The Maria's colours

A couple of days ago, I have received an e-mail about a paintings exhibition in Maglie (Lecce), which will start today at 5.30 pm.

The artist is Maria Jose Garcia.

She comes from Guadalajara, close to Madrid.

Maria works in Brindisi within the United Nations Logistic Base.

So, I e-mail Maria asking her if she would be interested in being interviewed for In Apulia.

She accepts without hesitation.

Therefore, we arrange to meet up near the canteen within the UN base.

Once there, we introduce each other.

I am struck by her eyes: bright as the colours of her paintings.

I explain her the mission of my blog.

However, I wish to find out more about her passion for painting. 

“I have been living in Amsterdam for 14 years” she says.

“I had great time there. Nevertheless, I have never got used to the darkness of that latitude”.

“I adore to paint the nature” Maria says. “Usually, I take a picture of the subject, then, I paint it”.

Talking about the History of Art, Maria likes very much the Post-Impressionism movement

The below painting is an example.

Additionally, Maria loves Sorolla, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

Maria lives in Lecce.

“When I ride my bicycle” Maria adds “it hurts me to see plastic and rubbish around the countryside. 

It is a shame to ruin such a fantastic landscape. In The Netherlands there was more respect for the environment”.

Concerning the disease which is affecting the olive trees in Salento, caused by Xylella, Maria wishes that a remedy will be soon found in order to tackle the spreading of it.

It is almost time to come back to work.

We leave the canteen with the strong feeling that we have had a nice chat.

So, feel free to come to Maglie and have a chat with Maria Jose Garcia.

The exhibition will be held in the "F. Capece" gallery in Maglie, from the 28th of March till the 6th of April. 

Opening hours: 5.30 - 9 pm

Mesagne, "La verita' del pentito"

Mesagne is a town with Messapian roots, located at just 11 km. (around six miles) in the province of Brindisi.

I have been in Mesagne two days ago in order to assist to the presentation of La verità del pentito, a book written by Giovanna Montanaro (Sperling & Kupfer, 2013).

The event has been held within an underground olive press, pretty close to the local Municipality.

Libera, a national anti-mafia movement, founded by Don Ciotti, has promoted the meeting.

Mario Dabbico, the coordinator of Libera Brindisi, is a gentle but passionate man.

I pay great respect to Mario and to his faith in values such as peace, legality and education.

I am so entranced by being in a such ancient olive press: heritage of the peasant civilisation.

Invited to discuss about justice and legality is the magistrate Marco Di Napoli (Procuratore capo della Repubblica di Brindisi).

Giovanna Montanaro narrates the story of a bad boy, Gaspare Spatuzza, killer of Brancaccio (Palermo).

Spatuzza has confessed of having been of one of the two killers who actually murdered Padre Puglisi, a free priest.

It is a sad story, though.

Spatuzza, life sentenced due to his involvement in more than 40 murders, had undertaken years ago a spiritual conversion which led him to reveal the truth about the murder of Paolo Borsellino, 

colleague and friend of Giovanni Falcone.

Spatuzza had got hired by the Graviano family, which ruled Brancaccio in Palermo.

The Procuratore Marco DI Napoli, questioned by the audience, explain what motivate people to become mafioso: “Usually, people like that carry on a handicap since the very young age.”.

“Once, one Mafia guy told me” the magistrate continues “that he was hired by such organisation  because he knew how to ride a motorbike”.

Another one said: “Sir, I just know how to shoot”.

In other words, the mob usually do not have great skills.

On the other hand, the leaders are tremendously smart, according to Marco Di Napoli.

During the ‘80ies and ‘90ies, Mesagne was the capital of the Apulian mafia: Sacra Corona Unita (SCU).

The SCU leader was Giuseppe Rogoli.

He tried to establish the Apulian mafia after having got the approval from 'Ndrangheta (Calabrian mafia).

The project of SCU was to set a network of the several Mafia family settled down in Apulia (from Foggia till Lecce).  

However, the plot was undermined. first of all, by internal frictions among the SCU leaders.

Additionally, the judges had inflicted many life sentences to the SCU leaders, Rogoli included.

Talking about her book, Giovanna Montanaro points out that the murder of Paolo Borsellino is still obscure: 

1) the explosive used to kill Borsellino and his escort was Czechoslovakian;  

2) the Judge’sagenda has never been found; 

3) On the top of it, Borsellino was well aware of his imminent death.

The suspect that someone within the Italian institutions did not want Paolo Borsellino living long is strong.

Therefore, If you want to learn more about it, I strongly recommend you to reed this thrilling book.

Eventually, the meeting ends up quite late.

I leave not before having asked Giovanna Montanaro to sign my copy of La verità del pentito.

She is a charming lady.

Additionally, I promise her to e-mail her some pictures which I have taken tonight.

I love this job!

Francesco Morelli, poet of Squinzano

On Friday evening, the Centro studi Sigismondo Castromediano e Gino Rizzo of Cavallino (Lecce) has hosted the presentation of the book Aedo delle Muse. F. Morelli, fra Otto e Novecento written by Emilio Filieri.

To discuss with Emilio Filieri, have been invited Antonio Lucio Giannone 

and Fabio D’Astore, both of them Professors of Università del Salento.

The debate was gladdened by the Sabrina Liù Luciani’s Celtic harp, who has played music of Reniè, Rousseau, Andrès, Einaudi and Pescini.

Francesco Morelli (1878 – 1965) was born in Squinzano, north of Lecce.

He has composed poems in dialect, between the 1909 and 1960.

He wrote poems to celebrate some special moments of life such as wedding, holidays, baptism etc.

Morelli can rightly be considered a poet of the Nineteenth century, pretty far by the existentialism poetry of the Twentieth century.

His poems recall historical and religious topics. 

He has even composed a poem on Kennedy.

The poem Lu Teatru is interesting because of its anthropological perspective on Squinzano.

Indeed, he mentions Tito Schipa while performing in theater.

Additionally, Morelli mentions Frassaniti, who actually was the first reviewer of Futurismo.

In Li Maccaruni Morelli praises pasta, a true symbol of belpaese.

No food give the same satisfaction as Li Maccaruni do.

At this stage, the speakers stop talking: it is the round of Sabrina and her Celtic harp.

The conference-room gets delighted by the sweet sound of the harp.

Actually, Sabrina has got a successful career on national basys so far.

It seems to me that she fully deserves her success.

A beautiful lady sat beside me has given a start while listening to her music.

The spearkers resume the dialogue describing Morelli and his work.

Trilussa had magnified the variety of the subjects treated by Morelli.

Morelli is an autodidact.

He attended the High school for just two years.

He was forced to quit it because his family wanted him to look after their property.

From his poems, we desume that he was not interested in politics at all.

Morelli seems to have got inspiration from Carducci and Pascoli.

However, he had definetely searched for a personal way of expression.

I am glad for having been here.

The municipality of Cavallino cares for culture.

Therefore, I have the strong feeling that I will come back here soon.