Rosalia Vacca and the Dream of… Teresio Risoli
A life among the springs of Fontanetto Po
Born to parents from Piacenza, with a mother from the rice weeders and a father from Bergamo, Teresio began his career in a rice mill as a husking machinist. After ten years, he took up the profession of water carrier in Fontanetto Po. He says that, when he started in 1988, he was part of a work group made up of eleven water carriers, a boss and a tractor driver. However, by the time he retired, that group had been reduced to just four operational units, responsible for ensuring the maintenance and operation of the same portion of land.
Teresio attributes this drastic reduction in staff to the introduction of pesticides and increasing mechanization, a process that, on the one hand, has made work faster and more agile, but on the other has impoverished the social fabric and altered the natural heritage.
From his story emerges a subtle nostalgia that reveals a deep love for the world of water, for its intricate rules and for that ancient knowledge that is learned with patience, silently observing the work of older colleagues or farmers with whom one collaborates closely.
Video table of contents
- From the rice mill to the water carrier profession
- Cutting the grass with the "ranza": morning cutting the grass, afternoon cutting the bottom of the ditch
- From winter afternoons and fires in the ditches to mechanization and chemistry
- Water for me is life, the Fontanetto springs, life and change from '90-'92
- Teaching the craft
- There are few holidays: the water never stops
- When a storm comes. We are always on alert. The water hits you. The water carrier protects the territory
- My district which is also an autonomous consortium
- The period of submersion
- The moon and the grass cuttings
- If you are looking for a water carrier you will find it under a plant. How my landscape has changed
- The water carrier's tools
- The ancient water rights of some large estates
- The FLAI party, an opportunity to meet colleagues from other areas
- Dinners and parties for special occasions
- I have to stay near the water
- In Fontanetto we didn't suffer too much from the drought: the wells
- In the spring area we drank water: then pollution arrived
- The Camera Canal and the hydroelectric power plants
- Learning the trade: what to do in case of rain
- The first time with the scythe
- I would recommend this job to a young person
- The farmer is our employer
- Cutting rice and using mechanical means
- The Water Carrier's Bike
Interview information
Country: IT
Region: Piemonte
City: Fontanetto Po
Teresio Risoli
Date of birth: 12-18-1961
City: Crescentino
Profession: Other
Languages: Italiano
Document by: Luca Ghiardo
Video by: Davide Porporato, Luca Ghiardo
Created: 05-11-2024
Questo video fa parte del seguente archivio
Rice stories
Rice stories
Food is a fundamental resource for man and his health, both through the supply of nutrients and the ability to embody traits of human culture that play a leading role in our well-being.
Over time, each territory has built original ways in which to relate to the fruits of its land, enriching them with rituals, symbolic meanings and culinary customs. Much of these relationships have been lost following the years of the economic boom, with the exodus from the countryside to urban centers, with the advent of agriculture for mass production and ultimately with the globalization of markets and the consequent impoverishment of the heritage of biodiversity and ethnodiversity.
The purpose of this archive is to collect evidence relating to the main rice production area in Europe, that is the Po Valley, and to investigate, through the analysis of textual sources and testimonies collected in the field, both what survives of this heritage, and the ways in which which has evolved and reached us, paying particular attention to the explicit and implicit links that bind food and health.
