Edhasa.com.ar "Los Señores de la Tierra", enero de 2012

Los Señores de la Tierra

Cronicas de Widukind II

Con Los Señores de la Tierra, segundo tomo de la crónica, el relato de Angus de Metz expone las visicitudes de Widukind en compañía de los daneses, con personajes legendarios como Ragnar Lodbrok, o su abuelo, el rey Goimo Manoslargas. Con estos pueblos vikingos a los que está unido por lazos familiares, Widukind llevará a cabo un largo viaje marítimo que lo llevará desde Dinamarca a Islandia y después a Escocia, en lo que supondrá un avance de lo que llegarán a ser las depredaciones vikingas contra las Islas Británicas en décadas posteriores.

Vencedores durante esta aventura, Widukind logrará al fin su propósito: ganarse la confianza de los daneses para atacar las costas del reino franco desde la costa y garantizar así una alianza del norte pagano frente a la amenaza territorial e religiosa que supone la presión carolingia.
Esta segunda sección de la crónica también expone buena parte de la oposición sajona a las fuerzas de Carlomagno, así como el segundo levantamiento de la población tras la firma del Tratado de Paderborn, en el que la nobleza sajona había traicionado al pueblo, vendiéndolo a Carlomagno a cambio de conservar sus derechos sobre la tierra en la nueva Marca de Sajonia, como parte del Imperio Carolingio. Mientras tanto, los miembros del Concilio Germánico, dirigidos por Arnauld de Goth, ponen en marcha un plan para derrocar la amenaza herética que supone la persistencia de Remigio el Piadoso y su prédica de la pobreza y del sincretismo cristiano, frente al integrismo de la Iglesia, tratando de encontrar a cualquier precio su templo secreto, una lanza que presuponen la de Arimatea, y la interpretación de las sagradas escrituras que redacta el propio Remigio, conocido como Evangelio de la Espada, para enviarlo a la hoguera y borrar su huella.

La obra de Artur Balder está experimentando un momento de auge, con continuas reediciones de sus obras destinadas al público juvenil y con la contratación de sus novelas en los más diversos mercados, con éxitos de venta más que notables en algunos países europeos. Sin duda en los próximos meses se hablará y mucho de su obra.

A finales de enero el autor estará en Barcelona para presentar esta nueva entrega. Os seguiremos informando.

"El Evangelio de la Espada" en Edhasa.com

El evangelio de la espada


Crónicas de Widukind I

Cuando a finales del siglo VIII Carlomagno emprendió la conquista del norte, en su afán por expandir el Imperio Franco y convertir a los paganos al cristianismo, tuvo que enfrentarse a pueblos que han pasado a la historia por su ardor guerrero, como los vikingos o los sajones. Pero, sobre todo, tuvo que vérselas con un personaje indómito y audaz que se puso al frente de los rebeldes y que no tardaría en convertirse en símbolo de la independencia política y religiosa sajona, y en un guerrero legendario: Widukind.

History of the Saxon War VIII: "If a Saxon scorns to come to baptism and wishes to absent himself and stay a pagan, let him die." Eric J. Goldberg

From Eric J. Goldberg's The Saxon Stellinga Reconsidered:

Charlemagne's conquest of Saxony was a momentous turning point that overthrew the distinctive political structures and Pagan culture of the Saxons. Before the conquest, Franco-Saxon relations had been a checkered history of wars, alliances, and Saxon payments of tribute. By the 770s Charlemagne resolved to incorporate Saxony into his growing empire, apparently in order to settle once and for all border disputes with the Saxons. The result was a series of wars, raids, treaties, and rebellions between 772 and 804 through which Saxony south of the Elbe was gradually incorporated into the Frankish empire. In the oft-quoted words of Einhard: "No war ever undertaken by the Frankish people was more prolonged, more full of atrocities, or more demanding in effort." This was a war of conquest and conversion. Charlemagne equated Saxon submission to Frankish rule with the acceptance of Christianity; according to one Franksih author, Charlemagne resolved "to persevere until the Saxons had either been overcome and subjected to the Christian religion or totally exterminate."

