Ludovico Corrao (26 June 1927 – 7 August 2011) was an Italian Independent Left politician and lawyer. He was the promotor of the reconstruction of

Gibellina Gibellina (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Jibbiddina'', Arabic: "little mount" - جبل صغير) is a small city and ''comune'' in the Province of Trapani, the mountains of western Sicily, Italy. It was destroyed by the 1968 Belice earthquake. ...

, after its destruction caused by the earthquake which took place in the Valle del Belice in Sicily.

Biography

Professional activity

Born in

Alcamo Alcamo (; ) is the fourth-largest town and communes of Italy, commune of the Province of Trapani, Sicily, with a population of 44.925 inhabitants. It is on the borderline with the Metropolitan City of Palermo at a distance of about 50 kilometr ...

, in the

Province of Trapani The province of Trapani (; ; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 2015 by ...

, he was the son of an artisan of iron and a clever broiderer. After his studies, first at the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

and later at the law faculty, he practiced law; in 1965 he was

Franca Viola Franca Viola (born 9 January 1948) is a Sicilian woman who became famous in the 1960s in Italy for refusing a " rehabilitating marriage" () to her rapist after being kidnapped, held hostage for over one week, and raped frequently. She is conside ...

’s

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

’s lawyer: she was the first woman in Italy who rose against the

shotgun wedding A shotgun wedding is a wedding arranged in response to pregnancy resulting from premarital sex. The phrase comes from the figurative imagining that the relatives of the pregnant bride threaten the reluctant male groom with a shotgun in order to ...

and, by defying a male-dominated society, made a decisive contribution to have the honour crime deleted from

Penal Code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain Crime, offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that ...

.http://www.gibellina.gov.it/museo/museo/ludovico-corrao Corrao also defended Graziano Verzotto who, according to Giuseppe Lo Bianco, was "the mysterious union man of

Eni Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation. Eni or ENI may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy * Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...

with the power’s darkest environments in Sicily, already existing at the time of its president’s assassination, in the affair of slush funds of ''Ente Minerario'', deposited in

Michele Sindona Michele Sindona (; 8 May 1920 – 22 March 1986) was an Italian banker and convicted felon. Known in banking circles as "The Shark", Sindona was a banker for the Sicilian Mafia and the Vatican. Sindona was a member of the fascist Propagand ...

's banks".

Political activity with D.C. and ''Milazzismo''

He started his political activity with the ACLI and the

Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

; in 1955 he was elected as Deputy at ARS (Assemblea regionale siciliana), in the district of the

province of Trapani The province of Trapani (; ; officially ''libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it was replaced in 2015 by ...

for the list of DC. In 1958 Corrao followed

Silvio Milazzo Silvio Milazzo (September 4, 1903 – December 24, 1982) was an Italian Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy politician and the president of Sicily from 1958 to 1960. Sicilian deputy Milazzo was a landowner from Caltagirone and sat i ...

in the political split from D.C. and became the

regional minister In England, regional ministers were appointed from 2007 on a part-time basis as part of Her Majesty's Government. Each minister had other departmental responsibilities, as well as specific responsibilities for one of the English regions. Their sta ...

for

public works Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and procured by a government body for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, ...

; he was one of theorists of ''Milazzismo''. In 1959 he was re-elected in the list of

Social Christian Sicilian Union The Social Christian Sicilian Union (''Unione Siciliana Cristiano Sociale'', USCS) was a Christian left, Christian-leftist List of political parties in Italy, Italian political party active in Sicily. History On 23 October 1958 Silvio Milazzo, ...

, both in the district of Trapani and Palermo, and he was appointed a regional minister once again, alongside Silvio Milazzo in the two subsequent governments, first for Public Works and later for Industry and Commerce. From 1960 to 1962 he also was the Mayor of Alcamo and then he was only a town councillor.

