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Jan 29,2006 - Feb 5,2006 |
2 - Doing battle on many fronts
President of the Montreal Comites, Giovanni Rapaną discusses the contributions of Italians
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-12-22
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Giovanni Rapaną
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People from Salento (Salentinians) mostly walked roads leading them in Europe: Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, France. They gave an important contribution to the post-war reconstruction and prosperity of the countries where they worked. They made their fortune, but often lost their lives. For example, in Belgium, in the Marcinelle mine in 1958, as many as 275 Italian migrants lost their lives in a single disaster: most of them came from Salento, where they had recently left tobacco plantations overlooking the Ionian Sea that surrounds Lecce.
That tragedy not only marked the everyday lives of the survivors (many towns still have squares and monuments "to the victims of the Marcinelle disaster"), but occupied an important place in the collective imagination; many Salentinian gastarbeitern returned home, in order to dispel the dark curse of migrants who leave and never come back.
"I was one-years-old when the Marcinelle tragedy happened, so I cannot remember it. But I remember that, as soon as I began to understand, I noticed that it was constantly mentioned," says Giovanni Rapaną, from Galatone in Salento, President of the Montreal Comites. "It was an overhanging event, which in people's chats had even replaced the memories of the other great collective tragedy, the Second World War, whose wounds were barely beginning to heal."
Giovanni Rapaną is one of those scarce Salentinians who crossed the Atlantic Ocean, bound for Canada. "In Montreal," he says, "Apulians, especially from Bari and Foggia, are numerous, but there are very few Salentinians. Although Salento is indeed in Apulia, I want to distinguish between the two for historical and cultural reasons: Apulians and Salentinians live in the same region, yet they are different people. At the time of the Constituent Assembly, this diversity was almost recognized with the creation of the Region of Salento. The idea was torpedoed by Aldo Moro, who did not accept the idea of splitting Apulia in two. He had his reasons, which I respect as I always respected his political overtures, but I cannot forget that the Region of Salento was blocked by Aldo Moro, a Salentinian himself. His attitude at the time can be taken as symbolic of our character: Salentinians are scoffers, unable to accept unconditionally what other people have established; they are individualistic and stubborn."
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