The story

We were supposed to find an original story about privileges.
We were able to find only one about a life being completely freed from them.
A life dedicated to work and respect of something which is very far from privileges: the collective contract. A right shared and acquired by a whole working category, those who were farmers and quickly became workers for Italy’s sake, without loosing completely their roots and love for the vegetable garden.
That’s the interview-diary by Federico Bozzini to Gelmino Ottaviani, union worker from Verona who worked his entirely life in building burners and boilers. He is a worker who rejoined his memories, from his childhood in war times to the hard work on the fields and his new life as worker in a factory, which is definitely better than the heavy farmer life. Last, there are the reflections and summing ups, there’s pensioning, following a path begun with the fascist purges and ended up with the corruption scandals of “Tangentopoli” and the “first Republic”. A low profile life, not trying to be the best by any mean, but not nodding the head ever.
In reconstructing the narration we tried to keep as faithful as possible to Gelsomino’s words. We are conscious that some of these are sharply provoking parties, professional categories, speaking manners and Italian behaviours. We decided to preserve them, as a faithful mirror for contradictory and hard years, which have not yet been solved. We leave to the reader the faculty of not putting everything under one’s hat. Anyway, we feel that everybody pays dues in these memories, like in the ancient testaments of carnival. Probably, every category will notice only the critiques addressed to it, which is really a pity.

Francesco Niccolini