Observations of Italy's "Centri Sociali" during New Year's

January 1, 2009 marks the midpoint of my fellowship, and of course, a new year. The Chinese New Year doesn't start until January 26, when Chinese communities will welcome the Year of the Ox -- my year -- which means I'm turning twenty-four this year. Aside from being vaguely frightening at the thought of turning twenty-four, I'm also supposed to be watching my back this year, according to a friend from the Buddhist temple in Sao Paulo. Apparently one is more prone to bad luck during when the Zodiac revolves to their year (For those unfamiliar with the Chinese zodiac, the zodiac revolves around a twelve year cycle. I was born in 1985 in the year of the Ox; 1997, 2009, 2021 are thus also years of the Ox ... or oxen?).
But what I want to talk about is how I spent my New Year's Eve at a Centri Sociale, yes, a "social center," here in Milan.

I can't remember where I first read about Italy's Centri Sociali, which are basically squatted warehouses and other unused urban sites, started by students and other left-leaning Italians. I went to the biggest Centri Sociale in Milan, Leon Cavallo, currently located at Via Watteau, 7. Apparently, the center moves every few years as city authorities arrive to kick out the squatters. I'm sure the police know about Leon Cavallo's current location -- they make no secret about it -- but like the "illegal" favelas in Brazil's cities, it's probably more hassle to kick out the social centers than to just leave them be if they're not causing any trouble. As far as I could tell, the social center used to be some sort of warehouse and included a few smaller buildings in a courtyard. The buildings reminded me vaguely of art district 798 in Beijing -- although the usage of the buildings was quite different. And because the center makes little effort to comply with the law, basically everyone was smoking inside (smoking inside is illegal in Milan).

The center offers free language classes to Milan's many immigrants; it also pushes an agenda for greater social integration of Milan's immigrant communities. Indeed, one of the themes of the New Year's Party was a "new year free of racism." The center also includes a kitchen with cheap and delicious food, as well as pretty fantastic bookstore. Of course, one of the main focuses of the social center is to offer social events that provide a welcome respite from Milan's otherwise elitist social scene -- offering free or cheap concerts, movie screenings -- and is apparently the birthplace of Italian hip-hop (I can't say, however, whether or not this is a worthy distinction).

When midnight struck, there was no anticipatory count-down or ball-drop -- the music simply went on. Okay, a few people threw some firecrackers in the courtyard. But I suppose the party was only getting started: the hours were officially 11 pm to 9 am or something insane like that. The place featured four rooms with different music in each room, although the largest room was devoted, regrettably, to electronic music.

The demographic at the Center was very strange, and I spent most of the night speculating on why the Center drew the crowd. I'd say the Center was probably evenly divided among white Italians, Arab immigrants (I think mostly from Egypt), and African immigrants (mostly from various West African countries). But whereas the white Italians were more or less evenly divided among males and females, the Arab and African attendees were exclusively male, except maybe one or two Arab girls I saw. This meant the whole male to female ratio was probably about 10:1. Also absent were south Asians (Sri Lankans, Indians, Bangladeshis...) and Chinese immigrants. As a result, I seemed to get a lot of unwanted attention among the Arab attendees, for whatever reason, the African and white attendees didn't seem to give me any unusual attention.

What I found most strange was the lack of Arab and African females at the place. Okay, there were essentially no south Asians or east Asians, but that I could more or less comprehend. But why were there Arab and African people, but only males?

Milan's large immigrant community is relatively recent, so I'd guess the majority of ethnic minorities are first-generation immigrants, with a few exceptions. First-generation immigrants generally draw heavily upon value systems from their country of origin. I began to think that perhaps engaging in public social life is probably frowned upon for many women in the developing world, and this prejudice is carried over (and in some cases, even worsened) during emigration. Perhaps immigrant families are wary of exposing their daughters in unknown social environments, where social values and gender norms are unknown quantities. Patriarchal protection is unnecessary for male immigrants, who are probably curious to explore the contours of gender relations in their adopted country.

I used to think that preventing women from engaging in public life -- whether through social life or income-earning work -- was the principle factor that contributed toward gender inequality. Although I still believe that engagement in public life is critical toward greater gender equality, my experiences in Chinese culture suggests that the picture is much more complicated. For instance, in one Chinese immigrant family I met in South America, both the father and the son did not work, whereas both the mother and daughter worked full shifts everyday. Apparently, certain work is considered "fit" for women, mostly low-paying labor-intensive work, whereas men are expected to fulfill higher-paying, more "honorable" work positions. For the father of that family, it was probably more honorable to remain unemployed than to do "woman's work." The son told me he did not to do low-paying labor, and that was okay.

So, back to the Centri Sociali. The social aims of the Center are undoubtedly noble. But who is actually showing up to the Center? Or rather, who isn't showing up, and why not?