Rocco, el Jardinero

 

There was something about Rocco that got him cast in the role of gardener in the sort of films where a designated outside occupation wasn't really necessary, though I suppose it added to the intensity of the fantasy depicted.  No doubt there was an attempt to joke about his having a big hose (but, then why not cast him as a fireman?)  It may be that he actually made his real living doing landscaping.  I can't pretend to know much about him, but I have made inquiries of people whom I believed would know the real story, but to no avail.  I sometimes wonder if he really was from Italy, if he might have been, instead, one of those Michoacanos of Italian ancestry.  He certainly looks Italian. 

 

I don't even know if Rocco is still among the living.  More than twenty years ago I crossed paths (near the corner of Castro and Market in front of the Cigar & Magazine Store) with Melchor Diaz, the fellow whom I believe was his final co-star (in a video named Life Guard, a porno promoting condom use, and meant to show just how much fun sex could still be in the Age of Aids.)  This guy was obviously near death, and I heard not long after of his passing.  I know that Rocco played both top and bottom, unprotected, with Al Parker, who also died around that time.  (It's hard to know, however, as with cancer, whether the patient died of the disease or the treatment for it.)  I hope that Rocco Rizzoli (not his real name, or even his only porn name) is still alive.  I've heard that he was bisexual, that he had a wife and kids.  I'd like to think that he lives in Italy, somewhere far out in the country.  Of course, Pasolini would have laughed at such notions as foolishly sentimental, and they are.  I mean, my only real connection to this guy is that I still occasionally wank while watching his image flicker across a screen.