved in the whole affair. All of these people will end up spending an unnecessarily long time huddled together in a mask-only zone, while a pandemic’s going on. All of that, just to show some presence? Totally worth it. A victim goes through all the original trauma of an unwanted encounter, risks bringing it all up again by contacting anti-catcalling activists, tries to make a statement by sharing their story… and then, that statement’s literally going down the gutter, because some bystander who’s probably never had to endure any of this themselves is feeling uneasy. By removing the chalk, the perpetrators are not only protected; the victims are also actively deprived of their voices! What a slap in the face.

…. and they couldn’t leave it at that, either.

And here come slaps no. 2 & 3: a reply by the police and an official statement by Augsburg’s mayor Eva Weber that are visible on @catcallsofaugsburg. Now, it was to be expected a police statement would be supportive of the police, and it’s a fairly polite and informative message overall – which is precisely why the final paragraph sticks out like a sore thumb: “the incident quoted in the writing – should it actually have taken place as described – constitutes a criminal offense that we […] would like to follow up on.” What’s with the relativization? Is that some sort of police language, some (clumsy) way of avoiding a premature assignment of guilt to a suspect who’s not yet been proven guilty? As in calling someone a suspect instead culprit to make sure everybody gets a fair trial? But there’s no suspect anyway, and there’s nothing premature in saying a “quoted incident” constitutes a crime. Calling it a quoted incident already implies you’re working with what you’ve heard, really. Why be so upfront in saying there’s (major) doubts about the truthfulness of a report that was never even filed? Could that be a cover-up for the fact that hardly any catcaller is ever punished or even identified? And by the way, maybe victims would feel safer reporting offenses if you weren’t eliminating their public statements.

It’s also a crying shame that Eva Weber didn’t have in her to dissociate herself decisively and vigorously from the police’s behavior in her official statement. Instead, she only fed the press with a half-baked statement that’ll, ultimately, change nothing. She also didn’t drop a single remark about the racial slur being used, only referring to respect for women in very general terms. Unfortunately, this further proves how too many politicians and government institutions are losing their grip on our reality and the current, modern problems of our communities.

Did we mention mistakes?

What a double standard: We can protect our concrete from chalk but can’t protect victims from catcalling. We pay attention to the sensibilities of bystanders but not to victims when they speak out. What’s up with that? If we want to address this mismatch, we need social movements like catcallsofxyz! We need people to start taking the stories seriously as well as paying attention and listening to them. It goes without saying that the solution of this problem is not reinforcing public police presence or implementing short-sighted laws. The source of the problem is deeply rooted in society: the patriarchy – you knew it had to come up somewhere. We must disintegrate harmful structural and constitutional thinking patterns by developing media and public education initiatives to change attitudes and behaviors. We need to publicly demonstrate intolerance for sexual harassment of all kinds. And we shouldn’t have to waste time justifying our anger and our activism!

A huge thanks to the activists behind @catcallsofaugsburg. You really are the cats that won’t cop down. Keep up the amazing work (that we all wish you didn’t have to do)!

Authors: Niklas Schmidt & Mariana Silva Lindner

The cultural identity of someone who switches between 4 languages every day

Many people assume that being multilingual has only bright sides, especially if someone speaks one of the languages they’ve been trying to learn for ages. And in that specific context, they might be right: the one speaking a language “naturally”, without searching for words or asking themselves if the structure is correct, might at that moment feel good about speaking that language. But that’s not the whole story.

Languages convey cultures

Conventional wisdom has it that language is related to culture, particularly if you learn it at an early age. If your parents talk to you in a different language from the one spoken in the region/country you live in, they unconsciously convey a certain sense of otherness; this aspect normally extends to other aspects of life and influences the way they are perceived.

Some might enjoy talking in a different way and having another code while others might just want not to be different, depending on their personality and on the social prestige of the language they speak.