Charlemagne's conquest of Saxony actually fell into two distinct phases (772-85 and 792-804) separated by a seven-year armistice (785-92). Between 772 and 785 the war followed a similar annual pattern: almost every year a group of Saxons revolted and attacked a Frankish church, army, or fortress; the Frankish army then invaded Saxony and put down the rebellion without much difficulty; Charlemagne next negotiated with Saxon optimates and primores; and finally Charlemagne exacted oaths of fidelity and hostages from the Saxons and supervised mass baptisms. Between 777 and 785 Widukind, a Saxon Westphalian nobleman, and his socii repeatedly provoked these Saxon rebellions and eluded the clutches of the Franks by seeking refuge in Denmark. In the end Charlemagne bribed Widukind into submission: in 785 Widukind accepted baptism, and the king of the Franks received him "from the font and honored him with magnificent gifts." By 780 Charlemagne began to extend the Frankish church hierarchy into Saxony. After a series of mass executions in 782, Charlemagne abolished the Old Saxon pagus administration under chieftains and implemented the Grafschaftsverfassung (system of countships) common to the rest of the Frankish kingdoms. This new administration placed Saxony under the governance of comites selected from the Saxon nobilissimi. By 785, therefore, Charlemagne had incorporated all of Saxony south of the Elbe into the Frankish kingdom. After a seven-year peace between 785 and 792, the Saxons revolted again, but this time primarily in the regions north of the Elbe. After a series of military expeditions, Charlemagne finally ended the northern war by deporting all Saxons north of the Elbe and in Wihimondia (the northern regions between the mouths of the Aller and Elbe) to Francia.

Charlemagne practiced two main strategies that proved crucial for his success in the wars against the Saxons. First, he secured key strategic locations, such as Eresburg, Paderborn, and Lippspringe, He also confiscated extensive lands along the Hellweg, the main east-west Saxon road between the Rhine and Paderborn, to ensure communication and troop movement in and out of Saxony. Second, as alluded to above, Charlemagne followed a policy of enticing the Saxon edhilingui with bribes and gifts to accept Christianity and Frankish overlordship, as in the case of his chief opponent, Widukind. As Egil (822) wrote in his Vita Sturmi, "The kind ... converted the greater part of that people to the faith of Christ partly through wars, partly through persuasion, and also partly through bribes." Clearly the prospect of appointment to newly created Saxon countships must have convinced many nobilissimi to ally with Charlemagne.
[pp. 475-476]

History of the Saxon War VI: "All denounced Widukind as the instigator of this wicked rebellion." Annales Regno Francorum

The fierce Saxon opposition to Christianization is inseparably identified with the name of a Westphalian nobleman: Widukind. He is to the Saxons what Geronimo is to the Apache, or Sitting Bull to the Lakota, or Quanah Parker to the Comanche, or Tecumseh to the Shawnee.

It should really be no surprise that, despite the class divisions discussed in the first post in this series, the leadership of the Saxon resistance would fall to a member of the warrior elite (and one who also had strong ties to the warrior nobility of the Danish Heathens as well). If missionaries found a more receptive response among the aristocratic edhilingui than among the lower classes, that is nothing more than a reflection of the strategy pursued by the Christians themselves. This strategy focussed on first currying favor with Pagan nobles, who were then employed to do the dirty work of imposing the new religion on their inferiors. Whatever limited success this strategy might have enjoyed among some members of the Saxon upper class, others proved ready to fight for their old Gods in a sacred war that united all Heathen Saxons in a way that transcended mere distinctions of social standing and wealth.

Considering his central importance to European history, Widukind is a relatively little known figure in the English speaking world, even among Heathens and Pagans. For example, in their History of Pagan Europe, Jones and Pennick mention Widukind but once, and then only to remark upon his eventual baptism! [p. 127]

Here is a list of some works in English that discuss Widukind more than in passing:

1. The English translation of Charlemagne: Father of a Continent by Italian historian Alessandro Barbero (2004).
2. Peter Brown's The Rise of Western Christendom (2003, 2ed).
3. A paper by American historian Eric J. Goldberg, The Saxon Stellinga Reconsidered (1995).
4. The anthology The Continental Saxons From Migration to the Period of the Tenth Century, edited by Dennis Howard Green and Frank Siegmund, which contains a chapter devoted to The Conversion of the Old Saxons, by John Hines, professor of history at Cardiff (2003).
5. Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire by Bernard S. Bachrach (2001).
6. Eric J. Goldberg has also written a book-length study titled Struggle for Empire: Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817-876, in which he treats extensively with the Stellinga Uprising, but, because of the period covered, does not have much to say directly about Widukind (2006).
7. The 1905 English translation of Hans Prutz' The Age of Charlemagne, which, while obviously at least somewhat dated, has quite a bit to say on the subject of Widukind, and is very useful so long as one is also looking at more recent scholarship as well.
8. Also, there are translations available of the primary sources, including the Royal Frankish Annals. A recent edition is Carolingian Chronicles, by Bernhard Walter Scholz and Barbara Rogers.

