Sicily - Where Dreams Matter

posted by Geoff Andrews at Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Four years ago I wrote an article for Open Democracy on Sicily’s ‘other story’, namely the movements which have grown in opposition to the power of the mafia, political inertia and the fatalism embedded in everyday life. This ‘other story’, the phrase used by Rita Borsellino in her election campaign at that time, was comprised of an underlying belief in truth and justice, the importance of ethics in public life, the possibilities for change through associationism but above all by the unbridled hope amongst many people that, however difficult the circumstances, if you have a vision of an alternative, a dream of a different way of living, then anything is possible.

This seems to be what is driving the alternative food movement in Sicily, notably the success of Slow Food, along with other initiatives including the use of land confiscated from the mafia for wine and olive production, the energy and imagination behind seasonal food celebrations held on different parts of the island, and above all the importance of eating together. Slowly. Food encompasses many positive aspects of Sicilian life, the artisanal pride of the producers, the extraordinary and unlimited hospitality, and the rich cultural history. This was evident again on my most recent visit, with the unique tastes and flavours of the island, the electric cultural diversity of Palermo, the extraordinary setting of the Kolymbetra Garden in the shadow of the temples in Agrigento, and above all the outstanding welcome of the people.

Carlo Petrini, Slow Food’s International President, has spoken positively of utopias, ‘of thinking big and thinking positive…no fear of dreaming, of inventing, of finding connections between things that seem disparate from each other’. He is right. In Sicily, change always seems difficult but the commitment of the people to make the break is matched by the creative imagination of an alternative. Perhaps food, more than anything else, has assumed the positive aspects of Sicilian identity that will make it happen.