CAPATOSTA – MIMMO LUCANO

Riace.
A small town in the Locride area of ​​Calabria, known worldwide for the discovery of the "Bronzes," two perfectly preserved Greek statues found on the seabed in 1972.
A town that over the years has experienced mass migration from its own citizens, who, seeing no prospects for work or a life, have literally emptied the municipality, leaving countless homes empty.
Those born in Riace already know they won't grow old there: poor life prospects, combined with a deeply rooted mafia phenomenon in the Locride area, force countless young people every year to leave for northern Italy or even move abroad in search of work.
It is in this very town that a man was born who, over time, was able to bring new light to this small town, making it one of the most significant symbols of humanity and courage in contemporary Italian history.
Domenico Lucano

The story of Domenico Lucano, or rather Mimmo Lucano as everyone calls him, is certainly not one of those epic tales in which the spotless and fearless hero faces a thousand vicissitudes alone and emerges triumphant; rather, it is a story of failures, trials, and betrayals, but also one of courage, perseverance, and sacrifice.

A human story, in short.

His mother was known in the village as "the friend of the Rom," or sometimes, with an adjective that not so subtly concealed a tone of disdain, "the friend of the gypsies." This was due to the fact that during the September festival, when Saints Cosmas and Damian are celebrated in Riace, the doors of Mimmo's home would open to welcome Roma and Sinti pilgrims who came from all over Calabria. They stayed as guests for the three days of the celebrations and shared their culture with that of Mimmo's family.

When I was a child, pilgrims left my house greeting my mother with affection and sincere gratitude.

Hospitality, therefore, has always been a core value for Mimmo Lucano, and he has based his entire life journey on this value. After graduating as a chemical expert and living in Rome for four years, Mimmo returned to Riace where, on July 1, 1998, together with other citizens, he welcomed 184 Kurds (66 men, 46 women, 72 children) who had landed on the Ionian coast to escape persecution in Turkey. Thanks to this event, Mimmo began to develop an interest in the reception methods adopted in Italy and the theme of hospitality, as he himself explains: "I knew who the Kurds were from what I learned on the news, when they were discussed during tragedies or wars. I knew that this particular people had been the target of ancient persecution, the recipients of Saddam Hussein's gassing. They were people on the run, victims who had experienced a profound rift in human relationships. And it was precisely thanks to these interests and this propensity for others that in 1999 Mimmo Lucano, together with other Riacesi, founded the "Città Futura" association. The aim was to reopen the homes abandoned by those who had left the town and revive the professions of "the past." This centered on the concept of hospitality, thus providing refugees with a home and a job, while Riace could rediscover itself as a vibrant and vibrant town. He subsequently created the "Il Borgo e il cielo" cooperative to manage the new weaving, ceramics, glass, and jam workshops. The cooperative is made up of both Riacesi and migrants.

These initiatives not only laid the foundations for what would become known as the “Riace model” but also helped the economic recovery of the small town in the Locride area.

Thanks to the integration and cooperation between migrants and citizens, long-closed businesses, such as kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools, have reopened in Riace. For a time, a special currency was even created to help immigrants with their daily expenses while they awaited the arrival of European funds.

But as anticipated, this story is not all roses and flowers.

I wish you to be able to be disobedient whenever you receive orders that humiliate your conscience.
Mimmo Lucano

Since 2004, the year he ran for mayor for the first time (a position he would eventually secure and hold for three terms, until 2018), Mimmo has had to contend with sabotage, betrayal, and complications orchestrated by that segment of politics, too often supported and funded by organizations of dubious legality, that viewed him, his achievements, and the concept of integration as a threat, a weed to be eradicated forcefully and as quickly as possible. The complaints leveled against him have been neither few nor insignificant, and Mimmo has often found himself forced to defend himself in court against those who had previously offered him a helping hand. During one of his election campaigns, he even found himself opposed for a time by his own son, as if it were the Ides of March of a modern-day Caesar; a modern-day "Quoque tu Brute, fili mi."

Nonetheless, Mimmo carries on with that rare and heroic stubbornness typical of those firmly convinced that any sacrifice necessary to remain faithful to a moral code is worth making, a belief so deeply rooted in him that he's earned the title CAPATOSTA, or "hard-headed" in Calabrian. After all, what do you need when your entire world turns against you?
How can you be willing to pay the price of #remaininghuman if you don't have a good "Capatosta"?
The Riace model

To talk about Mimmo we also need to talk about the “Riace model,” but what is it?
It is a reception system conceived by the mayor of Riace and implemented by the entire community, a system that consists of various actions undertaken over the years, such as:

obtain regional funds or loans for the renovation of abandoned houses
Through the associations, welcome and host asylum seekers, who will be able to work in the municipality through artisan workshops of weaving, jam making, glass making, and weaving.
reopening of primary schools and kindergartens, which have been closed for a long time due to insufficient enrollment and which, thanks to the integration of migrant minors, can finally be used again
The reopening of all these activities creates additional jobs for everyone, including school staff and teachers, who are key to integration.

Another important aspect of Mimmo "Capatosta's" model was the town's ecological transformation. He replaced garbage trucks with donkeys, which go from street to street collecting residents' waste, driven by teams of both migrant and local sanitation workers.

An exemplary model, therefore, demonstrating that coexistence between multiple cultures, if viewed within the context of the peaceful and cultural progress of a population, is possible.

A model so exemplary that in 2010, Mimmo Lucano was ranked the third best mayor in the world by the City Mayors Foundation and 40th on the list of most influential leaders compiled by the American magazine FORTUNE. But such a model, such a great example of humanity and hospitality, can frighten many people today.

La mattina del due ottobre 2018 la Guardia di Finanza notifica a Mimmo Lucano un’ordinanza di custodia cautelare agli arresti domiciliari. La Procura di Locri indaga proprio per presunte irregolarità nella gestione del modello Riace. Le accuse sono pesanti e piovono come acqua fredda sul sindaco dalla Capatosta. A detta degli inquirenti venivano organizzati matrimoni di convenienza tra cittadini del posto e donne straniere per permetterne illecitamente la permanenza in Italia. Sarebbero anche state favorite cooperative senza le gare d’appalto.

Although many disbelieve the unfounded accusations, the town is emptying, migrants are leaving, and the economy is stalling. In 2019, Mimmo was not re-elected mayor and was banned from residing in the very town to which he had dedicated his entire life. The mayor who replaced him removed the plaque at the entrance to the town welcoming him to "Riace – Town of Welcome"; a final act of contempt by those intent on undermining a man and his "dangerous" ideals.

This is the story of a man who paid, and is still paying, the price of an ideal. It teaches us that sometimes #remainhuman is a challenge, even more so in a historical period in which individuality, greed, and selfishness prevail; a historical period in which acceptance is exploited and feared by certain political parties.

Regardless of the developments in the paradoxical legal case surrounding him, Mimmo Lucano remains one of the greatest living contemporary examples of humanity and love for others that Italy has to offer.

“Tendering a Capatosta” is a precious asset if you use it to #remainhuman.

In my experience, I have understood one thing: politics that transforms itself into a pure exercise of power forgets the dream of collective emancipation to which our right to freedom calls us.

Politics cannot be reduced to a mere selection of who can and cannot enter Italy. Because in this way it renounces itself. It renounces the cause of freedom that established it.