Protests erupted over the lights installed in the town of San Giorgio a Cremano, which bore the words of the late actor Massimo Troisi: "I'm not Neapolitan, I'm from San Giorgio a Cremano." The mayor, however, defused the controversy: "Our message was misunderstood. In any case, we will change the sign."
“Those are the words of the very great Troisi, but they have been decontextualized and taken out of context and taken out of context from a broader discussion. Furthermore, our beloved Massimo may have said those words but he never thought of making Christmas lights out of them. Put like that, they seem like a declaration of Northern League origin, very racist towards Naples and Neapolitans. We ask the Mayor to quickly remedy this” – declared the Regional Councilor of the Greens Francesco Emilio Borrelli and the well-known radio host Gianni Simioli. “The controversy over Massimo Troisi’s phrase, the first to be installed in the city, has clearly been misunderstood”. The mayor of San Giorgio Giorgio Zinno responded. “The phrase is an artistic work that reports what Massimo Troisi said in a RAI broadcast: “I am not Neapolitan, I was born in San Giorgio a Cremano!”, quoting among other things the famous Sofia Loren who had said in turn, in an interview: “I am not Italian, I am Neapolitan!”.
Today that phrase, which has become an artistic installation, with the intent of transmitting the sense of belonging to our city, and not to exclude its Neapolitanness, has become the subject of discussion, even bringing closer to the Northern League a city that has demonstrated year after year its strong bond with the South and its history.
How can you call a city that has made inclusion one of its cornerstones and that has claimed southern pride, even writing to the President of the Republic about what has been taken from the South, a Northern League city? Fortunately, I read that many have responded to this controversy, criticizing it as such and fully understanding that neither San Giorgio a Cremano nor Massimo Troisi ever thought of attacking Naples, its land, its inhabitants. With the company that will take over the installation of the lights tomorrow, we are studying a solution, making some changes, to make it clear to those who do not read newspapers or do not know Massimo Troisi the meaning of the writing, thus making it understandable in its real sense: to love one's own territory whatever it is without creating useless barriers".
And yet great lights were expected this year in San Giorgio a Cremano, perhaps because it was believed that given the imminence of the next municipal elections the mayor would have wanted to win back that part of the electorate disappointed by his activity. Perhaps it was thought that after the bitter controversy of last year about the lights arriving close to Christmas, very late and in any case harshly criticized because they only affected small areas of the town, the mayor this year would not have incurred any errors. Last year there were even complaints about the fact that in some areas the lights had nothing to do with Christmas, looking more like "Valentine's Day" lights: in fact, in via Pittore some luminous hearts were put up. And for this reason it was expected that this year the municipal council would not be caught unprepared on the issue. No one expected San Giorgio a Cremano to be lit up like Las Vegas but certainly everyone was expecting decent lights. Instead, this year the Zinno administration has succeeded in the difficult task of sparking even more controversy than last year. Some lights were not appreciated at all, even being labeled as "racist" and in any case not in keeping with the Christmas spirit. The administration wanted to recall the lights this year to some famous phrases of the most famous fellow citizen Massimo Troisi. One phrase in particular has unleashed pandemonium: "I am not Neapolitan, I am from San Giorgio a Cremano". A phrase taken from the film Ricomincio da tre, which certainly had its own logic when contextualized within the film. Taken out of context and used out of place for a Christmas light, it has sparked bitter controversy.
There's even an online petition calling for its removal.
George Kontovas
EDITORIAL TEAM
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