Catanzaro – «We have never suffered acts of intimidation. Those who denounce extortion, extortion or usury become stronger. Every now and then they ask me: “Aren’t you afraid to come here every morning?”. And the answer is “no!”. I was never afraid and there was never any episode. The members of the anti-racket association, once they became members, have never suffered intimidation».
Thus begins our chat with Maria Francesca Gentile, content manager and press office of the Trame ETS foundation. Selena Meli and I are in Lamezia Terme, at the headquarters of Civico Trame and the Lametina Antiracket Association. Civico Trame is organizing the Trame Festival that we told you about last week and which will have its thirteenth edition in the next few days, from 14 to 18 June.
Our meeting with Maria Francesca took place at the beginning of May on the occasion of our new trip to Changing Calabria. With this interview and in particular with the video contained in this article, we inaugurate the story in installments of this journey that we wanted to name Calabria will be you, another imaginary for Calabria.
The words reported at the beginning of this article summarize the profound meaning of the work that the two organisations, the Associazione Antiracket Lamezia Onlus and Civico Trame have been carrying out for many years in Lamezia. It all began in 2005 with the birth of the association, then in 2011 with the first edition of Trame. Festival of books on the mafia and “finally” in 2012 with the birth of the foundation. Let’s therefore retrace the most important ideas that emerged from our chat and were not present in the video and we focus on how Lamezia synthesizes the two imaginaries of Calabria, the decadent and violent one and the one in turmoil and transformation.
THE LAMEZIA ANTIRACKET ASSOCIATION AND COURAGE BEYOND FEAR
It all starts with the birth of the Lamezia Antiracket Association in 2005 thanks to the work of the 13 founders. Previously the Calabrian city had been marked by a series of dramatic events, from the murders of two street cleaners with Kalashnikovs in 1991 to fights between mafia gangs, passing through the killing of the Aversa-Prevenzano couple which gave rise to the mafia massacres in 1992, continuing with many episodes of violence and abuse.
According to Maria Francesca, a turning point in common feeling occurred after a three-day fire in a shed containing tyres: «Unfortunately, each of us has memories of bombs and abuses. There was a particular episode that made the Lametina community grow in the desire to unite and say enough is enough: a big fire in a shed with many tires that remained smoking for days”, he says.
«The city mobilized, even those of us who were still going to school took to the streets. There was a lockout of all traders coordinated by the Lametina Antiracket Association and from there there was an awakening of consciences against this phenomenon. Afterwards it has become “easier” to take to the streets every year in June to talk about the mafia and name some clans without being afraid anymore. Furthermore, every May 24th we participate in the day of remembrance in honor of the two garbage collectors and all the victims of the ‘Ndrangheta who did not obtain justice.”
THE NATURAL CONVERGENCE ON RECOVERED SPACES AND CULTURAL FESTIVALS
Yes: courage, testimony. From our whole chat it emerges that the work of the anti-racket association and that of Civico Trame and the Festval are profoundly linked. On the one hand, those who report are helped, on the other, the conditions are created to change things at a systemic level. «Today there are associations that don’t leave you alone when you report. It is essential because fear for your family sets in. Many people report after a long period under threat and come to report exasperated by the situation, perhaps after years. But once reported, everything changes.”
The anti-racket association of Lamezia also made possible the presence of other associations in the Calabrian area, like the one in Cosenza, and hosts one of the three Calabrian anti-racket offices. In the same location – which is that of Civico Trame – we also find a library, students who come every day to train and learn more, meetings of associations of various kinds, cultural activities of all types.
As often happens in these cases, the choice of venue was not accidental. It was born as a senior center and was soon abandoned. With the work of the association members and many volunteers it has been renovated and tidied up since 2017 it has contributed to revitalizing a neighborhood considered peripheral and which has seen a new life.
CIVIC PLOTS (AT SCHOOL) ALL YEAR ROUND!
Maria Francesca works for the Foundation and is happy about it: «It is a great fortune for me to work for a cultural foundation in Calabria and in particular in my city. I experience it as a moral and civil duty that I have like many other young people from Lamezia. We experience a sense of redemption and revenge for the abuses that the mafias still carry out today and we are moved by a desire to redeem our territory.”
«The festival – he continues – is our biggest project but over time we have developed many other activities. Between these, Plots at school which brings the themes and values of the festival into lametino classes of all levels and even outside our province! Every year we bring selected texts and initiate the children into a process of reading and education on legality at the end of which they can meet the writers and journalists. We also offer the older ones the opportunity to discuss live with testimonies from the members of the association who have reported”.
LAMEZIA BETWEEN TWO IMAGINARIANS
«In this period – confides Maria Francesca – Lamezia is experiencing a great cultural ferment. There are many associations and places in which to spread culture. What we try to do is provide an alternative. At the moment there isn’t a cinema in the city but there is a bookshop, many theater associations and a very active library system. There are also many young people who want to do and commit themselves. Hundreds of volunteers participate in the festival every year and every person who sits in the square talking about mafias changes a piece of the world. Contrary to what one might think, Lamezia is very active and many beautiful things are done.”
And we are happy to tell them. Because, as the title of this series of articles says, Calabria – like Italy and the world, it was you, it is you and it will be you!. The festival hosts writers, journalists, scholars who deal with the mafia. «Every year we welcome hundreds of local volunteers and those who come from abroad. Many people take holidays on purpose or return from Erasmus to Lamezia specifically. We also hosted many well-known faces. Committed artists also participate in the festival and we didn’t stop even with the pandemic – we did it online», says Maria Francesca.
Lamezia is experiencing great cultural ferment. What we try to do is provide an alternative
Today the artistic direction is by Giovanni Tizian – journalist from Domani, Calabrian from Bovalino and son of an innocent victim of the ‘Ndrangheta –, who today leads the festival. His mark of investigative journalism can be felt! The circuit that revolves around the festival collaborates with Fondazione Trecani cultura, Legambiente, Confcommercio, the union of Italian film journalists for the recognition of the ribbon of legality and the Roberto Morioni award for investigative journalism.
Furthermore, Trame contributed to the birth of the culture network, which unites third sector bodies faced with the new legislation. «And in 2023 we contributed to the birth of the network of Italian anti-mafia festivals, together with Restart, Legalitria, Raccontiamoci le mafiae and Noi contro le mafiae. Finally, Trame is part of the southern festival network, which unites the main literary events of southern Italy”, concludes Maria Francesca.
This article is part of the Ponti Ponti project: culture and theater for active citizenship.
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