Marinella Ferrari Virginio Bosso
Virginio’s Babanin: 42 Years of Passion Along the Canals
Virginio is a "descendant of tradition": both his father and grandfather were employees of Ovest Sesia before him. After earning his diploma in accounting, he began his career with a fair amount of skepticism and the belief that it would be a short-lived experience. However, after 42 years at Ovest Sesia, he reflects on a journey that began in March 1983 as a temporary worker, continued as an assistant, and culminated in the role of navilante, now referred to as department head.
His long years alongside the waterways have nurtured what Virginio calls the Babanin: a kind of inner "spirit" that keeps the water worker constantly alert. This sixth sense helps him detect sudden changes that can transform the calm waters of a canal into an unstoppable force, making his work a blend of expertise, intuition, and a passion that has grown steadily over time.
Video table of contents
- Grandson of art
- From Saluggia as a navilante in 1989 to retirement
- The working day during the irrigation period and in the winter period
- The data we collect with the tools and "free light"
- Water for me
- The babanin. The little spirit that keeps us on the canal
- Bringing water to those in need
- Drought and the consequent reduction of 2022
- Winter and summer hours: we are always on duty
- The smell of water, the smell of the storm
- Fewer frogs, fewer dragonflies
- Water rights have been taken away in my area
- My Department, my area, the large irrigation canals
- On Monday you don't start cutting rice
- Gleaning in a rice field
- The cutting of the goose's head in Fontanetto
- There is no school to learn how to be a water carrier
- The relationship with the headquarters Palazzo Pasta
- The Christmas party in the Parlamentino hall
- To be an example for young colleagues you have to be fair and give space
- With farmers I try to talk to them and listen to their problems, along a watercourse
- An honor to share the work path with Roberto Piazzano and Ombretta Bertolo
Interview information
Country: IT
Region: Piemonte
City: Vercelli
Virginio Bosso
Date of birth: 03-16-1962
City: Crescentino
School: High school or Secondary
Profession: Other
Languages: Italiano
Document by: Luca Ghiardo
Video by: Davide Porporato, Luca Ghiardo
Created: 15-11-2024
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.