The remainder of this post will consist of excerpts from the first four works mentioned above. No attempt has been made to reduce the amount of overlap (or just plain repetition) between these excerpts, or with the material already presented in the other posts in this series (or elsewhere in this blog).


1.
From Alessandro Barbero's Charlemagne: Father of a Continent:

It was a ferocious war in a country with little or no civilization, with neither roads nor cities, and entirely covered with forests and marshland. The Saxons sacrificed prisoners of war to their Gods, as Germans had aways done before converting to Christianity, and the Franks did not hesitate to put to death anyone who refused to be baptized. Time and again the Saxon chiefs, worn down by war with no quarter, sued for peace, offered hostages, accepted baptism, and undertook to allow missionaries to go about their work. But every time that vigilance slackened and Charles was engaged on some other front, rebellions broke out, Frankish garrisons were attacked and massacred, and monasteries were pillaged. Even the border regions of the Frankish kingdom were not safe. In 778, when Saxons found out that the king and his army were engaged on the other side of the Pyrenees, and would not be able to return before many weeks of forced marches, they appeared in the Rhine Valley. Local commanders had great difficulty in containing them, and then only after much devastation and plunder.

During the period of these rebellions, the figure of a single leader emerged from among the Saxon ranks. His name was Prince Widukind, and his authority was acknowledged by all the tribes. Just at the time when Charles felt confident that he had pacified the region and gained the loyalty of the Saxon nobles, it was this leader who triggered the most spectacular rebellion by wiping out the Frankish forces hurriedly sent to confront him on the Suntel Mountains in 782. Beside himself with anger at the treachery that had also cost him the lives of two of his closest aides, his chamberlain Adalgisile and his constable Geilo, Charles bround in a new army and forced the rebels to capitulate, with the exception of Widukind, who took refuge with the Danes. The Saxons had to hand over their arms and then, when he had them in his power, he had 4,500 of them decapitated in a single day at the Verden on the Aller, a tributary of the Weser. This episode produced perhaps the greatest stain on his reputation.

Several historians have attempted to lessen Charle's responsibility for the massacre, by stressing that until a few months earlier the king thought he had pacified the country, the Saxon nobles had sworn allegiance, and many of them had been appointed counts. Thus the rebellion constituted an act of treason punishable with death, the same penalty that the extremely harsh Saxon law imposed with great facility, even for the most insignificant crimes. Others have attempted to twist the accounts provided by sources, arguing that the Saxons were killed in battle and not massacred in cold blood, or even that the verb decollare (decapitate) was a copyist's error in place of decolare (relocate), so ther prisoners were simply deported. None of these attempts has proved credible ....

In reality, the most likely inspiration for the mass execution of Verden was the Bible. Exasperated by the continual rebellions, Charlemagne wanted to act like a true king of Israel. The Amelkites had dared to raise their hand to betray God's people, and it was therefore right that every last one of them should be exterminated. Jericho was taken all those inside had to be put to the sword, including men, women, old people, and children, even the oxen, sheep, and donkeys, so that no trace would be left of them. After defeating the Moabites, David, with whom Charles liked to compare himself, had the prisoners stretched out on the and ground, and two out of three were killed. This, too, was part of the Old Testament from which teh king drew constant inspiration, and it is difficult not to discern a practical and cruelly coherent application of that model in the massacre of Verden. Besides, the royal chronicler wrote a few years later, the war against the Saxons had to be conducted in such a manner that 'either they were defeated and subjugated to the Christian religion or completely swept away.'

