Garibaldi

A 10-year old kid, dressed up as Garibaldi - Italy's controversial national hero - for Carnival. (Quite a choice. An interesting one, particularly in our times which seem to have more and more the tumultuousness of his. Garibaldi - there is a statue of him in every Italian city and he apparently slept in every town and in all villages in his long life but, at the same time, not loved, not adored, not celebrated without doubt and controversy. A sailor by birth, he was a lover of freedom. Above all of freedom from tyrants, from the stronger, from bullies, from the smart. One of a kind, an independent thinker, he was disliked by many because he didn’t fit and couldn’t be drawn in any group, even if participated and in such forceful and decisive ways that he could not be ignored. Disliked by the elites and by the right because he was too fond of social justice and too close to the people, disliked by the church because he was too wild and privileges-hating, disliked by the left because he was too free-minded and disobedient - Garibaldi was on his own. But despite all this he stepped in the history of his times forcefully like few others. Wounded many times, he always fought in the frontlines of his many battles, even on a wheelchair when too old to stand. Famous like no other, when he travelled England the road from the port to London was carpeted by hundreds of thousands of people who wanted to catch a glimpse of him. And yet he died on a small island by the sea. Member of many parliaments, including the French, was always a minority. Politics was a game he always lost, being accused of being naive. I am not so sure he ever wanted to win it. An extraordinary character overall, who was not afraid to think life with his own mind, who never conformed but nevertheless was not afraid to participate and throw himself in the battles of his times).