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We start this new column today, Night-night America: a correspondence from New York City where he lives Alessandro Casiraghi, a member of Arcigay Valle d'Aosta Queer VdA (who also celebrates his birthday today). This is the first installment. Enjoy the read and have a good trip!
Like every morning, I woke up to watch the news and have breakfast. But I couldn't stomach anything. On TV, there was... Obama giving his first speech as President, and I was moved.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is the place where anything is possible (…) who doubts the strength of our democracy, tonight is the answer.”.
And then he made a list.
“It is the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and non-disabled.”
That same evening, I went online and printed out the speech. I didn't even read it all. I wasn't interested in understanding what the rest of it said. That sentence was enough for me, in which I felt, for the first time, a politician included me for a part of who I was.
For years, I'd followed Italian political debates, waiting for someone to say something that included me. I wasn't expecting something intelligent or revolutionary—I'd almost immediately smothered that hope. I simply wanted a phrase that would allow me to say, "Okay, I'm here too, just like everyone else.".
I pinned the speech to the wall above my desk, prominently displayed. I wanted to remind myself every day that "gay" wasn't just an insult or a loaded word to be carefully shared with a small circle of friends. "Gay" could also be the opening line of a speech by the President of the United States of America.
That speech had shaped my vision of America. A nation welcoming everyone, free and ready to embrace everything new, forward-looking, eager to experiment with new models, new geometries.
It was November 7, 2008. I was in Verrès, Italy.
I had no idea that exactly ten years later I'd be moving to America. I had no idea that I'd stay in America.
Before I left in 2018, I was warned: "Americans are racist, homophobic, and ignorant." But the imminence and excitement of leaving for New York had overshadowed the warning. The America I had in my mind continued to be the one from Obama's speech, and in my haste, there was no room for any other scenario.
I've been living in New York for almost two years now. In these months, my idea of America has had to confront reality. I've had to reconsider many pieces of that image, question them, accept them, and finally overturn them. Until the mosaic has changed.
But it wasn't enough. Because with the pandemic, the economic crisis, the racial conflicts, and the tensions filling the pre-election debate, all these pieces seem to have ended up in a blender. Not only the idea I had formed, but also the reality I'm living in are changing, faster than I can comprehend them.
My idea of America did not contemplate a policeman pressing his knee on a man's neck until he suffocated. He did not contemplate a A seventeen-year-old armed with a rifle fired at protesters.. He did not contemplate a President suggests voting twice to undermine the democratic system.
It did not contemplate systemic racism or conspiracy theories rising to political status.
Yet all this happened, and is happening, quickly. And trying to inform myself and write is the way I've found to try to provide answers to an idea of America I've had to reconsider and an American reality that is changing.
Mine is a partial attempt, in both senses of the word. Partial because I'm not an expert on all the topics I'll be discussing, but I'll try to support them as much as possible with data and references I've gathered over the past few months. Partial because my stories are influenced by who I am: an Italian, gay, immigrant, with a background in the Aosta Valley public administration and then a move to a private American company. Or, to put it simply, someone who's simply curious to understand what the hell is going on.
Alessandro Casiraghi
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