by Simona Siri
(Translation):
Varied, multiform, made of people now naturalized American and therefore with the right to vote in the presidential elections, the Italian community in New York has never been so attentive to what is happening in politics at this time. The testimonies.
The announcement of Joe Biden’s victory, on Saturday, November 7th, was welcomed in many American cities by joyful celebrations and spontaneous gatherings in the streets. New York was no exception. Donald Trump’s hometown, which has a tense and perhaps unmendable relationship with the President, was the first to take it to the streets, to signal that Trump's defeat was experienced almost as the end of a dictatorship.
Although the President-in-Office keeps refusing to acknowledge the victory of his rival and cries - tweets, actually- about fraud and stolen elections, the majority of the population -a poll says 80%- recognizes that Joe Biden won and that therefore he will move in the White House starting January 20th, day of the oath. Preceded by so much enthusiasm, the democratic candidate finds himself in a situation that is far from easy: at the same time delegitimized by Trump and pressured by the huge expectations of those who see him as the man that will solve the problems of American society.
«I hope a social climate where the word has the right weight and arrogance is banned is coming», tells us Francesca Di Matteo, founder and CEO of "Strategica Comunicazione". She also puts her hopes in the reform of the health system and maybe, who knows, even in the resolution of the age-old gun problem.
«I didn’t sleep last night», writes by email Stefano Vaccara, editor of La Voce di New York, an online magazine that publishes -in both Italian and English- news targeted to the big Italian-American community since 2013. The anguish for the dizzy hang-up that seems to have no solution is in his words. «Trump is planning a coup. The situation is dire. Biden appears smiling and says not to worry; in the meantime, the other guy keeps purging the key roles to put incompetent figures but totally loyal to him, as he just did in the Pentagon and -it’s expected- in the FBI and the CIA. Of the two one: or Biden knows very well what is happening and is studying the counter-moves behind the scenes -but appears calm to avoid the worst from happening in the streets of America- or he and his Democratic advisors are delusionals who have not understood that Trump always does what he says», continues Vaccara -who wrote about Trump's authoritarian push in La Voce di New York back in January 2017.
«I think of myself as an independent", says Rosario Procino, owner of Ribalta pizzeria, the reference point of the Italian community especially on Sundays, when Ribalta becomes the place where soccer fans can watch together the games of the Italian football championship. He has American citizenship and voted. «I despise Trump as a person, I would have preferred a moderate Republican candidate or Michael Bloomberg: I would have paid gold to see him run for President. As an entrepreneur, I am skeptical about the fiscal policy that Joe Biden might adopt, but the scenario that lies ahead with the Democratic President and the Republican Senate seems to create a good balance, and the stock market will appreciate that too. I think that the reactions, the people pouring in the streets, were much more against Trump than an expression of satisfaction for Biden's victory ”.
Having different opinions, experiences, and ideas is the norm within a non-monolithic community. Valeria Orani, entrepreneur in the field of contemporary performing arts, is here with an 01 visa, the one issued to “extraordinary” talents. «The past few years have been very hard on us, the climate we have experienced has clearly been weighed down by divisive policies openly and shamelessly carried out by Trump,» she says. «I always thought that this Nation was a successful experiment of contemporary democracy, but it has revealed many flaws. There’re around 70 days from not to the moment Joe Biden is sworn in, and I’m not totally sure there’s no reason to not be afraid that something might happen. My desire is that of the many Americans who want to continue the long and slow path towards the respect for each and every human being, regardless of race or class. Healthcare, systemic racism, abysmal social inequality. Perhaps after these four years, the evidence of all this is even more clear; but as a European, as an Italian, I will never be able to fully understand some of the things that happen in the United States. I believe my hopes are only in part those of the Americans, but I have more faith in a politician than in an entrepreneur, for sure. And at the end of the day, he is not even an example of an overly brilliant entrepreneur».
«I will never forget the moment when they told me that Biden had become President,» says Semhar Ghebrenegus Salvati: who lives in New York it’s seven years and works in advertising for the fashion department. «The relief I felt then, mixed with the fear that this will not happen. My joy is even greater to know that Kamala Harris will be our Vice-President, it proofs that a better way is possible, and I am looking forward to her starting to work. Anyway, until I see Biden put his hand on the Bible and swear I won't believe it completely. Actually, I'm thinking of going to Washington for the inauguration and taking part in this historic moment».
For some, the crackdown on immigration, even legal given by Trump, to which the blocking of flights due to a pandemic was then added, was a source of stress and uncertainty and meant the impossibility of returning to Italy for the summer holidays and who knows. for those of Christmas what will happen. Fears and anxieties of which Ivana Lo Stimolo, founder of the New York Italian Women group is well aware, the true glue of an increasingly numerous and increasingly socially active group of women, at least before the arrival of the coronavirus. "The impossibility of traveling and visiting families of origin has affected many of us," he says. "Soon I will organize a virtual meeting to exchange views on these elections and to share the sense of liberation we feel right now".