Post-terrona and her Soil.
This project is a work-in-progress graphic novel composed of digitally assembled watercolor images paired with a narrative. It tells a fictional story inspired by a historically stereotyped group: Southern Italian women, often labeled “terronas.” In the graphic novel, the terronas undergo a transformation: initially marginalized and associated with labor-intensive rural roles—as they were in the past and, to some extents, still are—I imagine how their deep connection to land, nature, and community becomes a source of resilience, strength, and renewal.
The narrative traces their journey from constrained, stereotypical roles to empowered “post-terronas” who reclaim their cultural identity and collective agency. Drawing on ancestral knowledge and a profound bond with the territory, these post-terronas contribute meaningfully to global conversations around environmental preservation, community-building, and the creation of joyful, fulfilling lifestyles.
This project aspires to serve as a healing artifact—a narrative that blends painting and imagination to promote well-being and inspire activism. By offering visual and narrative depictions of transformation, it invites viewers to see themselves as agents of positive change through renewed relationships with both human and more-than-human worlds.
Post-terronas live in the south of Italy.
They descend from the terronas.
The terronas were short-tempered women, often subject to sexualization.
They did not have political authority because men considered them to be too irrational and emotional to wield social influence.
The terronas exerted their authority in the confines of the domestic space, where they took care of their husbands and children.
Then things changed.
The Terronas discovered a way to transform their fervent emotions into a renewable green energy source by creating profound connections with the soil of their territories and its underground beings.
This bond enabled them to sustainably cultivate and care for the plants and animals of their land while also discovering new ways to connect with each other and the wider ecosystem.
As a result, they produced abundance and joyful ways of living.
The terronas transformed the expectation of providing pleasure to men into the skill of experiencing exeptional pleasure themselves, developing the superpower of feeling intense sensorial enjoyment through their connection to the Mediterrenean environment.
Nowadays these skills are used by post-terronas to safeguard their environment and have a happy, fulfilled life.
