POTENZA – «I will start crossing this road again little by little»: Filomena Iemma, Elisa’s mother, said this today Claps – the missing girl a Power on 12 September 1993 and whose body was found after 17 years, on 17 March 2010, in the attic of the church of the Holy Trinity – to comment on the naming of the large area overlooking the entrance to the church after her daughter by the municipal administration same church, in the historic center of the Lucanian capital.
«I am very calm – she continued -: it is nice to see the plaque for Elisa who from today is finally free from that attic. For me the discussions with the church are closed, in recent years I have already met three bishops and for me it is a discussion that has been definitively removed.” The ceremony on Via Pretoria was preceded by the change of name of a public park, in the Macchia Romana district, previously named in memory of Elisa and which from today has taken the name of «Parco del Fiore Bianco», like the title of the song of the Rai drama which retraced the tragic story of the young student from Potenza.
«It is a day of light – highlighted Elisa’s brother, Gildo – with a highly symbolic value and which my family intends as a sort of reconciliation with that part of the city which has struggled a lot to be aware of this affair and to come to terms with her history, because Elisa’s history was also the history of Potenza for 30 years. I hope – he concluded – that this time, in the wake of the path of reconciliation that we have undertaken, there is actually the will to close this matter also on the part of the new bishop”, Monsignor Davide Carbonaro who will enter the city on Saturday 18 May .
«12 years have passed since the inauguration of the Elisa Claps Park – said Gildo Claps – and symbolically we are bringing Elisa back from the outskirts to the centre, above all Largo Elisa Claps next to that church really also represents a sort of reconciliation of the entire city. Something extraordinary is happening, thanks to Pablo Trincia’s podcast and fiction, especially towards young people. I’m happy for my mother, I saw her reborn with a new light in her eyes. I also believe that Mariagrazia Zaccagnino’s book, which extracted Elisa’s diaries, was fundamental in restoring her memory of being her daughter. The story has always run in parallel on two tracks, the search for truth and justice and the other for memory. I founded Penelope in 2002, Libera joined us, they are all associations that make memory their centre. Without knowing the past you cannot look to the future.”
And in the next few months the dream of creating a medical clinic dedicated to Elisa in Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will be completed. «We have already reached the budget to bring Elisa’s heart, as is the title of the project, to Africa where there is a terrible situation. If conditions permit, it will be inaugurated on September 12th.”