In the years that followed 782, Charles conducted a war of unparalleled ruthlessness. For the first time, he wintered in enemy territory and systematically laid the country to waste to starve the rebels. At the same time, he had published the most ferocious of all the laws enacted during his life, the Capitulare de partibus Saxonie, which imposed the death penalty on anyone who offended the Christian religion and its clergy, and in reality it constituted a program for the forced conversion of the Saxons. We can only shudder as we read the sections of this law that condemn to death those who fail to observe fasting on Friday, thus reflecting a harsh Christianity far removed from the original message of the New Testament [bollocks]. Yet we should be careful not to put the blame for this barbarity onto the times in general. The Capitulare de partibus Saxonie is one of those provisions by which an infuriated general attempts to break the resistance of an entire people through terror, and Charles must bear the moral responsibility, like the many twentieth-century generals responsible for equally inhuman measures. It is more important to emphasize that the edict provoked criticisms among Charles's entourage precisely because of its ruthlessness. Particularly severe criticisms came from Alcuin, the spiritual adviser he most listened to.

The policy of terror and scorched earth initially appeared to pay off. In 785, after the Franks has ravaged the country as far as the Elbe, Widukind was obliged to capitulate, and he presented himself at the palace of Attigny in France to be baptized. The king acted as godfather. Pope Adrian congratulated the victor and ordered thanks to be given in all the churches of Christendom for the new and magnificent victory for the faith. But the baptism imposed by force did not prove very effective. In 793 the harshness of Frankish government ferocity provoked another mass insurrection in the northern regions of Saxony, which had been more superficially Christianized. 'Once again breaking their faith,' according to the royal chronicler, the Saxons burned churches, massacred clergymen, and prepared yet again to resist in their forests.

Charles intervened with now customary ferocity, indeed with even more drastic and frighteningly modern measures. Rather than limit himself to devastating the rebel country and starving the population, he deported them en masse and planned the resettlement of those areas with Frankish and Slav colonists. However, he was an able politician and soon understood the need to modify his approach to the problem. He intensified his contacts with the Saxon aristocracy and sought out their collaboration. At a large assembly in Aachen in 797, he isssued on their advice a new version of the capitulary that was considerably more conciliatory than the previous one. This twin policy proved immediately effective, because it guaranteed almost definitively the collaboration of the Saxon nobles with the new regime. Eigil, the monk at Fulda monastery who wrote the account of Abbot Sturmi's life, stated during those very years that Charles had imposed Christ's yoke on the Saxons 'through war, persuasion, and also gifts,' demonstrating that he well understood how a new flexibility had made it possible to integrate those obstinate Pagans into the Christian empire.
[pp. 44-48]

History of the Saxon War V: Alessandro Barbero's "Charlemagne: Father of a Continent"

Here is another excerpt, this one from Alessandro Barbero's Charlemagne: Father of a Continent, focussing on the religious dimension of the conflict between the Saxons and the Franks:
Charles [Charlemagne] had not set himself the declared aim of converting the Saxons to Christianity right from the very beginning. Before him, his father and grandfather had fought against them, and on each occasion, after having defeated them, they were satisfied with the payment of tribute. Einhard [c.775-840, Frankish courtier and biographer of Charlemagne] who was writing when the wounds had had time to heal and could have easily attributed Charles's campaigns beyond the Rhine to reassuring predestinations, actually asserts in very pragmatic terms that 'there were too many reasons for disturbing the peace, for example the border between us and them crossed an open plain, except in a few places where great forests or mountain chains more clearly divided the two countries. Thus murder, raids, and arson were continuously committed by one side or the other.' In the chronicler's opinion, this insecurity of the frontier with the barbarians inevitably meant that 'in the end the exasperated Franks could no longer be contented with returning each blow with another and decided to wage full-scale war against them.'

It is clear that religious motivations were inextricably bound up with political ones, as since the time of Charles Martel I [c. 688-741], Frankish swords had sustained missionary work beyond the Rhine. One of the conditions that Pepin [714-768] imposed on the defeated Saxons was the guarantee that the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon clergy working in the area would be free to continue their apostolic tasks without hindrance. It must have appeared obvious to some of these missionaries that Charles's war had a religious justification. 'If you do not accept belief in God,' Saint Lebuin told the Saxons, 'there is a king in the next country who will enter your land, conquer it, and lay waste.' But the Saxons obstinately refused to believe, so in the end that king had to make his move.
[pp. 44-45]

