Yesterday morning in Piazza del Quadrato, Latina celebrated the 92nd anniversary of the laying of the first stone of the city.
After the Italian anthem and the laying of the wreath at the monument to the Reclaimer, in memory of the many who sacrificed themselves for the reclamation of the Pontine lands and for the foundation of the new city, the mayor Matilde Celentano addressed a greeting to the citizens and to the authorities for sharing the celebration of the anniversary of 30 June 1932, “a special day for the entire community”.
It’s a shame that the city was absent: only the guests, the representatives of the associations, were present. Many municipal administrators were also missing, above all people were missing. A party for a few close friends, despite the publicity given. A sign that there is still a lot of work to be done to bring citizens closer to the institutions.
«In these 92 years Latina has been many things: the first of the new cities in the countryside redeemed from the swamp; the garden to show to the world; the border line on which the allies who landed at Anzio and the retreating Nazis fought the last bloody phases of the Second World War; one of the theaters of the country’s reconstruction; the land of the economic boom with the advent of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno; the place of the technological challenge launched by the visionary Enrico Mattei who wanted the first Italian nuclear power plant right here, in Borgo Sabotino; the city of well-being and then the laboratory of the crisis that hit the entire country; the city of hospitality and welcome, starting with the Giuliano Dalmatian communities and the refugees fleeing from Eastern countries, the Italian refugees from Libya and Tunisia; from the Vietnamese to the Poles, up to the Indians and North Africans of today.”
Latina social model
«A city that some would like to be intolerant and repellent, and which instead is a social and cultural model of exchange and civil, peaceful and constructive coexistence, which sees children and young people of profoundly different origins and cultures grow up day after day in the same school classes».
«It is a reality that today crosses the entire country from north and south, but no place has the specificity of Latina, the only Italian city where from the day of birth onwards the paradigm of immigration has been and remains a constant and a constituent element of the society and culture of this truly special community.”
Towards the centenary
“And it is on this path, and with this spirit, that we must immediately, starting today, face the path that will lead us to the celebrations of the Centenary of Latina in 2032. A very important event for the city and for our entire community; an event on which the spotlight of the country has already been turned, because as you know the process for the final approval of the bill on the Centenary of Latina is already at an advanced stage in Parliament. I am certain that we will be able to face the challenge, a challenge that has already begun and that will see us, on June 30, 2032, shine with our architectural, environmental, human and cultural heritage.”
Read also: The law on the Centenary of Latina is almost reality: green light in the Senate