Member of Parliament as independent leftist

After the end of Milazzismo, he approached to the Left; in 1963 he was elected a Member of Parliament at the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, as an independent in the list of PCI (Communist Party), in the Legislature IV of Italy, for the district of western Sicily. Since 1968 Corrao was elected Senator of the Republic in the Legislature V and VI of Italy, for the district of Alcamo, and joined the group of Independent Left until 1976. He was elected again senator in 1994 and in 1996 (XII and XIII legislatures) with the list of PDS for the district of Alcamo until 2001. From 1995 to 2000 he was again the lord mayor of

. In 2001 The Olive Tree dropped him and he ran for the Senate of the Republic again (this time with Rifondazione Comunista), but was not elected.

Reconstruction of Gibellina and death

As lord mayor of

, after the Belice Earthquake, he called famous artists and architects, from

Pietro Consagra Pietro Consagra (6 October 1920 – 16 July 2005) was an Italian sculptor. In 1947 he was among the founding members of the Forma 1 group of artists, who advocated both Marxism and structured abstraction. Life Consagra was born on 6 Octobe ...

Alberto Burri Alberto Burri (12 March 191513 February 1995; ) was an Italian visual artist, painter, sculptor, and physician based in Città di Castello. He is associated with the matterism of the European informal art movement and described his style as ...

, from Ludovico Quaroni to Franco Purini, who filled the new town with works of contemporary art; he was its lord mayor several times, until the 1980s. His activity continued with the creation of ''Orestiadi di Gibellina'' in 1981 (a foundation since 1992, of which he was the president until death), and the ''Museo delle Trame Mediterranee'', with the aim of realizing a dialogue among the different

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

cultures. In 2005, the president of ''Regione Siciliana'', Salvatore Cuffaro, entrusted him the management of ''Casa Sicilia'' in

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

. In 2010, together with the journalist Baldo Carollo, Corrao published ''Il sogno Mediterraneo'', an interview-book which tells about sixty years of Sicily's history, reviewed by the intellectuals of that period

Leonardo Sciascia Leonardo Sciascia (; 8 January 1921 – 20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including '' Porte Aperte'' (1990; ''Open Doors''), '' Cadaveri Eccellen ...

Carlo Levi Carlo Levi () (29 November 1902 – 4 January 1975) was an Italian painter, writer, activist, Independent Left (Italy), independent leftist politician, and doctor. He is best known for his book ''Christ Stopped at Eboli (novel), Cristo si è fe ...

and

Danilo Dolci Danilo Dolci (28 June 1924 – 30 December 1997) was an Italian social activist, sociologist, popular educator and poet. He is best known for his opposition to poverty, social exclusion and the Mafia in Sicily, and is considered to be one of the ...

: here Sicily is seen in the middle of a dialogue among different Mediterranean cultures, outside of any opposed

fundamentalism Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguis ...

. On 7 August 2011, Corrao, being 84 years old, was killed at Gibellina by Mohammed Saiful Islam, a 21-year-old

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

working for him.Ucciso a Gibellina ex parlamentare pci - Palermo - Repubblica.it
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References

Sources

* * * *

External links

* * * https://web.archive.org/web/20170929044005/http://www.telesud3.com/fad/omaggio-a-ludovico-corrao * http://www.trapaninostra.it/Foto_Trapanesi/Didascalie/Corrao_Ludovico.htm * http://www.youreporter.it/video_Il_Sen_Ludovico_Corrao_sugli_ultimi_fatti_dell_Africa_1 * http://www.fondazioneorestiadi.it/it/notizie/312-omaggio-a-ludovico-corrao.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20170929000812/http://www.creativelabalcamo.it/eventi/omaggio-a-ludovico-corrao/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Corrao, Ludovico 2011 deaths 1927 births People from Alcamo Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians Independent Left (Italy) politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians Deputies of Legislature IV of Italy Senators of Legislature VI of Italy Senators of Legislature V of Italy Senators of Legislature XII of Italy Senators of Legislature XIII of Italy Mayors of places in Sicily 20th-century Italian lawyers Assassinated Italian politicians European politicians assassinated in the 2010s Politicians assassinated in 2011