A tribute to the memory of a Constituent Father who worked on the articles that supervise the rules on trade unions and which guarantees the right to strike for workers.
This is what Capriglio did yesterday to the Honorable Giuseppe Rapelli (1905-1977) with the naming of a mirror of the square overlooked by the small church of the village, the weight and the headquarters of the Mutual Aid Society.
A place chosen not by chance: a few dozen meters away is the house where Rapelli, originally from Castelnuovo Don Bosco, arrived as an infant to be given up to a woman, Felicita, who had recently become the mother of Matteo Agagliate ( who would later become a Salesian priest teaching at the Agricultural School of Lombriasco) and within a year she would give birth to Maria Luigia Agagliate, later the town’s historic teacher and first female mayor of the Province of Asti. There was born that friendship with Capriglio and his foster brothers which would forever bind Rapelli so much so that he asked to be buried in the cemetery of the small town.
Among those who accepted the invitation of the mayor Tiziana Gaeta and the municipal administration of Capriglio to attend the dedication ceremony, the presence of Dr. Paolo Mastrocola, a high official of the Prefecture of Asti who in Capriglio, about 20 years ago, was particularly appreciated he held the position of prefectural commissioner. Also present were the regional vice president Fabio Carosso and the MEP Alessandro Panza who underlined the vitality of small municipalities and the importance of not losing the memory of places and people.
Also present were numerous mayors of the area and the commanders of the Montafia carabinieri station and the Villanova Company.
Among the audience were two cousins of the Honorable Rapelli, Gianluigi and Sergio Omegna who, together with Virginia Arato, also remember well the more intimate and familiar aspect of what for them was simply Giuseppe. Giorgio Paolucci also arrived specifically from Trieste with his wife Elena and Tommaso; Paolucci is the brother-in-law of Giovanni, son of Giuseppe, who together with his wife Anna Laura Passera lived for about 7 years in Capriglio, in the house that the historic teacher left them as an inheritance.
Before the unveiling of the plaque, a brief portrait was made of the Honorable Rapelli, the Constituent Father who, within the Commission of 75, worked on the articles on the establishment of the union and on the workers’ right to strike. The beginning of a long political career that ended in the mid-Seventies. The solid friendship with the nurse’s sister Maria Luigia Agagliate allowed Capriglio to have, before other even larger municipalities, asphalted roads and drinking water in the houses.
The complete biography of Giuseppe Rapelli and the main indications of his vast production of writings and publications have been referred to a notebook published for the occasion by the Maria Luigia Agagliate Library edited by Daniela Peira in collaboration with the president Diego Occhiena, distributed at the end of the ceremony.
Ceremony dedicated to a Constituent Father which could not have ended in a better way with the delivery, by Gian Ariano and Eraldo Gatto on behalf of the Lions Club of Castelnuovo Don Bosco Alto Monferrato of a copy of the Constitution and the tricolor to the newly eighteen-year-olds of the town : Chiara Bacco, Maddalena Banone, Francesca Bruni and Giovanni Garbarini.
(In the cover photo the mayor Tiziana Gaeta with Rapelli’s relatives and the newly eighteen-year-olds)
Tags: Capriglio Constituent Father Rapelli square yesterday
