Marina remembers Giuseppe and he does it with his book I DEFEIT the mafia. I AM VIVO !, written with the participation of his father Santino Di Matteo, in memory of the child. The book shows the signs and foul-smelling numbers of those long 778 days of captivity.
Giuseppe was the child we all remember on horseback, immortalized as he skips the obstacle, Marina says. The same child that the 11 January is barbarously killed, first strangled and then dissolved in acid by the will of Giovanni Brusca. Because not only was it necessary to erase all traces of its small and harmless little body, so as not to be discovered, but we did not even have to leave the ashes. It was the biggest wrong that could be done to the family. Deprive her of the sepulcher on which to cry.
I believe that on this day the whole of Sicily stands up and lowered the head, as if it were in the Church. Mortoficata. Because no honest Sicilian would have liked to have a crime so big that he did not commit. Even the mafia itself admitted after some statements: "It was worse than a military defeat, because our loss of people's face and respect." It was Giuseppe, a child of 11 years who, as a result of the law of retaliation, had if not definitively defeated the weakened at least mafia.
Now it's like a family occasion for me. Adds the Paterna. I wait two days a year with rigor. The January 11 and the November 23. 12 years have passed since the day I decided to tell your story and I still can not forget the echo you left behind. I saw the last filthy bunker in which you were segregated in the abandoned cottage. I visited Giovanni Brusca's house, escorted by the police and the mayor of the time. And as I climbed those stairs I saw only Santini faded and the only thing I could think of was: why? Why you, an innocent child? I entered your prison repainted in white, as if someone had wanted to restore dignity and warmth, to cancel the mold that you breathed. I saw your bed and the windows but they were not there. I wanted to take a colored chalk and draw them to make you run away. Who knows how many times you've tried. And now that you're gone ... All standing with your head bowed. Silence! This is your day. Giuseppe RIP