“We rice weeders, with our singing and our stories, leave, from mother to daughter, our legacy of women who fought and cried, toiled and suffered, laughed and sang, with the awareness that, although so small, so nothing , we too are a root of the history of those who will come after us and we like to think that we have not been useless”. This is how it is described Mondine Choir of Novi di Modena for years committed to keeping alive, through song, the memory of the mondarisos. The Municipality of Rio Saliceto has now decided to celebrate them, so that the memory of those witnesses of an Italy that no longer exists and who from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Sixties worked hard bent in the water for 10 hours a day, does not fade. The history of the rice weeders of Rio Saliceto represents a page that is still little told but thanks to the legacy of Carmen Gadda nicknamed Blonde and of Lidia Rabitti Brunetti, both now missing, the municipality was able to recover numerous information and documents. To them and to all the Mondarisos on Saturday 18 May the mayor Lucio Malavasi, will name the park in via Elsa Morante. Inside the green area, the modern art sculpture donated by the Riese artist will also be discovered Enrico Davolio in the presence of art criticism Francesca Baboni. “An abstract work – explains Davolio – which wants to pay homage not only to weeders but to all women from the post-war period to the present day. A way to tell, in a modern key, the efforts, sacrifices and struggles of women to acquire rights and equality. Wives, lovers, mothers, workers… I wanted to show female evolution and emancipation over time. Whoever looks at the sculpture will have the task, depending on the observation angle that she chooses, of identifying the various components that make the female soul so composite and complex”. The day of Saturday 18 May will then end at the municipal theater of Rio where a documentary will be screened, directed by Max Manini, with interviews with eight former rice weeders still alive. At the end, the actress will take over the scene Ivana Monti and the Mondine Choir of Novi di Modenaafter which time for a convivial moment with the tasting of rice and local products in the adjacent square at the back of the theater, in Piazza 30 January 1944. On Sunday 19 May Enrico Davolio will open the doors of his atelier to the public, a precious opportunity to admire his latest works.
Jessica Bianchi
