Felicia Impastato: A courageous mother, never silent. One of the symbols of the fight against the Mafia.

In 2006, a TV series told the story of this mother, who spent her life seeking justice for her son. She knew that silence kills as much as the Mafia, and so she opened the doors of her home: "Peppino Impastato's house is open," she said. "Whoever wants to know who he was and whoever he was, come and tell us."

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mothers against the mafia

The fine line between courage and silence is a hundred paces. One hundred paces, the ones made famous by Marco Tullio Giordana's film in the iconic counting scene by a masterful Luigi Lo Cascio. A handful of meters that separate, in Cinisi, the house of Giuseppe Impastato, Peppino, from that of the mafia boss Gaetano Badalamenti. Much has already been written about that boy in the black turtleneck and his hands in his pockets: about Radio Aut, about his commitment to a more just world, about his integrity, and above all about his courage. He had much, much more inside him than his slight frame would have suggested.

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MOTHERS AGAINST THE MAFIA

A free man, Peppino, a child of '68. Free to repudiate his biological father, Luigi, a friend, accomplice, and companion of the very Badalamenti who frequented the Impastato household so often that he called himself "U zu' Tanu." The story of that family conflict It's the story of a choice. Clear, sharp, about the right side to be on., the place to sit. And Peppino must have inherited this sense of justice from his mother, Felicia Bartolotta in Impastato. A disobedient one, even when she let her son back in through the window after he'd been kicked out during one of their many arguments.My husband was a friend of the mafiusi and I was a figghiu against the mafia. My husband would throw him out of the house, and I would secretly get him back in.", he often said.

A woman who never kept quiet, from a humble but honest family, who had even tried to prevent the marriage when she discovered her future son-in-law's mafia connections, in a Sicily, that of the late 40s, where silence was the law and any rebellion against the state of affairs smacked of a death sentence. Imagine a fight as vehement and heartfelt as Peppino's. Which, in fact, would cost him his life. an ambush in the dark night of May 9, 1978, murdered on the orders of that same “uncle Tano” who lived a hundred steps from his house.

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FELICIA IMPASTATO

Felicia continued not to remain silent and not to be afraid, even in front of her son's body, so tortured that she could not recognize him, even when the murderers of Peppino, her beloved son, were still in charge of Cinisi. Continuing to live in the same house as Corso Umberto I, at number 220She didn't give up, not even in 1984 and 1992, when it was established that Peppino Impastato had been killed by the Mafia for his commitment to reporting and fighting, adding, however, that "those responsible for the crime cannot be identified." She never lost her will to demand justice, loudly, even in the face of connivance and silence. What certainly moved her was theby dint of a truth he knew and which would blaze like wildfire. A truth that only needed a spark and equally courageous men: the magistrates. Rocco Chinnici, Antonio Caponnetto, and Franca ImbergamoIn that trial, Felicia filed a civil suit, definitively severing all ties with her husband's relatives and protecting Giovanni, her only surviving son, Peppino's brother, from overexposure, shielding him with the heart of a mother who has never stopped seeking justice.

The final sentence that recognizes Badalamenti's responsibility for Impastato's murder and condemns him and his perpetrators will arrive in'April 11, 2002, after 24 years, During these years, Felicia, born in 1916 and with an iron determination, strong, smiling, and patient as she has been throughout her life, never stopped honoring Peppino's name and struggle. First and foremost, by opening her home to people, revealing who her son truly was, both politically and personally. Aware that silence kills as much as the Mafia.
For this reason, since 2005, a year after the passing of Mamma Felicia, the Impastato house, a hundred steps from the Badalamenti house, has been transformed into the Felicia and Peppino Impastato Memorial House, a very lively place, full of memories, words, and stories. Always full, especially with children, whom he adored, and to whom he always said: “Keep your heads up and your backs straight.”
In 2006, Rai decided to tell the story of Felicia Impastato in a drama starring Lunetta Savino and directed by Gianfranco Albano.

(Featured image from Cosa Vostra // Photo credits: cosavostra.it)

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