Ludovico Corrao (26 June 1927 – 7 August 2011) was an Italian

Independent Left The Independent Left (french: Gauche indépendante, GI) was a French parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies of France of the French Third Republic during the interwar period. It was not a political party but a technical group formed by ind ...

politician and

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

. 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 central Sicily, Italy. It was destroyed by the 1968 Belice earthquake. ...

, after its destruction caused by the

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

which took place in the Valle del Belice in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Biography

Professional activity

Born in

Alcamo Alcamo (; scn, Àrcamu, italic=no) is the fourth-largest town and 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 kilo ...

, in the

Province of Trapani Trapani ( it, Provincia di Trapani, scn, Pruvincia di Tràpani; officially ''Libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it ...

, 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 seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

and later at the

law faculty A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

, he practiced law; in 1965 he was

Franca Viola Franca Viola (born 9 January 1948) is an Italian woman who became famous in the 1960s in Italy for refusing a "rehabilitating marriage" ( it, matrimonio riparatore) to her rapist after being kidnapped, held hostage for over one week, and raped fr ...

’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 p ...

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

shotgun wedding A shotgun wedding is a wedding which is arranged in order to avoid embarrassment due to premarital sex which can possibly lead to an unintended pregnancy. The phrase is a primarily American colloquialism, termed as such based on a stereotypical ...

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 offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

.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 S.p.A. () is an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome. Considered one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies in the world, it has operations in 69 countries with a market capitalization of US$54.08 billion, as of 11 Ap ...

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 member of Propaganda Due (#0501), a secret lodge of Italian Freemasonry, and had clear connectio ...

's banks".

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

He started his political activity with the ACLI and the

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

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

province of Trapani Trapani ( it, Provincia di Trapani, scn, Pruvincia di Tràpani; officially ''Libero consorzio comunale di Trapani'') is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy. Following the suppression of the Sicilian provinces, it ...

for the list of DC. In 1958 Corrao followed

Silvio Milazzo Silvio Milazzo (Caltagirone, September 4, 1903 – December 24, 1982) was an Italian Christian Democrat politician and the President of the Regional Government of Sicily from 1958 to 1960. Sicilian deputy Milazzo was a landowner from Caltagirone ...

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 stat ...

for

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

; he was one of theorists of ''Milazzismo''. In 1959 he was re-elected in the list of Social Christian Sicilian Union, 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 A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

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 A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

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 Bourbon R ...

, 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 A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

in the Legislature V and VI of Italy, for the district of Alcamo, and joined the group of

until 1976. He was elected again senator in 1994 and in 1996 (XII and XIII legislatures) with the list of

PDS PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media * ''People's Democracy'' (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) * ''The Plain Dealer'', a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper * Post Diaspora, a time frame in the ''Honorverse'' ...

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 The Communist Refoundation Party ( it, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who replac ...

), but was not elected.

Reconstruction of Gibellina and death

As lord mayor of

, after the

Belice Earthquake The 1968 Belice earthquake sequence took place in Sicily between 14 and 15 January. The largest shock measured 5.5 on the moment magnitude scale, with five others of magnitude 5+. The maximum perceived intensity was X (''Extreme'') on the Merc ...

, 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 Oc ...

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 Franco Purini, born as Francesco Purini (Isola del Liri, 9 November 1941), is an Italian architect, essayist, and university professor. He has designed many buildings, including the Torre Eurosky in Rome. He studied architecture in Rome with , ea ...

, 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 north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

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

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

. 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, communist, and doctor. He is best known for his book '' Cristo si è fermato a Eboli'' (''Christ Stopped at Eboli''), published in 1945, a memoir of h ...

and

Danilo Dolci Danilo Dolci (June 28, 1924 – December 30, 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 is characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishing ...

. 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