Whatever the case, when you speak another language, especially as a means of communication in everyday life, you will adopt another culture as well. It does make a difference whether your mom tells you “du siehst heute müde aus” or “dai non fare il monello che viene la polizia” or “stai ma la un loc” or “is somebody tired today?”.  They all convey culturally different meanings, even if they are semantically similar.

“Are you more X or Y?”

Sometimes, people will ask you  which culture you really belong to, and no matter how unimportant or obvious  the answer might be to you, you are still going to wonder why you have been asked that question. For many people the answer might be obvious: a “mixed culture”; others may not be aware of having one, or be proud of having a mixed one, but it’s still going to be a special cultural identity.

Me

I don’t feel like I have a mother tongue anymore: each one of my languages has “missing parts” or “non-native speaker fields of vocabulary”. I have no answer to the question “Are you more German/Italian/Romanian?”. I was relieved when I managed to speak German well enough to not be asked where I was from anymore. My children are learning German as their first language and the other languages I speak as a sort of foreign language.  I don’t know if that was the right choice. I do know, however, that this was the best way for me to simplify the cultural issue.

Conclusion: where will your children be “at home”?

There are, of course, many cognitive advantages in learning different languages at an early age, and everybody should be aware of that. However, there are disadvantages to being multilingual as well:   sometimes it means having to decide where you want to belong – and where you want your children to  feel at home.

Author: Ana Maria Silberhorn

Un’intervista con Tommaso Meozzi

To all the italians, italian students and those who are curious about this language: we’ve got a treat for you!

Do you remember eMag #34 with its main topic “language and identity”? If not, go ahead and check out the article “Le parole sono bombe”. This is the videointerview correlating to it.

Interview with SZ -colleagues A European perspective…

Maria Aquaro, who teaches Italian

1. What do you miss most about your home country? And what do you like best in Germany?

Oltre alla mia famiglia, mi mancano il calore della gente, che comunque prima si sentiva molto più di adesso, il mar Jonio e tutti i colori, i sapori e i profumi ad esso collegati.
La cosa che apprezzo di più in Germania è l’aria di libertà che si respira nelle grandi città, il rispetto per il diverso.

2. How has your language/identity changed over time?

La lingua della mia infanzia è l’italiano ma sono sempre stata esposta a più lingue, e sono cresciuta con il desiderio di studiarne tante, per cercare di scoprire, capire, conoscere culture diverse dalla mia. Adesso tante lingue fanno parte della mia lingua interiore.

3. What role does ‘bilingualism’ play in your life?

Io e mio marito abbiamo scelto di vivere in Germania perché abbiamo sempre ritenuto che fosse importante per i nostri figli crescere quantomeno bilingui. Per essere veri cittadini europei è necessario conoscere più lingue europee.

4. What would you recommend someone from your country coming to Germany?

È importante essere consapevoli del fatto che la cultura di appartenenza non è quella “giusta” in assoluto. Per un approccio positivo è necessario fare tabula rasa di tutti i pregiudizi.

5. What was your reaction to Brexit?

Da ragazza ho passato tante estati in Inghilterra a studiare inglese con tanti ragazzi da ogni paese d’Europa. In tutta sincerità sento di essere “diventata europea” proprio in Inghilterra. Ed è per questo che la Brexit è motivo per me di enorme tristezza.

Fredrik Ahnsjoe, who teaches German, and who has also taught Swedish

1.What do you miss most about your home country? And what do you like best in Germany?

Det jag faktiskt saknar mest är somrarna, naturen, kusterna och känslan som infinner sig omedelbart efter att ha passerat gränsen.

2. How has your language/identity changed over time?

Mina föräldrar kom till Tyskland 1973, då var jag två år gammal. Hemma pratades det alltid svenska. Om man sedan bara kommer till Sverige en gång om året några veckor under sommarlovet avbryts språkets naturliga utveckling. Släktingar påpekar då från tid till tid att det låter en aning gammalmodigt när jag pratar…


3. What role does ‘bilingualism’ play in your life?

Att vara tvåspråkig gav mig chansen att få jobba på universitetet här i Augsburg som lektor i svenska – nog det bästa som kan hända en språkmänniska som älskar sitt modersmål men har studerat germanistik i Tyskland. Nu är det Tyska som främmande språk som gäller – inte illa det heller!

