By Francesca Di Muro
“Good is everywhere, not everyone is bad. I decided to trust and it worked out well for me, because if you don't trust anyone you won't get anywhere. Someone helped me, and thanks to this I managed not to become a victim of injustice"
Thus begins my interview with Rocco Mangiardi, witness of justice who refused to pay pizzo and denounced ‘ndrangheta in Calabria (Italy), leading to the arrest of the local mafia boss Pasquale Giampà. These are the words with which he decides to begin our conversation, wanting to first and foremost highlight the system of trust and support that pushed him to report, the presence of goodness in what can often be a cruel and dishonest world.
Taking such choices requires courage, yet Rocco hates defining his behavior heroic.
' I am a simple citizen, and I have fulfilled my duty as a citizen.'
And by 'citizen duty', he means the moral obligation that we all have to oppose daily the systems of corruption, homerty and assertion that lead mafia and criminal systems to spread and violate territories and communities.
'The mafia wants people to feel bad, it doesn't want people to feel good, so that they have to go and ask the mafiosi for favors, instead of being able to enjoy their rights.'
Born and raised in Lamezia Terme, a town in the province of Catanzaro (Calabria), except for a short period of his childhood spent in Turin with his parents, in the period in which immigration Southern to Northern Italy was constant daily, 'I still remember the large table, located in the center of the attic in which we lived, together with many other immigrant families, at which we all used to eat together', Rocco has never abandoned his land, his community. After having refused to pay pizzo and denounced his extortionists, Rocco continued his business, a small family-entreprise specialized in reselling automobile accessories.
'When they offered me to be transferred to a different location I refused. Why should I leave? Do I report the mafia and have to leave? I want to stay, leaving would be a defeat.'
Since the day of his complaint, Rocco Mangiardi has lived under special protection, within the special ‘witness protection program’. 'With the guys in the escort there is a brotherly relationship, they become part of your family'. However, with the recent cuts in funds dedicated to the program for the protection of witnesses and collaborators of justice, the escort reserved for Rocco has been limited to the Calabrian territory. You can't see any rancor in Rocco's eyes, no resentment.
‘I want to trust the authorities, specific assessments have been made to reach this decision.'
Our interview proceeds now on analyzing the recent developments and evolution of the mafia phenomenon. Certainly not limited to the region of Calabria, mafia is nowadays particularly rampant in the cities of Northern Italy, with a high concentration in Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy. 'Imperia (Liguria) can be defined as the sixth province of Calabria', he adds, jokingly.
'Today, the mafias operate in silence, their presence is less tangible, there are fewer killings and more corruption'. Drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, extortion, money laundering; these are the main activities of mafias in the North, where they are increasingly infiltrated into local administrations and governments. To conclude, browsing online on Rocco’s profiles, I find a photo of some Calabrian chili peppers he took few years ago with the caption:
'Resist, resist, resist. Like these surviving chili peppers, to this eternal winter that is about to end and will end!'
And it is therefore up to us to resist, like Rocco, like the many people who choose, on a daily basis, to stand the cold and face this winter which will slowly end; you can smell spring in the air at the back!
And we resist thanks to the commitment of people like Rocco, because 'we are all citizens, and we are all heroes, and we must therefore be responsible' and, I would add, always take sides!
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