Stefano PiliaI am a self-taught comic book illustrator. I have always drawn since I was very young, and kept on doing it during my school and university years. My approach to this "hobby" was solitary and intimate, mostly because drawing helps me to relax and think, and it has always been a sort of therapeutic and calming activity that I enjoy doing alone. Some years ago I started sharing my works with my friends and people around me, and I found them interested in what I do. So I started to participate in illustration and comics contests, book fairs, independent press fairs, meetings with other illustrators, and I found out that this improves my motivation and helps me to be more productive. At the same time I have always been interested in everything concerning social, economic and cultural rights, so when I heard of this opportunity I thought it would fit perfectly and be a great chance to get my work to a "next level". It would also give me the opportunity to meet and work with professionals, which I have never done before.
I have been working as a teacher in vocational high-schools for the last five years. There are many reasons why I like my job. It is fun and creative, first of all. I see myself more as a "helper" than a teacher, wich makes me feel that my job has a purpose (outside of getting money). It also allows me to share my passion for reading and learning, and I think I am pretty good at it. And - no less importantly - I love interacting with my students. They constantly surprise me, and I find interesting to see the world from all the different perspectives of these young men and women. They actually make me learn a lot. The classes I have been working with this year are mostly composed by immigrants' sons and daughters, the so-called "second generation". Many of them were born in Italy (even if their ID says they are not italian), some others moved here when they were a few years old. In these classes the Italian students are just as many as the non-Italian ones, unlike most of Italian schools (even if the number of foreign and second-generation students is constantly rising). And everything seems to work perfectly.
At the same time, today Italy has a serious problem with racism. Since the ex-minister Kyenge, Italy's first black government minister, was called "orangutan" by a senator in 2013, the racists behaviours and episodes involving politicians and public figures as well as common people have become more and more frequent. Meanwhile many immigrants have moved to Italy in the last few years, generating the so-called immigration crisis. Few months ago two people were killed because of their skin colour, and politicians and media used these murders to move and get votes during the last election campaign. One of the killers himself had been candidate for the Norther League party (Lega Nord), which somehow justified his action. Today people seem to be used to racism, even when someone dies.
I am confused because what I see everyday in school contradicts what I see in the rest of the country. School is a sort of "construction site for the developing of new citizens", a process that I am deeply involved in. I thought it could be interesting to observe and tell about the way these students live their lives and deal with their differencies and similarities at the same time, and the way they are becoming the society of the future in a social environment that seems to see them as a problem and tries to reject them.
I started getting as much information as I can about the topic. In the last few months I have read a lot (newspapers, magazines, books, comics), and watched some films about school-life and school-system. But above all I am watching and studying very carefully what happens everyday in the school where I work, which I am going to tell about. I am asking my students some questions that can help me understand their point of view, which I am very interested in, and collecting their "voices". I am taking notes, of course, and I am drawing some sketches. The next step is to put all these things together.
The title "2G" has two meanings. It refers to the school class I have worked with this year, which is the one I tell about in the comic story I am working on. In Italy this also means "second-generation" immigrants and refers to boys and girls who were born in Italy to foreign parents. I find it simple and meaningful at the same time, so this is the reason why I chose it for my project.
