Thankfully, the voices speaking out against the comments made by the ‘moderate’ President of the Senate, Marcello Pera, have been numerous.

Amongst those criticising Pera’s warnings against a ‘mestizo’ nation, were former Prime Minister, and one time leader of the Democrazia Cristiana party, Giulio Andreotti.

“The President of the Senate has his merits. Last year he brought Cardinal Ratzinger into the Senate. Though one couldn’t discern who was the Cardinal and who the President”, quipped Andreotti, before going on to say that “there’s a real risk of being racist when using expressions like ‘the Europe of Mestizos'”.

Addressing the same conference where Pera had made his remarks, the Meeting, Andreotti, as if fearful he’d be accused of being some sort of lily-livered secularist, took advantage of the stage to speak out against gay marriage (“Do we have to lavish praise on ‘inverts’?” – in the sense of a reversed sexuality).

Andreotti, as pointed out by Franco Grillini, a deputy of the Democratici di Sinistra party, is hardly a poster boy for moral instruction, having been found guilty of criminal association (including during the years of his premiership) only to be absolved later, due to the statute of limitations. Amongst his supposed associates were Toto Riina, head of the Mafia.

That’s not to belittle his contribution to the ‘mestizo’ debate. It’s heartening to see that people like Andreotti are prepared to argue against a position that, given the current climate of fear in Italy, is all too easy to take.

The politicians though, for the most part, even when contradicting Pera, miss the point. They suggest that Pera’s remarks border on racism, and are thus dangerous. This is true, but more to the point, Pera’s remarks are profoundly mistaken and anti-historical. For someone who suggests that Italians must recognise their own identity, as a matter of urgency, the Senate leader is blind to the peninsula’s past.

To find the Italian identity, one is better served looking away from the soundbite culture of politics, and into the more general culture.
Italian band Almamegretta sang about it in their 1993 hit Figli di Annibale [Sons of Hannibal], reminding Italians of Pera’s caste that Hannibal and his army of ‘Africans’ lived and loved in Italy for over fifteen years during the Second Punic War. “That’s why so many Italians have dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair […] Mediterranean blood, Blood of Africa. We’re all sons of Hannibal”.

You can hear it when you listen to the magnificent folk music of Southern Italy called the Tarantella, with its Arabic influences.
The vocal inflections of Pugliese singers, who wail while twisting to the manic music, could be substituted by Egyptian singer Umm Kalthoum without eyebrows being raised (or ears twitching suspiciously).

You can taste it when you eat dried pasta, like Spaghetti, an Arabic innovation introduced to Italy through Sicily.

You can see it in the Celtic symbolism chosen by the resolutely anti-foreigner Lega Nord.

Even in the halls of sainthood, in Pera’s European Christian Church, you can see it. San Benedetto ‘il Moro‘, the Church’s first black saint, was a Sicilian.

The truth is that Italy is a mestizo nation already, and its art, culture and cuisine is much the better for it. Over the centuries invading armies [Celts, Greeks, Normans, Arabs – to name but a few], traders, and pilgrims have all left their mark on the Country’s culture, traditions, and blood lines. Pera’s racist (let’s not sit on the fence here) definition of an Italian identity is a fairy tale, fit to be discussed over dinner with the ex-Cardinal Ratzinger perhaps, but without place in a sensible discussion of modern Italian identity.