History of the Saxon War IV: Eric J. Goldberg's 1995 paper on "The Saxon Stellinga Reconsidered"

There were most likely several reasons for this social division with regard to attitudes toward Christianity. As with the Christianization of most Germanic peoples in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, missionary work in its early stages was an elite business that catered to the Pagan nobility. Coverting a gens babarorum began with the kings, chieftains, and nobles and only slowly trickled down to the masses. The was the case in seventh and eighth century Saxony. The two Hewalds were martyred on their way to meet with the chieftain of a pagus [local district], and Lebuin had his nobilissimi supporters. Since the vicani of Bede's account feared that their chieftains would force Christianity on them from above, clearly they viewed the new religion as an aggressive encroachment by the nobles on their already limited political power. Also, the frilingi and lazzi probably viewed Christianity as a threat to the Marklo council, the institution through which they had a voice in Saxon politics. The council was not only an annual institution of government but a solemn Pagan religious occassion as well. At the beginning of the council the Saxons "first offered up prayers to their Gods, as is their custom, asking them to protect their country and to guide them in making decrees both useful to themselves and pleasing to the Gods." [Vita Lebuini antiqua 6, p. 793] Such close connections between religious and governmental rituals probably blurred any clear distinction between Paganism and politics at the Marklo council ... [T]he Saxons selected their military leaders by drawing lots, a procedure that also had Pagan religious significance. The frilingi and lazzi therefore probably viewed this nova cultura [Christianity] as a threat both to their ancestors' religion and to the institution of the Marklo council.

Charlemagne's conquest of Saxony was a momentous turning point that overthrew the distinctive political structures and pagan culture of the Saxons. Before the conquest, Franco-Saxon relations had been a checkered history of wars, alliances, and Saxon payments of tribute. By the 770s Charlemagne resolved to incorporate Saxony into his growing empire, apparently in order to settle once and for all border disputes with the Saxons. The result was a series of wars, raids, treaties and rebellions between 772 and 804 through which Saxony south of the Elbe was gradually incorporated into the Frankish empire ... This was a war of conquest and conversion. Charlemagne equated Saxon submission to Frankish rule with the acceptance of Christianity; according to one Frankish author, Charlemagne resolved "to persevere until the Saxons had either been overcome and subjected to the Christian religion or totally exterminated." [Annales regni Francorum s.a. 775, MGH SS 1:153]
[pp. 474-475]

Artur Balder descubre en su documental el desconocido distrito español de la Gran Manzana

Por Álvaro Oyanguren y Javier Cavanilles, El Mundo, Cultura

Hubo un tiempo, no hace mucho, en el que en las calles de Nueva York albergaban un barrio en el que uno se podía sentir como si estuviera en una provincia española. No sólo por la presencia de restaurantes españoles, cines con programa español, iglesias con misa en castellano o comercios con productos 100% made in Spain; sino porque, además, prácticamente sólo se hablaba castellano.
En medio de los rascacielos se cobijaba una zona con ambiente español, en el que se celebraban fiestas propias y que posee todavía su propio centro cultural. Una colonia ubicada en la parte oeste de la calle 14 de Manhattan, entre las avenidas séptima y octava, en la que se construyó una esperanza de vivir el sueño americano para miles de españoles que emigraron en busca de una vida mejor desde los años 50 hasta los 80.

Una esperanza con nombre propio: Little Spain. Fue fundada por miles de obreros y jornaleros de Galicia y la cornisa cantábrica que buscaban una vida mejor, dejando atrás la Guerra Civil Española y su consecuente posguerra. Se calcula que en los años 30 residían entre 25.000 y 30.000 españoles en Nueva York.

Más de 400 entrevistados y fotografías inéditas

 

La 'Pequeña España', tristemente desparecida en los noventa, vuelve para quedarse en la memoria histórica de la mano del documental Little Spain. Se trata del primer documental que saca a la luz pública más de 130 años de historia, a través de los recuerdos de los 8 entrevistados y más de 400 fotografías y documentos inéditos, que según su director, Artur Balder "habían pasado desapercibidos sin dejar apenas huellas razonadas". En 2011 se estrenará su propia miniserie de televisión, con 4 capítulos.

