ROME -- Journalists, diplomats and academics met for an informal discussion over breakfast Friday at the capital’s Hotel Giustiniano on the topic of the representation of Latin America in the Italian media and future journalistic relations between the two regions.

 The main speakers at the event, organized by MEDIATRENDSAMERICA and mediated by Peruvian journalist Roberto Montoya, were journalists Roberto Da Rin from Il Sole 24 Ore, and Maurizio Stefanini from Il Foglio newspaper -- both Latin American specialists in Italy, who have also lived and worked in the South American continent.

 Roberto Da Rin opened the discussion by commenting that “unfortunately Latin America is followed relatively little in Italy,” saying that much of what he proposes as potential Latin America stories to his editors is rejected due to a perceived lack of interest.

 Maurizio Stefanini also agreed that “a journalist would not be able to live in Italy if they were to write solely about Latin America.” Only a quarter of what he -- a “Latin American specialist” -- writes is actually about that continent.

 Stefanini also talked about the stereotypes of Latin America engrained in the Italian psyche -- interestingly stereotypes that span both extremes of the spectrum. Either the region is perceived as a sort of “natural paradise, with beautiful women, good music, amazing landscapes” -- again propagated through the picture-perfect adverts of Mexico and Cuba constantly replayed on Roman metro TV screens…

 Or there is the more “hellish” side of Latin American stereotypes as full of violent, drug-riddled countries -- a utopia/dystopia dialectic. Stefanini highlighted that Latin America has become a sort of “myth” in Italy -- either the clichéd myth of exoticism and leftist revolution with Cuba, Chavez, Che Guevara, José Mujica etc., or one of right-wing dictatorship with Pinochet and Perón amongst others, in the waves of brutal right-wing dictatorships that have plagued the continent. Both facets of populism -- left and right -- have been tried and tested in Latin America with varying results.

 According to Stefanini, the difficulty of reporting on Latin America in Italy is trying to pierce these stereotypes and dismantle them, “but we should also try to use them,” he concluded. It is precisely these stereotypes that attract interest towards the South and Central American region.

 “In fact, there is huge interest in Latin American countries amongst Italians, but it just does not infiltrate the media,” said Montoya, especially compared to the media in other European countries like the UK and France. The BBC has a whole Latin America section written in Spanish, and Le Monde also reports extensively about the region.

 Although the Italian government news agency ANSA has a section in Spanish, it is not as exhaustive as its foreign counterparts. “We have been asking RAI for years to publish short three-to-four-minute video reports about Latin America, and they always express interest but then it just stops there,” said Montoya.

 Gianni La Bella, an Italian academic present at the meeting claimed that “the fault is ours in Italy, there are very little Latin American specialists in Italian universities despite the huge number of Italian students of Spanish.”

 La Bella was present in the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena during the peace deal signing ceremony between the FARC rebels and the Colombian government, given the opportunity to observe such a profoundly moving, historic moment and example of new democracy. However, he said that the Italian newspapers “did not understand anything about it, they did not capture the intensity of the event. Even in some Italian newspapers, you still find Colombia spelt with a U.”

 Looking to the future, La Bella stressed that “the alliance between Latin America and Italy is totally invaluable.” 

 nkd