4. What would you recommend someone from your country coming to Germany?

Att diskutera är bra, men här lär du dig att ta beslut!

5. What was your reaction to Brexit?

Hur kunde ni?!?

Luis Martín, who teaches Spanish

1. What do you miss most about your home country? And what do you like best in Germany?

Lo que más echo de menos es el mar y el contacto con los míos, mis amigos, el ambiente por las calles, la comida…

De Alemania me gustan los bosques, los veranos en los lagos; también la sensación de que las cosas funcionan…

2. How has your language/identity changed over time?

Sin duda alguna se produce una simbiosis entre las dos lenguas y las dos culturas. Entras en una especie de estado esquizofrénico: no eres de ningún sitio y de los dos a la vez. Vives una sensación de extrañeza y desarraigo constantes: para los de allí soy el alemán, y aquí sigo siendo el español. Digamos que tengo una doble identidad; al fin y al cabo soy géminis… (risas)

3. What role does ‘bilingualism’ play in your life?

El bilingüismo es fundamental en mi vida. Desde que vivo en Alemania es el pan de cada día. Con mis hijos lo integramos desde el primer día. Pero no solo aquí experimento el bilingüismo. También en España vivimos con la familia de Barcelona situaciones de bilinguismo y diglosia.

4. What would you recommend someone from your country coming to Germany?

Que debe tener la mente abierta y aceptar que las cosas aquí son algo diferentes. Ya sabes: In Rome do like the Romans (risas de nuevo)

5. What was your reaction to Brexit?

Incomprensión, tristeza, impotencia frente a la estupidez humana. Creo que ha sido una decisión en la que todos vamos a salir perdiendo. También creo que la población británica ha sido manipulada inflando el sentimiento nacionalista. Fue una lástima que los jóvenes no participaran más activamente en le referéndum; porque serán ellos los que sufrirán las consecuencias en el futuro fuera de la UE.

Christophe Lips, who teaches French

1. What do you miss most about your home country? And what do you like best in Germany? 

J’habite à l’étranger depuis si longtemps (quasiment la moitié de ma vie déjà) que j’ai désormais l’habitude de savoir patienter jusqu’au prochain séjour pour pouvoir obtenir ce qui pourrait me manquer. En fin de compte, rien ne me manque plus vraiment, si ce ne sont des petits moments comme lire un journal/un magazine sur la terrasse d’un petit café dans une petite ville française 😉
Ce que je préfère en Allemagne : l’aménagement des infrastructures pour favoriser la mobilité en vélo. Et, au fond, c’est tout un mode de vie (plus écologique, plus lent, moins stressant) qui est favorisé.

2. How has your language/identity changed over time?

J’ai découvert qu’une identité évolue en fonction des expériences, dont les expériences à l’étranger. J’essaie de m’approprier le “meilleur” (c’est subjectif bien évidemment) de chaque culture que je rencontre pour me construire et avancer dans la direction qui me convient le mieux dans la vie. Mon identité est en constante évolution, au rythme des découvertes d’autres cultures et modes de vie, mais aussi au rythme de mes découvertes linguistiques qui m’aident à comprendre profondément comment une culture est influencée (et influence) un langage.

3. What role does ‘bilingualism’ play in your life? 

Je vis dans un environnement trilingue, voire quadrilingue, au quotidien, que ce soit chez moi, ou au travail. C’est un ‘outil’ de travail, de communication, de rencontres et de compréhension de l’Autre et du monde au quotidien.

4. What would you recommend someone from your country coming to Germany?

“Ne traversez pas quand le feu est rouge, sous peine d’essuyer les regards les plus durs!”. Traverser la rue lorsque le feu est rouge en Allemagne (une habitude très répandue en France), c’est, j’ai l’impression, comme si je bousculais l’ordre établi, comme si je ne respectais pas tout un système construit autour du respect des règles qui doit éviter le chaos et favoriser les libertés. Un petit geste anodin pour un Français, mais lourd de conséquences en Allemagne.

