There is another resistance, or a new resistance. Unknown women and men carry it forward, among the thousand difficulties of everyday life, in an Italy freed from war and fascism but not from the enemies of civil coexistence and democracy: the mafias and illegality, racism and prejudice towards different, the abandonment and degradation of the suburbs and the poorest, violence against women and the cancellation of rights. Controversy and political clashes cloud the meaning of a date which is a symbol of struggle and redemption from evil. The country, grappling with many problems, still expresses these forces. On the occasion of April 25th, Avvenire decided to tell three stories of “resisters”: that of Pino which you read below, that of the educator of Moroccan origins Kenza who is the soul and heart of an educational club on the difficult outskirts of Turin and that of Massimo Baroni, the father of the very young Alba Chiara killed in 2017 in Trentino by her ex-boyfriend, engaged on the front line alongside women in the fight against violence and for equality.
On April 18, the trial of the extortionists of Pino Trimboli, a restaurateur and agricultural entrepreneur from Martone, a small town in the interior of Locride with just 500 inhabitants (there were more than two thousand 70 years ago) began. They asked him for 50 thousand euros, threatening him: «If you don’t pay, you’re dead. We’ll burn down your restaurant, your children and all your family.” «But I had no hesitation, I reported – he says with conviction -. I understood that I had to close my business or ask for their protection and become a slave. I didn’t give up. Of course I was afraid, but one must not be overwhelmed by this fear. I would be more afraid to bow my head to those who want to take away our freedom. I have chosen and continue to choose to work in my land, which I love, while the ‘Ndrangheta hates Calabria.” And people understood. Pino told everyone about the threats, all of Martone went to guard the restaurant. Even the procession of the patronal feast stopped there, when in the past (unfortunately quite a few times) the processions had stopped in front of the houses of the mafiosi, for the famous “bow”. But now everything has changed, because Pino resists.
His is truly a life of resistance. To illness, to poverty, to youthful flattery, to mafia violence. Since birth. Today he is 49 years old, married to Lucia who is also beside him at work, with four children. But the story begins further away, in a very poor family, the emigrant father, Pino, who risks dying at birth, saving himself with a very serious malformation of the optic nerve which puts him at risk of blindness. For a year he also tried his luck in America. When he returns his father tells him «”if you want to stay you have to work”. He did it to keep me away from bad friends.” So work makes Pino resist taking bad paths. He goes to be a waiter in a hotel on the coast. And there he understands that his cooking is his passion: in 1998 he opened the restaurant “La Collinetta”, “where you eat like at home”. And in fact, mother Rosa is in the kitchen for a long time. Products from his organic farm or other guaranteed ones, traditional Calabrian dishes but with some experimentation, a wonderful cellar. It’s a success. Since 2000 he has been in the guide of the best Slow Food trattorias, also obtaining the “Golden Snail” which represents the top.
The restaurant is always full, many families and young people. It employs 13 people, including immigrants and disabled people. Obviously the ‘Ndrangheta steps forward. First with its own businesses. «They offered to do jobs. It was indirect “protection”. Pino refuses, resists and makes other very clear choices. In 2007 he joined the Goel Consortium, the network of social cooperatives founded by Bishop Giancarlo Bregantini, which promotes a clean economy, employment, legality and solidarity, counteracting the power of the ‘Ndrangheta. And this time the gangs react: “Let’s see if we threaten you, who will protect you.” He shrugs and always remembers when as a boy he was in the square at a stall with a friend: «The boss passes by and asks him “Who did you give an account of for the stall?”. My friend replies: “I went to the municipality and paid the tax. Do you want something?”. “I do not like anything”. “Then go away, the Saint is coming out of the church”». The mafioso spits on the ground and leaves, the friend says to Pino: “If you’re afraid you’re already dead, you only die once.” Pino hears those same words from Borsellino years later and understands that freedom is priceless. So he doesn’t stop: he collaborates with Caritas to include disadvantaged people in work, with the “I Girasoli” association of Martone to always support families with disabled people with work. And then the two projects “Fruit of our land” and “Terra dei primi”, in which the elderly teach disabled people to work the land and produce aromatic and medicinal herbs, which then end up in restaurant dishes. Pino, and many of his friends, resist the ‘Ndrangheta and change Calabria.
