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Pasquale Spanò |
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He has always lived with the memory of his native
country Pasquale Spanò
Poet and historian
Pasquale
Spanò was born in Bronte on July 19th, 1918. Essayist and
poet,
he spent his years out of Bronte, teaching in Italy and abroad, but remained
always bound affectively to his native town, to which he also dedicated a
great deal of poetries and historical studies. He performs the studies at the Salesians Of Pedara and subsequently at the
Capizzi Gymnasium Secondary school In Bronte. Graduated in Letters at the University Of Messina, he has taught first in Chieti, then
Frosinone and also L'Aquila. Having graduated also in Languages, he takes part, in the second world war, as
a cavalry officer; in 1943, (after the 8th of September),
at 35 years of age, finds himself, "in the most unforeseeable way", in
Switzerland. After the crumbling of the Italian army, he takes refuge, in fact, in Val
d'Ossola, where, trying to run as far as possible from Germans, he
trespasses on Swiss territory, it is captured by the Swiss guards
and is interned for twenty-two months. The ideal of "democratic freedom"
and "federalism" that Switzerland was
presenting in that tragic period, charms Pasquale Spanò: ("...was
spontaneous to compare Europe torn to pieces by a war without sense, with the peace which had been
able to gain that people formed by little pieces of the same nations in
struggle"). In Switzerland, also found cordiality, affection and the possibility of inserting
himself in the social context and the help and the guide in his studies; and
here also continues his teaching profession. Got back to Italy, he concluded his teaching activity as headmaster of a
Secondary school
In Torino, where, in pension at present, lives (in Nichelino) and where attending the schools of the Valdocco
Salesians, could graduate In Theology. Pasquale
Spanò, lives in the memory of his native country and from
poet and historian, dedicated a few works of his to it. |
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The
brontese Pasquale Spanò, poet and essayist, in a recent photograph,
done in front of the complex of the Valdocco Salesians, together with
his grandson Giuseppe Longhitano, known brontese criminal lawyer. |
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 Three the books of poetries
that he defines as "pseudo-poetical oddities", we remember:
 “Etnei”
(Torino, 1993), a collection of poems written in forty years (from 1939 to
1979) "of emotions caused from the periodic returns of the author to Bronte and
the following departures, in autumn, to the reopening of the schools".
The book, a "fanciful rebuilding of the origin and transformation of Bronte
and his people", ripened with the age of the author, would like to present
the Brontese folks as a universal model of all humanity in the perennial torment
of research".
One poetry of his "Stirpe divina"
(Divine stock) tells the fanciful origin of the foundation of
Bronte as work by
the Cyclops
"human and laborious" and of three nymphs,
Scibìlia, Salìcia and Rivòlia. “Prigionieri dell’impossibile”
(Prisoners
of the impossible) (L'Aquila, 1998), another collection of poetries
written in Italy during the war period (1939-42), in the "internment
fields" in Switzerland (1943-44), during the long return journey in
Sicily (1944-45) and in next journeys in the Swiss nation.
 “Un colle a Teti caro” (A
hill dear to Teti) (L'Aquila, 2000) fifty years of poetries (from 1947
to year 2000), made of memories, of touching personalities and, above all
dedicated to Millya, the soul mate ("light butterfly"), with
whom Pasquale Spanò ("noisy bumble-bee") spent "a
long fifty year old idyll with never a disagreement, a tear, a pain".
Among the books of historical rebuilding that Pasquale Spanò defines "particular studies", we
mention:
“C’era qui una volta il Rizzonito (Bronte nella
storia d’Europa)” ("There was here once the Rizzonito
(Bronte in the history of Europe)”,
(Torino, 1993), dedicated "to
the boys of Bronte so that they do not forget", the book
exposes the tormented development of the historical events of the Etna' town,
offering a picture chronological, concise but complete and historically valid, of the development of
events.
“Uniti nella diversità (La Svizzera
vista da un Italiano)” (“United in the diversity - Switzerland
seen by an Italian)” (L'Aquila, 1998), where the
author, who
evidently found in Switzerland a second country, exposes the birth and the
social evolution of the Swiss confederation describing "the
spirit of pacific cohabitation, which is to the base of a state formed by
various peoples for stock, tongue and religion". |
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