Chiara Valentini, journalist and biographer of Berlinguer, has died

Career

Chiara Valentini graduates in law with a thesis on honor killings. During his university years he took part in the organization and promotion of the International Festival of Experimental and University Theater (Fitu) and together with Andrea Calzolari, Oddone Pattini, Roberto Campari, Gianni Cavazzini and Gustavo Marchesi he founded the Fitu magazine, the avant-garde ‘Teatro Festival’. Following a collaboration with ‘Il Corriere della Sera’ for the page dedicated to young people, in 1968 Valentini was selected from 1,300 candidates in the first and only Rai public competition for commentators. He was not among the 23 winners, but shortly after he joined Rai anyway and apprentices with professionals of the caliber of Nuccio Fava, Giancarlo Saltalmassi, Paolo Frajese, Bruno Pizzul and Bruno Vespa.

At the end of the 1960s he accepted the director Lamberto Sechi’s proposal to be part of the group of aggressive young people who were to relaunch ‘Panorama’. For the weekly she writes about protest and feminism, later becoming the first female editor in the culture sector. In 1977 he published his first book: ‘The story of Dario Fo’ (Feltrinelli), followed by ‘Dall’interno della guerriglia’ (Mondadori, 1978), an investigation into terrorism in Europe, written with ‘Panorama’ colleagues Romano Cantore and Carlo Rossella, and ‘Care compagne’ (Editori Riuniti, 1979), on feminism in the PCI and in the union, with Laura Lilli. In the mid-80s he moved to Rome to follow national politics: interview Pietro Ingrao, Giulio Andreotti, Sandro Pertini, Giorgio Napolitano, Bettino Craxi, Nilde Jotti and Enrico Berlinguer. In 1985, he published a biography on the secretary of the PCI, ‘The Companion Berlinguer’ (Mondadori), which was followed in 1987 by ‘Berlinguer the secretary’ (Mondadori).

Having moved to the weekly ‘L’Espresso’, directed by Giovanni Valentini, with whom she has no family relationship, she followed the events of the last Soviet Union and the first Russia and the political events of the end of the First Republic and published ‘Il nome e la cosa’ (Feltrinelli, 1990), on the crisis of the PCI and its transformation after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the 90s he dedicated himself to the condition of women and after a report on ethnic rapes in Bosnia he wrote the pamphlet “The weapon of rape” (La Luna, 1993, with Elena Doni).

His journalistic work is intertwined with various instances and initiatives of new feminisms, from the ‘Letter to the client’, to the mobilization for the release of the ‘Manfesto’ journalist Giuliana Sgrena, kidnapped in Iraq, to ​​the volume ‘Women are scary’ (Il Saggiatore, 1997), which thoroughly investigates the discrimination against women that still exists in our country, to the contributions for the volumes ‘Il Novecento delle Italiane. A story to tell’ (Editori Riuniti, 2001, edited by the Controparola group) and “Amorosi Assassins” (Laterza, 2008). ‘Forbidden fertilization’ (Feltrinelli, 2004), released on the occasion of the referendum on assisted fertilization, was successful. His latest books are ‘O sons or work’ (Feltrinelli, 2012) and ‘Enrico Berlinguer’ (Feltrinelli, 2014).

The memory

Chiara Valentini was “a true militant of early feminism” and this is how the Controparola group of journalists and writers remembers her, of which she was one of the founders. “Chiara was authoritative, both in speaking and in writing, and her original look at every event over the years was a stimulus to us. Investigate, understand, tell with honesty to go beyond appearances. Thank you Chiara!” Cristiana Di San Marzano, Eliana Di Caro, Dacia Maraini, Mirella Serri, Paola Gaglianone, Dina Lauricella, Lia Levi, Francesca Sancin, Maria Cristina Blu and Linda Laura Sabbadini write in a message of condolence. (by Paolo Martini)