La idea nació cuando Artur Balder, acudió a la ciudad que nunca duerme para seguir un curso en el Herbert Berghof Studio en el que "someterse a una experiencia actoral" que le ayudara a dirigir mejor a sus actores. Fue allí donde tropezó con la fachada en ruinas de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.
"Se trataba de los últimos vestigios de una importante presencia española" que aún perduran del barrio español en Manhattan, confiesa Balder, junto con la Spanish Benevolent Society también conocida como la Nacional. Posteriormente supo que el club español de Nueva York estaba atravesando por momentos difíciles.

La Nacional en Manhattan

 

La Nacional se mantenía a duras penas después de seguir en activo desde que se fundó en 1869 y haber tenido hasta 9.000 miembros. "Cuando un español llegaba a Manhattan, La Nacional era el primer lugar al que acudía para tener algo de comida y buscar trabajo. Nos ayudábamos unos a otros. Ya nada es así�" cuenta Francisco Santamaría, uno de los ocho entrevistados y miembro de La Nacional desde 1956.

Fue la ayuda de Robert Sanfiz, secretario de la sociedad y abogado que la rescató de su extinción tan sólo un año atrás, lo que permitió a Balder acceder a parte del archivo de esta sociedad y descubrió que "había una gran historia que contar, en forma de documento y con testimonios".

Para su elaboración fue fundamental encontrar fotos que revelasen la actividad de los españoles en el centro de Little Spain. La pieza clave necesaria para el arranque del proyecto fue el hallazgo de 10 archivos privados inéditos con fotos de las calles desde principios de siglo.

Se trata de una obra que según el propio autor "no podía escapar a un hilo conductor surrealista, que subyace a los testimonios y a los documentos" y en la que ha utilizado un método para crear un plano "subjetivo" que discute entre el plano del pasado y el del presente.

La visita de Lorca

Ejemplo de ello es la escena en donde la actriz Alma Lee muestra el interior del legendario edificio de la Spanish Benevolent Society mientras una voz en off lee el poema Poeta en Nueva York de Federico García Lorca, como un homenaje a al poeta que lo escribió durante su estancia en Little Spain. "Little Spain está dedicada a Federico García Lorca, el inmigrante que no pudo serlo" declara Artur Balder.

Pero ¿cómo llegó a desaparecer este barrio? Intervinieron muchos factores como la droga o la entrada de inmigración latinoamericana. El declive comenzó hace 20 años. Pero todavía hoy quedan testimonios de neoyorquinos que han dado ejemplo de superación y que miran a España con nostalgia, animándola también a superarse.

Y así lo declara Joe Pérez, hijo de José Pérez, actual manager del restaurante El Faro, uno de los lugares más emblemáticos de Little Spain "España tiene que empezar a pensar en unirse para superar su crisis. Eso es algo que ha caracterizado a América. Las crisis nos ayudan a mejorar".

Miami. Recorriendo América News

El centro cultural Spanish Benevolent Society de Nueva York acogió la presentación de la novela “El evangelio de la espada”, de Artur Balder, una obra ambientada en la Edad Media de Carlomagno, en su cruzada por convertir a los paganos en cristianos.

Durante la presentación, se proyectó un cortometraje rodado por el escritor y realizador y centrado en la figura del protagonista de la novela, Widukind, un rebelde sajón que se enfrentó al emperador Carlomagno y a sus ejércitos durante alrededor de veinte años.
La obra, editada por Edhasa, repasa el proceso de evangelización de los paganos promovido por Carlomagno en el siglo VIII, que desencadenó un enfrentamiento largo y cruento en Europa, y sirve como espejo para no repetir los errores del pasado en la actualidad.
"En el siglo VIII se dio un proceso semejante a la globalización: Carlomagno y la Iglesia trataron de homogeneizar Centroeuropa. Era fundamental erradicar las ideas que podían ir en contra de sus intereses, y el paganismo era una de ellas", dijo el autor.

Antes y durante la realización de la novela, que le llevó tres años de trabajo, Artur Balder realizó un "largo proceso de investigación histórica", con la finalidad de conseguir una ambientación verosímil y regalar a los lectores un buen rato de ocio.

"La novela histórica requiere rigor y paciencia en su ambientación, pero estoy de acuerdo con Umberto Eco en que el público, en última instancia, tiene derecho al ocio", ha asegurado el autor, quien ha tomado al escritor italiano como referencia.