The new book by Nicola Gratteri will be in bookstores from Tuesday 8 June, published by Mondadori, chief prosecutor of Catanzaror, and Antonio Nicaso, expert in ‘Ndrangheta e Professor of Social History of Organized Crime at Queen’s University in Canada. The title is emblematic: “Don’t call them heroes” and traces the stories of some mafia victims starting from the figures of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
The volume, which has been enriched with illustrations by Giulia Tomai, combines the stories of Giuseppe Letizia killed in Corleone at the age of 13; P.eppino Kneaded; Giorgio Ambrosoli; Carlo Alberto from the Church; Rosario Livatino; Free Fat; don Pino Puglisi; Lea Garofalo; Rocco Gatto; Giuseppe Di Matteo; Green Jasmine; Annalisa Durante; Cocò Campilongo. These are intertwined with other stories, up to the final analysis of the authors, a glossary dedicated to the most important words and a good description of the sources. “Do not call them heroes” is intended primarily for a young audience, but the writing, simple and concrete, and the testimonies it contains, allow anyone to deepen, discover or reread stories that have directly marked the fight against the mafia.
In the volume there is the project idea of the two authors: “Thirty years after the death of the two magistrates who did not want to be called heroes, Nicola Gratteri and Antonio Nicaso recall the lives of those who, looking the mafia in the eye, decided to defend their ideas, their dignity. Their dreams, their hope, their courage are a way not to forget and to remember that “You can do something, and if everyone does it, then a lot can be done”.
In the final note of the book, which the Time.news read before the official release, Gratteri and Nicaso explained: “Telling the story of those who died at the hands of the mafias, their dreams, their hopes, their normality, but their courage too, it is a way not to forget, to revive them. The memory of their sacrifice – the authors insist – must push us to commit ourselves to building a country that is truly free from fear, need, but above all from mafia conditioning and electoral manipulations. It is appropriate to move from heroicization to humanization of the victims. For everyone, the prophetic words of Rocco Gatto, a Calabrian miller killed by the ‘Ndrangheta in 1977 should apply:’ Their strength lies in our weakness, in our fear ‘he often repeated, referring to the men who would soon kill him. ‘But if we all move, if we expose them, we can win them. They are few, we are many ‘”.
For this reason, the idea of Gratteri and Nicaso is that “the fight against the mafias must pass from a co-responsibility of the entire institutional, cultural, social and economic system. Today more than ever there is a need for knowledge, but above all for courageous and unequivocal choices. Those that often lead to take sides on the side of awareness, rather than that of indifference. The dawn of a new day is possible. Words are stones. Let’s use them – say the authors – to build bridges, to unite the consciences of those who can no longer stand the tyranny of the mafias, the hypocrisy of those who should fight them and the lies of those who continue to turn away ”.
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