On Saturday 3 September the second volume of the series on the world of women will be on sale: relay races and fighters protagonists of the battle for emancipation
The instinct could be to jump immediately to page 77, to the chapter The protagonists. Because names often escape and instead count. Even if no one has ever denied (but many have forgotten) the role of women in the Resistancebiographies do justice to faces that often haven’t had time to age. The partisans died like, or even worse than the partisans when they fell into the hands of the Germans or the Fascists: it was enough that they had hosted a fugitive or, in their pockets, a message to be delivered to some formation up there in the mountains. But the disappearance of a relay race was considered, after all, a minor loss.
The Silent Resistance. The combatants in the Italian Liberation War from Massimo Canutititle and author of the second book in the series The history of women edited by Barbara Biscottion newsstands on Saturday 3 September with Corriere, fills a void in the usual narrative of the months ranging from 8 September 1943 to 25 April 1945. It returns an identity, a value, a series of rights and recognition of the female component opposition to fascism and the German occupiers.
Yes, ever since. Barbara Biscotti underlines this in her introduction, quoting the experience of Franca Pieroni Bortolottiprotagonist of the Tuscan Resistance and later founder of the studies of political history of women in Italy: at the time of the liberation of Florence, she and the other girls of the women’s defense groups were charged with prepare the red handkerchiefs for the partisans they were about to go down to the city. A task presented to them as fundamental for politically orienting the less prepared elements. Probably those who assigned it did not even have the vague suspicion of discriminating.
Canuti’s research illuminates the path with dates and circumstances, starting from that October 16, 1941, one day still in the midst of world conflict and food shortages, when a group of women attack a Barilla van loaded with bread and distribute its contents to the population. For the first time – the author notes – hundreds of women are putting their jobs and their safety at stake by demonstrating against fascism. And it goes up to 1 July 1949 when it comes out Agnes goes to die by Renata Vigan, a novel about the Resistance set in Comacchio. The book wins the Viareggio literary prize and will be translated into 14 languages.
In between there are the events of a female generation who, to quote the curator, did not contribute or participated, but (at least in good numbers) he made the liberation struggle. That large army did not remain in the rear, it did not just replace the men engaged at the front in factories or offices. They were also at the front. According to estimates, easily inaccurate by default, about 70,000 women took part in the Resistance and he also took up arms: More than 4,500 were arrested and tortured, 623 were shot, hanged or killed in combat.
In Emilia Romagna there was also a research on their social origins and it turns out that over 50% were housewives, 13 workers, 11.5 peasants. Less represented are teachers and students (6.5), artisans (6.3), office workers (5.3), freelancers (1.8) and traders (1.2). They spread out between civil resistance and armed strugglebut in the first case the recognition of their commitment was lower than that granted to the combatants, even if treating the wounded partisans or hiding their weapons in the barns exposed them to lethal risks.
Their it was not low labor: in April 1944 the first issue of a sheet came out, Noi Donne, where the actions taken were told, but also the slogans useful for the continuation of the Resistance. It was distributed by some of the same authors, such as Marisa Cinciari Rodano, aware of the risks to which they were exposing themselves.
Exactly, their names. Many are mentioned in the history books: Ada Gobetti, Marisa Ombramilitant in the Garibaldian formations of the Langhe, such as Tersilia Fenoglio Oppedisano; Elsa Oliva, who reached the rank of commander in Valdossola, but in the victory parade was merged with the Red Cross women. And other examples, such as Maddalena Cerasuolo and Marisa Musu. This volume also searches among the tombstones of those who not only did not obtain leading positions, but also lost their lives: Irma Bandiera, Natalina Vacchi, Anna Maria Enriques.
Only a minority took up post-war political life. And only 17 partisans (against 570 men) were decorated with the gold medal for military valor. It is worth discovering who they and the others were, the younger sisters, including nuns and perpetuals. Always on the voice: Protagonists.
The second volume of the series on the female world
Massimo Canuti’s book La Resistenza taciuta is out on newsstands on 3 September with Corriere della Sera. The fighters in the Italian Liberation War, at a price of € 6.90 plus the cost of the newspaper. This is the second volume of the series La storia delle donne, created in collaboration with Io Donna and edited by Barbara Biscotti, professor of Institutions of Roman law and History of Roman law at the Milano-Bicocca University. The series includes 25 titles, dedicated to the role played by women in the most varied fields of human activity, which has often been overlooked or misunderstood over time. In this regard, as far as our country is concerned, the vast participation of women in the partisan l0tta, as relays in charge of keeping the connections, but also as fighters, is of considerable importance. In an Italy in which women had never voted and had been relegated by fascism to a clearly subordinate role, the trial of the Resistance had a mobilizing effect that paved the way for the important subsequent conquests in the sense of women’s emancipation. the book The conquest of power will come out with the Corriere, again at a price of € 6.90 plus the cost of the newspaper. Queens and empresses of Francesco Merlino. Followed by: Andrea Dusio, Portrait of an artist. Painting, sculpture, avant-garde, performance (September 17); Giovanni Landi, The city of ladies. Courageous, authoritative, authoritarian: women in politics (24 September); Ruth Migliara, The philosophical genius. Great thinkers from antiquity to the twentieth century (1 October).
September 1, 2022 (change September 1, 2022 | 21:26)
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