«We were peasants, and I mean peasants! But we fed “them”»

Women, work and images of Venice seen from the lagoon

Abstract

In the Lagoon of Venice, daily life unfolds in close interdependence with an ecology of water that shapes ways of being in the world. Starting from ethnographic research carried out in the Northern Lagoon with women mainly born in the late 1930s, who self-describe as peasants, the article explores the perception of the islands’ ecosystem and the interrelation between the islands and Venice. In the dimension of recollection the biographical experience is stated of a system of social inequalities, the experience of fatigue and of a plural, oppressive female workload in daily life. The feeling of «we the people» is central. It is described in terms of a feeling of «us the workers», referring to the experience of physical and labour mobility and to the crossing of the lagoon to go and sell fruit and vegetables at the Rialto market. In this context, the analysis explores the countergazes that these women take on Venice, on the symbol of Rialto, on the widespread representation of the city as a dominant place on the lagoon, thought of as marginal territory. Despite the economic differences, an independent lagoon world emerges, conceived as not subordinate to the world of the Venetian sióri (lords) and paróni (masters). Besides their fatigue, the women I met recount creative strategies of invention in their daily lives; they describe practices of resistance to economic oppression, social advancement and personal achievements.