Interview with Lilith Primavera

Monika: Lilith Primavera is an Italian actress, singer and LGBTQI+ activist, one of the beloved faces of the TV series “Le fate ignoranti”, directed by Ferzan Özpetek. She was born in Rome and has worked in various professions such as a radio host, author, poet, and performer. She has also appeared in several films including “Mamma + Mamma” and “Anima bella”. As a singer, she has released several electropop singles such as “Vanilla”, Polvere e Pelle”, “Molto”, “Taboo”, “Goodbye My Lover”, “Vieni a Prendermi”, “Nuda”, “Quattro Parole”, and “AMAMI”. She has also given speeches at events such as Carla 2020, where she spoke about the importance of LGBTQ+ rights. Thank you so much for finding some time to chat with me.

Lilith: Thank you Monika and thank you for your precious research work.

Monika: Lilith is such a nice name. When I checked it up, I realized that it comes from Mesopotamian and Jewish mythology, and it is a female figure, theorized to be the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been banished from the Garden of Eden for not obeying Adam. Does the name match your character well? 

Lilith: As I tell in the podcast “MALAFEMMINA” (the first Italian podcast to talk about transition in the first person, created in 2020) on Storytel, directed by Chloè Barreau, this name is the legacy that my mother left me when I met her after many years of separation, right at the beginning of my life as a woman. I was 19 and we hadn't seen each other for over ten years: my parents divorced in the early 80s and I was entrusted to my father. I never saw my mother again who was a drug addict and my father's family kept me away from her. 

Interview with Eva Carieri

Monika: Bologna, a lovely city in Italy, is our venue today. I am talking to Eva Carieri, an inspirational Italian transgender activist, model, actress, blogger, and fashion celebrity. In 2022, she published her biography "Eva. Il prezzo dell'ambizione. La ricerca dell'amore nonostante tutto, oltre il pregiudizio" (Eve. The price of ambition. The search for love despite everything, beyond prejudice). Hello Eva!

Eva: Hello Monika!

Monika: You are a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Eva: I am a curious person, eager to learn anything that piques my interest. I have not received an education in culture or that would allow me to cultivate my talents. I come from a very poor family with little education, I was born in an era and in a city not inclined to give space to the people of our community. I didn't give up, I risked and suffered a lot, I had to succumb many times but I reached some of the goals I wanted to conquer, one of all, my body in line with my feelings. Of course, then, life is made up of many other things and I believe that people like us will never stop working on themselves to improve themselves.

Interview with Alessia Bergamo

Monika: Today I am going to interview Alessia Bergamo, an Italian model, showgirl, beauty pageant queen, and TV personality, holding the title of Miss Trans Italia 2013. Hello Alessia!

Alessia: Hello Monika! With this interview, I hope to give courage and esteem to all the transwomen who are facing this difficult transition path like me. I would like to make it clear that we too can become accomplished, beautiful and famous on TV as much as cis women.

Monika: You are a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself? 

Alessia: Like the majority of transgender women, in the past, I had a bad life full of difficulties. I put a lot of effort to be fulfilled as an artist and known throughout Italy on TV as a columnist and soubrette.

For many years I have been working in the best Italian clubs as a sexy star with my burlesque shows. I am also a model of artistic nude, glamour, and cosplay photos. I could achieve it thanks to the first place I won in the national beauty contest of Miss Trans Italia, which gave me a lot of visibility throughout the nation.

Interview with Alessandra Bernaroli

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Alessandra Bernaroli, a transsexual activist from Bologna in Italy, whose legal victory was an important step for transgender rights in Italy. Hello Alessandra!

Alessandra: Hello Monika, thanks for this opportunity to talk about LGBTI Civil Rights!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Alessandra: I was born a man in 1971 and lived my life forcing myself to adhere to the image that the society established for people who had a male appearance. In my teen years, there was neither Internet nor so much “correct” information about transsexualism, so I always tried to deny my intimate feelings, believing that they were wrong and that it was happening only to me and no one else in the world.

However, that was not true; now I know it! So I behaved trying to look as manly as possible, and I succeeded easily in doing this also because of my physical appearance, which was, at that time, indubitably a male appearance both in aspect as well as in attitude. Year after year my deep feeling to be a woman didn’t disappear, of course.

I graduated in economics, served one year in military service, practiced charted accounting and finally worked as a clerk. In the meantime, I found love and I got married. Until then, it was 2005, and I was a man!