It all began in Concordia, in 1937… thus begins the book written by the chronicler Cesare Pradella, From one century to the next (published by Artestampa). “The idea had been buzzing in my mind for some time and, since I will be 87 in June, I had to write this book before I got too old – ed. laughs – before my eyesight, hand and memory started to fail”.
Pages in which Pradella recounts dramatic episodes that marked his childhood, his interest in politics (“I was a young and committed social democrat. A passion that led me to travel a lot, especially in Northern Europe”) and, finally, the arrival in journalism.
“From one century to the next – he explains – it is a real revival of my career as a reporter between the Montanelli newspaper first and then the Resto del Carlino, up to my latest collaborations as a commentator on local politics and news with the weekly magazine Tempo Prima and with the online newspaper La Pressa Then”. For forty years Cesare Pradella, the “dean” of local journalists, has reported on Carpi and its dynamics with acumen and intellectual honesty.
Divided into chapters, the book allows you to relive the history of our city and beyond through newspaper clippings and headlines. “The 26 years spent at Carlino – underlines Cesare Pradella – are the ones I am most fond of. They were years of intense work, because back then being a correspondent forced you to cover everything, from black to white, to politics… and to do it in extremely contingent times. In fact, all the pieces had to arrive at the editorial office in Modena by 6pm: it was a race against time and despite the attempt to delve into the news as best as possible, it was often almost impossible to do so. A period that I really remember with great pleasure: I fully experienced the reality that surrounded me so that I could talk about it and comment on it with that desire for discovery that animates every journalist.” A way of communicating, wearing out the soles of shoes and notebook in hand, which today, thanks to the arrival of online newspapers and social media, seems to belong to another era: “in reality – adds Pradella – this new way of understanding and doing journalism has not increased the quality of information, on the contrary. There is this constant desire to arrive first and in order to do so we limit ourselves to writing three words and full stop. News that is not always contextualized and that the reader is not able to fully understand. I like in-depth news, not the ones shouted out because you’re looking for a scoop.”
It is then impossible for Pradella not to indulge in a pinch of nostalgia towards “a beautiful and rich Carpi. A Carpi that no longer exists. Over the past 40 years, the city has progressively become impoverished. First the economic fabric crumbled, followed by the social fabric. We no longer have important public services such as the Magistrates Court, we have lost the bishop… Carpi does not respond to the needs of its citizens and no longer has political weight. We are less authoritative than we once were and the responsibility lies with those who, for too long, have governed this city. Only from a healthy alternation can ideas, ideas and the desire to do things arise… and that’s what’s missing here.”
The first part of From one century to the next it is then dedicated to an episode that Cesare Pradella had not wanted to recall until now, namely the killing of his father Andrew. “In 1944 my father, who was a landowner, was kidnapped and killed by partisans while he was traveling along a road in his carriage. In the days following the disappearance, the mare was returned to the sharecroppers of one of our family’s properties but my father’s body was never found. At the trial the alleged culprits were acquitted, and then fled. My father’s murder went unpunished. A page of history, that of the crimes of priests, Christian Democrats and landowners, committed during and after the liberation struggle by the partisans which is still talked about too little and on which I wanted to contribute to lifting the veil”.
The book is available on newsstands and in bookstores starting next week.
Jessica Bianchi
