"BLACK Denny is Miss Italia." The headline just about tells the whole story. The title of "Miss Italia 1996" was last weekend won by 18 year old Ms Denny Mendez, a woman born in the Dominican Republic but resident in Italy since the age of 14 and now an Italian citizen.
To citizens of multi ethnic societies, the headline might seem strange, not to say politically incorrect. For Italy and Italians, however, Ms Mendez's victory represents a small but significant indication of the extent to which modern Italy is changing, of the extent to which a country which 40 years ago itself exported migrant workers has now seen the tables turned. For the economic refugees of Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, affluent modern Italy has become a favoured destination.
Even the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, felt obliged to welcome the "Miss Italia" result, implicitly rejecting criticism that Ms Mendez is not really Italian and saying. "This is simply a sign that Italy is changing...
Normally, Mr Prodi has more important issues to consider than beauty contests. His observations in this case, however, may have been prompted by the polemic surrounding Ms Mendez's participation and eventual victory in the contest.
Two members of the panel of judges television presenter Alba Parietti and fashion photographer Bob Kreiger had enlivened the rather dull contest (and incidentally given it much needed publicity) when they objected to Ms Mendez's presence in the final line up, saying that her skin colour did not reflect true Italian beauty. Photographer Kreiger, in particular, suggested that the "winner should be the mirror of this eternal Italy and not the copy of another country, another culture".
Fortunately for Ms Mendez and for future race relations in Italy, not everyone saw it that way. Voting for "Miss Italia" is open to the tele visual public (nine million strong) and they used their votes to elect Ms Mendez overwhelmingly. Curiously, if the competition had been run off as an old style beauty contest in which only the votes of the 12 person panel of judges counted, then Ms Mendez would not have won. In this case, tele democracy appears to have struck a blow for a multiracial Italy.
The whole polemic, however, prompts more questions than it answers. Was the huge viewer vote in favour of the Dominican woman simply an indication that a majority of Italians felt she was a worthy winner? Was it prompted by a sincere belief in the multi racial future of Italy or was it merely a sympathy vote for this week's "good [televisual] cause"?
Or was the vote prompted by an anxiety not to "fare la brutta figura" (make a show of ourselves) by rejecting a contestant simply because of the colour of her skin, thus confirming the impression of a racially prejudiced Italy? Editorialists and sociologists have already begun to turn their attention to these and other questions, while at least one member of the jury, debonair Enrico Mentana, head of news at Silvio Berlusconi's Canale 5 TV, has already offered this controversial interpretation of the vote "Denny Mendez won't solve the serious problems of migrant workers in Italy, just as Ruud Gullit's goals Gullit is a black footballer of Surinamese origins who played for eight seasons in Italy did not help the lot of those down and outs who sleep on the gratings over the underground...
"Italians voted in large numbers for Denny Mendez, and that's true, but it does not stop them still hating gypsies, especially if they come to live near them. .. This great haste to seem open, decent and multi racial... frightens me and makes me think that in fact it is hiding virulent xenophobia".
The central protagonist, in the meanwhile, has been saying all the right things. Her Dominican parents separated when she was small and she came to Italy just four years ago with her mother, Linda. During a holiday, Sergio, an electricity worker, had fallen in love with Linda, proposed to her and brought her back to Italy with him, also bringing two of Linda's three daughters, Evelyn and Denny. "I feel myself to be Italian, I don't care who whistles or jeers me. .. In Santo Domingo, we were poor. Here in Italy, things have got better and now that I am famous, I can do something for the rights of coloureds and poor people in this country... Italians should realise that people like me can do exactly the same things Italians do and that we haven't come here to steal work," said Ms Mendez this week.
In a society where black people are often referred to as "Vu'Cumpras" ("D'y Wanna Buys") because many Africans roam Italy's towns, cities and beaches trying to sell towels, caps, watches, radios, jewellery etc, Ms Mendez's victory may be no bad thing. As for future racial harmony in modern and ever more racially diverse Italy, the jury is out.