No.n 1996 Rosella Postorino, now 43 years old, had her father accompany her to Siena, where she would have enrolled. During the whole trip, in the car, they listened to a cassette with Song, by Lucio Dalla. They were hours of tenderness and complicity: Rosella would be the first in her family to graduate. Her father had been with her when she had passed, and passed, the selection tests. And he now he let her go, aware that she would start a new path in autonomy, away from the family. Thus began the speech that the writer, Campiello award in 2018 for The tasters, held in Piazza del Campo, in Siena, in 2019, in front of recent graduates, as a former student. Today that speech, enriched and updated post-pandemic, is the core of a nimble, very inspirational and very affectionate book dedicated to young people, Me, my father and the ants. Letter to the children on wishes and tomorrow (Salani publisher).
Rosella Postorino, 43 years old. Photo by Carlo Gianferro
Let’s start with the title ants. what do they have to do with her and her father?
I am referring to an episode that took place when my father was a child. He was born into a peasant family, in the morning before going to school he looked after the animals. One day, in elementary school, they asked him to do a research on ants. He had no books in the house, there were no libraries, he had an idea: he began to observe them. His relationship was so successful that he even won a prize of 3000 lire. Here, this story tells how I feel a privilege to have been able to study.
But studying is a right, not a privilege.
I know but I have lived it on my skin. My father sold fruit and vegetables. Thanks to scholarships from the University of Siena, I was able to study the subjects that I was passionate about, do Erasmus in Vienna and meet young people from all over the world. I was able to know, which means preparing to face the contradictions and difficulties of relations between peoples. Only knowledge makes you strong and free.
But his father won the award because he didn’t give up, he did the research his way.
Of course, it gave me stubbornness and a sense of duty. As ants do, hardworking, persevering. But be careful not to completely exclude the “cicada” part in each of us.
What does it mean?
The message: «you can do it if you commit yourself», goes in parallel with «if you don’t succeed it means that you have not committed», and is related to the sense of guilt. Very dangerous especially today, in a society where you are constantly asked to be performing, and if you can’t do it it means that you are a failure and you will never be happy. But the concept of happiness is not simple, it does not have a single definition. First of all, because the individual one also depends on society. If you go from one precarious contract to another, it is difficult to lay the foundations for happiness. I started working in 2003, but only in 2016 did I get my first permanent contract. But there is also another discussion to make.
Which?
Each of us should ask ourselves deeply about what we really want, about personal dreams, not induced by family or society. Maybe the dream is not a career but something that society does not recognize. To the boys I say: stay close to your desires, even to the most “cicada” part of you. Try to understand what gives you energy, well-being, where your essence is. Only then will you not betray yourself.
Did she succeed?
The social lift worked for me. Thanks to the school – in which I believe very much – I made the leap. I was able to study, read, write, which for me means taking care of people, putting myself in the shoes of others. I have been a migrant, we are all migrants; how many of us have left to improve their existence?
What relationship do you have with your father today?
Since I started working it has become an equal, because I finally felt like an adult. In 2001 I did an internship in Rome, it was very hard, I came home late, I did the shopping and I cooked. I thought: this is the life of adults, this is the life of my parents.
In the book, she wishes young people to be feminists. Even to males, why?
Because gender stereotypes enclose everyone, male and female. Being a feminist means being on the side of justice.
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