5. What was your reaction to Brexit?

Etonné d’abord, parce que je ne pensais pas que cela pouvait arriver. Puis, déçu et triste de voir une Europe qui n’arrive pas/plus à se construire. La construction européenne est certes un processus, avec des progrès et des revers, des hauts et des bas, mais lorsqu’un pays décide de quitter l’Union européenne, le revers n’est pas sans conséquences. Je suis un enfant de l’Union européenne, j’en ai profité à travers mes voyages, les projets financés par l’UE, etc., pour rencontrer l’Autre et continuer de construire (jusque ma propre famille) ce projet humaniste inédit et exceptionnel. Aujourd’hui, elle est fragilisée et cela m’inquiète évidemment. C’est d’autant plus inquiétant que les arguments sont basés sur des questions d’identités et de cultures notamment. Puisqu’il n’est pas possible d’agir directement sur cette décision, tirons-en des leçons! La plus importante à mes yeux : c’est de ne pas/plus faire l’erreur de considérer une identité/une culture comme un phénomène fixe et facilement définissable. L’identité et la culture sont mouvantes, évolutives, dynamiques et bien plus complexes que la simple démarche de poser des étiquettes sans fondements ou de tenter de ‘ranger’ les Autres dans des boîtes. Cette démarche est en effet dangereuse car elle est réductrice et nous empêche de comprendre le monde dans sa riche complexité.

picture: pixabay

Lasciatemi cantare con la chitarra in mano, lasciatemi cantare, sono un italiano vero?

Identità: Il complesso dei dati personali caratteristici e fondamentali che consentono l’individuazione o garantiscono l’autenticità, specialmente dal punto di vista anagrafico o burocratico. Siamo davvero soltanto quello che un libro anagrafico dice di noi?

 Polisemia identitaria   

 In realtà, il concetto di “identità” muta profondamente, a seconda che lo si adoperi all’interno di un discorso matematico, filosofico o sociologico. Quindi, la prima cosa da fare quando se ne parla, è considerare in quale ambito se ne stia parlando, per quali fini, e quindi con quali significati. In ambito matematico l’identità evidenzia per definizione ‘’L’uguaglianza fra due espressioni nelle quali intervengano una o più variabili’’ ma, a prescindere da ciò, sia in ambito filosofico che sociologico, il concetto di identità indica una caratteristica, o un elemento, o un’idea che renda distinguibile un individuo da tutti gli altri. Caratteristiche, elementi e idee che filosoficamente non ammettono sfumature, e indicano una qualità, o un insieme di qualità, che non consentono ambiguità, e tanto meno confusioni.Sociologicamente invece, essi non rimangono fissi, ma evolvono sia rispetto alla crescita dell’individuo, dall’infanzia alla vecchiaia, sia per effetto dei cambiamenti che si verificano a livello sociale, dato che ciascun individuo è inserito in una società e ne viene influenzato. Perciò sarebbe lecito affermare sia che l’identità di un individuo, o di un gruppo, o di una comunità, sono qualcosa di permanente e di non negoziabile, che non ammette alterazioni, in quanto o si è se stessi, o non si è, sia quanti sostengono che, al contrario, l’individuo, i gruppi e le comunità, pur avendo coscienza di sé, modificano lentamente e necessariamente tale coscienza nel corso dei processi storici, sociali, culturali, economici e linguistici.

Uno, nessuno e centomila

 Ma possono la matematica, la filosofia o la sociologia farci capire chi siamo realmente?

Probabilmente no. Sicuramente no, ma di certo la ricerca della propria identità accompagna tutti noi attraverso un cammino lungo e tortuoso, un cammino da seguire per tutta la vita, pieno di domande e quasi mai di risposte certe.

