EVS for Building Bridges of Cultures
In The Crossroad of the Culture
Palermo is located in the northwest side of Sicily. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean sea. Sicily is in the southern part of Italy. Τhis place that has never been deprived of multiculturalism, from ancient times was inhabited from ancient Greeks and was conquered by Arabs, Normans, Spanish and French. Ιt was a center of commerce and interaction. A crossroads of civilizations. The cultural heritage of Palermo is very rich and with so many influences.
And this continues until today and still exists. Dozens of different cultures that interact and affect the society. In this city the multiculturalism is something so obvious, you can see it in the impressive buildings all around the city, you can listen to it from the operas in the theater Massimo until the Ballarò and the African music, at the street the traditional music, and the dances every Thursday night at the Piazza Bellini.
Also you smell it when you’re walking in the small streets and you pass next to the houses around the midday. You can feel the culture in Palermo with all your senses because it is something alive.
“Palermo è incontro di Culture” means Palermo is meeting of Cultures or, in other words, Palermo is a place where you can meet many different cultures and this is easy to realize it is true. Someone can tell “It's like every big city in the world”. And this opinion sounds logical, normal. But here the multiculturalism is something alive, this exists and new ways to evolve are constantly being invented. Μost people ands especially young people are interested to know these cultures that exist in this city.
They are interested to meet new people from other countries to discover other cultures and therefore different ways of life,different modes of expression like music, painting, poetry and literature, dances. And also more thoughts about the everyday life like traditions and typical foods from these cultures. In this way Palermo gives not only the opportunity to the people with different origin to continue their culture, their customs but to share it with all other persons. The people here and many associations they organise meetings or events in order to make it easier for the persons who want to meet these other cultures.
And you are in one place with so many different languages, people to dance, to talk to each other, to sing, to play music, to share food. Many of these people in this kind of events they don't have any common language or they don't speak well italian but always they found one way to communicate.
I see many festivals with any possible theme music or dance, local traditional staff or from different regions, for hand made small items and jewelry, film, documentaries, festivals and dramatics and many other possible themes. Every time I was surprised from the so many different regions participants. Also everyday something can be organised by cultural associations/organizations or by the people who want to share their culture with others in theaters, small places or on the streets. Palermo is like every big city in the world. And gives the opportunity to meet other cultures.
As one friend told me, also a foreigner in this city, “Palermo is one city which gives the opportunity to the foreigners and refugees to continue their culture as if they were in their own country�.
They open small shops with traditional food, clothes or jewelry. Even African people they make this rasta hair style. In general the foreigners they try to work or to create something to feel closer to their country and their culture. But sometimes these small shops and activities may be almost exclusively about the people with the same nationality.
In the same time and place (Palermo) exists each other reality.
But through the conversations I was having with mainly young people, migrants or refugees and local people, I also understood that people sometimes may become very closed from the both of sides, finding difficult to really associate with other persons with different culture, with the risk of prevailing xenophobia, racism, suspicion and prejudice.
The optimistic conclusion from those conversations is that, the young people they try to change this reality and mentality of the people. They may create space where to socialize with each other. From the simplest thing, like a chat in the public places where people can meet, participate in joint activities such as the examples mentioned above.They have the curiosity to learn and meet something new different.
They understand that if they don't do the first step to know the other cultures and people, people living in the same city with them, the problems of stereotypes, racism and xenophobia will continue to exist. And this social divide will never be bridged.
Young people mostly are trying to build bridges of culture. This is a truth that characterises this city. This can mean many things for the social structures such as the people they start to understand the diversity, they learn to respect and accept it. It’s one direct way to defeat stereotypes and xenophobia and racism. When you are free from all of these ideas you are free to learn new cultures and to share yours. Very quickly you will find out and realise how many common elements the cultures have, so much that never imagine.
This article is the result of Odysseas’ volunteering experience within the European Voluntary Service project “EVS for Building Bridges of Cultures” in the frame of Erasmus+ Programme funded by European Commission.
The European Commission support for the project does not constitute an endorsement of the contents of its output which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.