The women of rice. Valle Padano’s seasonal workers: a job long gone

Abstract

This paper describes the women who worked in the rice fields in April and May in the lowlands of the regions of Lambardy and Piedmont in the north of Italy every year. In spite of the fact that this job has already disappeared, the image of these seasonal workers remains alive in the memory of the local people, as well as in movies, videos, documentaries, photographs, and the rich tradition of their work songs. This text reveals the suggestive figure of the rice women as part of an ongoing investigation, and as a meaningful contribution to the cultural contents in the Italian Program at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana- Iztapalapa.