Siamo il paese dove siamo nati? La lingua che parliamo? La cultura a cui apparteniamo? Sono le nostre idee a definire la nostra identità? Oppure siamo uno, nessuno e centomilacome affermava Pirandello? Chi può dirlo? Sono domande che ognuno di noi si è posto almeno una volta nella vita arrivando quasi sempre a pensare che forse Pirandello aveva ragione. Almeno nel mio caso è stato così. Cambiare paese, cambiare città, parlare un’altra lingua per inseguire un sogno infatti mi ha portato molte volte a riflettere su chi io sia realmente, e soprattutto a cercare di capire se avere lasciato la mia patria abbia fatto di me un nessuno, un italiano un po’ meno italiano insomma, perché è lì che sono nato, cresciuto e diventato quel che sono oggi. Beh, di certo questo cambiamento radicale mi ha reso più centomila che nessuno. Perché? Perché la mia identità, come quella di ognuno di noi, non è solo il mio paese, la mia cultura o la mia lingua, quello è solo il punto di partenza. Avere arricchito il mio bagaglio culturale di nuove esperienze, di nuovi punti di vista e di nuove idee non ha fatto altro che incrementare il mio essere, in continua evoluzione, facendomi rimanere sempre e comunque uno, me stesso con le mie radici appresso. Un me stesso con nuove esperienze da raccontare, in più di una lingua ormai, in perenne ritardo e con quell’insaziabile voglia di pizza da colmare. Alla fine sono italiano, no?

Si, essere uno, nessuno e centomila non è poi così male e credo che sia questa la definizione di identità più realistica che si possa dare. Identità è essere tutti diversi, ognuno con le proprie radici, la propria cultura e il proprio bagaglio di esperienze, ognuno uno, ognuno nessuno e ognuno centomilaa seconda della situazione, a seconda di ciò che si decide di essere, perché in fin dei conti siamo a noi a noi decidere chi siamo e come siamo. Nessun libro o vocabolario può spiegare chi siamo. Perché siamo ciò che viviamo e ciò che scegliamo di essere. In quanto a me, lasciatemi cantare con la chitarra in mano, lasciatemi cantare, sono un italiano, un italiano vero. E sento nel profondamente di esserlo ovunque io sia.

Text & picture: Giuseppe Mattia Lombardi

El fin de la guerra

finguerraUna mujer camina por la ciudad destruida. Los tacones de sus zapatos resuenan en la acera polvorienta. La mujer pasa por ruinas, ladrillos abandonados y pilas de ceniza. Todo es gris o negro. Pero no la mujer. Su vestido delicado emite un aura festiva, los cabellos rubios están bien arreglados y sus ojos resplandecen de alegría. Ella sabe que la guerra ha terminado.

La mujer cruza una calle llena de agujeros, sus pasos se aceleran. El rápido eco de los tacones. Allí está lo que queda de la estación. Los niños vuelven del campo, los hombres del frente. Él regresará también. Ella lo sabe. La estación está llena, otras mujeres, niños y niñas, gritando, riendo y llorando. Hablando y esperando a sus padres, hermanos, hijos, maridos, prometidos y novios. Llega un tren dañado, resollando y echando vapor. De repente, el vestíbulo se vuelve aún más caótico y ruidoso, en el aire se mezclan la felicidad, el luto, la esperanza y la certeza.

¿Dónde está? Ella sabe que él está allí, detrás de alguna espalda, detrás de alguna cara desconocida, ella lo sabe.

La mujer se da la vuelta, demasiadas personas la rodean, no puede ver.

– ¡Allí!

Ha retornado. Ella lo sabía. La guerra ha terminado. Los dos huyen de la estación abarrotada de gente. La mujer baila en la calle perforada, con su mano se ha colgado del brazo del hombre. La mujer salta y salta de felicidad. Una bomba, dormida bajo el adoquinado, se despierta con el ruido de los tacones que golpetean el pavimiento destruido. La bomba no sabe que la guerra ha terminado. Para ella, la guerra no tiene fin. De pronto, una explosión violenta destroza a la calle. Sin piedad un mar de llamas devora las ruinas, los tacones y a un hombre y a una mujer.

Text: Viktoria Rossi