Filippo Giannini
I received from a dear friend, Gonano Auro, who lives in Australia, where I got to know and respected for his purity of spirit, a letter from which extrapolate concepts. He writes: (I read about the Alpine in January and March, two letters written by his wife and Gabella about the gathering of 2009 in Latin America. The pressure of the blood I went through the roof, I cried with anger (...). Then Auro Gonano writes that he was skiing and recalls how he saw as a child from his uncle for Agro Pontino e che (da laggiù ci mandava foto e soldi a mia nonna vedova con otto figli la quale ha potuto liberarsi dai debiti (…). L’ombra di quel Gigante (Benito Mussolini, nda) continua a fare paura a tanti Pigmei (…). Cosa e chi hanno turbato a tal punto Auro Gonano da smuoverne l’ira?
Vediamo per prima la lettera del signor Gian Carlo Moglia di Borghetto (Pc), il quale fra l’altro scrive, circa l’adunata degli Alpini che si dovrà svolgere a Latina: Perplessità, stupore, allucinazione…mi piacerebbe che un consigliere mi spiegasse le motivazioni della scelta di Latina (ma non era Littoria? nda) in modo chiaro, conciso, non politichese. Alcune malelingue insinuano che ci sia un desiderio sopito di rinvangare il mito del colono a torso nudo e i colli fatali. La seconda lettera è del signor Domenico Gabella di Borgotaro (Pr), il quale rifacendosi alla lettera del signor Moglia, dopo un ampio preambolo, scrive: Voglio ricordare il sacrificio di ex combattenti della Grande Guerra, parlo in special modo dei contadini veneti, friulani, lombardi, abruzzesi e anche laziali che si videro premiati… con un solo biglietto di andata, spediti con le loro famiglie a morire di stenti e di malaria. Si parla di decine di migliaia di morti. Dopo la guerra, con le sue tragedie, morire in una palude….
Facciamo un po’ di storia, perché, ritengo, che tutti abbiano ragione: Gonano, Moglia e Gabella… if I have interpreted the various arguments.
From time immemorial, emperors, popes and unitary government, and pre fascists tried to drain the swamps, I mean not only those Pontine, because Italy was rich in these disasters. All, repeat all and the end of the 800 fallirono.Verso the issue of land reclamation took particular importance because the farmers asked with increasing insistence on working lands. The big moment seemed to be presented at the end of World War I, with the return from the trenches of the combatants, especially since the soldiers, mostly farmers, in full time war had been promised land to cultivate. The return of the fighters was inconclusive, not only ma deludente: le promesse incontravano la tenace resistenza dei latifondisti. L’unica concreta iniziativa del Governo Vittorio Emanuele Orlando risale al 1917 con la creazione dell’Opera Nazionale Combattenti il cui scopo era di facilitare l’inserimento nella vita lavorativa di coloro che avevano passato anni nelle trincee. In merito scrive Riccardo Mariani (L’Economia Italiana fra le due Guerre, pag. 445): Per molti anni l’Istituto fu solo uno strumento di sottogoverno e ai braccianti disoccupati non restò che occupare con la forza quella terra che, seppure promessa, sembrava impossibile ottenere democraticamente. Ovviamente fra le terre occupate con la forza ci furono anche quelle soggette a rischio di malattie mortali. Ma, ripeto, we are still far from the advent of Fascism. It found, among other troubles left behind by previous governments, even the promised land and never assigned, an issue compounded by a strong and unemployment, fascism tried to stem the policy of public works. To resolve this problem
Mussolini took advantage of a character, Arrigo Serpieri, theorist and developer of land reclamation in fascist era. Mussolini was appointed by Secretary of Agriculture, with responsibility for land reclamation, not just the drying up of swamps, but with the more ambitious goal to work full sull'assetto land. In 1932 Mussolini visiting
reclamation of the Pontine Marshes, a work almost completed, authorized the construction of a rural workers' village at the center of the area restored.
This work is not an exaggeration to call extraordinary, sparked an extraordinary national interest, but even more international, as to draw from all over the world to study the technical miracle.
But not all. Mussolini authorized the construction of five new cities: Littoria (other than Latin), Sabaudia (regarded as one of the finest examples of European rationalism), Pontinia, Aprilia, Pomezia. All built in Fascist times and without any scandal whatsoever.
To realize the gigantic proportions work of Serpieri of fascism and then in a few years, it should be noted, apart from the most famous reclamation of Latium, those basins Sessa, Licola, Varcaturo, the less the Volturno and Sele in Campania, of 'agro between Metaponto and Novastri in Lucania, the Plain of Sybaris (about 32,000 hectares), the areas between dell'Angitola Suvero and the mouth, between the rivers Neto and Wallace (about 20,000 hectares) in Calabria, the lake and some Lentini areas in the provinces of Siracusa and Trapani in Sicily, and many others, and not only in Italy. Remember to forty-eight years after the death of Serpieri, which occurred in January 1960 in Florence, it means an Italy recall different from today and especially different in the political class and ruling class, operating outside of all demagoguery, in a sign of proactive, competence, professionalism and I would say, the brilliance and honesty.
And I recall the expressions of Gonano Auro about the Giants and Pygmies: we have seen in these few lines the realization of great works of art, I invite readers to admire the work of the Pygmies. The traveler who comes from North Aurelia, shortly before going to Rome, on the right will see a cage encased in wooden beams. Well, a decade that hides a cage of water fountain that delivers excellent taste and waiting to be called into activity.
Wait and see ...
Finally, we return to the denunciation of Auro Gonano. Of course, and I hope, the lady wife and Gabella they refer to events that occurred in the pre-fascist. If not, well, it would be a serious act of intellectual dishonesty.
