Giuseppe Garibaldi
The hero of the two worlds
Giuseppe Garibaldi, hero, bandit, adventurer, naïve knight, always ready to offer his sword for the cause of Liberty and of the oppressed people: these are the opposite judgements about him, by whom, from time to time, examined Garibaldi’s personality.
He was the main executor of the epopee, which lead to the liberation of Sicily and the South.
When he was 26 years old, he joined the movement “Young Italy”. In Marseilles he met Giuseppe Mazzini and decided to participate in the Genoa revolt, in 1834.
The insurrection failed and, having been condemned to death by default, he fled to South America, in 1836, where he took command of the war naval fleet during the insurrection of “Rio Grande do Sol”, against the Brazilian government.
He also created an Italian corps, the famous “Red Shirts” in the movement for the independence of Uruguay.
With the beginning of the hostilities between Austria and Piedmont, he left Montevideo and sailed for Italy, with a handful of men of the Italian legion.
Once he arrived in Italy, he put himself at the service of King Victor Emmanuel II.
In the final phase of the First War of Independence, along with his followers, about 1.500 volunteers, was able to keep in check the Austrian Army.
In those years, which also saw him as a defender of Rome, Garibaldi applied the tactics of “the people’s war”, already experimented with success in South America, which bore him full success in Sicily, in 1860.
On September First of 1860, Garibaldi was travelling in couch for some hours parallel to the Crati valley which was, then, a thick patch of woods, marshy and unhealthy; desolated during the day and infested by bandits and wolves during the night.
After about seven hours of travelling, he arrived at Tarsia cemetery. He descended his coach and began walking briskly through the short cut path of la Torretta
Near town, he met a woman who, at the sight of him, remained startled for a while. Then she recognized the hero and saluted him: Heil!
A smiling Garibaldi asked her: “Who goes there?” She replied: “Galumbardu”. The warrior, then, still smiling, commented: “We are on friendly soil!”.
Garibaldi entered Tarsia by the side of Palazzo Rossi and proceeded toward the City Hall, while the announcer blew on his trumpet to gather in the town people.
The then Mayor of Tarsia, Luigi Santoro, who immediately felt attracted by Garibaldi personality, so much so, to ask him to be godfather to his just born daughter.
Garibaldi named her Anita, in honor of his wife.
Since then, Tarsia’s female population is full of women named Anita.
Traduzione di F. T.